Category Archives: Frugality

How much do disposable diapers and formula cost?

Oh, hey. It’s a post about money!

This weekend, Judah turned three weeks old. For the first two weeks of life with a newborn, I tried to keep things as simple as possible. I was still recovering from the birth and getting used to taking care of a baby, so I was okay with using disposable diapers. We received a case of size 1s from a generous family member at the baby shower, so we have plenty to use up anyway.

Last week, though, I decided to switch to cloth diapers during the day. I’m thrilled with how well they’re working out, and they’re so much easier than I expected. I was committed to making it work from the start, but part of me was nervous that we might not be able to keep up with it. After a week, I can definitely say that we won’t be using disposables at least 95% of the time.

After three weeks of successful breastfeeding, I think it’s safe to say that we’re not going to be buying formula, either.

I’m curious about how much money we’re actually saving by using cloth diapers and breastfeeding. There are so many variables that it’s hard to come up with solid numbers. If I’d spent any time buying diapers or formula, I might be able to come up with some rough averages.

I know if you work really hard like Kacie at Sense to Save did before she had her first baby, you can stockpile a ton of diapers for as low as 5 cents each. I also know that if you buy the most expensive, fanciest brands at regular price, you’ll pay 25 to 30 cents a diaper.

As far as formula goes, I’ve read that generics will run you about $10 a can, which will last about a week for a baby Judah’s age. Or you can easily spend $30 a can on more expensive name brands.

Before I can really figure out how much I’m saving, I’ll need to see what all this laundry does to my water and electric bills after a full month of cloth diapering. I’m not looking forward to that increase, but I’m confident it will still be less than I’d pay for diapers.

I also need some rough averages on costs. I’m looking to all of you for your insight. If you’ve used disposable diapers or formula, how much did you spend per month in an average month?

Photo by chrisirmo

Are you familiar with your car’s warranty?

A little over three years ago when Tony and I moved from Indiana to North Carolina, we had to make a tough decision about our cars. At the time, we were both driving old cars with 100,000+ miles on them. Both cars had recently had some issues. My car needed about $600 in work that I’d been putting off.

We had to make a choice: buy a used car, buy a new car, or keep both of our old cars and hope that they’d keep running. We were really nervous to buy a used car with a payment. We didn’t like the idea of making a payment on a car that frequently needed to go to the shop. Because we were sharing a single car, any car problems would have left both of us without a vehicle. We were afraid to risk buying a used car when we were moving 800 miles away from all of our friends and family.

In the end, we made the decision to buy a brand new car — a Hyundai. The 100,000-mile, 10-year warranty and 5 years of roadside assistance sold us. We knew if something major went wrong with our car, we wouldn’t be stranded, and we wouldn’t have to come up with the money to fix it.

Of course, we made this decision before we had an emergency fund saved. If I had to make the decision again, I’d say it’s smarter to have enough money saved to cover repairs instead of counting on a warranty. But the car has served us well, it’s been very nice not having to worry about anything but basic maintenance since the car is new, and we’ve had it for almost 3 years with no issues other than a replaced battery and a few tires. It was also very reasonably priced, so I have no regrets.

It seems now we’re facing our first non-maintenance repair. Today on my way home from an appointment with my midwife, the vents stopped blowing air. My first instinct was to check the fuse. I went to a parts store to buy a new fuse, and one of the customer service representatives was nice enough to bring a fuse checker out to my car to confirm that the fuse was in fact blown before I purchased replacements. The fuse was fine. His hunch? Our blower motor was out.

I called my dad (a former mechanic), and he confirmed it: if the blowers aren’t working and the fuse isn’t blown, the blower motor likely needs to be replaced.

This wasn’t the news I wanted to hear. Thankfully, we have an emergency fund, so coming up with the money wasn’t an issue. But we’ve been working hard to replenish our emergency fund after a summer with no income. The last thing I wanted to do was pull a bunch of money out of our savings for car repairs.

Then I remembered: we bought the car because of its supposedly awesome warranty — a warranty that we haven’t yet used because items like tires and batteries are not included in the coverage. I thought to myself, “I bet this part isn’t covered either. Wouldn’t that be just my luck?”

