Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I did a few new things this year that I'm excited to share with you.

1. Food: I brought croissants and mixed vegetables to my family's Thanksgiving celebration. I made the croissants from scratch for a cost of $2.25. The recipe is very similar to puff pastry, but far easier to make. I got it from this book.

​For Hubs' side of the family, I made the turkey and put together a cheese tray. His parents were out of the country, so it was just the adult kids and grandchildren. I used my regular recipe for turkey (add 2 c. liquid to turkey, cook 13 minutes for every pound of bird at 350F, baste every 45 min.), but this time I tried adding some kale and fruit to the turkey for garnish. It turned out wonderfully! The best part is, this week I have a bunch of kale left for soup! I also made stock with the carcass. We have some goat cheese left from the cheese tray, and cranberry sauce that I'll make into a dessert later this week. For me, the week after Thanksgiving is almost as fun, because I have so many novel ingredients to cook with.

​At Kroger I bought 6 lbs. of butter for $2.00 per pound, plus ground beef for $2.00 per pound. I normally buy 27% fat beef at Walmart for the same price, but Kroger had 20% fat available for $2.00 per pound, which was an even better deal.

2. Clothing: I put together Baby's Thanksgiving outfit for free—the socks were from a garage sale free box, and the shirt and pants I got from the "sharing corner" hosted by a local church (where you can donate a bunch of stuff, and then look through everyone else's donated stuff to take home). I thought this was a real accomplishment, because I am not an "outfit" person at all. 

My sister-in-law gave us six garbage bags full of toddler clothing to look though. And that was just the stuff she didn't keep! I had so much fun going through the clothes. There were sizes 18 mos., 2T, 3T, and 4T, plus accessories like tights, shoes and hair bows. I already had some clothes for Baby in 2T and 3T, but now I can keep the best of what we have and get rid of the styles I really don't like, or that aren't practical. Over the weekend I listened to the audiobook, Lessons from Madam Chic by Jennifer Scott. The author promotes the idea of a "10 item wardrobe". When sorting through the baby clothes, I tried to keep pieces that would all match with each other, and that would look good with Baby's skin tone and eyes. I'd love to do a 10 item wardrobe for myself, too, at some point.

3. Decluttering: I threw away or donated a bunch of items. During bath time I've been reading Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson. Inspired, I sorted through my kitchen gadgets and tossed broken items and put unneeded, gently used items in a box for Goodwill. I also put seasonal items in storage. We have a relatively small kitchen, but I think having fewer items just makes it easier and faster to get things done. It also helps me actually use the things I have.

In the bathroom, I also tossed old lotions, cosmetics, and put unneeded items in the Goodwill box. Several years ago I bought a hair straightener. I used to use it quite a bit when I had bangs, but that was four years ago, and I haven't used it since. I also moved medical items into the medicine cabinet in another room, to free up storage space in the bathroom. Getting rid of unneeded or unused items always makes me feel better about our home. I think it's important to re-evaluate possessions every so often as our lives or lifestyles gradually change.

4. Black Friday: For the last few months, I've been making a "Black Friday" list of things to buy, either for Christmas or just everyday use. On Thanksgiving I also looked through all of the store ads to see if there was anything we "needed". I only found two things, and one was a Christmas present. The other was a 20-piece Pyrex set with four different sizes of round containers. I spent $20.00 on the set, which normally retails for $40.00. I've been wanting to replace my plastic storage containers with glass for a while now, and this was the perfect chance to do so!

When I got home, I threw away all of my old (free) freezer boxes. I moved the plastic Rubbermaid storage boxes from their prominent place in our kitchen to our pantry, where I'm using them as mouse-proof storage for dry beans, pasta, etc. The round Pyrex containers are SO, so nice. I can bake or cook the food in it (in the Instant Pot, no less!), serve food in it, and when we're done eating, and store the food in it! The smallest containers are the perfect size for Baby. Today she was napping during lunch, so I set aside a little container of lunch for her. When she woke up, I pulled the lid off and set the whole thing in front of her. She happily ate most of the food, and even used her fork, which is unusual! To say I'm excited about the Pyrex is probably an understatement. I would still like to get one of those casserole/carrying case combinations in the future.

