Avivah Werner

Category: Intentional Spending

  • Making thermal shades

    I’m getting ready for winter here, and have been thinking about some things I can do to keep our house warm without needing to increase our heating costs.  In our area, gas and electric rates are set to rise sharply this winter, and I know many other areas across the country are facing this same situation.  I just bought the oldest three kids new sets of thermals on ebay, since a warm underlayer makes a really big difference to keeping warm, in and out of the house.  That will help them stay warm even if I don’t keep the heat up too high.  Another thing I’m doing, which is addressing the aspect of keeping the house warmer, is making (and hanging) thermal shades.

    Have you ever heard of people covering their windows with blankets during the winter to keep the cold air out?  Thermal shades, or window quilts, are based on that same idea.  I’m using materials that I had around the house to make them, so I don’t have any extra material costs.  The only expense is a spring tension rod (under $4) for each window to hang them on.

    Here’s how I’m making ours: I’m using a layer of batting on the inside, and a layer of muslin to surround the batting on each side.  It’s like a sandwich – muslin, batting, muslin.  Then I’m stitching them all together, and I made a one inch casing at the top to insert the curtain rod in.  Since the muslin is a light cream color, they let the light come through but the three layers of material are thick enough to keep really reduce drafts.  Our windows are only ten years old, but there’s still a significant amount of air leakage – I can only imagine how bad the old windows are.  They also match all of the bedrooms, and look nice from the inside and outside. 

    There are less labor intensive ways to do it if you don’t have time or basic sewing skills (though all you need to know is how to run a straight stitch on a sewing machine), and in my boys’ bedroom, I have two temporary curtains done in a quickie way.  If I had enough batting, I would have done all of them like this, but I didn’t.  One layer of batting isn’t thick enough to be very substantial, though it’s still helpful to insulate more than if I had nothing there, so I’m leaving them hanging until I have time to sew up the three layers.  If you were to use two layers of batting, you could cut small slits a couple of inches down from the top, several slits along the top, creating a row of slits where you can insert the curtain rod.  If I didn’t have batting and were going to buy material, I would buy fleece (at 50% off) that matched each room and do the same thing.  Fleece doesn’t need any hemming and all you would have to do is cut the fabric in the shape of the window, cut the slits, and hang it up.  That would probably take under 10 minutes per window.  I’d strongly suggest a light colored fabric, to let the light in.  The idea of rooms that are dark seems depressing to me, even if they’re toasty and warm. 

    Here’s a link to an article that I read in the summer that first got me thinking about this:

    http://www.motherearthnews.com/Modern-Homesteading/1983-11-01/The-Homemade-Thermal-Shade.aspx.  I’ve made my own design that I think is simpler and cut the costs down involved, but their directions are much more detailed than mine, and you can get an idea of the basic concept and see if it is something that would work for you. 

    After the first night, my 12 yo daughter, who sleeps next to the window in her room that we put the first quilt on, told me she was noticeably warmer.  I asked her how she could tell a difference, and she said usually she doesn’t want to get out from under her covers in the morning, and this time it was fine.  I made this on Wednesday, and since I was out all day yesterday, I haven’t yet made one for the other window in their room.  She told me there’s a noticeable difference when she stands in front of each of the two windows in temperature and she definitely thinks I should cover all the windows like this. 

    Avivah

  • Holiday food shopping

    With the holidays coming, I thought you might find it valuable to hear how we keep our food expenses in check.  I know that most people spend significantly more during the holidays, but I don’t.  A lot of what I’ll share will sound familiar to you, because I just do more of what I do all year round.

     First of all, think ahead!  Don’t wait until 1 – 2 weeks before the holidays, like everyone else.  The stores will be packed, and in my area, the prices of everything seems to go up then.  Think about what the most expensive/important items you’ll need are.  For me, these are the meats and grape juice.  Fruits and vegetables obviously have to be bought fresh, but if you bake, you can also stock up on flour, sugar, oil, spices, or whatever else you’ll need. 

    Once you know what you’re going to need, keep it in mind when you do your regular shopping.  Do you have roasts on a super sale this week? Don’t sigh and think ‘too bad I don’t need them now’!  Snap them up and put them in the freezer.  I bought 24 bottles of grape juice last week (64 oz each), which will hold me well through the holidays, and should be enough until there’s another sale on it, when I’ll again stock up.  I almost never buy grape juice that’s not on sale.  I mentioned that I bought salmon last week – it’s not something I usually have, but when I saw it at a good price, I bought it for the holidays.  Yes, there are 5 more weeks before we have to worry about it, but shopping ahead makes it possible to spread out the expenses associated with the holidays and significantly decrease your hassle and stress. 