A quick call to the Hyundai dealership proved otherwise. If the problem is the blower motor, the repair will be covered. We have an appointment tomorrow to have it checked out and hopefully get it fixed.

I was hoping they’d supply a loaner vehicle as part of our warranty as well, but no. If it’s going to take longer than a day to fix, we’ll have to borrow a loaner car at a rate of $10 a day. Hopefully we won’t have to do that, but if we do, $10 a day is less than we’d pay at a car rental place, so it’s better than nothing.

If you’re driving a car purchased new in the past 5 (or even 10) years, don’t get anything fixed without calling the dealership first. You may be surprised to discover that your warranty covers the repair.

The other moral of the story? Don’t buy a new car unless you intend to drive it for a long time. These days it’s common to buy a new car every 3 years. Because warranties are non-transferable, any warranty is void after the car is sold. Because new cars are unlikely to have problems for the first 50,000-75,000 miles, you’ll never get to take advantage of new car warranties if you get rid of the car too soon.

We plan to keep this car for at least 10 years so we can get the most for our money and avoid another car payment once it’s paid off.

Guest post: From working part time to unemployment

This is a guest post from a reader and frequent commenter, Bobbi, who is from Florida. Bobbi loves personal finance blogs and recently began a new hobby — vegetable gardening. Though she’s currently unemployed, she’s exploring new possibilities, and she hopes to use her love for baking and cooking to earn money.

In June, I started working part time. I did this because my mother is getting older and I want to spend time with her. She needs help at home but with the economy the way it is, it will also help my employer. Work has really slowed down this past year on top of the summer season being normally slow in good economic times. The business has also taken quite a few hits recently. We’ve lost a lot of business on an account due to political reasons and another one of our clients filed bankruptcy. There was a lot of stress in the office and I felt like I wasn’t doing my best work. My boss was also very stressed over finances among other things. So basically, I would rather work part time and have a job, than get laid off.

THAT was the beginning of my post for Karen in July. Soon after I sent it to her, everything changed for me though.

I quit my job.

I could go into all the reasons and the ugliness that quitting turned into, but it really doesn’t matter in the long run. Suffice it to say there was a lot of hurt on both sides of this situation and this was the right decision for me.

I am very lucky in that I have an awesome family support system, but I also have an emergency fund and I budget well. I don’t have a mortgage and refinanced my car right before going part time just in case something like this happened. Yeah, I may pay a little more interest over time, but when I do get a job I can always catch it back up and even pay the car off. I have very little debt & utilities are low so I feel it was the right thing for me to do now. I can keep an eye on my mom and help her around the house. She is getting older now and will not go into a ‘home’ so we are going to do what it takes to keep her here. The stories I get to hear daily is so worth it.

So far I have been able to stay busy. We live on a piece of property and mom likes to get in the yard and do yard work so I have been helping her daily. We are a good team. My sister needs help with her kids after school and sometimes I run errands for her. I job hunt too. I have had some interviews but nothing has worked out yet. I know it will eventually. There are so many people looking it is really sad.

I also have since checked into unemployment and I did end up filing for it. Right now it is in a ‘pending’ state and they will call me and my employer to discuss and make a decision. This process will take 4-6 weeks. Hopefully I will have a job soon and won’t need it, but at least the ball is rolling in case I do need it. I am also looking into starting my own business. I have to admit that this option is scary to me, lol. I also think now is a good time to take a little time to myself and figure out exactly what I need to do and want to do. I am ok for now and am looking forward to the next adventure!

Thanks for reading.

Finally done shopping for baby

For the past four months, I’ve spent a lot of time researching, second-guessing, and making decisions about what we need, what we want, and what brands/models/sizes of each item we should buy for the baby. It seems like every item from the big stuff like the car seat and the crib to little things like bottles and diapers comes with at least 20 questions before you can make a decision. Oh, and you better not make the wrong decision, or YOUR BABY WILL DIE.

You may think that washcloth is perfectly safe, but no. According to Internet forums or Consumer Reports or whatEVER, it is the most dangerous thing you can possibly have around your baby. You might as well just blow cigarette smoke in your child’s face if you plan to use that washcloth.

