That was the end of my home birth dream.

At the midwife's suggestion, I opted to transfer to the hospital for the epidural. In between contractions (which were 2-3 minutes apart and a minute long) I managed to put on some clothes and a pair of flip flops and get out to the car. During this time Hubs helped the doula pack a diaper/hospital bag and tossed our car seat into the car. I'd briefly considered packing one earlier in the week, but thought "Oh no, I am having a home birth so I won't need a bag packed." Silly me. The midwife called the hospital to make necessary arrangements and we were on our way.

The cool night air felt so good on my face. I climbed into the back of the car on all fours. I asked Hubs to please roll down the back window. I'm sure he was freezing, but the cold air helped me feel better. In between contractions I was able to talk some to him and sip some water. Then I was back at it. On one hand I was so disappointed that my home birth was not happening, but on the other hand I knew that the hospital might bring some relief to the agonizing pain of my post-broken-water contractions. During the car ride I mostly yelled through contractions and didn't even try to relax. I was discouraged but hopeful that the end was near. 

You know those unrealistic movie scenes where ladies give birth like they're dying? I'm pretty sure those movies are based on my last few hours of labor. As we got out of the car, I yelled. As we walked through the hospital lobby, I yelled. As we were in the elevator and waiting room and signing consent papers, I yelled. I just didn't care anymore. I was upset and ready to have all of labor and delivery done with. As we signed in, Hubs fished around in my purse for my drivers license. I shoved my fist into the right pocket and shakily dumped a bunch of cards on the counter in an effort to make things go faster. Then I had to lean on one of the waiting room chairs and yell some more.

After what seemed like hours, I was in the labor and delivery room. The doctor checked me and to everyone's surprise, I was almost nine centimeters dilated! The car ride had done more for my progress than 13 hours of laboring at home. The doctors said that delivery could be as little as 15 minutes to an hour away. The general consensus was that I should just finish laboring and give birth without any medication. I still wanted my epidural, but what would another half hour of contractions hurt?


Hospital Birth

Unfortunately for me, delivery was not 15 minutes away. After two more hours of excruciating contractions, the doc checked me and announced that I was just eight centimeters dilated and worse, my cervix was beginning to swell up because I was inadvertently pushing instead of relaxing through contractions. He dropped the "C-section" word and recommended an epidural to try to relax things as a last-ditch effort. Well, that's what I'd come in for to begin with! I wanted my epidural NOW!

After an eternity of paper-signing and other hoops, the epidural guy was finally ready to stick the needle down my back. "Now it's very important that you're perfectly still when I do this. You cannot move at all." At this point I WAS determined to get my epidural, but contractions were still three minutes apart at most. I had no idea how I'd manage to be perfectly still for four minutes. I prayed so hard that God would help me stay perfectly still regardless of how bad it hurt. 

"Okay," I whispered to the epidural guy. I gripped Hubs hand on one side and the nurse's hand on the other. The nurse's hand was softer. I dug my fingernails into her wrist and kept saying "okay" over and over again like a broken record. Somehow I made it through the procedure sitting perfectly still. I didn't even yell like I had been doing for the past four hours.

The doctors and nurses said it would take up to 20 minutes for the epidural to have an effect, but I felt relief immediately. It was probably psychological, but it was relief nonetheless. I slept on and off for the next 45 minutes. It was wonderful. Another hour or so later, the doc checked me and announced that it was time to push. Yes! I had made it without needing a C-section.

They said that pushing could last anywhere from a few minutes to an hour, and of course I took the whole entire hour. Pushing was still very painful even with the epidural. I'd wondered before what the "ring of fire" would feel like. About 15 minutes in I was sure I felt the ring of fire. I told myself that a few more pushes and our baby would be out. Silly me. For the next 45 minutes it felt like Baby Girl was playing peek-a-boo with her head... or someone was blasting a blow torch down there during every push/contraction. I thought it would never end. The doctor and nurses kept telling me to touch the baby's head, but I didn't want to. I was afraid that the head would go back in and I'd have to push for another hour. Finally they got me to do it, and I'm so glad I did. Her head was wet and soft. I'm pretty sure I started crying at this point and telling everyone how hard pushing was and how tired I was. The doc told me to take a break several times after this and just breath through the contractions. I didn't notice a difference in pushing after the breaks, but Hubs said it really did help.

Finally, finally, her head popped out. Then I felt the rest of her body slither out and before I knew it, she was lying on my chest. For the first few minutes I was just shocked at how big she was. I couldn't believe that something so big could have been inside of me, let alone find its way out! The rest of what happened was a blur. I remember pushing out the placenta, my husband cutting the cord (it took a couple tries- lol!) and the midwife and nurses trying to help me breastfeed. The doctors stitched me up. My legs were still numb from the epidural, so Hubs and a nurse helped me into a wheelchair and set the baby in my arms before wheeling us down to our room. It all happened so fast! Finally Baby Girl was in my arms. Everything was going to be all right.