    I mentioned getting a case of chicken – that will be enough for five weeks, but I’ll be ordering at least one more case in another month.  That means that I’ll have some extra chicken from this month’s overlap that will be for the holidays in addition to whatever else I buy next month.  In addition to that, I have ten lb. chopped meat from last month’s shopping that I’m keeping aside, and 15 lb of lamb breast that I bought when it was 1.99 lb.  So even if there aren’t any incredible sales between now and then, I have two kinds of fish, chicken, lamb, and beef, ready to grace our holiday meals. 

    This is a large part of what makes it possible for us to enjoy the holidays, without the financial stress or extensive credit card use that seem to be pervasive at these times.  It’s very freeing to know when the holidays approach that you have almost everything you need already on hand.  No need for standing in long lines, rushing into numerous stores, and maxing out your credit card or energy!

    Plan ahead, buy large amounts when the prices are low, and enjoy your holidays!

    Avivah

  • Effectively using food bargains

    Things have been so busy after my food shopping that I didn’t give you more than a hint about my wonderful bargains this past week!  Since I know you can’t wait to hear, here are some :):

    – 8 containers of 3 lb ricotta cheese, $1.49 each

    – 6 containers of 4 lb cottage cheese, $1.69 each

    – 3 cases of cherries, 18 lb per case, $10 each

    – approx. 10 lb wild salmon, $4.19 lb

    – 2 cases cultured goat milk, 24- 8 oz containers per case, $5 each

    – 3 cases whole organic milk, 3 gallons per case, $5 each

    – 2 boxes of ripe bananas, 10 lb each box, 50 cents each

    – 1 case nectarines, $8.75 (don’t know how many pounds, it goes by the number of fruit)

    – 47 – 1 lb packages of organic split peas – .49 each

    – 1 huge watermelon (20 lb?), 3.99

    – 30 dozen eggs, $1.19 per 18

    I also bought 50 lb potatoes, 80 lb sweet potatoes, 50 lb hard white wheat, and a bunch of frozen veggies (30 lb, maybe?).  I got other odds and ends, but those were the big things and together with the case of chicken and 10 lb of fish fillets I ordered from the butcher several days before, pretty much filled up our fridge and freezer.  Remember that even though it looks like I didn’t buy much variety, that I shop from my pantry when it’s time to prepare meals, and that if I didn’t buy it this month, I didn’t need it.  Every month, I shop to fill in the gaps and stock up on whatever the price is excellent on.

    Part of doing a big shopping trip like this is that it takes a couple of days afterwards to unpack everything, reorganize the shelves or food storage to put it away in an organized way, clear out the fridge and freezer to make room, and then can large amounts of fruits if I get a super buy on them.  We dehydrated bananas and made banana jam, cooked all the nectarines into compote (I didn’t have room in the fridge for a couple of days and they started to get soft so this was the solution to save them), made cherry-apple spread, lots of applesauce (with the many pounds of apples we picked this week – it’s a blessing to have so much, but it’s also a lot of work!), made tomato pineapple jam that never jelled and ended up mixing it into a pot of cooked apples for a tasty but interesting flavored chutney, and pitted lots of cherries to freeze.

    I still have the rest of the cherries to deal with tomorrow before they start to go bad – maybe 35 pounds or so.  I think I’m going to can them in juice, the way I did last month.  My husband thought they were delicious, and they’re relatively quick and easy to can.  It’s a lot less work than jams, and more personally satisfying, because I don’t enjoy canning foods that I won’t eat, and don’t really want the kids to eat.  My experiments with jam on Thursday took a lot of time and weren’t very successful, because I tried to use fruit juice as a sweetener instead of sugar, but sugar is a major ingredient in making jam and getting it to thicken.  It was too much time for too little reward, and I was exhausted at the end of that day.

