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! :)
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Thursday, September 12, 2013
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!
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!
Thursday, September 5, 2013
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.
It's been a long two weeks.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
The truth about marriage
I just want to quickly encourage people to read this story: The True Story of a Seven Year Marriage.
This article made me cry. It is beautifully written and so incredibly true.
Marriage is something wonderful but not always magical. It's not always about passion and feeling "in love". It's about commitment and family and some days, it's about simply saying I will not give up. It's about acknowledging that you can always find your way back if you try hard enough.
What a beautiful and encouraging truth.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Overwhelmed
Today was an overwhelming day. Twice a week I watch a little guy, he's 20 months old and adorable and mischievous and such a sweetheart. However, he is an extra munchkin in the house. An extra loud crazy active munchkin. I love watching him because he plays so well with both my boys, it's great to have the extra income and I know it relieves stress from his parents because he's so happy here. But, I'm tired. It's a lot of work. My house is a disaster after the 3 boys get done with it. My kitchen is crazy. And I never know what to feed them. And someone is always poopy, hungry and/or getting into trouble.
It makes me really wonder if I want another kid. I mean I know I do but can I handle it? Will my house ever be clean again? Will I ever be clean again (I wonder as I look down at my spit up and banana smeared clothes)?
I had a whole post planned on camping with munchkins (which we did this past week - so much fun!) but I'm too tired so instead you can all read about how I'm tired :)
On the plus side, I can announce that I just got a new job! Because that's going to help with the exhaustion right? :) I am now the Director of Children's Ministry at my church! Woot, woot. So excited. This is like my dream job. It's super flexible, it's administration based, it's working with kids and its in an environment that I love (my home church). I work one day a week in the office, my mom will come in and watch the kids for me and if she's not able to, my old dayhome (who is amazing!) will watch the boys for me. I then have to work 3 hours on Sunday (but I'm already there every week anyways so no hardship for me) and then 4 hours at home. Pretty much ideal. I'm pretty excited about it. I start next week! Wish me luck!
It makes me really wonder if I want another kid. I mean I know I do but can I handle it? Will my house ever be clean again? Will I ever be clean again (I wonder as I look down at my spit up and banana smeared clothes)?
I had a whole post planned on camping with munchkins (which we did this past week - so much fun!) but I'm too tired so instead you can all read about how I'm tired :)
On the plus side, I can announce that I just got a new job! Because that's going to help with the exhaustion right? :) I am now the Director of Children's Ministry at my church! Woot, woot. So excited. This is like my dream job. It's super flexible, it's administration based, it's working with kids and its in an environment that I love (my home church). I work one day a week in the office, my mom will come in and watch the kids for me and if she's not able to, my old dayhome (who is amazing!) will watch the boys for me. I then have to work 3 hours on Sunday (but I'm already there every week anyways so no hardship for me) and then 4 hours at home. Pretty much ideal. I'm pretty excited about it. I start next week! Wish me luck!
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Tushie Tuq Cloth Diapers - My Review
I didn't do cloth with my first, I sort of wanted to when I saw my sister doing them but Hubby wasn't really interested and I planned on going back to work so I knew I would probably have to switch back to disposables then any ways so we just didn't. However when Baby K arrived, I had watched my sister successfully cloth diaper two kids and I just felt like it was something I wanted to do, however I was scared of that large initial purchase.
My sister uses Bum Genius 4.0 snaps and highly recommended them, however the price tag scared me. She told me her sister in law used this Canadian brand called Tushie Tuq's and they were much more reasonable. No kidding - they were 15 diapers, 1 wet bag and 1 diaper sprayer for $160!
However, I could not find a single review of these diapers that weren't on their website. I'm always hesitant to move forward with buying something when I can't find a review but I knew my sister had heard good things so I decided the cost investment wasn't huge. I figured that was about 6 months of disposable diapers so I figured I had to commit for at least 6 months.
They comes in this minky material, so soft and cuddly. They are pocket diapers so super easy to use. I prepped the diapers according to the instructions and off we went on our cloth diaper adventure!
My sister uses Bum Genius 4.0 snaps and highly recommended them, however the price tag scared me. She told me her sister in law used this Canadian brand called Tushie Tuq's and they were much more reasonable. No kidding - they were 15 diapers, 1 wet bag and 1 diaper sprayer for $160!
