Frugal Babe

Baby Cheapskate (a site I just found and am really enjoying) is having a diaper giveaway contest! She’s going to give 12 BumGenius 3.0 One Size cloth diapers to a lucky reader. Check out her post about the contest and see if you can win… the diapers are worth $200, so it’s a pretty big prize. If I won, I would only have to do a load of diapers every third day instead of every other day…. sounds good to me!

Cap at Stop Buying Crap has a great post from a couple weeks ago that I just found today. Check out five things I’ll never buy for my future kids. He’s got some good humor sprinkled in, but I have to agree with the serious points he makes - kids don’t need any of this stuff (I didn’t even know $20,000 playhouses existed!) They need love and attention, not computer games and DVD players. We just have one TV, and it dates back to the 90210 era. We are only ever going to have one TV, and there won’t be one in the car. My family managed to take plenty of road trips, and there were four children. Two is our max - so I think we should be able to handle driving with our child(ren) without adding a TV to the car.

I didn’t have a car until I graduated from college. I’ll encourage the same thing with our son, and we certainly won’t be paying for a car or gas or insurance if he chooses to get one before then. I remember when I was in college that parking permits were expensive and even then people would still have to circle the lots looking for a space - much easier to bike or walk to class. Anyway, by the time our son is old enough to drive, gas will probably be $50/gallon and he won’t be able to afford to drive even if we wanted him to.

Our son is nearly 3 months old. Our strategy so far has been to avoid shopping in places like Babies R Us or Target… you go in those places and see stuff that you never even knew you didn’t have. We’re doing just fine with the stuff we got as hand-me-downs and gifts. Our son does enjoy his vibrating bouncy chair and the play mat that has little toys hanging off of it. Both were recycled from other families that had outgrown them, and while they’re not fancy, they do the job. The playmat came with the mat and the crossed tubes above it, but no toys. So I took several small soft books with loops on them and tied them to the cross bars with yarn. He loves to grab at them, and we can lie on the floor next to him and read the stories to him while he grabs at the books.

I know that we can’t shelter our son from consumerism forever. One day he’ll be in school and he’ll want the same jeans/toys/phone/shoes, etc. that all the other boys have (but wanting and getting are two different things). I know I went through that phase for a lot of years myself. But for now, we’ll avoid consumerism wherever we can, and shower our little guy with our time and attention instead of with stuff.

I’ve made it very clear throughout my blog that I’m a fan of credit cards. My husband and I put all our purchases on one credit card, with the exception of Costco, where we use AmEx, since it’s the only credit card they take. We earn rewards on our cards, have a clear statement of where all our money goes every month, and can pay for everything with the click of a mouse at the end of the month. We’ve never been burned by credit cards, but that’s because we’ve been very careful with how we use them. During the first year after starting our own business, we barely made enough money to pay our mortgage. Pretty much everything else went on our credit card. For most of 2004, we were not able to pay the balance in full each month. Once we started making enough money to pay more than our mortgage and utilities, we started working in earnest to pay back our debts. We used balance transfer offers twice, taking advantage of zero percent interest for as long as we could. I kept careful track of when those offers expired, and we made sure that we focused on our highest interest debts first. We did pay plenty of interest on credit card debt in 2004 - 2005.  But we minimized the damage, and came out the other side with our mortgage as our only debt, which we’re working to pay off as quickly as possible.  Without credit cards, we’d have had a much tougher time in those early years of having our business.  I know that we could have waited a few years and saved more money before quitting our jobs and starting a new business.  But we were miserable at the jobs we had, and getting out of them as fast as possible was a huge priority.  I guess that you could say that the interest we paid on credit card debts for those two years was the price we paid for not having to spend those years in jobs we hated.  To me, that was worth it, although others might strongly disagree.

Most pf bloggers are squarely in one camp or the other when it comes to credit cards - either love em or hate em. I have no problem with credit cards, but you have to enter into the agreement with an understanding that the credit card company is in business to make a profit, and is far more concerned about their own bottom line than they are about yours. But isn’t this the case with any business? If you don’t trust yourself with credit, probably best to avoid it. But if you know that you’re careful with money, don’t spend beyond your means, and aren’t already in debt, you’ll probably do just fine with a credit card. But how do you choose a card? I got my first credit card when I was in college. I can’t remember how I chose which one I applied for, but I’m pretty sure that I just responded to the first mailing I got from a credit card company once I decided I wanted one. The other option was to sign up on campus and get a free t-shirt or bag of M&Ms… either way, I know it wasn’t a very scientific process. These days, my husband and I have a card that gives us a cash back reward - every time we get 10,000 points, they give us a $100 credit on our statement. For us, that’s much better than shopping through rewards catalogs, because we can spend the $100 on whatever we like - groceries, gas, etc.