No, I was never actually told that a particular washcloth could endanger the baby. I am exaggerating. But still! I felt like every little decision we made was life or death.

Today I made our final pre-birth purchase: the crib mattress. I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say I spent the better part of four hours browsing retail sites, reading reviews, and researching my options. But I finally made a decision, placed the order, and we are DONE shopping.

I’m so relieved to say that part is finally over. The crib will be here by next week, our diaper stash is complete, and the car seat is just waiting to be installed. Our incredibly generous friends and family gifted us with everything from the Pack n’ Play to a zillion adorable clothing items. In short, I feel like we have all of the stuff we could possibly need for this baby.

Does that mean we’re ready? Not by a longshot.

We have about a hundred loads of baby clothes, blankets, and diapers to wash. We have nursery furniture to assemble. Well, first we have to clear some space in the nursery for the furniture to fit, which is going to require several hours of cleaning and organizing. This weekend will be devoted to clearing junk out of the baby’s room, and next weekend we’ll be assembling furniture. We have cooking and cleaning and packing to do. And then there’s the small task of actually delivering the baby without pain medication. You know, little stuff.

Despite the fact that everything is coming together nicely, I still panic when I remind myself that we could be meeting this baby in as few as, oh, 30 days. I will be 37 weeks — which is considered full term — in THIRTY DAYS. He may decide to show up around my due date in 51 days. Or he may be stubborn and arrive in 65 days. That’s a nice wide margin, huh?

I’m hoping he’ll arrive somewhere between 30 and 50 days from now, so I’d like to have everything ready in about a month. Yikes. That is so soon. Excuse me while I go freak out now.

Photo by danielflather

What kind of detergent do you use for cloth diapers?

I’m not sure how many of my readers are active cloth diapers (or were in the past). But I’m struggling with a dilemma here, and I’m hoping you can help me out.

We’ve always used the cheapest detergent I could find, but we’re going to have to switch to something cloth diaper-friendly now.

Here are the brands I’ve read/heard about that I’m considering:

  • Country Save
  • Charlie’s Soap
  • Rockin’ Green Detergent
  • Original Tide (Most expert sites do not recommend this, but many of the cloth diapering moms in online forums swear that it works well for cloth.)

I liked the idea of Country Save because it’s the cheapest, so I could go ahead and use it for all of our laundry. The problem with Country Save is that I can only find it in unreasonably huge bulk amounts. I’m not sure if it’s going to work for me or the baby, so I’m hesitant to drop $60 on a year’s supply without testing it. I haven’t been able to find it locally.

The other huge problem: hard water. The water in my city has the highest lime content in the state. I’m worried that some of the cheaper detergents (like Country Save and Charlie’s Soap) won’t work as well for us because of our hard water.

I’m strongly considering Rockin’ Green Detergent. It has excellent reviews, it’s particularly environmentally friendly, and Rockin’ Green offers a special formula for hard water. The downside? It’s going to cost about 35 cents a load. Ouch.

To save money, I’m thinking about using the Rockin’ Green for diapers only. I’ve read that using ordinary detergents for the rest of your laundry can cause buildup to accumulate in the washer and affect diaper absorbency. So I’m thinking I might get a cheaper, relatively diaper-friendly detergent like Original Tide to use for the rest of our clothes.

Some commenters have suggested adding Calgon to the wash to combat the hard water. I’m definitely considering this as an option, but I’d like to keep things as simple as possible in the beginning as we adjust to the baby and cloth diapers. I really don’t want to fiddle too much with our washing system right away, so I’m hoping if I choose a high-rated, hard water detergent it will simplify our washing process.

Once I’m used to caring for the baby and washing all those diapers, I will experiment with less expensive brands to find something cost-effective and diaper-friendly. But in the beginning, I want to keep it simple.

So tell me: what detergent do you use for cloth diapers? Do you use the same detergent on all of your clothing? I’m especially interested in your system if you have hard water.

Photo by rickyromero

Gifts from a yard sale master

When we first announced that I’m pregnant, Tony’s incredibly sweet grandmother asked hesitantly how I felt about used items. Apparently, she didn’t want to offend me by giving us used baby stuff if we weren’t into the idea. Pfft. Of course, I told her we LOVE to buy used things and that we’d be incredibly grateful for any gift she bestowed upon us. If it’s used and she can get it for a good price then all the better.