    Canning whole cherries is simple.  I wash them, de-stem them, and the kids prick each cherry with a sterilized needle to keep them from bursting from the heat when they cook.  Then I put the heated cherries into the canning jar, pour boiling liquid on top of it, put the lid on, and pop it into the canner for processing.  If I had done this on Thursday instead of feeling like I should be more creative with all the fruits I had (ie, the jam), I would have gotten through them relatively quickly (ie, in one full day of canning).  But now they’re starting to get soft spots so I’m going to need to spend some time sorting through them and cutting off any parts that aren’t good.  That will be the project for tomorrow.

    The kids are enjoying the goat’s milk, which is nice, since it’s so good for them.  I’ve never bought goat’s milk before, so it was taking a bit of a chance.  I had heard goat milk has a strong flavor, but maybe because this was cultured, and my kids are used to drinking cultured milk (kefir), they all like it and didn’t comment on the different flavor.  The small individual bottles are perfect portion sizes for each child to have for breakfast, so that’s we’re using them for, and we’ve already finished a case and a half of them.

    The wheat went into two 5 gallon buckets with lids.  The split peas also went into buckets like these (prevents any insects from finding their way in).  I put most of the cheeses and milk into the freezer, and pull them out to defrost a day before I need them.  The salmon and chicken are also in the freezer, so the freezer is pretty much filled to capacity now.

    Having room in the freezer for everything new means taking out and using older things that were using the space until then.  Can you tell why it takes a couple of days to get it all done? 🙂

    Avivah

  • Bartering goods

    Yesterday I got a five gallon bucket of organic compost for my garden.  I think my plants will benefit from the nutritional boost.  I’m friendly with the person selling it, and it occurred to me when we were chatting on the phone that she might be open to doing a trade of some sorts.  So I asked if she was interested in trading some of her compost for some of my produce.  She hadn’t thought of it, though she had heard of others doing it, and was open to the bartering concept.

    I gave her five pounds of cherries, but turns out she only eats organic (she didn’t mention it when we spoke).  I didn’t want her to feel stuck with something she wouldn’t have bought, so I took back half of them (she was happy to keep half), and told her I’d bring her a quart of homemade organic applesauce that I canned (she had an empty canning jar of her own, so she gave hers to me and will keep the one I gave her, which was perfect).  When I was back at home getting the applesauce, I decided to take her some organic pears and apples, too (some we had freshly picked).   She felt it was too much that I gave her, but I was very comfortable with the trade, and both of us were happy with the experience.

    Until a couple of weeks ago when I bartered the pears we picked for some peaches, I never did anything like this, so it’s kind of a foreign idea for me.  But I like it – it feels very friendly and win-win.  It’s better than exchanging money – what I gave her cost me much less than I would have bought the compost for, and what she gave me cost her much less than what she would have bought the fruit for.  I bought the cherries for .55 lb, picked the apples and pears for free, made the applesauce from free apples – so it was under $2 for the things I traded for compost that would have cost me $25 at the special price she sells to friends at.  She would have spent $3 lb on the cherries, and I don’t know how much for the 10 lb of organic fruits, plus the organic applesauce would have been pricey in the store.  The compost she makes is composed of her rabbit bedding mixed with her organic food clippings, so it didn’t cost her anything but time to make it. 

    Bartering simply means thinking about what you have that is valuable to someone, and exchanging it for something they have of value to you.  I think I’ll continue to keep my mind open to fun possibilities like this.  It makes the world a smaller and friendlier place.

    Avivah

  • Stocking up on school supplies

    I can’t believe that I’ve forgotten to mention this for you, but it’s not too late! 

    Now is the time to stock up on school supplies for the year.  Whether you’re homeschooling or sending your child to school, there are supplies that are going to be necessary.  (Though if you’re homeschooling, you’re going to need a lot less of some things and a lot more of others- like craft supplies- than the schooled kids.  And if you’re sending a child to school – the lists can be frustratingly long and unnecessary.)  You probably won’t be surprised to hear that I don’t like running out at the last minute to buy the odd eraser or protractor.  🙂  Like everything else, I try to stock up when the prices are good.

    The month before school begins is when the best deals are around!  I buy whatever is outrageously cheap in each store that I know we’ll use, and buy as many as I can.  The stores are all competing with one another now to get your ‘back to school’ business.  Take advantage of it by buying whatever deals they’re enticing you into the store with.

    It probably will mean more running around than you usually do – it does for me, but I arrange my schedule so that I don’t make extra trips.  I pop into whatever store I’m passing that has a sale I want to take advantage of when I’m already out   But even with the more frequent small shopping trips, it’s saving me loads of time and money in the long run.

