Fall is here!

Well like it or not, fall is officially here. I do love the fresh smell of crisp fall weather, the changing leaves and of course my kids LOVE being able to jump in the leaves. We went out to my parents house this past weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving) and they spent at least an hour outside jumping in the leaves. So much fun!

Bum Genius Diaper Review

Alright, I know ya'll have been waiting - here is my long overdue review for Bum Genius diapers.
In case you don't know the backstory behind the diapers, I will quickly fill you in. I bought a different brand (see my review here) but just was really disappointed in them but was loving cloth diapering. I didn't want to give up but I knew I couldn't handle the leaks from my previous diapers. My sister used Bum Genius and offered to let me use hers when I went for a week long visit. I had only 2 leaks in that entire week (compared to an average of 2 leaks/day with my previous brand) so that quickly made up my mind. However, I had a hard time convincing hubby I needed a whole new diaper stash so I went and found some used. I know for some people that gives them the squeemies but for me, I figure the first thing my kid is going to do is poop in it so why does it matter? So I bought a set of Bum Genius 3.0 diapers (they actually don't sell them anymore but my sister's were 4.0 and I found them very similar). The one thing that I did do was buy velcro. I went back and forth on that, but I had found a couple brand new Bum Genius 4.0's at a garage sale and they were velcro and I fell in love with them. They were so quick and easy and I just felt that I could get a perfect fit with them while the snaps were limited. So I had a set of 30 Bum Genius diapers and I don't think I could ever go back. I can probably count on one hand the number of leaks I have had with them and most of those are because we forgot to change his bum and went out somewhere. Here is shot of the diapers in action :

So here is my review on a scale of 1-5 for Bum Genius Pocket 4.0/3.0 cloth diapers.

These are the criteria: absorbency, cost, overall fit, laundry, the cute factor, the company’s customer service, and Dad-Friendliness.

Absorbency: 5 stars - no leaks! They are amazing for that. The insert can be adjusted depending on what snap setting the diaper is at which I think really helps for absorbancy - plus you can double up at the front for a boy or the back for a girl which helps! 

Cost: 3 stars - they are definitely not the cheapest diaper out there, they are actually twice the price (if you are buying brand new) of my old diapers but they do hold up well so you can probably get a pretty decent resell value

Overall Fit: 4 stars - the velcro really helps with this. I did have a couple leaks when I was using my sister's which are snaps but because that was only a week, it's hard to really say what the reason was for the leaks. The legs also fit really well and I really liked that they had extra PUL on the front so that helped with leaks

Laundry: 4 stars - these are easy to launder, both the cover and the inserts can be placed in the dryer and they are super easy to stuff

The Cute Factor: 3.5 stars - they are pretty cute but there a lot cuter patterns and fabrics out there but still, a little green butt is a lot cuter than a disposable diapered butt! 

Customer Service: I honestly can't answer this one since I bought them used. 

Dad-Friendliness: 5 stars - super easy, you set the size snaps once and you don't need to do it again until your baby outgrows that size. The inserts are super easy to stuff and they also fall out really easy when you are separating them for the wash. And the velcro is pretty much the easiest thing ever to put on - just like a disposable. 

Total Review: 4 stars - If they were a little cheaper, they would get 5 stars! 

Money Mondays!

Well I can't say my goal for meal planning and budgeting has been a huge success. I've made a meal plan...have we stuck to it? Well, not completely. One of the problems I've been facing is that we are so incredibly busy right now that I just don't have time to actually make a meal but I don't think about that until the day of. So even though I have something on the menu, if I don't make it in the morning, I end up being out or just swarmed by grumpy kids at 5 p.m. and not have time to make it. Plus another issue that has been coming up is my picky tastes! There is a really good reason for this - I am pregnant! So while that is a whole other thing (see exhaustion, nausea, exhaustion...) it also means that I am having extreme food aversions. So Monday rolled around and I had Red Pepper & Sweet Potato Soup on the menu and seriously, even just opening the container of soup made me want to throw up...so there went that and I had to quickly substitute a meal. Thankfully I had just gone to a soup exchange so I had a bunch of soup in my freezer! My cravings have also affected our budget. A couple nights ago, I absolutely had to have ruffle chips with ranch dip and chocolate milk. And my amazing husband went out and bought that for me...but there was $10 out of our grocery budget. Oops! So for this month, I have spent $200 on groceries. Not great, not bad. We have $100 left for the next two weeks, however we have tons of meat so I only need to buy fruits and veggies and milk. I know I can do it. 
So my meal plan for this week will be using food that we already have! 

Sunday:
Thanksgiving Dinner 

Monday:
B: Bacon & Eggs
L: Sandwiches
D: Pasta stirfry with Italian Sausage

Tuesday: 
B: Oatmeal
L: Leftovers
D: Hamburgers w/ Sweet Potato Fries

Wednesday:
B: Cereal
L: kids are at the dayhome
D: Spaghetti Squash with meat sauce

Thursday:
B: Toast & Eggs
L: McDonald's with my mom
D: leftovers - hubby works late

Friday:
B: Oatmeal
L: Meat, cheese and veggies
D: Sandwiches - hubby is on his own with the kids

Saturday:
Hubby is on his own all day and enjoys the chance to be spontaneous with the meals! However I have some soup frozen in the freezer if he decides he doesn't want to experiment 