Hey everyone, guess what? Hubs and I are officially parents! Baby Girl was born just a few days after I wrote my last Frugal Accomplishments post- two weeks early, but a healthy 7 lbs. 9 oz. We are so thankful that she arrived safe and sound.

This series is going to be a little out-of-the-ordinary and more personal than most of my posts. I didn't think I would post a birth story, but our experience was somewhat unusual and I thought it would be encouraging/interesting for some of you. If birth stories aren't your thing, feel free to NOT read this post! However, if you've given birth or plan on giving birth at some point, it might be something you'd enjoy.


Prenatal Care: Working with an OB/GYN

At the beginning of my pregnancy, we had two appointments with a regular OB/GYN. This wasn't a horrible experience, but I'd always wanted a homebirth and there were a few things about the hospital atmosphere that didn't fit well with my/our lifestyle. I like to be more of a participant when it comes to health care instead of just taking orders, plus I thought that having a midwife would be more personal than having an entire staff of doctors and nurses. I tend to be more "crunchy" than many hospital patients and I knew that there would be less arguing about certain subjects if I stayed away from the hospital. Billing was another hassle. We use a cost sharing program instead of insurance. The secretary at this particular office didn't understand this concept and kept telling us to get insurance because it's free (it's definitely not free for us) and everyone deserves good health care. Several of my bills had my maiden name on them and one even got sent to my parents' address.


I knew that there was always a chance of ending up with a hospital birth if we used a midwife, but we would never get a chance at having a homebirth if we chose to do prenatal care with the hospital. For this reason, we switched to a midwife after a couple months. It was probably meant to be, because a month of so after we switched my OB closed her practice.


Prenatal Care: Working with a Midwife

I loved doing prenatal care with our midwife. Our visits were done in a small, home-like office at a "family center". I felt like our midwife had more respect for me as an individual than the nurses and hospital staff. Rather than caring for me as a "patient", she gave me the knowledge and tools to take care of myself. Her emphasis was more on nutrition, exercise and other preventative measures rather than lots of testing and procedures. 

For those of you who don't know, most midwives will only take on low-risk, normal pregnancies. Ours had a whole list of complications that would warrant hospital care. Thankfully my pregnancy went very smooth with just a few common complaints like heartburn or nosebleeds. We chose not to find out the gender or get an ultrasound done. Some other perks were learning about natural remedies and using a glucometer to measure blood sugar instead of having to drink the (reportedly nasty) glucola.

One of the best things about working with a midwife was her patience in explaining things to us and giving us options instead of just telling us what to do. Several weeks before the birth, she went over standard newborn procedures and let us chose which ones we would or would not have done. We were able to make better decisions after we'd been educated on the risks and benefits of each procedure. 


Nesting & Early Labor

Our baby's due date was originally September 30th. All through September I had been checking things off my "before baby" list. On Saturday the 9th, I had a baby shower and spent the weekend putting things away and organizing. On Monday I posted my last pre-baby frugal accomplishments and half-joked about "nesting". On Tuesday I lost some of my mucus plug and frantically contacted the midwife. She said it would take a few days to finish falling out. So I had at least a few days, but sensed that the end was near even though my due date was over two weeks away.

Tuesday night I had a list ready for Hubs. Instead of going to our church small group meeting, he stayed home and helped me with baby preparations. I know it probably seemed irrational to him, but he was nice and obliged my requests. I felt a lot better after some of those things were done.

On Wednesday I started feeling some mild contractions. Wednesday is usually our date night, but I wasn't sure there would be a date night, so I requested a date morning. Again, Hubs dropped what he was doing and obliged my request. I had a list of things to buy at Walmart, and after that we went to Big Boy for breakfast. I had a stack of blueberry French toast with sausage patties, bacon and eggs. It was really good.

When we got home, I continued arranging and preparing baby stuff. I started converting a Walmart bra into a nursing bra, put together our new baby swing and harvested some peppers from the garden. Later that night my contractions were still mild, so we decided to go on another date. (I love my husband!) This time we went to Joann Fabrics to pick up some clips for my nursing bra project. Despite the contractions, I was still "with it" enough to print our a "60% off all notions" coupon and got two packages of clips for $5.00. Then we went to Bob Evans for dinner. When we got home, I finished stitching up the nursing bra.

On Thursday, contractions started to get stronger. I got up several times between 1:00 and 4:00 am. At 4:30 I gave up trying to sleep and headed into the kitchen to chop up my garden peppers for the freezer. Later that morning I did go back to sleep, but it was hard to do between contractions, which weren't terrible but definitely were distracting. All day Thursday I alternated between trying to sleep, chopping peppers and timing contractions. I also got outside to do animal chores, and attempted some work in the garden. Hubs went on with his work, albeit distracted. At 3:00 pm I called my husband because contractions were close enough together to be called "active labor". We decided to call the midwife at that time, and she was out within an hour.