In addition to the Walmart purchases, I also got one other Christmas present and some cloth diapering stuff. I was hoping to get a new car seat for Baby on sale, but the one I was waiting for never went on sale. So I ended up buying that, and some books, and some home items, at full price. Well, at least I tried!​

I believe that's all I have for you this week!

Until next time,
-Bethany

Method 3: Cloth Diapers

When Baby was two months old, I started experimenting with different cloth diaper types. Since she was a heavy wetter, I felt like cotton prefolds didn't work very well, and kept her skin wet all of the time. I decided to buy Alva pocket diapers for the majority of my stash. The single microfiber insert that each diaper came with was not enough to keep her dry for long, so I backed it up with another bamboo-covered microfiber insert. (Note: I didn't realize that the bamboo inserts were not 100% bamboo. I wouldn't recommend buying these, as they don't clean very well and aren't worth the $2.00 per insert.)

This system worked very well for a long time. Eventually I tried using hemp inserts to back up the microfiber, instead of "bamboo". The hemp worked so well that I used it for "night time diapers". I had a rotation of four black and white diapers designated especially for overnights. These were stuffed with one microfiber insert on top, and a hemp one on the bottom. A few months later, I had to start adding a "bamboo" insert between the hemp and microfiber for extra absorbency.

The hemp inserts are something I would recommend to every cloth diapering mama. The clean well, last a long time and hold a LOT of moisture. They also hold their value well if you want to resell. The only drawbacks to hemp are that it takes an ETERNITY to air dry (two or three days) and it costs a little more up front ($3.50 or more per insert). Hemp inserts can be used with pockets, prefolds and covers, or even all-in-one diapers, so they're very versatile.

Our cloth diapering game changed—for the worse—when Baby started eating solid foods. I had a harder time keeping diaper rash at bay. Our water pressure wasn't good enough for an effective sprayer, so I had to dunk and swish all of our pocket diapers (I did figure out a better way to do this... read on). It took me about 10 minutes from start to finish. I had to use rubber gloves, a spatula, and four or five flushes to get all of the poop out of the creases in the elastic leg holes.

At this point, the weather warmed up and I started drying our cloth diaper things outdoors instead of indoors. Some of the PUL started to deteriorate or even delaminate on our diapers because of too much sun exposure. I then moved the pocket shells back inside to dry, while only drying the inserts outdoors (our house is terribly humid in the summer, so it's almost impossible for inserts to dry indoors during that time). I read somewhere that warm water is bad for diaper elastics, so I started washing in cold water only. This is when our real problems started.

Diaper rash problems went from bad to worse. One day Baby even had an ammonia burn, and I said, "This has to stop!" I put her back into disposable diapers for a week while I stripped all of her diapers. I thought maybe the buildup was caused by using cheap Xtra detergent, so I switched to Tide. The diapers definitely smelled better, but the "bamboo" inserts still had a faint ammonia smell to them. I did a little more research and started washing in warm water again. I haven't had stink issues since switching back to warm water, so I think the cold water wash is what caused build up in our diapers.

During this time, I re-evaluated how I "did" cloth diapering, and even if it was worth continuing. Baby was starting to pee out of her nighttime diapers, and there was not room to stuff four inserts into one pocket shell. The four black and white night time diapers were cracked and delaminating at this point anyway, so I decided to put her in disposable diapers at night. I sold the "bamboo" microfiber inserts on Ebay and bought flour sack towels ($0.78 each) at Walmart to replace them. The flour sack towels clean better, dry faster and are far more economical. The only downside is the absorbency (which is just okay) and the fact that they are a bit thicker than other inserts. Lastly, I bought a fleece throw blanket for a couple dollars and cut it up into very large liners. This, too, was a good idea. The liners are large enough to catch ALL of the poop, so I only have to swish-and-dunk a flat liner instead of trying to flick poop out of elastic creases with a spatula. It only takes a few minutes now to clean out a diaper, plus the fleece helps keep diaper rash at bay. I have hardly used any rash cream since adding a large fleece liner to every diaper.