    You can get many, many supplies for super cheap – 1 – 10 cents each seems to be a common price.  I can’t even remember what I’ve gotten in the last few weeks; I just know that I spent pennies for whatever I bought.  I buy it, give the bag to my kids to stick in the desk downstairs as soon as I get home, and I’ll organize it all sometime in the next few weeks. 

    Make sure you have plenty of the basics – pencils, pens, erasers, notebooks/filler paper, looseleafs (if your child is old enough to use them), crayons, markers, and glue.  You can’t have too much of them (or at least I can’t)!  I stockpile all of these things, and whenever one of my kids announces they need something, instead of running to the store, I send them downstairs to ‘shop’ in my desk.  I like the money saving, I like the time saving, and I love the convenience of having what I need when I need it!

    Check your sale paper tomorrow to see what’s on sale in your area stores!

    Avivah

  • How to get started canning cheaply

    Canning is sometimes suggested as a frugal way to cut down on your food bills, but I have to tell you honestly that the upfront costs aren’t cheap.  Not at all.  It’s usually only in the longer term that you start saving money.  But I’ll share with you how I got started, and what the costs were.

    Unless you have an older relative who gifts you with a canner and jars because they don’t need it anymore, you’ll need to buy all of your canning supplies.  Some people luck into that situation, but that wasn’t me.  :))  I bought the Presto 23 quart pressure canner new from Amazon, for $80, and had free shipping.  You can buy canners that are much pricier, but this one is effective and I don’t see the value in paying 3 times the price if this works well.  Then there’s the cost of the jars – each dozen costs about $ 6 – 8 new, depending on size, and if you plan to can a substantial amount, you’ll need a lot of jars.

    Buying all of those jars new is very expensive, and I’ll share how I’ve managed to aquire a good stock of jars in the last two months at a relatively low cost.  Once you have the jars, you have them for good.  There are no further costs except for the purchase of lids, which are about 15 cents each, since they can’t be reused, so over time the money spent on jars is amortized and you can start to really save money by taking advantage of sales, free or reduced produce, etc. 

    All of my jars have come from Craig’s List.  Most were in response to ads that were placed, and  I also utilized the ‘items wanted’ feature to request people who had jars contact me. 

    My first jar purchase was from a lovely woman who was downsizing her jar collection because her sons were in college so she didn’t need to can as much food.  It was in PA, about a half hour beyond where I do my monthly shopping, so I scheduled it on the day I went shopping and it wasn’t much out of my way.  The Mapquest directions were confusing and I had trouble getting to her home, so I got there after she had left for an appointment, and unfortunately I didn’t get to meet her in person.  But she has helped me out with a couple of canning questions and has been a pleasure to be in touch with via email since then.  I bought around 6.5 dozen half gallon jars (these are the most expensive by far), 6.5 quart jars, and 4 dozen pint jars for $80. 

    Then someone responded to my CL request and gave me 2 or 3 dozen brand new jelly jars.  I responded to an ad on CL a week later, and it turned out to be the same person who gave me the jelly jars (when you use CL, you email to a blind address, so you don’t know who you’re contacting until they contact you).  I was very happy to buy jars from him after his generosity to me.  He lived close to where my dh worked, so my husband picked them up and I didn’t get to meet him in person, either.  It was another $15 for 25 quart sized jars and 19 smaller jars, some still new in a sealed box. 

    Then someone else offered me 1.5 dozen free jelly jars.  Dh picked those up for me also.  I had a couple of people offer me more jars who were too far away for it to be cost effective to drive to.  Then two weeks ago I bought another 129 quart sized jars (I think that’s how many there were…) – it was the night dh picked them up that the van broke down right afterwards – for $30.

    Today I got a lot more jars (after telling dh last week that I wasn’t going to buy any more) – 34.5 dozen half pint jars, all new in the box with bands and lids (except 1.5 dozen didn’t have the lids).  Some women splurge on jewelry and new clothing, I splurge on things like this.  🙂  I paid $40 for the entire lot, which was an amazing deal.  It literally would have cost me more to buy a box with a dozen lids (1.81 at Walmart, less at my new online source) than it cost for each box of jars.  They were being sold by a large institution that bought them for a huge project, and were stacked in the closet, extras that were left over after the event.  The person who took over the position found a closet filled with boxes that she was happy to empty at one time by selling it all to me, and I was happy to be of service.  🙂  It was a true win-win for us both.  She even had a bunch of young teen volunteers load them into my van for me. 