Active Labor at Home

A little while later our entire birth team had arrived. The midwife came, along with her assistant and our doula. I continued laboring in the bedroom while Hubs set up the birth pool and the midwife took my vitals and monitored baby's heartbeat.

Labor continued. At 8:00 pm, the midwife checked me at 3-4 cm. dilated. The birth team left to get some Taco Bell for dinner. Hubs and I stayed home and he made me a smoothie. I hadn't eaten or drank much all day, and still didn't feel like pigging out. Contractions felt like they were getting stronger and it was hard for me to choke down some of the smoothie and a bit of water. When the midwife got back, she gave me a massage (she's trained in that as well). The massage was wonderful. It made the contractions almost melt away.

An hour or so later, I decided to get into the birth pool. By this time it was probably 11:00 pm. Like the massage, it was wonderful. By this point the contractions were still painful, but the water helped take the edge off of the pain. A little after 1:00 am, the midwife checked me again. The look on her face told me something wasn't right. "Well," she said slowly, "you're still only at 3 or 4 centimeters." What? After almost 10 hours of active labor I'd made almost no progress. "There are a couple of things we could do," she said. "We have some homeopathic remedies we can try, or we can continue on as we have been. My concern is that you'll become too exhausted going on like this. The other option is to transfer to the hospital. An epidural might relax you enough to get things going again."

Hospital. My heart sank at the word. So much for my beautiful water birth at home. I fought back tears while suffering through the next contraction. While the midwife and her assistant were in the other room talking about what to do, I felt a popping sensation and a gush of water. "Something just happened!" I yelled into the other room. I knew that my water had broke, but I was exhausted and all that came out was "something". Something was better than nothing, which was apparently what had happened over the last nine hours.

The midwives resumed discussion on what to do. They gave me the option of doing some homeopathic remedies and trying for another hour or two, or still transferring to the hospital. Since my waters had broken, things might speed up. I decided to give it a go and reassess the situation later.

After that, the contractions got a lot stronger. They were so strong that I had a hard time "blowing through" them or making the low moaning sounds that the midwife suggested. I was discouraged about making no progress, which made the pain even worse. After an hour and a half, the midwife checked me again. "The good news is that the cervix has softened a bit. The bad news is that you're still about three centimeters dilated."

That was the end of my beautiful homebirth dream.

Stay tuned! I'll be posting Part 2 later this week.
-Bethany

​Hi everyone! First off, I just want to apologize if I haven't been prompt in answering comments/emails lately. Our internet has been very spotty this week to the point where I couldn't edit videos (too bad, because several were ready for editing) on Youtube. Other sites have also been hit or miss, and I've kind of been avoiding/procrastinating on computer work. I hope it clears up before too long.

1. Shopping: We went to Aldi this week and spent a heap of money. Well, not really, but I still went over budget $6.73. That being said, grocery shopping this next week will probably be minimal. 

​Some meals we had this week were beef cacciatore, grilled cheese/egg sandwiches, french toast, breakfast tortillas, soup and leftovers.

2. Cooking: Froze 6.5 lbs. peppers from the garden. Also made oatmeal in the IP (it turned out GREAT! More details in the THM update later on), made and canned five pints of apple and grape juice, made 2 quarts of chicken broth and put a quart bag of cooked chicken meat in the freezer. I also made a THM cookie recipe (details in update at the bottom of this post). In order to make the cookies, I had to make my own pumpkin pie spice, and in order to do that I had to "make" my own ground allspice from whole allspice that I got at the bent 'n' dent. I used the Vitamix dry container to do the job. It worked like a charm.

Notes on the fruit juice: In order to make the grape juice, I filled up my steamer basket with grapes and then set it inside the IP with two cups of water. Then I set it on Manual for 15 minutes and let it release naturally. For the apple juice I set it to cook 25 minutes on Manual and let it release naturally.

Now that I look back, I had a super productive week in the kitchen. I learned two new techniques for my Instant Pot (using the Timer function and making fruit juice) and made two new spices from ingredients I already had on hand. The spices were a small, short term savings, but using the Timer function and making my own fruit juice will save a lot of money in the future as well as short term.

3. Gardening: harvested peppers and herbs from the garden, as well as pears and apples from the orchard. We've actually been getting fresh apples for a month or so now. I already have plenty of applesauce in the pantry from last year, but I may do some more juice if time allows. I also picked some franken-pumpkins out of my patch to use for decoration and found one ripe Jack-be-little pumpkin to use for decoration as well. ​

​Another frugal thing I did this week was to plant some mums. I paid $3.00-$4.00 for a pot of red mums which will hopefully grow back year after year. We already have several other colors that I'll probably use for flower arrangements this fall. I wanted to pick a color that we didn't already have, and tried shopping around for the best price. Of course, right after I bought the mums I saw some tiny pots for just $1.00 each. This would have been the most frugal way to go, but I chose to just keep the mums I had already bought. 

