Frugal Babe

My husband is having knee surgery on Monday (the other knee this time), so we’re going to be away from home from tomorrow until Tuesday evening.  It will be the longest we’ve been gone since our son was born in May (I guess we’ve really been homebodies the last few months…)  My husband’s sister owns a vacation condo in a town near the hospital we’re going to, so luckily we have a place to stay.  I made a lasagna and a batch of muffins a couple days ago, and froze them to take with us.  Today I made a batch of granola and harvested some bell peppers to take along.  We’ll only be gone about 48 hours, so I think we have the food situation covered.

I normally wash diapers every other day, but our son spends a few hours each day with no diaper on, just hanging out on the kitchen floor with a baby blanket under him.  Works great in our house, but I don’t think we can get away with that in the swanky condo with fancy new carpets.  The finer points of naked baby time might not be appreciated as much there.  I needed a few more diapers in order to have enough for two full days, so today I made two new diapers and altered the last two small diapers that we made last spring.   That adds four diapers to our stash, so we should be just fine.  And there is a washer and dryer at the condo if I end up needing to do a load of diapers.  The diapers I made today turned out really cute.  I used pajamas that I found at the thrift store for the outside (they were “cat in the hat” pajamas), and yellow fleece for the inside.  I’ve switched to making pocket diapers, with an opening between the two layers where I can stick the absorbent layer.  That way I can take the middle of the diapers out when I wash them, and they’ll dry a lot faster.  I’ll try to make one diaper per week until I get a good stash of larger diapers built up, since he’s outgrowing the his current diapers (I altered all of them this summer, but I knew that would only get us through a few months).

Other stuff…

My blog just got featured on Alltop (All the top frugal news).  Check out their site - lots of good frugal blogs and great for people who don’t use feedreaders and want a good selection of blogs all in one place.

In the Frugal Blog Network, Andy from Tight Fisted Miser writes about refilling your printer ink cartridge.  My husband keeps a pair of latex gloves, some tissue, and a bottle of refill ink in a drawer in his office.  I can’t remember the last time we bought a new ink cartridge.  Although these days, our office is pretty much paperless, so we hardly ever have to refill the ink either.

Kelly From Almost Frugal has a great list of 13 frugal things you can do in just a few minutes.  I’d say they’re not only frugal but also great for eliminating stress and being organized.

Frugal Zeitgeist has a fantastic post about affluenza.  Check it out - it’s well worth the read.  And then turn off your tv and go for a walk.

The Frugal Duchess is going on an online book tour.  I love this idea.  Rather than go into debt paying for a rubber-meets-the-road tour (and risking her job in the process), she’s going to be meeting and greeting people through blogs and websites for the next month, to promote her Frugal Duchess book.

At Not Made Of Money, there are some good ideas for frugal birthday gifts.  With the holidays right around the corner, these ideas work there too.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!