    So now I have approximately 84 – 90 1/2 gallon jars, 232 quarts, and 414 of pints/ half pints with a very few 1.5 pints.  My 9 year old thought I must have thousands, and was disappointed when I added all this up a minute ago and told him I only have 736 (I think I also have another dozen that I bought new a year or two ago that isn’t included in this numberso make it 748).  The total cost for all of the jars was $165, which averages out to about .22 cents a jar.  The average canner won’t be buying or using half gallon jars, and that was a big part of my cost, so you could easily subtract $50 from my total, and the total costs would be under $200 for the canner and all the jars.

    By the way, I think in almost every one of these cases the prices were lowered for me.  None of them were listed at the price I shared with you. The first set was $120, and since I bought all of them, she dropped it to $80.  The next was $25, down to $15.  They were requesting $6 per dozen for the large lot of 129 that I bought, and they agreed to $30, which was 2.79 dozen.  Today’s purchase didn’t have a price in the ad, or other relevant details, and I had to follow up with three different people, which I think is more effort than most people would have been willing to spend (though it only took me 5 minutes or so by email and then one phone call).  I initially offered $100, thinking they were quart sized jars, which they accepted, but then I found out they were the half pint size and told her that I really didn’t want to pay more than $1 a dozen for that size (it’s not a size that’s of maximum value to me, all the others I got in that size were free).  The person I was in contact with called her supervisor to check my offer with her. She (was away for the day) told her they could take $45, I said I’d be okay with $40, and without hesitation she agreed.  You might think that I’m a big bargainer, but I’m really not.  I don’t bargain -I just tell them what I’m willing to pay, I try to be reasonable and fair in my offers, and if it works for them, then good.  If not, that’s okay, too.  I’ve found that most sellers don’t generally have a good idea of what new canning jars sell for, so they price their used jars too high. 

    Canning is a valuable skill, and I look at it as a fun and productive hobby.  It can seem intimidating and foreign (not to mention expensive) to get started, but I think it’s really worth it.

    Avivah

  • Free fruit!

    We got our van back (with a $2600 repair bill) and enjoyed having it around for a couple of days before my husband had to take it back today (it’s making a squealing sound that it didn’t have before, the mechanic said it’s the leftover grease when they put the engine back together, but it’s really horrible sounding).  Anyway, something I enjoyed about not having a vehicle for a week and a half was walking more.

    When you walk, you see things that you don’t see when you’re driving.  And something I noticed were several fruit trees in yards within a ten minute walk.  I decided to ask the owners if I could pick the fruit, thinking that if they didn’t use the fruit (I expected that most of them wouldn’t), they would otherwise have lots of rotten fruit on their yards, and it would be a win win situation for all of us.  Friday afternoon I was passing one home and spontaneously asked the first person, and his response was so positive and immediate that it took away any hesitation I was feeling about asking.  Today I asked the other two, they also readily agreed.  Yay!!

    One has three pear trees, one has two apple trees, and one has three apple trees.  None of them are fruit like the store has, so I’ll have to see what the quality is like.  But free fruit is free fruit – the worse that can happen is the effort won’t be worth doing it again.  The apples aren’t ripe yet, but the pears look like they are, because some of them are dropping off the tree and pears are supposed to be picked before they’re ripe enough to fall on their own.  Tomorrow the kids and I will go pick the pears, and see what we can do with them.  I’m not sure how we’ll reach the high branches, but my 9 year old son thought of bringing our fishing net (looks like a butterfly net but the netting is wider).  I thought that was a fantastic idea.  🙂

    My plan is to preserve them, not eat them raw.  I don’t think I’ll make much jam, if any, since we don’t use a lot of jam (because of the sugar content).  Maybe tonight I’ll cruise the web and see what kind of recipes for canned pears I can find – I just want to do something simple like compote or pear sauce, that has no sugar in it.  If whatever I end up making is tasty, then I’ll send a jar or two over to each of the people whose trees we pick. 