I found a site that will help you compare options and find the best credit card for you, based on what you’re looking for. They are currently listing three cards with zero percent interest for at least a year on balance transfers, which is becoming harder to find these days (when we were at the peak of our debt, we were getting offers in the mail every other day for zero percent balance transfers, but they aren’t as easy to find now). So if you’re in the market for a credit card, do some shopping around and find the one that will work best for you. Whatever you do, don’t just sign up for one because they’re going to give you a free set of BBQ tools and a t-shirt.

Our HELOC balance is under $20,000!  We’ve had the HELOC since we bought our house in January 2003.  We’ve never focused on paying it off - it’s an interest only loan, and we’ve just been stashing our money in the HELOC every time we get paid, and then when it’s time to pay bills, we take money out of the account.  I haven’t paid our August mortgage or credit card bill yet, so the balance will increase by about $2700 next week.  But until now, the lowest balance we’ve ever had in the HELOC before bills were paid was about $24000.  So we’re headed in the right direction.  It seems strange to look at our bank account info online and see a “1″ at the beginning of the HELOC balance.  It makes me even more motivated.

I’m trying to find the best deal on getting digital pictures printed.  Any thoughts?  I’ve used Snapfish, Flickr, and Shutterfly in the past, as well as taking my chip to Walmart, Target, and Costco.  Everyone has different prices - Shutterfly is good for 4 x 6 prints, but their 8 x 10s are a lot more expensive than Costco and Walmart.  I don’t want to drive all over town with my chip, getting different size pics at different places.  I love to scrapbook, and I just sorted out 100 shots that I want to print in various sizes for my son’s book (I know, he’s only 2 and a half months old, and I have way too many pictures already, and his baby book is going to be six inches thick, but I’m sure we’re not the first new parents to go a little overboard on pictures).  I’ve used so many picture printing services that they’re starting to blur in my head… so let me know your favorites - I need a good one that won’t break the bank.

Today we had our first experiment with giving our son a bottle of pumped breast milk.  I pumped about three ounces, and he drank almost two before pushing the bottle away, so we’re considering it a success.  As soon as I pumped, I left to go run errands on my bike.  I was gone for about two hours, so my husband got to spend lots of quality time with our little one, and got to feed him for the first time.  We’re going to give him one bottle every few days for a while, just to get him used to it.  We bought a glass baby bottle (BPA-free) yesterday.  It cost $11, which was pretty pricey, but we decided it’s worth it to not be using plastic.  We’re trying to avoid plastic wherever we can, and the baby bottle seems like an important thing to be free of chemical gunk.

I spoke with my supervisor at the library today, and she mentioned that she’s seeking approval to create a 12 hour circulation desk position - two six hour shifts per week, which would be perfect for me, assuming our little guy is ok with a bottle of breast milk while I’m gone.  The job wouldn’t start until mid-late August, so he’d be nearly four months old by then.  He’ll still be needing to eat more than every six hours, and won’t be on any solids by then.  So for a few months I would need to pump a bottle for him before going to work.  Once he gets a little older, he could have some blended veggies as a snack while I’m gone, and just breastfeed before and after my shift.

Going back to the library for 12 hours/week would give us about $150/week in additional income.  Of course some of that goes to taxes, but I could use the rest to fund my Roth IRA.  I love working there, but 32 hours/week was just not something I wanted to juggle with my other job and my new job as a mother.  12 hours/week would be much better, so I’m hoping that the position gets approved.

We were like Meals On Wheels today.  One of my friends had a baby in May, nine weeks premature.  She and her husband brought the baby home from the hospital last week, so we knew that they could use some no-fuss food (we remember our early days with our new baby!).  And my brother’s girlfriend broke her collarbone last week, so we figured they could use some food aswell.  Both couples live in the same town about 20 minutes from us, so we organized it so that we could visit them both today.  This morning I made a double batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, so that we could split them between the two families.  Then I mixed up a huge salad with spinach, romaine, fruits and veggies for our friends with the new baby.  For my brother and his girlfriend, I made spaghetti pie (cooked spaghetti mixed with eggs and cheese, layered in a pie plate with sauce, italian seasonings, and more cheese).  We packed everything into a cooler and headed out to visit our friends.

We had a great day, got to meet the adorable new baby (I had visited my friend in the hospital, but hadn’t been able to meet the baby as she was in NICU) and spend time with family and friends.  Since we’re new parents ourselves, we know that nobody needs as much baby “stuff” as most people end up with.  But it’s hard to go wrong with food.  Everybody needs it, and when you’re exhausted, sick, hurt, or overwhelmed it is wonderful to have food on hand that you don’t have to think about (ramen and Totinos pizzas don’t count!).  The stuff I made was pretty simple (even if you can’t cook, anyone can chop up fruits and vegetables to make a salad) - it only took about an hour this morning to make both meals.  And everything I made came from ingredients I had on hand, so I didn’t have to spend any extra money to do this.

Time for the weekly roundup from the Frugal Blog Network.