The final challenge I had with cloth diapering was finding clothes that fit and looked okay on Baby. I tried leg warmers (the didn't stay up), Maxaloones (special homemade cloth diaper pants) and onesie extenders. Finally, I discovered that the best combination is a onesie or shirt (based on baby's age—if onesie, it may help to use an extender) and a pair of leggings several sizes above what she'd wear with a disposable diaper. For example, right now Baby is wearing an 18 mos. size shirt with 3T leggings. You can either roll up pant legs that are too long, or fold them under and sew to keep them in place (but keep the length intact so baby can wear the pants for as long as possible). Dresses are also fabulous, since they cover the big butt in a cute way.

After a year of using cloth diapers, I would say there are five things worth buying: 1) Alva pocket diapers, 2) Thirsties or other hemp inserts, 3) flour sack towels, 4) a cheap fleece blanket, cut into large liners, and 5) a couple good all-in-one diapers to keep in the diaper bag, or for going out of the house. The all-in-ones typically don't look as "fluffy" as other types of diapers. They do take longer to dry, which is why I wouldn't want a whole stash of them (not to mention the fact that they're expensive).

Another thing worth saying about cloth diapers: if the diapers stink, leak, or you hate them, it's not a good diaper system for you. Don't settle for diapers that don't work, or a laundry routine that takes more time than it's worth. When you do find a system that works, tally up ALL of the costs (laundry soap, using the dryer, disposable liners, extra accessories) and compare them with the cost of disposable diapers.

Method 4: Cheap Disposable Diapers

When I looked into diapering options for our baby, I wrote off cheap diapers like "Parent's Choice" (Walmart's store brand) completely. I knew a few moms who didn't like them, plus I read some articles online about how they leaked or fell apart and weren't worth the money. As frugal as I am, I never even tried the cheap diapers on our baby until she was nine or ten months old.

I bought Parent's Choice diapers when I was stripping our cloth diapers and wanted her in disposables 24/7 for a while. Some of the horror stories were true: the diapers did seep through when left on overnight, plus the "stuffing" shifted when they got too full. They were, indeed, cheap diapers.

But you know what? A cheapo diaper costs $0.13, and the "cheap" Luvs diapers cost $0.20 each. That's a measurable difference over the course of two or three years. I decided that, for the small amount of time that Baby is in disposables (at night, and sometimes when we're out of the house), I can deal with a flimsy diaper.

Here is a tip for cheapo diaper users: buy yourself a few water-resistant cloth diaper covers, and use them over top of the disposables. This will save your nice baby outfits from blowouts, and prevent overnight seepage from soaking your baby's bed sheet and pajamas. The covers cost as little as $5.00 each. For $10.00 or $15.00, you can make those Parent's Choice diapers FAR more effective poop-holders than their expensive brand-name counterparts! I used our old, spent night time pocket diaper shells as covers. They were free, and they are a great insurance policy for blowouts.

In addition to buying cheapo diapers and adding a cover, you can also use coupons to get better quality disposable diapers at the same price. I've done this a couple of times, but there's no way I could have found 2-3 years' worth of disposable diapers that way. Many couponing moms start building diaper stockpiles before their baby is even conceived. I'm not up to that.


Conclusion: Do The Cheapest Thing That Works for You

When we had the ammonia issue with our cloth diapers, I re-evaluated my diapering decisions from an economic point of view, comparing our current diapering situation (using pocket diapers, washing in Tide) with just buying Parent's Choice disposables. Using Tide detergent bought on sale, it cost me about $0.07 per diaper to launder the cloth, plus time to line dry and re-stuff (about a minute per diaper). The disposable diapers cost $0.13 each, plus time to take out the trash (so, possibly extra trash bags) and shop for the diapers. 

I was only saving $0.05 per diaper* by using cloth; so, about $0.35 per day. I had to ask myself if it was worth saving $0.75 for every load of cloth diaper laundry. I came to the conclusion that since I don't mind doing laundry, and I already have the diapers, I will continue to use cloth. Additional note: I started replacing 1/3 of the Tide detergent with cheaper Xtra detergent, which helped increase the savings. In time, I may switch back to Xtra entirely. 

