Do-overs and Cabbage Stew

Peace is an elusive thing, sometimes.  The weight of the world is always more than I can hold, but in an effort to feel safe and secure, I attempt to lift that weight and make my life into what it should be.  Then I get overwhelmed and freak out  (What?  Ariana, freak out?  Surely you jest!) because that is an impossible job!  So I'm slowing down and breathing and sitting still and trusting that things will work for good.  They always do. 

  In the mean time, I can start again.  I can be kind when I want to be grumpy. I can be silent when I want to be bitchy.  I can make stew when the grocery budget gets low and it will all be ok.  I can satisfy my knitting needs with stash yarn or unraveling that first scarf I knitted for Matt (in gorgeous wool that reminded me of the ocean - but wool makes him itch), and remaking it into something new.  I can take things moment by moment until peace returns.  I get a do-over for the day.  At 1:15 pm.  And again at 1:16 pm and 1:17 pm if I need it.  And like the scarf, I can trust that I am being re-made into something new and beautiful.  Besides...living in fear only gives me heartburn.

The best things

I love how the best toys are often the ones we make.  Here's the baby girl enjoying the box her Christmas presents came in.

 

 

Holidays on the Cheap

Holidays, for me, are about knowing when to splurge and when to save, so I don't enter January bound for the poor house. Here are some fun examples of where we've cut corners:

• Making things for others instead of buying them something.  I can't make an X-box, but I can make a lot of other things!   Plus, handmade is so sweet.  As long as it isn't a wonky sweater with my initials knitted in...come to think of it, that would be OK too.  I'd just pull it apart! 
  
• Making decorations for the house - Home depot Christmas tree with free trimmings and ribbons bought from Joann with a coupon, after Christmas last year.  Apparently I also raided Target's after Christmas ornament sale last year (or the year before - no tree last year) and when we began decorating the tree, Ifound brand new boxes of ornaments I had stashed away!  Surprise!
  
• Christmas dinner - looked for sales in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  We are all stocked up on cranberry sauce.  A little too stocked up!  And did you know that yams keep for months?  Me neither, but I've still got yams from the post Thanksgiving sale and they are still good!
• Dinners in the weeks leading up to Christmas - I know I'm gonna eat too much pie on Christmas day, so I'll eat really healthy and avoid the fatty (and pricey) foods in the weeks leading up to Christmas and then...Hello green bean casserole!  I've also begun writing out not just a one week menu, but a two week menu.  I went to the store  recently, list in hand, fully expecting to have to put things back, but nope, I came in $60 under budget for 2 weeks worth of groceries!  How did this happen?!  I wasn't even using coupons!!

How are you saving dollars this Christmas, but still making merry?  Really. I want to know!

10 months

My sweet baby is 10 months old now, (Since the 29th) and I struggle to capture the wonder, the wiggling, the beauty, the energy, the perpetual motion (except when new people are talking to her, then they all say, "She's so chilled out." HA!) of my sweet baby girl. So I'll just put a snippet. This is her yelling at talking to the girl in the mirror, then she'd try to look behind it and see where the other girl went! So silly. More here, and here but that spot that looks like a booger is really just a spot of something (toothpaste maybe?) on my mirror. (Don't judge my housekeeping skills!)

Also, my weekend Garage sale finds: $5.50 total. (it was the Polaroid that put me up so high! $3!! It was worth it.) Check out all of that yarn! $1. Oh yeah. Winter baby sweater, here we come! I'm currently digging through borrowed books for the 'perfect' sweater for her. Plus, check out that 20's style cloche hat!!!! That and the (nearly) complete Jenga for $1 and it's brand new. Awesome. I'm sure there are better hagglers out there in blogland, but I'm pleased with my finds. I hope you all had a great weekend!

One final thing, I walked the farthest I've ever walked on Sunday morning (for my training), 5 miles. I'm still hurting!!!

{update: for all you naysayers about how Polaroid is gone forever, check out this initiative to make Polaroid film again. They bought all the equipment and are searching for alternatives to the current chemicals and processes! I don't think it's gone forever!!}

Thanks Uncle Sam!

Did I mention that the Geek got a job? I think I twittered it, but didn't write about it. So, yeah. He got a job and so far, it's awesome. I'm talking Wii in the conference room, allowed to go barefoot and wear shorts, nerf guns on the wall kind of awesome. Yeah. That kind of awesome! It was a long wait, but it was worth it for him to find this kind of work environment.