When we got home, I decided that the best spot for the mums would be in front of Hubs' office. Since they weren't going in my garden after all, I gave him the receipt and they will be counted as a business expense and used as a tax write-off. Yay!

4. Got out some fall decorations that I already had and used them alongside my free garden pumpkins. I expect to get more garden pumpkins to decorate with, and also want to make a table centerpiece and possibly a wreath for our back door. If time allows.

5. Had a baby shower! I am so thankful for all of the baby gifts we've received over the last month or so. As awkward as showers can be (both for the giver and the recipient), they are such a blessing to the person being "showered". Not only from a financial standpoint (less stuff to buy) but also from a sheer logistics standpoint. That's a ton of stuff that I don't have to go shop for! In addition, I received a lot of items that I never thought about asking for but will really come in handy (or, they were just plain cute. :) . 

​Even though we didn't do a wedding registry, I decided to do a registry for our baby. I have mixed feelings about registries. On the one hand, it's convenient for those who want to mail a gift or for those who aren't sure what to buy. I really appreciate buying from registries for couples or parents that I don't know very well. On the other hand, as the recipient I hate to limit people to a couple of stores or to specific brands/styles. Some of my favorite gifts didn't even come from a store! And as I mentioned before, I know there are tried-and-true things out there that I don't even know about, being a first-time parent. So, in addition to all of the practical and helpful things on my registry, I also enjoyed receiving all of the handmade, gently used or non-registry items given by friends who know what works best. :)

And I just have to say: NESTING IS REAL. And it's very, very fun. So in between gardening, cooking and reading, I've been cleaning, organizing and finding places for all of the baby gear. And trying some of it out. Stuffed animals are great stand-ins for real babies while trying out different baby carriers. 


THM Update:

My two main THM (Trim Healthy Mama) projects this week were Instant Pot oatmeal (F/P  and E recipes) and and THM Pumpkin Spice Cookies (S). I also found an easy, cheap F/P snack that I really liked.

Fuel Pull Snack- homemade pickles wrapped in deli meat. I used a few turkey slices for mine. Yum! The pickles were almost free ($0.15/jar) and the meat cost $0.10/serving (from the bent 'n' dent).

IP Oatmeal- The basic recipe I used for this was 1/4 c. oatmeal to 3/4 c. liquid. I was under the impression that quick oats were high-carb and old-fashioned oats were more low-carb. I was wrong! When I compared the two side by side, I realized that the quick oats only had 13.5 g. carbs per 1/4 c. while the old-fashioned type had a full 14 g. carbs. I like the texture of quick oats better as well.

So after I mixed the oatmeal and liquid (I used 2% milk... water makes a better FP liquid) together in a coffee cup, I set it inside the instant pot on top of the trivet. Then I added a cup of water and put on the IP lid. I did this the night before, so after setting it on Manual for one minute, I set the timer for 11 hours (the IP delays cooking for 11 hours... that way the oatmeal starts to cook at 8:00 am and is ready by 8:30 when I want to eat).

The Instant Pot worked fantastic! I did try using less liquid and more oats, but that version turned out too sticky. My new instant (pot) oatmeal will be a very easy breakfast for busy mornings.

Pumpkin Pie Cookies- for my last project, I adapted this recipe for my own use. Here is the finished product:

Changes to the recipe: I used butter instead of coconut oil. I'm still using $2.00/lb. butter from the last great sale, so doing butter instead of CO saved about $0.33. I also replaced the optional nuts with a piece of my Aldi chocolate, chopped into chunks. I ran the numbers to see if my homemade baking blend would be cheaper, but it wasn't. In the end, the recipe cost about $4.30, not including the pumpkin (I figure I'll use home-canned pumpkin). With the added chocolate, it was $4.70. After I finished baking, I counted up all of the cookies and figured that the price per cookie was $0.14- less than half of what the other on-plan cookies cost. I estimate that switching out the chocolate for cheaper nuts (walnuts from the bent 'n' dent?) would cut the cost even more.

Other THM notes: I also got to purchase some of the specialty items recommended by other THMers at Aldi. There wasn't much of a difference in the price of low fat vs. full fat dairy items, but I did see a marked difference between, for example, regular milk and almond milk. Same thing for a regular chocolate candy bar vs. the special 85% dark Moser Roth brand. And after I started counting the carbs and fats in each serving, I wondered how the chocolate could possibly be on plan with 9 g. carbs and 12.5 g. fats... for half a serving. This doesn't fit requirements for S, E, or FP snacks, yet many of the THM bloggers have it on their Aldi recommended shopping lists. It could fit if you used it in tiny amounts as an added ingredient (for example, in the cookies), but not by itself.