Money Monday

Oh man, its Monday already. That means I have to suck it up and admit to the world (or at least the 6 people who read this blog regularly!) that I am not good at budgeting and meal planning. Even if it's on my list. Actually sometimes I think it's harder if it's on my list. But I'm determined to try. So even though this is really embarrassing - as of October 7, I have spent $159 on groceries. Not $75. There are two reasons (excuses, cough, cough) for this. One being that we came home from vacation on October 2 so I immediately had to go grocery shopping and I did so good, $72 and I felt like my fridge was full. But then we went to Costco. I have such a love/hate relationship with Costco. I feel like we cannot walk into that store without immediately spending $100. On the other hand, such great deals! We had a $120 gift card to Costco (which means we technically have spent $279 on food!! Oops) and I really wanted to stock up on meat. I tend to buy smaller packages of meat or the cheaper meats (chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts) and since we had this gift card, I just really wanted to buy meat for a change, we so often have no meat in the house and I've been planning to do a big freezer cook soon so I knew I would need meat. So I sucked up my plans to spent only $75 per week and spent $207 at Costco, thankfully the gift card helped but that does mean that it's only October 7 and I have only $141 left for the 3 1/2 weeks. But I am determined that I will stick to it, even if it means not being able to buy anything but milk the last week! We do have enough food in the house right now that I really think other than fruit, veggies and milk we shouldn't have to buy too much. So that's my story of basically completely failing at my attempts to spend only $75/week but in all honestly, after making my commitment, I realized that I prefer to do most of my shopping in the beginning of the month, making a larger bill up front and then just buying the perishables the rest of the month so maybe I should go back to just a monthly amount. I guess I will see how I do this month and if it's still not working, I might need to push myself to do the weekly thing. 

So here is my meal plan for this week: 

Sunday: 
D:Ravioli with Chicken, Garlic Break & Caesar Salad
Monday:
B: cereal - kids have a Dr. appointment at 8 a.m. and we need to be fast!
L: Pasta with veggies
D: Leftovers - hubby away
Tuesday: 
B: Oatmeal 
L: Egg Salad sandwiches on fresh bread - I work  Tuesdays so I need to have these prepared in advance for my mom to give to the kids
D: Red Pepper & Sweet Potato Soup
Wednesday:
B: Toast & Eggs
L: Pita Pizzas
D: Lasagna
Thursday: 
B: cereal - I have bible study early so once again, we need a quick meal!
L: McDonalds with my mom - Thursday tradition :) 
D: leftovers - hubby away
Friday: 
B: Oatmeal
L: veggies, crackers, meat & cheese
D: Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Saturday:
B: Pancakes & Bacon
L: leftovers
D: Perogies with sausage & peppers

And because it is just amazing, here is my recipe for Red Pepper & Sweet Potato Soup. A friend gave it to me so I have no idea where it is from. Oh and this picture is a triple batch. The recipes does not make this much soup! I was participating in a soup swap this week so I needed a lot of soup! Oh and on that note, I highly recommend food swaps. I've participated in a couple and have loved it. You get together with a group of friends and you all make a bunch of one type of food. So for the soup swap, I made 4 meals of soup and then traded the other 3 with my friends and got 3 different types of soup back. Such a great way to fill your freezer but not have to make a million different meals. 

Red Pepper and Sweet Potato Soup

2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1 ½ lbs sweet potato, cubed (I used one really big sweet potato)
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
5 cups vegetable stock
1 ¼ cups dry white wine (didn’t have any so I used apple juice)
Tabasco sauce, to taste
salt & freshly ground pepper

 Put first 6 ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 30 minutes.  Remove from heat and puree in a food processor, blender or using a hand blender.  Add some salt & pepper and a dash of Tabasco sauce.  Serve.

Oops sorry blog

I have about a dozen half started posts that I haven't had a chance to finish. My life is insane. It's starting to slow down so I'm hoping in the next couple days I can breathe and actually post something again! To everyone who actually still checks this blog - thanks and sorry for the lack of activity! 
Also, I haven't forgotten my budgeting and meal plans commitment for October but we went on vacation and didn't return until Wednesday so I will be starting on Monday! :)

Budgeting, etc.

We are not great with budgeting. We are not bad either but we can do better. 
We have no debt (minus a mortgage), a decent amount of savings but we over-spend every single month. I don't know if it's that our budget is unreasonable or we just don't care. I think it's the latter. We never spend more than we make but we also don't put that much into savings each month.
 I am now officially off maternity leave, no more EI for me. My job at the church came in at the perfect time because we only had about a 2 week gap of just one income but the job is only 15-20 hour/week, not 40. That does make a big difference. Not having to pay child care helps but it is still a reduce in my income. We spent the last year surviving on my EI which is pretty similar to what I make now, but now that we know this is a permanent situation, we cannot just survive and put nothing away into savings.

I think our biggest expense is groceries, we don't eat out a lot (maybe twice a month) but I also am horrible at meal planning which means we all to often run out and buy just what we need for a single meal which is definitely not the most economical. 

My goal for October is to meal plan EVERY SINGLE MEAL for the month. I'm going to go with 5 meals a week, one for going out or going to my parents and one being leftovers. I also want to plan breakfasts and lunches so my kids don't eat PB&J 4 days a week (it happens all too often!). 

I also want to try to keep my grocery budget at $75/week. That's $300/month. This is strictly food. 

I know some people put cleaning supplies, toilet paper, paper towels, etc under the grocery budget but I know we overspend on food not toilet paper so I am going to focus solely on cutting my food costs.

 Every Sunday night I am going to make the meal plan and every Monday I am going to go grocery shopping. I will then post my menu and grocery receipts here to keep me accountable! Wish me luck!

Too busy to breathe, let alone blog

Remember how I said I just got a job as the Children's Director at my church? Well kick-off is this Sunday which means I had less than 2 weeks from starting my job to the biggest event in my position. It's been a little crazy. Plus I watch a little boy twice a week and days that he is there, I get nothing done.
It's been a long two weeks.