During the Geek's unemployed months, we went to the government for assistance. And as we wait for his first paycheck to arrive so we can begin to climb out from under the pile of late fees that have accumulated, I have been using up our food stamps. I wrote out a list of all our staples and just bought the heck out of it. I mean, we FILLED the cart to the top! And we only managed to spend half of what they'd given us. I used to think that to live on food stamps, you had to be REALLY frugal and only eat, well, food that wasn't very good for you. I was wrong! I just got back from a trip to the local grocery store and without coupons, I bought enough food to last us about 6 months. Not including perishables like milk, cheese, eggs, fresh veg and fruit etc. Seriously! And this was half of what they'd given us to live on.

So I have to ask myself this question...WHAT HAVE I BEEN SPENDING OUR GROCERY MONEY ON??????

OK, besides the obvious things that end up costing us a pretty penny (pet food, formula, toilet paper and other misc toiletries) We can really live on very little if I shop right, and plan. Planning is, of course, where I fall down since I get very overwhelmed when I think about going to the store. I can't just make a quick run! When I go for a few things I remember what we still need and end up making impulse purchases as well. So in light of how well we did when we had to use Uncle Sam's dough, I'll be sitting down to do some planning before the next trip and perhaps sending the Geek to the store for milk. It's not as if I'll need to go in the next few weeks for anything else anyway!!!

The point of this was to give thanks for the provision we have seen over the last 6 months, so to all who helped, prayed, bought me glasses, sent us money (even strangers did this!) and so much more, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

On the cheap - a day in the park

I'm a bad, bad chronicler, at least in terms of photos. The baby bear and I packed our lunch to join other mamas in the park for a (free) get-together. Shelby Park is one of the loveliest parks in our fair city with the Cumberland river running right beside acres and acres of wooded hills. I love that park. *sigh* Because of rainy days previous to our alfresco adventure, I brought along a huge tarp to share with other mamas. Everyone should own a tarp, I personally feel. And an umbrella to protect my delicate baby's skin from the midday sun. It's such a nice colorful umbrella! Then you look more closely and realize it's one of those artsy umbrellas and this one sports a repeating image of 'The Scream' by Edvard Munch. A bit creepy, but it was free so there. But I digress!

Sadly only one other mama showed up to our Baby Mama meetup. Oh well. She and I had such a nice time anyway! We talked about layoffs, cloth diapering, coupons, the works! I snacked on a pb&h (peanut butter and honey) sandwich while trying not to drool over her burger.

The baby bear thought the umbrella was the 'bees knees' and told me and the umbrella so, a lot! Then she fell asleep in the shade of the oak tree we camped under whose leaves were still hanging on from the autumn (brown and shriveled), wrapped in a blanket to keep the breeze off of her toes. I did take a photo of that.


Then home with pink cheeks and full senses from a lovely day in the park! She fell asleep in her bed, all tuckered out with something new...a lovey. She had her pick of all of the ones we were given and this is how I found her when I went to check on her.



A whole day of soaking up spring. Cost? Not a thing.

On the cheap - date night!

Last night the Geek and I went out for our Tuesday night regularly scheduled date. Being as we are BROKE and the Geek is unemployed, doing it on the cheap is crucial. As luck (or kindness) would have it, my good friend over at Beyond the Fried is a Bzz Agent and this time around is testing out the 'Guiltless Grill' items at Chili's. She hooked me up with some free entree' coupons and off we went!

I used a little of my (quickly dwindling) saved allowance to spring for an appetizer and the Geek ordered a soda. All told, with tax and a 15% tip, our very filling dinner came to a whopping $16.61. Whoo hoo! Then we came home, put the baby to bed (yes, she came on our date) and plunked on the floor (our couch is waiting for the Geek to get a job before it is repaired) to watch the film Stardust, courtesy of Netflix to which we subscribe anyhow. We had a great time! For less than $20. Take that, economy!!