I also bought some Happy Farms light spreadable cheese wedges (Aldi brand Laughing Cow). The cheese wedges are a great way to stay within the E fat limit while still having cheese on, say, a sandwich. However, the cost for each wedge (serving) is $0.22 and the cost per pound is $5.16. Considering the fact that I normally pay around $2.50 per pound for cheese (and $2.00/lb. for cream cheese), these little wedges are probably way out of my budget for regular use. I am going to look for a more affordable spreadable cheese.

So the good news is that I found one cheap FP snack and an acceptable cookie recipe that was not too awfully expensive... if you're using sale-bought butter and free pumpkin puree. The other good news is that THM oatmeal is very easy to do. The bad news is that I still don't think this kind of diet is affordable for $10.00 per week. I plan to do it on our $20.00-$30.00/week, but technically I'll be pulling from baby's $10.00 to buy myself special ingredients. That will work until baby starts eating food. By then hopefully I'll have lost all the baby weight and can go back to eating less expensive crossover meals. So it's more like "THM for $20.00/person/week".


Youtube Update:

I have been experimenting lately with different ways to put up video on my Youtube channel. My phone only holds about 10 minutes of footage, and then I have to upload and delete before I can record any more. The other problem I have is that Youtube is going to get rid of their handy video editor in about a week. So not only will I be limited 10-minute videos, but I'll also be limited to using unedited videos! 

Last week I tried doing Facebook Live for the first time. I liked this idea because there are no time limits to the video and also no need to edit (I guess you could if you wanted to, but normally people don't edit live video). If you didn't see it, last week's video was part of my Eat for $10 a Week series, on beverages.

The only thing I didn't like about Facebook Live was that the video paused several times while our internet was being spotty. This was only a minor inconvenience for me (I just drank some tea or worked on something else at the kitchen table while I waited), but probably annoying for FB friends who wanted to see the rest of the video. Thankfully all of those interruptions are cut out when the video replays, which means that anyone watching after the fact does not have to suffer.

This week I plan on doing the next part in the series on Facebook Live as well. Last week I did it on a Tuesday, but I'm not sure when it will work this week. I hope the internet connection doesn't fizzle out again, but if it does you'll be able to watch the non-interrupted version a day or so later.

Whew! That is my book-long FA post for this week.

Til next time,
-Bethany

Chickens
Only one chicken died last month, probably of old age. Egg production is down from 6-9 eggs to 5-7 eggs at this point. Raccoon season is pretty much over (I think), so we aren't closing up the coop at night. While this might be taking a risk, it eliminates the need to do chores twice a day. It also eliminates the chance of me forgetting to let the chickens out in the morning (their water is outside, so they NEED to be let out).

Goats
Our big August event was to dry off Adi. "Drying off" is a fancy term for "stop milking". While it means that I don't get any more free milk, it also means we only have to do chores once a day, and I don't have to wash hideous amounts of mason jars anymore, nor is there a race to use up milk before it goes sour. Not much to report other than that in the goat department.

Strawberries
We continued to til, weed and water the strawberries as usual.

Garden
The garden produced mainly cucumbers and herbs for the month of August. You can see a bit of a garden update in my video (above). I have a feeling that September is going to be my big garden month. In this month's newsletter I gave an estimate of how much money I saved this year by gardening (and also how I'm going to squeeze another $20+ out of my plants before frost). Growing your own vegetables is a great way to save money, but when you factor in savings from fruit, herbs, and flowers as well, it really adds up. In fact, you get the most savings per hour of work by growing fresh produce, herbs and produce. If you're going to preserve anything, fruit should be the first priority, then vegetables and then most herbs. 

Goat's Milk Soap
In August I also dried some different things with goat's milk soap. One project was French milling- that is, essentially grating and remelting an old soap into a new soap. I really liked this process because it allowed me to use up bits and pieces of my old batches. French milling also allows you to add essential oils and fragrances that would not survive the lye chemical reaction of the regular soap making process.

My second project was using madder root (a red powder) to color goat's milk soap. I tried both infusing the oil (didn't work... the powder and color just sank to the bottom) and adding the powder straight to the soap once it reached trace. My second method was successful. It made a beautiful pink soap. I put a whole ton of phthalate-free pomegranate fragrance in to scent the soap, but unfortunately the smell didn't come through. I think my pomegranate soap is definitely a candidate for French milling (rebatching). Hopefully when I add the fragrance oil the second time around, you'll be able to smell some of it.


Profit & Loss

Income:
Book royalties- $3.32
Soap- $14.00
Eggs- $21.00
Total income: $38.32

Expenses:
Soap making supplies- $27.45

Net Profit: $10.87
Year-to-date Profit: $129.76 

Yay for a net profit this month! I sold eggs to an additional two customers last month, and my wonderful SIL also offered to take my soap to a farmers market she was going to. That made up the bulk of my income, plus I sold a book* last month. Every little bit helps. :) We didn't have any feed costs this month, which is why I was able to spend so much money on soap supplies without going in the hole.