Tony’s grandmother spends a lot of her weekends in the summer hopping from yard sale to yard sale. She finds used items in good condition and haggles the seller down to an even better price. If it’s an item she needs or she knows someone who needs it, she keeps it or gives it away. Otherwise she resells it at her own yearly yard sale for a profit. She’s a smart lady!

Last weekend when we visited Tony’s family, she told us she’d be bringing over all of the baby stuff she scored at yard sales for us this summer. I told her we’d love to see her, but if she’d like to wait until the baby shower to bring the items that would be fine. She said no, she’d rather bring it before the baby shower because she wasn’t sure we’d have room to take everything back home with us in addition to any baby shower gifts.

I assumed she’d picked up a few outfits here and there. Imagine my surprise when Tony and his dad carted in three enormous boxes packed full from his grandparents’ car.

Behold:

Included in the stash:

  • A metric ton of baby boy clothing in various sizes from newborn to 12 months, including sweaters, onesies, jeans, and pajamas. (The clothing is stacked by size in the photo, so each visible outfit is covering up a ton of other outfits.)
  • A bag full of baby socks in various sizes.
  • Several bibs.
  • Two snowsuits.
  • At least 25-30 cozy blankets and receiving blankets (Maybe more. I didn’t count.)
  • A set of crib bedding with a cute jungle theme.
  • A jungle-themed musical mobile for the crib.
  • Some cute stuffed animals.
  • Not pictured: A bouncer seat, walker, and three strollers.

All of it is in excellent condition (some items even still have store tags on them!) She even pre-washed all of it for me, so the newborn and 3-6 month stuff is ready to be folded and put into his dresser for his arrival home. The rest has been organized by size and stored for future use.

I am absolutely blown away by her generosity and incredible thrift. I’m definitely going to need to get some yard sale-ing tips from her!

We still have TWO baby showers coming up (one for each of our families since they live several hours apart). I almost feel like we’re set for baby clothes, but I know there will likely be more clothing from our friends and family members who attend the baby showers. I have a feeling I’m going to be writing a post about creative storage solutions for small apartments in the near future.

An important public service announcement about your tires

When we were in Europe, we left our car parked at my parents’ house for two weeks. My dad was kind enough to get a nick in our windshield fixed for us. When he was driving the car, he noticed that the steering wheel was shaking at 65-70 mph. We’d noticed this, too, but between the hectic move and rushing around before our big trip, we’d put off doing anything about it.

When we came home, my dad warned me that he suspected the front alignment was off. He recommended that we get it checked out. My dad worked as a mechanic for several years when he was younger, so he knows his stuff. I made a mental note to take care of it.

Fast forward four months. It’s been a very busy four months. Between the baby and the move and everything in between, we put off taking the car in.

We’ve also done a lot of driving in the past four months. With the move and visits to family and friends all over the state, we put several thousand miles on the car since May. We’ve had the oil changed since then, but I admit we’ve neglected to check our tires regularly.

This weekend we drove about 3 hours south to visit Tony’s family. On Sunday when we were getting ready to leave, my father-in-law noticed that the front passenger tire looked funny. Upon closer inspection, he realized that it wasn’t just worn: the front tire was pretty much completely bald. (!!) It was purchased at the same time as the front driver’s side tire, which was nowhere near as worn. This confirmed what my dad had told me four months ago: we had a serious alignment problem.

Since it was Sunday evening, we were three hours from home, and Tony needed to be back this morning for work, we didn’t have a lot of options. We have a tiny temporary spare, but it shouldn’t be used for more than 50 miles. We were over 100 miles from home. So Tony and his dad swapped the bald tire with one of the rear tires. Our car is front-wheel-drive, so we figured it was safer to put the bad tire in the back.

We made the trip home very carefully, driving under 55 mph the whole way to avoid blowing the tire. Thankfully, we made it safely.