On the cheap - handmade love

The penny pinching continues, but that doesn't mean that there aren't still things I want to do, buy etc. My neighbor is having a baby soon and I've been collecting things here and there for her shower. She requested gently used items! How great is that?! I found some sweet gently used things, but wanted to make her something special. I had a couple of ideas but settled on some soft crochet balls for the baby. I made these without anything inside, but when you make them you can add things inside, like a shaker egg, or a bell. Anything that won't come out or open up while inside. (An Easter egg with pebbles? - seal the egg shut!)



I started with this pattern from Martha Stewart online, but I'm not sure if anyone actually crocheted (is that a word?) up this pattern before they published it. It makes more like a football than a round ball. I had to do some re-writing, but it's a great place to start for the general idea. I used a worsted weight yarn (Red Heart 'soft yarn' - Cheap, washable, oh so nice!) with an F size crochet hook.

Here's my modifications to Martha's pattern: (This is for the yarn and hook size listed above)
Follow her pattern through 'Round 11'. Then...
Round 12 and 13: 1 sc in each st to end of round. Finish off.

Make 2 and stitch halves together except for one inch. Stuff the ball until it is firm - when you squish it and holds its shape.

Add something that rattles or jingles for fun! You can also use wool and felt this ball in your washing machine after you've stuffed it, using a little less stuffing, then dry on low. (Can you imagine a dryer full of these bouncing around? It makes me smile to think of it.) I got 2 of the three done and feverishly hooked and hooked trying to finish the third, but didn't. The girls at the shower thought I was crocheting a yarmulke! It does resemble one before it's stitched to its other half.

PS. Hide these from the cat!

And finally...the baby bear gives her grin of approval for these soft fun balls. Hasn't she gotten big!?

On the cheap - a return to my past

As you know, the Geek has been laid off since oooooh, December, and things are getting a LITTLE tight around here. But while I'm not going to turn this into a 'being cheap' blog ie...'the laid off geek and the starving artist', I wanted to share a coupla things we've been doing around here. Now, I grew up pretty broke. 9 people (7 kids) in a 700 square foot, three bedroom trailer, living on co-op 5 gallon buckets of peanut butter and my mama's ever imaginative ways of making 'poor as dirt' seem not so bad. In fact I didn't know we were poor until High School. Last night I made one of my mama's standby recipes which she called 'chili-mac' but is really macaroni noodles with meat sauce - no chili involved. I've never made it before, but I realized as I finished it, why she did. It makes a HECK of a lot of food! So here it is, the recipe.

1 1lb box of macaroni noodles (bought on supersale at Kroger)
1 lb ground beef
1 28 oz (giant!) can tomato sauce
Appropriate spices - basil and oregano (which Mama always grew fresh) garlic and onion (either fresh, chopped and cooked til tender or dried, which is what I happened to have on hand), salt and a little pepper

Cook noodles in a giant pot until tender. Drain and set aside.
While noodles are cooking, brown the ground beef, drain any fat off
Add tomato sauce, flavor to taste with oregano, basil, garlic, onion and salt
Bring to a rapid boil and then let simmer for 5 minutes

Pour sauce over noodles, stir and serve. Top with Parmesan if you can afford it! :) Eat leftovers for lunch for several days. (feeds 7 hungry children once or 1 hungry husband for several days) Serve with fresh veggies grown in your garden (which we don't have yet).

While ideally the Geek needs a job, we'd like to ask you to pray for God's will for us. Whatever that is. We don't presume to know what He has in store for us and our best laid plans are nothing to His.

We made the switch! A journey from paper to cloth diapers.

Since our little lovey was born (4 months ago, can you believe it?!) we've been using disposable diapers. With every giant garbage bag full I experienced more and more guilt. I mean, those diapers are going to be around for my daughter's grandbabies!! I wanted to switch to cloth, but it was very intimidating. There are zillions of diapers, covers, all-in-ones, pocket diapers, fitted diapers, prefolds, contoured diapers...the list goes on and on and on and ON! I was totally overwhelmed. So I put it out there (on our local neighborhood google group) that I wanted to get started and a total stranger mama of twins invited me to her house to see her system. She even gave me a couple of diaper covers that her children had outgrown. Then our local diaper service donated (yes, DONATED!) a bunch of diapers, covers, diaperpail, pail liner, and cloth wipes to me. Another friend gave me a bag of more stuff with pre-folds, contoured diapers and snappies, then another mama gave me her all in one diapers! I was overflowing with cloth diapers and I hadn't even begun to put them on her bum.

