For My Own Future Reference

Excellent deals to be had at JCPenney's today. Kids' winter coats 75% off.

Pamela's Chocolate Brownie Mix

E - mmpf, gumpph, (thumb sticks up in the air), flumpf. They're great!
D - Goooooooooood. My skin smells like brownies!



(This mix was on sale for $2.89 at my local grocery store. I bought every one they had on the shelf! They are pretty good, but not this good. )

Tides of Change

I love buying thrifted clothes. Especially baby clothes, clothes that barely get worn before they're outgrown.

But.

Tide, people. WHY always the Tide? Tide detergent makes my kiddos' skin break out in hives and rash and itchiness. And I can wash something three or four times and the Tide still doesn't come out.

Anyone have good ideas for a soak I can use to get all the detergent out of something? Vinegar maybe? (Our kids have no problems with pickle-scented clothes, only detergent.)

:)

Weekend

We've instituted three new days of the week around here:
1) Qdoba Fridays. Do I need to say more about that? I think not.
2) Pizza Saturdays. I've been working on a pizza crust recipe, tweaking it a little every week. I'll let you know.
3) Mom Shops All By Herself Sundays - BEST! EVER! Yesterday I made it to the local department store, where I bought lots of stuff. My rule is that I never pay more than $5 for an item of clothing for the kids (I'll pay $10 for a dress, which really counts as top and bottom.), and I had lots to choose from yesterday. Though it broke my heart a little to have to hop across the aisle and shop in the Big Boy section for D. Aw, mah baybeee... My favorite brands are Osh Kosh and Carter's, and anything not Hannah Montana. :)

Baby Stuff Worth the Money

The Natural Mommy has a great post up today about how to save money on babies. The funny thing is that, in the area of babies especially, making the most frugal choice is often the best choice for other reasons too (for example, breastfeeding is free but also the best and healthiest choice for your baby).

I've been working on a similar list, of those things that, on baby #3 have proven to be well worth the money that I (or, you know, grandma) spent on them.

1. The Evenflo BabyGo Playard - Maybe any pack n play style of bed would have done just as well, and it doesn't appear they even make the "BabyGo" version anymore, but all three of our kids spent most of their first year spending at least part of the night in ours. I love that it fits nicely in our bedroom and that we can bring it when we travel so that baby always has a familiar place to sleep.
2. Our king-sized bed, for more room when baby does join me in bed. Okay, so we didn't have this one until Baby #3, but it has been NICE. Really nice.
3. Chinese prefolds. When we did (do?) cloth diapering, these are great. The rest of the time, they make awesome burp rags, spill-catchers, face-wipers, changing pads, and whatever else you can think of.
4. The Medela Pump-in-Style. Worth every penny.
5. This. Ha ha, it's hilarious, I know. But on days that I forget it, I never pump as much milk because I can't stand just sitting there. With it, I can read or work or at least change the darn channel on the TV.
6. The Avent Isis manual pump, as a backup. It fits in my purse for airport travel, girl's night out, or any just-in-case time. Okay, so I have a big purse. But still.
7. As for toys, this (or an older version, actually) is the only one that I can say has been pretty universally loved and long-lived (well past the "recommended" ages), both for our first two kids and anyone that comes over.
8. The bedrail. When baby is in our bed, she sleeps between me and the bedrail. It's safer for the baby, but it does make changing the sheets a pain. ;)

In light of a story like this, I think it's worth mentioning that 90% of what we spend on babies unnecessary. But that they have enough of eat? Kind of matters. Duh? And that free hospital formula we have sitting in the cupboard will be making it's way to the food pantry tomorrow.

Nesting

I decided to stock up on some baby essentials this weekend.