Future Income... Will There Be Any?

It's the time of year again when I wonder if my $129.00 is going to stretch through March. Not only are my farmers market days done for the year, but egg production will probably come to a screeching halt in November.   That will eliminate my main and secondary sources of income for the hobby farm.

Starting in November (hopefully), I would like to start listing soaps on Etsy again. I tried this before, but there was just not enough interest to make it worth doing. Now that I have a Youtube channel, I have a better chance of selling both Etsy products AND books for a source of winter income.

Spring will bring baby goat kids to sell, of course, but June and July will also bring strawberry sales. The goat kids will pay for Adi & Barry's keep, but the strawberry income has already been earmarked to subsidize a new project- honey bees!! I've wanted to do bees for years now, and I think 2018 will finally be the year. Initial costs are estimated to be around $500.00. I estimate that 2018 strawberry sales will be enough to cover the bees and initial strawberry investment from this year, but not much more. So if the farm is to stay afloat, I will need to keep plugging away at some of my other sources of income.

So those are my plans looking into 2018. October has been set aside for BABY bonding time (!!) but after everything settles down I might find myself itching to do something more hobby-like. November will be a great time to start selling soaps for the Christmas season, and after that I will probably resume working on book projects.

Til next time,
-Bethany 

*I only count royalties from my hobby-farm related books. I would already have my bees if I'd been counting the sales from my other two books! At this point I only have one hobby farm book for sale: One Season of Farmers Market, available on Amazon.

I've got to say... fall is one of my favorite seasons EVER. It's not too hot, not too cold, plus we get to enjoy apple cider, pumpkin pie and all of those other seasonal treats that come with autumn. September in particular is one of my favorite months, because... it's my BIRTHDAY MONTH! And this year is going to be even better because we might have ANOTHER (literal) birthday to celebrate at our house.

So, I'm a little excited about fall. Here are a few frugal things I did this week:

1. Shopping: I spent $3.16 at Aldi this week (bananas, wheat tortillas, and a special treat for my wonderful husband). I also spent $12.00 on oat fiber (at Amazon) for some Trim Healthy Mama recipes. I've been slowly collecting some of the more expensive ingredients for their low-carb baking recipes. THM is not exactly budget-friendly in the sweets/baking department, but I'm doing my best to keep it affordable. Total cost for groceries this week was $15.16. 

Hubs' had family home this week, so we had several meals shared with relatives. Other meals we had this week were chicken sandwiches, hamburgers, soup, French toast, turkey sandwiches and leftovers. Most of our meals this week were based on leftover hamburger/hotdog buns from last week's open house. I also made it a priority to use up fresh tomatoes from the garden and a hunk of cheddar cheese. We still have some bricks of cheese left in the fridge from my on-sale cheese buying spree this spring that need to be used by the middle of September. Oh, what hardships. :)

2. Gardening: Harvested fresh tomatoes and bell peppers from the garden. Some of the lettuce I planted last week is already coming up, which is exciting!

3. Cooking: Made 1.5 lbs. butter with frozen goat cream. I also used up most of our goat's milk to make cheese in the Instant Pot (worked like a charm!). Some of the milk had soured, so I froze it to use for baking. I also separated a dozen or so eggs and froze them to use later in THM recipes.

4. Thrifting: I went thrift shore shopping with my mother-in-law and some of my sisters-in-law last week. I didn't really need anything, but thought it would be a good chance to spend time with family. I was SUPER EXCITED to find something I actually needed: silicone muffin 'tins' for freezing eggs, milk and goat butter.

​The molds/tins worked like a charm for last week's freezing and I am SO happy to have them (they were $2.00 each). This little kitchen tool will help me save a few more dollars every month on groceries.

I also found several books to read in the coming months. Unfortunately we were one day ahead of the 50% off sale, so I paid full price for all eight books, at an average cost of $0.80 each. One of them was a soup cookbook from Williams Sonoma (one of my favorite stores that I never buy stuff from). Many of the books are practical books that will help save time, money and hassle in the future.

5. Hubs got two pairs of jeans for $9.00 each. I have a terrible time finding his size (32 x 32) at thrift stores, so we generally buy his jeans new. I figure that $20.00 per pair is a good price. Over the weekend we stopped at Sears to see what they had in the men's department. Hubs found two pairs that he liked, priced at $18.00 each. That was a good deal, so he got in the checkout line with both pairs in hand. Since the line was long, I decided to go look at the costume jewelry while he bought the pants. Quite a while later, he found me looking at the dangle-y earrings. "Well, I'm glad you weren't in line with me," he said.

"Why? What took so long?"