    It’s amazing that food is literally available free for the taking, and everyone else is going by the same trees without even thinking about it.  I wouldn’t have thought about it, either, before learning to can.  After all, how much would I have been able to use before it spoiled if I picked it?  But now I can take advantage of the sudden abundance and enjoy it in the winter when it’s cold and the fruits are no longer in season.  Canning is a wonderful tool!

    Avivah

  • Living without air conditioning – is it possible?

    Since we originally planned to drive to pick up our son from NJ, my husband rearranged his work schedule to accomodate that, and though we couldn’t pick him up because of the van breaking down, we spent the day at home getting some small organizing projects done. 

    One thing we did that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time is remove the window a/c units from the kids’ bedrooms (we don’t have one in our room).   The units were old, dirty, and didn’t work well, in addition to blocking any air from circulating when the other windows were open.  We rarely used them because of that, but somehow I resisted actually removing them because I kept thinking we might need them and then regret not having them.  As soon as they were out, and I mean immediately, the air started flowing in and cooling off the rooms.  The airflow pattern for that entire floor is now much better, and combined with their ceiling fans on hot nights they already have, it’s much cooler in their rooms.  (The morning after we took out the units, two of the kids complained about being cold in the night – and that was after a day of 95 degree heat!)

    We also took out the window unit for the main floor last week.  That has been wonderful – we finally have a cross breeze!  It has been comfortable in the house this last week, though we’ve had weather in the high 90s (and the humidity is yuck!), though I guess that’s relative to what you’re used to.  If we needed it to always be 72 degrees, this would feel way too hot.  No one would mind if it were cooler, but unlike last year, when the kids were continually complaining if we didn’t put the a/c on when it was this hot outside, so far no one has said anything about it being too hot inside. 

    I’ve also been doing lots of canning, which supposedly heats the house up a lot and is a bad thing to do when it’s hot outside.  I’m sooooo grateful to my husband for putting in a high quality exhaust van in the kitchen that vents to the outside when we redid the kitchen this winter.  It was a huge amount of work, and it’s not the kind of thing that someone looks at and is impressed by; it’s the kind of thing no one thinks about.  But this is another big factor in the house staying much cooler this year – the cooking heat is exhausted right out, instead of being recirculated around with the old vent hood we had.  Last year I would feel sweat tricking down my face any time I cooked in the summer, and could only manage the heat by cooking in the evenings, and that was with the a/c ON! 

    It’s  mentally very freeing to me to have taken these units out, and find that not only can we live without them, we’re quite comfortable!   I feel more in touch with the weather outside, and I especially like keeping my kids appreciation for things high.  Life will be easier for them not only now, but when the get older because they are happy with what they have and don’t have high material expectations, and I encourage that by consciously not unnecessarily raising the bar. 

    Avivah

  • Cloth diapering on a budget

    Did you know that disposable diapers will be going up in cost by 6 – 8% in the next month?  I found that out the day after I made a large order of cloth diapers about six weeks ago – it was satisfying to find out after I made the order. 

    I first tried cloth diapering about 6 years ago, from a position of wanting to save money.  I bought the Walmart kind of prefold diapers (not knowing that there are huge differences in the quality that affect how effective they are, and these are the worst).  And they were terrible.  I gave up after several months because my baby at that time always seemed to be wet.  I tried to cloth diaper my next child as a toddler, to make him aware of his wetting and motivate him to toilet train.  It didn’t help because he didn’t care.  Next child – I once again tried with with my toddler last year, after making my own flannel contours.  It was a good try, but my older kids hated changing cloth diapers and I gave up once again.

    So what happened between then and now?  About a year ago, I was in the thrift store and found about 20 brand new cloth fitted diapers, and since they were .45 each, I couldn’t not buy them.  🙂  (They would have been $15 if I bought them from the original source.)  Fitteds are one piece diapers that fasten like the typical disposable diapers, but don’t have a waterproof lining (you can put a waterproof cover on top or just leave it off).  I had never used anything like that, because I was doing the most affordable cloth diapering I could, and never even considered anything that pricey. 

    Even after buying the entire lot for the less than one brand new would have cost, I didn’t use them with right away for the baby when he was born.  I felt too busy with all the stuff that comes along with having a newborn, and the memories of all my unsuccessful cloth diapering attempts were fresh in my mind and outweighed my enthusiasm for it.  But after about 4 months, I remembered about them and pulled them out of the closet. 