Infant Acetaminophen - $2.19 (actually prefer to use ibuprophen, but they don't make the lovely dropper/bottle cap, which I prefer when I'm working on 0.5 hours of sleep)

125 Lansinoh Breastmilk Storage Bags - $23.37

9 BPA-free bottles (now the cheapy Gerber and Evenflo bottles, which fit the Medela pump, are available BPA-free at Target) - $8.97

264 Lansinoh Nursing Pads (so not even enough, sadly) - $24.00

Infant fingernail clippers - $2.49

56 Size 1 Pampers & 210 Pampers Sensitive Wipes - (They PAID me $3.01 after I used a crazy number of coupons.)

Johnson's Baby wash - $1.09 (after $1.00 off coupon)

Total Spent (including tax): $62.65

I don't usually use coupons, but wow.

And that counter thing on the side over there? Kind of stressing me out.

Bargain Hunting vs. Making Do ALSO GF Core

So. One place I really struggle with frugality is bargain hunting. When I see what I think is a good deal on something I might need in the future, it's hard for me to pass that up. Even if it isn't something we need right now.

Like, a leather couch.

And the thing is, half the time if I would have waited until we actually were at the point of needing something, the thing shows up anyway.

Like, the dresser my parents just brought over. Do you know how hard it was to wait for that dresser? Do you know how many dressers I looked at and considered buying? Argh.

Gluten Free Core Update: For the first time in many, many weeks, I maintained my weight this week on Core (I used double the Weekly Allowance Points). Woo! However, apparently, resistence is futile in the face of Cocoa Pebbles and I expect a gain to reflect that this week.

Last night we had Ham Not Fried Rice (brown rice, lean ham, scrambled eggs, salt and pepper, soy sauce OR fat free cheese) and steamed carrots. Yummers.

Frugalocity: I had a pile of clothes in my room. Clothes with stains I couldn't get out. So I sent SuperDad to the store with three dollars and asked him to buy me some "light brown liquid Rit dye" please. And he did. Except it was tan, which he says was the only variety of brown they had. Okay. So last night I dyed a whole bunch of clothes tan. Which is convenient, since most of those stains came from chocolate milk anyway. Some things turned out better than others. I definitely saved at least 10 items though, which is pretty cool. For $3.

Consigning

I had planned to do a rummage sale this year. And then got completely a) overwhelmed with the work of it and b) grossed out by the idea of sitting in my hot garage all day. So 90% of our stuff was donated to the church rummage sale, and I took some of the best baby stuff to the kids consignment store.

(Why am I getting rid of baby stuff with a new baby on the way? - Mostly it was duplicates, things that will be out of season for this baby, and things I just didn't use.)

Anyway.

I went back yesterday and I had $21 in store credit to use. And they were having a sale. So I got three outfits for the baby and five shirts for D. And I've still got $6 in store credit left. Yay! I'll definitely be repeating that experience! (And I'm not adding those outfits to the "cost of the baby" on the sidebar, since they didn't really cost me anything!)

Buying and Selling Cars - Without a Dealer

I may have mentioned that we recently bought our minivan by going through a consignment lot rather than a traditional dealer.

• We paid $2000 less than "suggested retail value."


• We got a Carfax report on it. We signed up for the one-year subscription, which cost $5 more.


• We had done A LOT of research. The Internet is a wonderful thing. There is no reason to go in blind when you're buying a car - compare prices, read reviews on different models, know what you're doing.


• The consignment lot was really helpful in making sure we had all the paperwork required completed, so that was great!

I may also have mentioned, or maybe not, that we sold the car we were replacing, ourselves.

• We got $500 more for our car than we were offered in trade.


• We listed on Craigslist, at my work, and in the local paper. It was the newspaper ad that sold it, by the way.


• We asked less than book value. We could do that, we didn't owe any money on it! :)


• We used our Carfax subscription (see above) to print out a report for all potential sellers.


• It took us two days to sell the car. Well, and answering A LOT of phone calls. During nap time. (For what it's worth, we should have listed the gas mileage and WHY we were selling, since EVERY caller asked that.)


• We ended up selling to a mechanic who sells cars now and then. He fixed it up, and priced it $3000 higher than what we did, with a one-year warranty. Wow. I wonder how many repairs a person could pay for in a year with $3000?