Now, my mama cloth diapered us, but I remember this bucket of stinky diapers and liquid, (poop soup as cloth diapering sites refer to it) and I was not looking forward to that at all! Plus, the little plastic shorts...ick. But cloth diapering has come a long way! No more poop soup! They come in all colors, shapes designs, snaps, velcro, waterproof cloth and more! It was hard to imagine, but some of the cutest things out there for babies are diapers! And they are going to get pooped on! It's a whole world of work at home mamas fueling this thing. Most of the popular brands were made by mamas. I think that is amazing!

So in light of the Geeks still unemployed situation, I decided to go ahead and move on over to cloth. I tried a couple per day to get in the hang of things and finally decieded to not buy any more sposies (disposables). It was scary! But she hasn't leaked yet and I actually really enjoy knowing I am doing a good thing for our budget, the planet, and my baby's bum!

Because she is still so small and most of the stuff we were given is for bigger babies, I did buy pre-fold diapers in infant size, plus some covers too. But since I was going to have to spent that money on diapers in the next few weeks anyway, I don't feel guilty at all. I know I won't have to spend it again!

Kind people in my neighborhood gave me a list of where to begin and I am pretty much there. Here's what they recommended:

"But here's a good start if you do laundry every other day:

• 24 prefolds (either infant size or premium size depending on the weight of your baby)
• 3-5 covers (the younger your baby the more covers you will need... the same is true if you used a snappi or not. If you use a snappi you can get by with fewer covers)
• 2 diaper pail liners (one is in the wash with the dirties while the other is in the pail collecting dirties)
• 1 pail
• 1 snappi (these come in 2 different sizes depending on the age of your baby - infant and toddler)
• 20 wipes - if you are washing prefolds you might as well wash wipes... then you don't have to buy these at the store too. ( I made my own with those tiny wash cloths that we were given TONS of, and cut up least favorite flannel receiving blankets - yes they unravel a bit, but it's for cleaning up poo! It doesn't have to be perfect)
  
• 3 doublers - for extra absorbency during night/naps (these you need if you're not changing a diaper at night) I chose 3 hemp doublers from an online diaper shop GreenMountainDiapers.com"
• I also added a 'wet bag' (a waterproof bag for used wet diapers). A mama has to get out sometimes!! I also added a little spray bottle for my diaper bag to wet my cloth wipes.
  

So with our newly prepped pre-folds and covers in hand we began our adventure. Here's our first cloth diapering. The baby bear did not approve of being put in this bulky thing, plus Mama was trying to get the hang it too! (this was before we bought smaller pre-folds.)

Giant diaper bum!
My stash of diapers - they came like this and had to be prepped (washing in hot water and then drying 3-5 times)
After prepping they looked like this (fluffy!!)
This is what we use every day or 2 - minus the larger diapers on the right and not all of the wipes.
The pretty colored covers are by Thirsties. The white one is a Bummis Super Snap.

So far, so good! I'm not overwhelmed by laundry and we are in a groove.

Penny pinching pinches back

First, let me say thanks for all the encouraging words you guys have given me over the last coupla days. It has meant a lot to know I'm not alone and I am gonna make it. Thank you!

Second, I am trying to get my act together about money and saving more. Tons of people have talked about buying a Sunday paper and clipping coupons, so Monday I tried it. Here's the catch. For someone like me who rarely buys processed food, it doesn't really work. I usually buy the store brand of products so savings on Chef Boyardee does me no good! Plus the amount of sodium in those is enough to send my BP (blood pressure) through the roof! When the store brand is at least a dollar or more cheaper and the coupon is for 50 cents off...ummm, you do the math.

Still grocery store trips are still a big ticket item around here and I know it's about to get worse with diapers added on top. I already do what I can with managing our food. I write a food menu, stick to it at the store, have a few staples around, in case my day starts off like today did with not waking up until noon and my well laid plans for quiche get pitched out the window! (What the heck?! She must be having a growth spurt.) We buy the store brand toiletries as well, so not much chance to save there unless I get it for SUPER CHEAP. I am going to have to figure out the triple and double coupon days and see if they will do us any good.

In short, this is like a secret code for saving pennies and I have yet to crack it. With no coupons used from the paper, that's a dollar wasted. Rats!