    Wow, a change it was!  First of all, they were so convenient!  This made a major difference in a house like ours, where all the kids age 7 and down change diapers.  Using fitteds is just like using disposables, in terms of putting them on. No folding necessary.  So I used them on a regular basis, my main complaint being leaking, because I didn’t realize that a cover was necessary for them.  If I had known that, I would have saved myself some aggravation.  But all in all, it was a positive experience, and it’s no one’s fault but mine that I was ignorant.

    By the end of June, those diapers were getting too small for the baby.  I was enjoying finally successfully using cloth diapers, and didn’t want to go back to disposables.  So off I went to research the options.  Oh, my gosh, do you know how overwhelming the sheer amount of information on cloth diapering is??  There are so many choices, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, that my head was spinning.   I wanted something affordable, and I wanted something convenient.  And it didn’t seem that the two were possible. 

    But I persisted in my research, and finally hit pay dirt.  Or at least that’s what it felt like to me.  At clothdiaper.com, I found that they were selling fitteds at almost 50% of the cost of other diaper sites.  The reviews I read said that they were strong and wore like iron, something important to me since I want them to last once I’m buying them!  Not only were they much less expensive than anywhere else, there was a discount for buying 12 or more, and then a larger discount for buying 24 or more.  I decided to buy 24 of the size large, and they came to just $7 apiece.  That honestly was a bit of a splurge for me, but it’s been worth it.  Because they are adjustable thanks to the snap tape, I can use them for my 10 month old or two year old.  I really appreciate things like that which simplify my life.

    Then I bought 4 dozen Indian prefolds that were seconds, so they were much cheaper than the brand new price.  Prefolds are flat diapers that have to be folded inside a waterproof cover.  They were $12.96 a dozen instead of $24 a dozen new; this price included the $2 per dozen discount when buying over 4 dozen.  I figured it would be good to have more than just 24 diapers for two children, and also the price was so good that I felt I would kick myself if I didn’t buy them when they were available.  (Unfortunately, they’re out of stock now, but keep your eyes open on their site for when they have them come around again – I noticed a couple of nights ago that they now have a couple of other sizes selling as seconds that they didn’t have when I made my order.)  When the order arrived, I saw what made them seconds – almost all of them had small smudges of dirt, as if it had been dropped on the floor.  Since the diapers have to be washed and dried a few times before using them anyway to prep them, the little marks didn’t make a bit of difference to me, and they came out of the washer spotless.

    Then I bought some waterproof covers from another site.  I’ve purchased diaper covers in the past directly from the makers of Prorap, and they have seconds available for $4.75 each. I haven’t been able to tell the difference between the seconds and regulars, and the price is significantly less than buying them retail anywhere else (usually about $9).  I’ve been happy with the quality, so if you like functional and don’t care about it being plain white, this works great.  I recommend the Classic style, not the Basic.  The Classic feels more like cloth, the Basic is kind of like institutional vinyl.  I prefer diapers and covers that snap rather than velcro, so when I spoke to them, I asked if they had any covers with snaps that were seconds.   I got the last two.  🙂  The rest were all velcro, which is fine, too. http://www.prodiaper.net/ – You have to call and ask for the seconds; you wouldn’t know they exist from looking at the site.

    If you’re on a tight budget, I’d go with just the prefolds and wraps, and for under $100 you’d have a good sized stash to see you through.  If you have a little more financial wiggle room, I really like the fitteds for simplicity.  They also are less bulky than the prefolds. 

    I didn’t post about this right after making the order, or even receiving it, because I wanted to use them and see how it worked out for us before sharing with you.  We’ve all been very happy with these, and agree it was money well spent.  I hope that if you’re interested in cloth diapering, I’ve saved you at least several hours (I spent DAYS) of research on how to keep the costs down! 

    Avivah

  • Free is good!

    Today the kids and I had fun rummaging through free boxes of books and misc. homeschooling supplies.  Someone offered to take whatever was left after a recent used curriculum sale, and after she went through the things, she generously made the items available to other homeschoolers.  She did the same thing last year, and we happened to meet at the only curriculum sale I ever had a table at just a week or so before that.  We chatted only a few minutes then, but when I emailed her later last year regarding coming to look at the free things she had in her garage, she remembered me and told me to come before the crowd arrived because she liked me.  And this year she did the same thing, so I got to enjoy browsing through everything without worrying about getting elbowed out of the way!  (And we enjoyed chatting for a while, too – it’s nice to spend time with other homeschool moms and talking honestly about some of the challenges that you can’t share with those who aren’t homeschooling.)