"I signed up for another credit card," he replied. Oh dear... Hubs and his credit cards. If it were up to me, I wouldn't bother with credit cards at all, but he is pretty good at "card churning"; that is, finding sign-up incentives, spending the required amount in order to get the incentive and then cancelling the card. In this case, the card had a $20.00 off your first statement if you purchased X amount by X date. So he signed up for the card and bought the jeans. I don't remember all of the details, but he will probably fulfill the rest of the spending requirements by purchasing lumber for his construction business. He told me that the card gives a 3% cash back, which is better than the current one we use for business stuff. So I'm not sure if he'll cancel it or not. Regardless, he paid $38.14 on both pairs of jeans with tax. Minus the $20.00 incentive, the total cost for each pair comes to $9.07. Which is smashingly better than $20.00 per pair. So more power to Hubs for getting another credit card.

Note: Most of the time, credit card churning only works if you have large expenses. My husband spends thousands of dollars every month on supplies for his business, so cash back rewards add up and it is easy for him to fulfill the minimum requirements in order to get sign-up incentives. 

If you are a normal family that has normal expenses (we spend far less than $1,000 on household purchases most months), it's probably not worth your time to sign up for a ton of different cards. It's dumb to buy stuff you don't need just to fulfill the minimum spending requirements by X date so you can get $20.00 back. In addition, people who don't pay off their cards every month need to stay FAR AWAY from credit cards or they're bound to get into a heap of trouble. 

So I think for most frugal people (and I was one of those people before I married a business owner), credit card churning or credit cards in general are not worth your time. However, 3% cash back on a $4,000 inventory/supplies purchase is enough for us to buy groceries and all other miscellaneous household stuff for a month. So we have credit cards.

6. Shortly after we bought the pants, I found a Motherhood maternity store at the same mall and bought a shirt there. While the shirt itself wasn't frugal (it was $25.00 for a simple long-sleeve T-shirt), the checkout lady gave me a freebie bag with some samples and a bunch of coupons. Inside were some free wipes and a baby bottle. I probably won't use most of the coupons for myself, but I thought I'd save them to possibly use on gifts for others. There were two Shutterfly coupons in there that I plan on using to make a baby book or family album with.

Like the 32x32 jeans, I've had horrible luck finding maternity clothing at thrift stores. I found pants and jeans that were acceptable, but unfortunately spent over $30.00 (and this is THRIFT STORE money, people) on shirts that I only wore once or never at all. None of them were a good color or fit for me, and several were pilled, stretched out and very worn-out looking. A couple of weeks ago I finally broke down and bought all three of the maternity shirts that Walmart had in my size; one gray T-shirt, a black tank top and a white tank top. They were $8.00 each and totally worth the money. Even though colder weather is coming, I'll be able to layer the tank tops with my pre-pregnancy jackets and button down shirts to make lots of different outfits. Even so, the tank tops will only go so far and we have zero maternity clothing stores in our area. So when I saw the Motherhood store at the mall, I jumped at the chance to find something decent, even at a high cost. One of my biggest regrets of this pregnancy was not spending more money on nice maternity clothes. I only have a month or so left to wear my $25.00 shirt, but at this point I really would pay $5.00 for a day of not feeling like a hippopotamus in someone else's old pajamas. 

7. Over the weekend we went on a last-hurrah "babymoon" of sorts to Grand Rapids and then Grand Haven.  Most of the trip wasn't frugal (namely eating out and staying at the hotel) but we did find some free things to do. I printed out a walking tour of GR's Historic Heritage Hill. We probably spent a good three hours walking around, admiring and reading about the different historic homes. We also went to a concert that my brother and brothers-in-law were playing at, and in GH we toured their history museum and walked along the beach, which was free. The only paid activity I planned for the weekend was a trip to the zoo ($10.00 per person). The clothing purchases also happened on this trip.

THM Experiments This Week

​My frugal Trim Healthy Mama projects for the week were 1) cooking radishes as replacement for potatoes, and 2) making a copycat baking blend.

Radishes vs. potatoes- I found radishes at Walmart for $1.00/lb. That is not a horrible price, but it's over twice the cost of regular white potatoes ($0.45/lb.). I cooked my radishes in the Instant Pot and then ate them with salt and a tiny bit of butter like you would regular potatoes. The flavor wasn't terrible, and I think the IP did a good job of cooking (5 minutes on manual for fresh radishes). While the taste was okay, the post-lunch burps were pretty awful. I think next time I will definitely mix the radishes with cauliflower or some other root vegetable to tone down the "aftertaste". 

Copycat baking blend- instead of buying THM's special baking blend on Amazon ($16.99 w/Prime free shipping), I made my own blend with coconut flour, oat fiber, ground flaxseed, baking powder and salt. There are several recipes for this on the internet. I forgot which site I pulled my recipe from. I haven't actually tried the homemade version OR the "real" baking blend, so I will have to report on the taste/effectiveness later. However, I crunched the numbers and figured out that I can save $1.99 for every cup of baking blend that I make myself. So this week's three-cup recipe saved $5.97. In addition to that savings, I think it was worth it to buy the different flours separately just in case I find recipes that call for just coconut flour, etc., instead of the special baking blend.