Today I took the car to the shop. The alignment only cost $40 — less than half the cost of replacing the bald tire, which was $90. It took 15 minutes. I am kicking myself for putting off such a simple thing. If I’d listened to my dad and taken the car in to get the alignment fixed four months ago, we wouldn’t have had to replace that tire so soon, and it would have saved us almost $100. Doh.

We were also very lucky. In the past month, I’ve taken several trips out of town by myself for a friend’s wedding and a funeral just last week. That tire was dangerously close to blowing completely, and if it had happened when I was by myself two hours from home, I have no idea what I would have done.

There are few morals here:

  • Have your alignment checked as part of standard maintenance. We had the oil changed Saturday before we left. Not only did they not notice the bald tire (which honestly surprises me), but they didn’t check the alignment. It’s a simple thing to do every few thousand miles, and it can really help lengthen the life of your tires. But it’s not part of a standard oil change, so you have to ask them to do it.
  • Check your tires frequently! I am embarrassed that we got on the road for a three-hour trip without at least glancing at the condition of our tires. To be fair, we did get the oil changed that day, and we were told the tires were fine. But they only checked the tire pressure, not the tread. Not only should you check the tire pressure and look for standard wear, but also check for leaks, bubbles, nails, and anything else that could compromise the safety of your tires.
  • Listen to your dad. He probably knows what he’s talking about.

Photo by milesgehm

Hidden costs of small-town life

When Tony accepted a teaching job at a community college in a small town in Indiana, we planned to move to Fort Wayne — the closest major city about 40 miles away. I wasn’t crazy about the 1-hour commute for my husband, though, especially since we share a car. When we started hunting for apartments, we also weren’t crazy about our choices — prices were high for the nice areas, and everything in our price range seemed run down.

When we found an apartment about five miles away from Tony’s job at almost half the price we were going to pay in Fort Wayne, we were ecstatic. Lower rent, no commuting costs, and it would be easy for me to drop Tony off at work in the morning if I needed the car for the day.

Two months later, I don’t regret our decision. I’m pretty happy in our little apartment, and there are definite financial perks to small-town living. We’re not spending the fortune on gas that would have been required if Tony was driving 2 hours round trip every day. We’re not as tempted to go out to dinner, because our restaurant options are bleak. And our favorite places for recreational shopping (mainly Target) require advanced planning since they’re 30 minutes to an hour away depending on which city we visit, so we don’t browse once a week and spend more money than we intended.

Unfortunately, I’ve also discovered some hidden costs. Some of them are financial. Most of them are a matter of convenience.

Cell phone reception stinks.

I’ve resorted to using Skype for 99% of my calls, because my cell phone is basically useless in my apartment. I have better luck when I’m not home, which is really what cell phones are for anyway, but the poor cell phone reception is SO annoying. We don’t have a landline. I considered installing one, but since all of our family and friends would be long distance calls, a landline wouldn’t be financially practical. So I’m dealing with the hassle of choppy reception on Skype and dropped calls.

Goodbye, free TV.

Remember last year when I shut off the cable? We loved our antenna reception back when we lived in a reasonably big metro area. But now? We hooked up our antenna, and we get nada. We live about 40 miles from the broadcast towers for all of the channels. Outdoor antennas aren’t allowed in our apartment, and our indoor antenna isn’t strong enough to pick up anything. Most of the shows we watch are available at Hulu.com or the network’s website, and there’s always Netflix, but my husband is pretty sad about missing out on football this season. We’ll also miss other live broadcasts, like the Oscars. Boo. We’re considering opting into the basic cable package for network channels, but the tightwad in me hates the idea of paying $18 a month for something that used to be free.

We use more gas.

We’re not using nearly the amount we would have if my husband was commuting every day. But driving 25-40 miles away “into the city” every other week or so adds up. The nearest midwife is about 25 miles away, and now that I’m in the final stage of my pregnancy, we’ll be driving there every other week.

Sharing a car is more difficult.

In North Carolina, the public transportation system wasn’t perfect, but it worked for us. We chose an apartment on a bus line, and my husband used the bus to get himself into campus for class. There’s no public transportation here, and because the area is pretty rural, it’s also not very walkable. Since I work from home, and my husband’s job is pretty close, I’m able to drop him off and pick him up if I need the car for the day. It’s not a big enough hassle for us to get a second car, but I do miss public transporation.