    We came home with games, activity kits, music and story cassettes, and books!   My 7 and 9 year olds especially enjoyed being able to get whatever struck their fancy.  We got something for everyone – I think what I am most happy about finding was two Landmark biographies.  I’ve seen these referenced as wonderful books for a long time, but the libraries don’t have them (at least not around here), and this was the first time I came across any.  What a treasure!  They are interestingly written and engaging, something I appreciate because why should history be dull?

    We’ve actually gotten a bunch of free stuff recently: I told you about the portacrib, etc but there’s more!  Soon after that score, we received a notice that a large dumpster would be placed in a central location in our neighborhood to make it convenient for people to get rid of their odds and ends (not regular trash); they do this once a year as a neighborhood service.  It was there for Saturday and Sunday, and it was interesting to see how much usable stuff was being thrown away, instead of passed on to others or given to Goodwill, which is what we do.  By the time Sunday came, the huge dumpster was overflowing. 

    My daughter noticed some things at the very top when she walked by on Sunday afternoon, and suggested we go together to see if we could get them.  When we got there, someone was industriously pulling out metal to sell for scrap, which I thought was great!  Why should usable materials be piling up our landfills?  Anyway, he saw us glance at a toddler riding toy and generously offered to get it down, along with a perfectly good cooler that was also on top. (That will be helpful for when I make my monthly trips to buy raw milk.)   A little later, my daughter saw (it was placed just a few houses down from us so our kids go back and forth all the time) a baby bath seat, put to the side and still in it’s original packaging, so she snagged that; our 10 month old is at the perfect age for it.  If someone was willing to go through the pile on Saturday, before it got so high, they probably would have made out like a bandit (I saw a number of heavy duty plastic storage boxes that I love to use for clothes). 

    Then a day later, someone called us and told me her daughter was cleaning our their basement of toys, and would we like them?  I said, sure, why not?  So she brought over several bags of stuff, most of which honestly weren’t toys I’d keep around (so much so that I told my kids I didn’t think I’d say yes again if she asked in the future). 

    Why do I say ‘yes’, if I don’t know exactly what is being given?  This is a concept that I got from The Tightwad Gazette and agree with – when someone offers you something for free, always say yes.  Even if you can’t use what they give you, you can pass it on or give it to the thrift store, or throw it out, if it’s really not useful – I always tell people that if they give me something that doesn’t work for us, I’ll give it to the thrift store to be sure that they don’t have a problem with it.  Many people have good stuff that they no longer need, but are often hesitant to offend someone by offering it.  When they find someone who is comfortable having it passed on to them, the gates are open and they know they can ask you in the future.  Most people would rather give their belongings to a family than to a thrift store, it’s more personal and they enjoy knowing the person they give it to. 

    So back to the free stuff – two days later, the same woman called and said now she was cleaning her house of toys, could she bring some over?  What do you think I said? Yes, of course!!  This time the toys were much more suitable for our family.  Toy trucks that are just right for the 2 year old, puzzles for the 6 year old, rolls of brand new wrapping paper, and two potty seats.  I asked her at that time why she called us, of all people, since she hardly knows us.  She told me that she hates wasting things, and she realized that I was open to being given things in the spirit in which they were offered (ie, not as charity but as a win-win situation for both sides). 

    How did she realize this (since I don’t go around with a sign saying, ‘I’ll take your free stuff!’)?  She happened to speak to a very close friend of mine a week earlier, and mentioned to her that she had a number of guests for the weekend, which resulted in lots of leftovers that she put into the freezer immediately.  But it was much too much for her and her husband, who would end up eating leftovers all week long and then some, because there was so much.  My friend also has a big family, and told the woman she was welcome to bring it over to her house, since she knows a lot of people and would pass along whatever she couldn’t use.  So my friend called me and asked if I wanted some since she didn’t have room for all of it – I got a 9 x 13 pan of chicken that I used for dinner that night.  When I saw the woman who made the food (who had no idea that I got part of it) later in the week, I went over to thank her and tell her that my kids enjoyed it (it had a sweetener on it so my husband and I didn’t eat it).  It was my ‘thank you’ that made her think of calling me when all the toy decluttering happened.

    Avivah