To bring this article full-circle, I'd like to remind you that the cheapest diapering method of all is to not use diapers. At our current rate of use, I'm still spending about $0.36 per day on laundry detergent for our cloth diapers, which adds up to $10.80 per month. The sooner you potty train, the better! During this next year of diapering, I want to keep that in mind as a goal to work toward.

Til next time,
-Bethany

*At this point, our cloth diapers begin to leak after 2.5 hours of use. The disposables, used with a cover, can easily last for five hours without needing to be changed. That means that I need to use two cloth diapers ($0.12- $0.14 cost for laundry detergent) for every one disposable ($0.13 cost). Technically, if I chose to change our baby less than every five hours, I wouldn't be saving any money with cloth diapers.

It's up to the parent how long they wait to change a diaper. I prefer to change every 3-4 hours or sooner.

Hello everyone! I know I've been sporadic in posting for the last month or two. I'm still working on two writing projects; I had to switch publishers for my print books, so formatting The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Fruits and Vegetables has been a bit of a hassle. I've had to reformat several times and resubmit, only to do it all over again. But hopefully the next proof (arriving today!) will turn out perfect and I'll be able to move on from that project.

Second, I've been preparing for the holidays and a two-week trip we have coming up. Some of the "accomplishments" below weren't necessarily frugal (as in, they cost money), but I thought I'd share anyway. So, here goes!

1. Groceries: November and December and FANTASTIC months for grocery shopping. I've tried to stay under budget, but I don't mind spending a bit more this time of year because of all the wonderful sales. Since last month I made two stops at Kroger; I spent $33.94 the first time, and $9.97 the second time (total: $43.91). Since our monthly budget is $130.00, and we're almost halfway through the month, I think we're doing pretty good.

Between shopping sales and using coupons, I was able to get the following prices: herbal tea for $1.29 per box (bought 2), pasta for $0.42 per box (14) , cereal for $0.99 per box (5) and canned goods (corn, tomatoes and cream of mushroom soup) for $0.49 per can (22). On the second trip (see photo above) I was able to get "cream of" soup for $0.39 per can, cheese for $2.00 per pound, pasta for $0.33 per box, Chex cereal for $1.50 per box, free M&Ms, free sausage, a tube of toothpaste for $0.04 (not uncommon for Kroger, if you use coupons), and a packet of cocoa for $0.15. Unfortunately the cashier double-swiped the cocoa and I didn't notice, so my $0.15 cocoa ended up being $0.90. I guess that's what I get for not checking the receipt before leaving the store.

The Chex cereal wasn't a smashing good deal, but I needed two more participating items to make the other deals work, plus it was on my list of things to get for Christmas baking. I can also sell the Box Tops for Education on Ebay. 

2. Other shopping: I was able to get 3- and 5-packs of Handifoil pans for $1.00 per package at Kroger. I use these for meals for new moms, people who are sick, etc., so that was a great find. Normally they can be quite expensive. I also found plant food, deet-free mosquito spray and citronella candles at an extreme markdown at Walmart. I got orchid and African violet food, rose and flower food, and two different bags of all-purpose plant food; all were $1.00 per bag/bottle, except one larger bag was $2.00 and the citronella candles were about $0.63 each. I also saved $1.25 on batteries by using a coupon.

3. Ebay: I sold two items on Ebay for a profit of about $20.00 after fees and shipping.

4. Cooking and baking: I've designated Friday as baking day at our house. I don't get around to doing a new project every week, but most of the time I can. Since the last post, I made two different batches of puff pastry; one with butter and the other with animal fat. The animal fat batch turned out like pie crust, which wasn't a total waste. I froze the puff pastry dough and half of the pie crust dough to use later. I also experimented with two new cookie recipes; gingerbread cookies and "Holland Almond Wafers". Both were recipes from an old cookie cookbook that I trash-picked by the side of the road several weeks ago. The gingerbread cookies were okay. They rolled nice and were good for decorating, though the taste and texture weren't my favorite. I ended up freezing half the dough to make a gingerbread house in December. 🙂 

The almond wafers were "refrigerator cookies", which I've never had the patience to try before (you have to refrigerate the dough before baking). They reminded me of the refrigerated cookie dough that you can buy at the store, but the flavor was FAR superior and the cost lower. The almond wafers in particular were very good. They tasted a lot like windmill cookies, which are one of my favorite types of cookie. I've included some pictures below.