However, I could not find a single review of these diapers that weren't on their website. I'm always hesitant to move forward with buying something when I can't find a review but I knew my sister had heard good things so I decided the cost investment wasn't huge. I figured that was about 6 months of disposable diapers so I figured I had to commit for at least 6 months.
They comes in this minky material, so soft and cuddly. They are pocket diapers so super easy to use. I prepped the diapers according to the instructions and off we went on our cloth diaper adventure!
Look how adorable he looks in his new cozy diapers! I loved the look of them, I was a little disappointed at the lack of cute designs but the colors were adorable and they let you pick whatever colors you want so I got green, blue and white. They also had a pumpkin color and a cranberry but they both looked more on the girl side so I stayed with the more boy-ish colors, however they are pretty neutral so I knew if I did end up having a girl, I could easily use them.
My adventure started off exciting and then dampered pretty quickly. The leaks. Oh man the leaks. It was so frustrating for me to be changing clothes with EVERY SINGLE DIAPER CHANGE. I looked online and saw that I should be using special detergent so I went and bought new detergent, stripped the diapers and then washed my inserts about a million times. That sort of helped but I was still getting leaks every day, often several times a day. I figured out if I changed him every hour and a half and double stuffed at naps, we were usually okay. However that is a lot of bum changes and I felt like I couldn't go out in cloth because I would be constantly changing him or dealing with leaks.
It was such a disheartening experience for me, I talked to my sister who said her sister in law wasn't dealing with this problem so I can't blame the diapers completely, my son is obviously a heavy wetter. He went through a stage where he even leaked through disposables.
I went to visit my sister about 3 months in and decided to not bring any diapers because she had a bunch of hers available because both her kids were now out of diapers and this was a good opportunity for me to try a different brand. She had the Bum Genius 4.0 snaps. I immediately loved the top of the diaper where they have a bit of the outside material in the inside to prevent leaks and I liked the insert, it felt more absorbent and you could snap it into a smaller size and then it was doubled up on the front or back (depending on the gender, for a boy I obviously put the doubled up end in the front). I used these for the week I was visiting and only had 2 leaks! Amazing.
Needless to say, I immediately started looking into a new diaper stash! I actually ended up switching to velcro instead of snaps because I do think part of my problem was a fit issue with snaps. I will do a review on my new diapers soon! (Bum Genius Velcro) but as a spoiler - I love them!
So here is my review on a scale of 1-5 for Tushie Tuq cloth diapers.
These are the criteria: absorbency, cost, overall fit, laundry, the cute factor, the company’s customer service, and Dad-Friendliness.
Absorbency: 2 stars - too many leaks, I think the inserts are the problem more than anything, one day I might try my Bum Genius inserts with the diaper to see if that makes a different
Cost: 4 stars, these are really well-priced and the bundle is a great purchase, we love our diaper sprayer and I use the wet bag constantly
Overall Fit: 2 stars - the leg russets seem to be a little loose and the insert isn't really designed to be on the smallest size so I had a lot of issues with the insert riding up when I had it on the smallest size and then causing leaks from the tummy
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: 4 stars - they look adorable! I love the minky material, the only thing stopping them from 5 stars is that they only have solid colors, no cute patterns
Customer Service: 5 stars - they are easy to work with, it's a small Canadian company which I love. One of my diapers had an issue with a snap and they immediately mailed me out a new one, no questions.
Dad-Friendliness: 5 stars - my hubby was worried when I wanted to switch to cloth but these are just so easy. You just stuff them and put them on like a disposable and since you can set the snaps in place before hand, you don't need to worry about doing that each time. Taking them off is just as easy, all we need to do is remove the inserts before throwing into the pail. The diaper sprayer makes poop removal super easy too!
Total Review: 2.5 stars - they are a great company, easy to use but the leak factor just brings them down too much.
Monday, August 19, 2013
DIY Workbench
I love pinterest and I especially love the DIY and Kids section of pinterest - especially when they coincide. I found an adorable little workbench over a year ago and had it in the back of my mind as a gift for Z and when I showed Hubby my idea, he loved it and immediately decided to start building it. It turned out perfectly! All it took was some scrap wood, a bit of peg board, some peg board clips and some paint.
Z LOVES it! He constantly wants to go into the garage and play with his new tools. We figured this cost us around $8 (we already had everything but the peg board clips). Can't really complain about this!
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