Overall, we were thrilled with the way this transaction worked out for us, financially. We've got $2000 left on our van loan, which we will just make the minimum payments on until after the baby arrives, then we'll knock that debt right out our lives!

Wait, was this blog supposed to be about gluten? Hm. Well, both vehicles are completely gluten free.

Minivan Driver

So we bought a minivan yesterday. This one right here.

I think we got a great deal - it's older, a 2001, but with only 28,000 miles on it. The final negotiated price was $8,500 - of which we had $4,785 in cash (thank you, tax return). The rest came from our home equity line of credit. I know, I know, but I think we can have it paid off in the next couple of months, since:

• We still have one of our cars to sell for $3,000-$3,500 (you want a slightly used Dodge Stratus, don't you, yes you do! Haven't you always wanted to shout, "I drive a Dodge Stratus!"? Yes, yes you have wanted that.)
• We'll hopefully be getting a $1,200 tax rebate in Mayish?

This will melt the debt snowball a bit, but I'm thrilled with the purchase, I feel like we have a real handle on a short-term debt, and I think we've got something reliable to transport our whole family.

Yay!

A Gluten Free Shopping Spree

I'm still kicking myself for completely missing the bread. But, not too shabby for 60 seconds. Pretzels, anyone?

Not Perfect

SuperDad suggested that I come clean about how very much we failed the budget this pay period. Admit my faults? Ah. Okay. Here it goes.

In addition to the $40 we had from the Great Snowsuit Return of '07, we spent an additional $74.62 that we didn't have, which had to come out of this pay period. Ouch.

Let's see where it went, even though it's extremely painful to do so:

1. Fabric for Halloween costume (which could have waited, but I was excited and the fabric was clearanced and I lost my head) $3.25
2. Frappucino $1.88
3. Chips .33
4. Thai noodles for kiddos .99
5. Gatorade because we were all sick (um, and really we just wanted it) 3.79
6. Diet Mt. Dew (ouch) 3.49
7. Bananas 1.52
8. Pears 1.73
9. Frozen secret after kids are in bed pizza of deliciousness 2.19
10. And another one 2.19
11. Burger King 7.77
12. Fancy coffee 8.03
13. Kuchen that I promised to take to church 8.38
14. Muffins that I craved 3.39
15. Skim milk 1.45
16. Whole milk 1.98
17. Cereal 2.00
18. Kleenex 1.76
19. Toothpaste 2.87
20. Hot dogs .77
21. Toilet paper 5.28
22. Litter 5.36
23. Tax

You can see how very few of these things we actually needed. It was mostly junk and stuff and impulse purchases and I'm disappointed. It's crazy how quickly money can disappear, especially if you're already off track.

But the point is to get right back on track again. And we're trying!

What we're really losing out on, though, is that $75 we could have put toward our debt. And we're not.

One Frugal Weekend

1. We had a family picture taken for the church directory and didn't buy any of the pictures. This was made exceedingly easy because the photographer actually *yelled at* our three-year-old for being shy. I'm afraid that's going to be one unhappy-looking photo because we were one very unhappy-feeling family.
2. Saturday we were all sick with a cold. We used a lot of Vick's and an essential oil/water/salt mixture someone gave me (I think it's eucalyptus and maybe tea tree oil, or maybe it's peppermint, anyway we were told to be really careful about not using it on the skin, so we sprayed it onto rags and kept those in our shirt pockets, etc. It did seem to help, but I'm always nervous about essential oils because I don't really understand them.) and drank a lot of water. We didn't buy any medications and we didn't see a doctor and today we're all better.
3. On Sunday I decided I needed to figure out something for E's Halloween costume. She wants to be Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. But I just couldn't spend $20 on a junky costume. So I decided to spend $3 on fabric and make her a junky costume myself. We'll see how it goes. I'm not much in the sewing department! I drew the pattern myself and started cutting it out yesterday, but now my sewing machine is jammed and we'll see what happens now.
4. We sealed our windows with plastic film. Between this and our Salvation Army curtains, we should be able to keep much more of our warm air than last year. I bought the plastic film on clearance last spring for 66% off. I don't think I'll do this in the future, though, because the tape wasn't as sticky as it should have been. We maybe also shouldn't have kept it in the car all summer either. Ha.