Shanti at Antishay Ventenne has a couple good posts about credit cards.  She’s been shunning credit cards since digging herself out of debt, but is reconsidering - with strict rules attached.  Her readers have been surprised by her change of heart, and she’s addressed their concerns too - I think she’ll be just fine.  I’m a big fan of credit cards.  We have two - our main one is a Visa that we use for everything.  The other is an AmEx that we use at Costco (where they don’t take Visa).  We pay them in full every month, get rewards rebates (we always take the cash back rewards rather than getting “stuff” as rewards).  We don’t pay interest, we’ve never had a late fee… credit cards work pretty well for us.  I think Shanti has some really good points in her articles - she mentioned that when she ran up debt, it was when she was young and less mature than she is now, and spent money without regards to a budget.  Now that she’s spending less than she’s earning, and thinking about each purchase before she makes it, credit cards will be a tool for her to use, rather than a burden.

Not Made Of Money has a post that’s a must-read for anyone who has an option for a health reimbursement account or a health savings account with their health insurance.  My husband and I have our own individual health insurance, so we don’t have an option for a health reimbursement account, but we have a similar plan with our HSA-qualified health insurance policy.  We have a $3000 deductible for our whole family on our health insurance policy, and a health savings account where we put money each year to pay for medical expenses (if we don’t use it, the money becomes retirement funds).  We had to use $6000 from the account this year, to pay our midwife and to pay for my husband’s knee surgery (meeting the deductible).  Since we had the money in an HSA, we didn’t pay tax on any of it, which made all that spending less painful.

Andy from Tight Fisted Miser has a post about stuff, and how we accumulate it.  This is something I’m really working on right now.  We’re staying in our 1300 square foot house, with our baby, our cat, our dog, and two work-at-home jobs.  So space is at a premium.  I used to love going to thrift stores, “just looking.”  But I would invariably end up buying stuff (usually clothes and purses).  I have come to the realization that nobody needs a whole closet full of clothes.  Or 25 pairs of shoes.  So I’ve started donating my stuff back, without going inside the stores.  I’ve only been thrift store shopping once this summer.  I did buy two shirts that day, but I was on a mission to find shirts that button or snap down the front, for easy breastfeeding.  That’s what I got, and nothing more.  I’ve decided that I only want stuff in our house if it serves a purpose.  No more stuff that’s just decorative.  We just don’t have room for things that aren’t serving a purpose.  I have a couple of shelves here and there where I keep stuff like pictures and items with sentimental value, but I’m not allowing those spaces to grow.  It’s a one way street for stuff in our house these days - out only.  It is easier to keep the house clean this way, although it’s still a work in progress - I have lots of purging to do.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

It’s always fun to try to win something for free… check out Almost Frugal for a cool three-part giveaway opportunity. There are three options that you can win - biodegradable play corn for kids, a $20 gift certificate to Kllycat’s baby goods etsy store, or a Kiddopotamus pink portable placemat.  There are three ways to enter the drawing, and it goes until the 28th of July, so head over to Almost Frugal - maybe this will be your lucky day!

Yesterday we bought a VitaMix blender.  I’ve wanted one for years, but could never justify the price.  Yesterday we were in Costco, and they were selling them for $50 less than the online price.  We had our laptop in the car, so my husband went out and checked Craigslist again (we’ve done it before, to no avail) and the only VitaMix for sale was about 35 years old.  There were two ads for people wanting VitaMix blenders, but none for sale - as usual.  So we decided to just do it.  We have a lot more money these days than we used to, and although most of it goes into savings, we do allow ourselves an occasional splurge.

I was so excited to use it - I made a green smoothie last night, and it was so much better than the ones I make in the food processor.  That VitaMix has some get up and go.  Anyway, I made another smoothie this morning, washed out the container, and left the container on the counter to dry, with the lid plug inside it.  This afternoon, I decided to make another smoothie.  I cut up some pineapple, washed a bunch of grapes and spinach, added a carrot and some celery, and dumped it all into the blender.  When I turned it on, it made the most horrific noise - I couldn’t figure out what in the world was going on - it was only fruits and veggies, but it sounded like I was grinding rocks.  Oops.  The lid plug.  Yep - it was still inside the blender container.  Damn.  I had to compost the entire smoothie, since I think that little ground up pieces of plastic probably negate the health benefits of the spinach.  And of course the lid plug has seen better days.  Happily, the blender itself is just fine, and I looked online and found that I can order a new lid for $15.  And the blender still works just fine without the lid plug, I just have to put my hand over the hole in the lid to make sure stuff doesn’t splatter out.

When it first happened, I cried.  I was so bummed.  I’d only had the blender for 24 hours and I’d already ground up part of the lid! Who does that??  But my husband reminded me that now that we have our son, any mistake we make that can be remedied by just buying a new part, isn’t that big a deal.  And luckily the blender is fine, except for the lid plug.  So I’m out a $15 lid plug and about $5 or $10 worth of produce.  A bummer, but I guess it could be worse.  And I’ll never again put food in that blender without looking inside!