I've been trying to find an efficient way to cook and prep chicken thighs. You can buy them at Walmart for just $0.68/lb, all year round. With the last 10 lb. bag, I tried baking them on a cookie sheet with some spices rubbed on top. It worked great! We used two or three of the thighs for one meal right away. Then I drained the fat off into a jar to save for later. When the thighs had cooled a bit, I picked the skins off and baked them (bake insides up at 350 F until they look crispy) for a very tasty snack. I picked the meat off of the bones and filled about three quart-sized freezer bags. I used the bones to make two quarts of broth, so there was absolutely no waste! I melted the fat together with beef fat (from my cheap 10lb. roll of beef) to use like lard. From a $6.00 bag of thighs, I got about seven meals' worth of meat, two quarts of broth, cooking fat and some tasty "fried" chicken skins. I had been cooking the thighs in the Instant Pot, but it's easier to bake them and part them out all at once, only have one pan to wash, etc.

Lastly, I began a sourdough starter. I tried making sourdough bread many years ago, but it didn't work out. Recently a friend recommend the book Artisan Sourdough Made Simple by Emilie Raffa. I ordered it from the library interloan system and have been reading it. Already I can see some of the mistakes I made years ago, and perhaps why things didn't work out. I hope the new starter will work better. Sourdough bread can be cheaper to make than regular yeast bread, because you don't have to use yeast or oil.

5. Christmas and Thanksgiving prep: As mentioned before, I froze some puff pastry, pie and cookie dough. I made a lined pencil case and toiletry bag for our Operation Christmas Child shoe box, with supplies that I already had. I'll admit, the second bag looked a lot prettier than the first. I learned that it's a lot easier to make bags with slightly rounded corners so the zipper doesn't bulge at the corners.

OCC now has a "Follow Your Box" feature, where you can see where your shoe box ends up. While we were printing out the label, Hubs also read that they have a virtual "build a box" option for $25.00, where you can pick out different items, upload a photo of yourself and greeting (if you want to), and send the box from the comfort of your own home; no shopping required. Personally, I like the idea of sending a real box better, but I realized that we spent a lot more than $25.00 on our box. Next year I'm going to see if we can put together two boxes for the amount that we spent on one this year. If you set your budget at $25.00 for a box, minus the $9.00 shipping fee, that leaves $16.00 to spend on toys, personal hygiene, and school supplies. This year I adapted a list from the Prudent Homemaker website** to chose what would go in our box. Brandy is a lot more frugal than I am; she split a lot of the items (for example, bought one package of pencils and divided it between two boxes), made more of her gifts from scratch and bought things from the dollar store. We just went to Walmart and bought most of the things at full price. 

Giving, like eating out, is one area we choose not to economize on. Of course I'm always up for a deal when it comes to gifts, or getting more value for the money, but if an expensive item has more value, we don't mind spending extra money on it. For example, we bought Crayola colored pencils instead of Rose Art colored pencils for the shoe box. I feel like that is worth the money, since it is a gift and we can afford the upgrade. That being said, I could have bought the same colored pencils back in August for half the price, so... with a little planning, I think the shoe box money could go twice as far. 

I also made and ordered Christmas cards for us. Instead of printing regular Christmas cards, I just put our family photo, with a Christmas greeting, on a Vistaprint "business" postcard. These are quite a bit cheaper than regular photo cards, plus they are less expensive to mail ($0.35 for a postcard stamp, as opposed to $0.50 for a letter stamp). 

6. Cleaning and organizing: Finally, I spent some time decluttering and rearranging our home to increase efficiency. Cleaning out my spice collection, for example, allowed me to move the baking ingredients in a cabinet beneath the Kitchen Aid mixer, instead of having them on the other side of the room. I also cleaned and decluttered the sewing area, and organized half-finished projects in plastic baggies, where I could see them. I hope the time spent making these changes will help me get more done in the coming months. 

I think that's about all for today! 

Til next time,
-Bethany 

**Be sure to check the Operation Christmas Child guidelines before packing your box. Since Brandy wrote her post, the ministry has chosen not to allow things like candy or toothpaste to be sent in the boxes.