Making friends is tough.

In North Carolina, we made some friends through Tony’s graduate program. I also joined a book club through Meetup.com. I wanted to meet some other young moms in the area when we first moved here. The closest meetup? The same town where my midwife is — 25 miles away. I joined, and I plan to attend some of the events, but I imagine it will be harder to make the trip on rural country roads when there’s snow on the ground and I have a newborn. Not to mention, when your friends live 25 miles away, it’s not as easy to pop in for a visit.

When we make our next move, we’d like to stick to the suburbs. I don’t want the cost or the hassle of big city life, but living in a small town is more of a hassle than I expected.

Photo by tonivc

Our cloth diapering game plan

Since we’ll be using cloth diapers, and cloth diapers aren’t particularly easy to add to a registry, I’ve already started to stock up.

Here’s what I’ve collected so far:

I’ve spent about $100 on diapers so far. All of them are brand new.

I think I’m done buying covers and fancy diapers. I may get a couple of Thirsties covers since they’re highly recommended and I’d like to try them, but we’ll see.

Since the Flips, Econobums, and Bummis are all waterproof and easy to wipe clean, they don’t need to be washed after every change. I’ll be able to reuse them a few times a day and just change the prefold diaper. I got the pockets and all-in-one to try them out, but I’m hesitant to stock up since they’re more complicated to wash and take longer to dry. I may buy more later if I really like them, but I’m hoping to mostly use the covers and prefolds method since it’s more economical, and they’re easier to wash and more durable.

Here’s what I still need to buy:

I’m estimating that it will cost another $200 for me to complete my stash. That puts our cloth diapering supplies total at about $300. Not too bad considering these should last us until our baby is potty-trained and perhaps even last until baby #2.

My mom is very skilled with a sewing machine, and when she visited a couple weeks ago, we looked at some patterns for cloth diaper covers together. I know how to sew, but I’m terrible at following the diagrams in patterns. She promised to make me a few diaper covers and diapers and then show me how to do it. I’m excited at the possibility of making cloth diapers for myself at a fraction of the cost, so we’ll see how that goes.

You may have noticed that all of my diapers are “one-size.” According to the manufacturers, all of these diapers should fit babies that weigh 8 pounds and up. If you’re experienced with cloth diapers, though, you probably know that long, skinny babies usually don’t fit into standard one-size diapers until they’re 10-12 pounds. And what if my newborn is only 6 or 7 pounds?

Tony and I both have a family history of big babies, and since we’re having a boy, I’m pretty confident that our little guy will be at least 8 pounds at birth. But who knows? I could go into labor a couple weeks before my “due date” and end up with a tiny 6-pounder.

My point is, we won’t be using cloth diapers from day one. There are “newborn-sized” cloth diapers on the market. However, these diapers are just as expensive as the one-size diapers, and depending on how big my baby is at birth, he may only fit in them for a few weeks. Not a good deal compared to the one-size diapers that will presumably fit him for 2-3 years.

Instead of investing in newborn-sized cloth diapers, I’ll be using newborn and size 1 disposable diapers for the first few weeks until our baby is big enough for his one-size diapers. This will give me a chance to get used to caring for a newborn before I need to learn to care for his cloth diapers.

I want to bargain shop for a few packs of disposable diapers, but it’s so hard to know how many and what size to buy. If he’s at least 8 pounds at birth as I suspect he will be, then he’ll skip the newborn size entirely and immediately fit into size 1s. And he’ll only wear size 1s for about 2-4 weeks. If we end up having a small newborn, he might need a few packs of newborns and more packs of size 1s.

Rather than stressing about it, I’ve decided to keep an eye out for really great diaper deals. If I can get them for cheap, I will, and I’ll save the receipt so I can exchange sizes or return them if necessary. If I don’t have enough disposables to last until he fits into cloth, I’ll suck it up and pay a higher price for a few packs. No biggie. He’ll be in cloth for 2-3 years. Buying a few packs of disposables at regular price won’t kill me.

Do you use cloth diapers? What’s your stash like? Did you use them right away with your newborn?

Photo by vincentmartinez