And today is finally, FINALLY pay day! Woo!

Frugal Art or Child Labor Violation?

Labor Day Weekend

On Saturday, we hit rummage sales. I bought:
1 boys Old Navy long sleeve t-shirt 2T .50
1 boys Old Navy short sleeve t-shirt 4T .75
1 boys Gap jacket and pants set $2.00
1 book about llamas (for the kids, this isn't SO much my cup of tea) .25

E bought:
For herself, one stuffed bee, orange and black $1.00 (this is way too much, but it was her money that she earned by helping around the house, plus then she offered to buy for her brother:)
One stuffed soccer ball .25

She learned a good lesson by seeing lots of good deals after that, but her money was gone.

Yesterday, we splurged on one final trip to the water park, for $15. Spending a tiny amount on clothes so that I can splurge on something really fun? Well, that's a deal in my book.

Penney's

JC Penney's has the best deals. I don't know how I got on their list (probably through ordering window shades from the catalog), but at least four times a year I get a coupon in the mail for $10 off $10. That is $10 for free!

Today I went and I bought two clearanced shirts (I usually buy for the kids, but I need clothes more right now). Original price: $35.00. I paid, including tax: $3.18.

In Case You Think I'm Totally a Freak

On Saturday I bought new Born shoes. For $26.00.

Score!

New Fridge

The first thing I noticed when I walked in was that the giant glob of shoes was not piled next to the fridge. And also... where did all of the magnets go? And hey. HEY, y'all! That's a new fridge! Guys! Hey!

And into the kitchen ran my daughter, and my husband, and my in-laws, and finally my son all wanting to know, "So, DID you see it?" (Okay, maybe the baby didn't care so much about that.) Because apparently my husband had promised that, yes, they could put the old fridge right next to where I park in the garage, and no, I would not notice it when I pulled up next to it. And he was totally right. I often say that the best place to hide a body would be in my back yard because, dude, I would never find it.

So. New fridge for me! We decided we needed a new fridge after doing this and determining (because the stores so nicely list how much each appliance costs in energy per year) that our old fridge was costing us $200 a year more in energy than a new $400 fridge would. So. Husband asked that his family pool their birthday present money for me and now, I will enter year 29 (yarg) of my life as the proud owner of a brand new energy-efficient fridge.

(Actually, I looked into buying a tiny fridge, like a 10 cubic foot fridge, the smallest kind they make with a separate freezer - necessary for breastmilk storage, you know, just in case - because our fridge is always mostly empty. I don't really get how people have full fridges, but maybe if we could order pizza and take-out and if we didn't eat our leftovers and... Yeah. I don't get it. Anyway! The tiny fridges? More expensive. And not that much more energy efficient. So. Regular fridge for me.)

And our old fridge plus the old fridge the previous owners left in the garage but which we have never used? We sold them for $50. Score!

Curtains

One of the problems we're trying to address is how much we're spending on utilities. Our monthly bill for gas and electricity is $238. We're on the budget plan, which spreads out our expenses in equal amounts over the year. And we're making up for an $800 shortfall from last year, because the utilities company didn't charge us enough last year. Yeah.

So we're doing what we can to make our large 83-year-old house more efficient, especially the old leaky windows in the living room. The latest in this step is to buy some insulating plastic, which was on clearance at Wal-Mart, 66% off (I've avoided doing this, because UG-LY, but whatever). And last night I finally found some thick cream velvet drapes Shopko (Target-esque local store) on clearance for $7.49, down from $24.99.

I came home (because I was at the store with no cash, no checkbook, no credit cards, and no debit card) and told my husband about it, and we talked about it, and decided that it was worth it to spend some savings on.

Whew! I was beginning to think we'd have to hang blankets over the windows this winter.