The Cost of THM Cookies

After I mixed up the baking blend, I figured up the cost for two different THM cookie recipes. The "Chocolate Moisties" recipe cost $9.60 per recipe, or $0.48 per smallish cookie. And that is without the optional chocolate chips/chunks. The other recipe, "Believe It or Not" chocolate chip cookies, cost $9.25 per recipe, or $0.46 per smallish cookie without the optional walnuts.

One way I figured to cut cost on either recipe was to replace the Gentle Sweet/Truvia (a stevia/erythritol blend) with xylitol. That would bring the cost down to $7.00 and $6.61 per recipe, respectively ($0.35 and $0.33 per cookie). I really like this idea because not only is xylitol cheaper, but it is supposed to be good at fighting dental cavities as well.

If I want to stick to my $10.00/person/week grocery budget, I only have $1.43 per day to spend on groceries. Eating just two of the "plan approved" cookies would cut that daily allowance in half. I think most of THM can be implemented within your regular budget, but sweets/desserts/bread are going to cost a LOT more (200-300% increase in cost), and you have to make the switch from white rice to brown rice as well as from white potatoes to sweet potatoes (100% price increase for both). 

I'm looking forward to trying more of the THM recipes on a very small budget. Any tips or tricks would be welcome. :)

Guess what... we will be adding another member to our little family in just a few short weeks!

For those of you Instagram, Youtube and newsletter followers in the know, this is old news. But I've been saving it as a surprise for those of you who just read the blog. I've tried to avoid discussing baby stuff here for a variety of reasons (avoiding mommy wars and family privacy being high on the list) but it has been SO HARD to hide some of my best frugal accomplishments this year. Once baby is born I might post a couple of pictures and/or new discoveries on my FA posts, but this won't become a "mommy blog" for reasons I just mentioned. That being said, I thought I'd answer some questions that I'm sure every new mom-to-be gets asked.

1. When are you due? We're expecting baby at the end of September/early October.

2. Do you know what you're having? Nope! We've decided to keep it a surprise.

3. How are you feeling/how has your pregnancy been? I'm feeling pretty good. I was a little bit nauseous during the first trimester and obviously feeling more tired and sore now that I'm close to the end. But there were only a few minor discomforts for a majority of the pregnancy.

4. How is the baby doing? Good, as far as I can tell! Baby is very active with lots of squirms, stretching and rolling. Especially at night when I'm trying to sleep.

Those are the typical normal-people questions that I've already been asked probably 1000 times. Now we'll move on to the hot-button mommy wars topics for those of you who are curious.

5. Are you going to work or stay home? I've been a housewife since we got married, so obviously I plan on staying home. That being said, I hope to continue writing books as time allows and earn a bit of money that way.

6. Will you use cloth or disposable diapers? I hope to use cloth diapers, but my motives are more financial than ethical. I plan on using disposable diapers for trips, nights with the babysitter and other times when cloth diapering would be inconvenient.

7. Are you going to circumcise your baby? I had no idea that this was SUCH a big deal to some people until a few weeks ago. Obviously if we have a girl, circumcision won't be an issue. We have made a decision on this point if we do have a boy, but I'm not going to share it here because... private parts can just stay private.

8. Will you be nursing or bottle-feeding? It's my wish to breastfeed for all of the obvious reasons. But again, I have no ethical issue with formula feeding if nursing becomes not an option.

There are a lot of other baby topics we could get into, but we'll stop there. I'm no baby-raising expert, but I thought I'd put my plans out there for those who may be wondering.


Goals For September

So my biggest reason for sharing this post is to let you know that blog posts, Youtube videos, newsletters and other stuff will probably hit-or-miss from mid-September to... I'm not sure when, but at least for the entire month of October. As I've mentioned in the last few Frugal Accomplishments posts, I've been doing a lot of cleaning, organizing, reading and other baby preparations in the last month especially. My recycle-able can collection has also been growing steadily, thanks to so many afternoon walks.

During the month of September, my main goal is to tie up loose ends on the hobby farm/garden and stock up on pantry items (cheese and peanut butter high on the list!) and toiletries. There are also a few house projects that I'd like to finish up before baby arrives. Remember the cute little stuffed elephant I made a few weeks ago? I want to make the other two stuffed animals if I get time to do so in the next few weeks.

All that being said, blogging and writing are not high on the priority list this month. In addition, at the end of September Youtube is retiring their video editor, so it may take a while for me to figure out how to edit my videos again. :( Instagram might be your best bet if you want to stay updated until we get back into the swing of things.

Til next time,
-Bethany