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.

Hi everyone! I did a terrible job of recording frugal accomplishments last week, so I don't have much to report. We bought milk and Worcestershire sauce at Walmart for $3.16. In lieu of Frugal Accomplishments, I present to you:

Giveaways: Worth Your Time or Not?

I'm at the unfortunate point in our cloth diapering journey where I have enough diapers, but I still want more diapers. There are so many different styles and prints that I want to try on our baby!! Unfortunately, we really do have all of the diapers that we need in a good rotation. I would feel silly to spend more of our clothing budget on diapers that we don't need.

So, I've come to a solution. First of all, I'm going to earmark my bottle & can recycling money for extra cloth diapers and nonessential diaper-related accessories.  Second, I've been conducting a little experiment for the past several weeks, spending a few minutes per week entering giveaways. This week I participated in six. I'm pretty sure the giveaways won't yield much, but I thought I would try it for a year or so and see what happens. Several diaper companies have a weekly giveaway, and many of the small retailers have giveaways now and then as well.

Most of the time these giveaways are done on Rafflecopter, where you can see exactly how many people have entered (and therefore, calculate your chances of winning). You can enter multiple times by doing things like 1) liking a Facebook page, 2) following an Instagram account, 3) following a Twitter account, 4) tweeting about a giveaway, 5) commenting on a blog post, or 6) just taking advantage of a free entry. Most giveaways are hosted on Rafflecopter, but some are done on a Facebook page or Instagram account alone. If you want to enter multiple ones every week, you should probably have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. Most of the time entries do not require that you spam your social media friends, but I'll admit I have retweeted more than my fair share of giveaway announcements. My apologies if you follow me on Twitter.

Another helpful thing to do is set reminders on your phone for the weekly giveaways.


How to Calculate Your Chances of Winning

Why calculate your chances of winning? So you can ignore the giveaways with 400 participants and focus on the ones with 20 or 30 participants.

To put it simply, this is how to calculate your chance of winning:

(6 entries) divided by (4004 total number of entries) = 0.001498501. We can round up the last number to 0.0015, then to 0.002. That means you have a 0.2% chance of winning the giveaway. 

My chances have been anywhere between 0.3% and 5%. If I enter five giveaways per week with a 5% chance of winning, theoretically I should win one prize per month at the cost of (2 minutes per giveaway) 40 minutes of my time. On the other hand, I would have to enter the 0.3% giveaways 333 times to win a prize. Not only would this take a long time to do (1.3 years* at five giveaways per week), it would also cost me a lot of time. 10 minutes per week doesn't sound like a lot, but if you do it for 66 weeks, that means it took 660 minutes, or 11 hours to win a prize. Because most prizes aren't worth more than $20.00, in a best-case scenario your hourly rate for entering 0.3% giveaways would be $1.81 per hour. 

$1.81 is more or less what I can earn collecting pop cans. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but the difference between recycling pop cans and entering giveaways is 1) the income (and therefore, PRIZE) is almost guaranteed, and 2) I'm exercising, enjoying nature and not being on my phone or computer. 

"Bethany!" you say, "Do you realize that you just spent 30 minutes figuring out what your chances are at winning a giveaway and earned $0.00 per hour?" Yes, I do. However, there are obviously a lot of people out there spending the time to enter these giveaways (400 people on the last one I checked), and they think it's worth their time to do so. I want to remind everyone that you are guaranteed to win prizes if you spend your time doing something that is sure to earn money. Then you can spend the money on "free" prizes. 

Does that mean I'm going to stop entering giveaways? Probably not. Although, now that I've done the math I realize that I could spend 20-30 hours writing an ebook for Amazon and guarantee myself a prize every other month or so, I'm not sure giveaways are worth my time after all.


Giveaways Are Like Playing the Lottery

Gasp! Yes, entering giveaways is like playing the lottery, with one fundamental difference: it's free. When you play the lotto game, you're losing time (buying the ticket, scratching it off, throwing it in the ditch) but you're also wasting money. Whether it's $1.00 or $20.00 you're flushing down the proverbial toilet, it's still money that you'll never see again. With free online giveaways, at least the dollars are staying in your pocket.

Have you ever won a giveaway?
Did you keep track of how many you entered in order to win?

Til next time,
-Bethany

*When entering cloth diaper giveaways, keep in mind that you are only going to be cloth diapering for 2-3 years per child. If it takes 1.3 years to win a prize... you'll have to find a better way to supply your stash.

Do you ever get tired of stepping on your jeans? I do. I get tired of dragging a clump of threads behind my feet as I take each step, chewing up what is left of the back of my pant legs. Several weeks ago on a Sunday morning, I got tired of all this nonsense and chopped the bottoms off until they were only a half-inch longer than needed. Then I folded up the end and stitched along the bottom. It wasn't the best job ever, but at least I didn't have any raggy tag-alongs. Relief!

Up until recently, I would just flip up the bottoms of my too-long pants. I mean, that's cool, right? Maybe not, but they were NICE jeans and it wasn't like I was going to cut them up. Besides, they looked great when I wore heels or boots. The problem was: they were nice jeans. Before stepping on the hem for months started wearing them down to a mess of dirty threads.

Extending the Life of Jeans
In addition to patching, hemming to the correct break point (that is, where to pant leg falls on your shoe) will extend the life and usefulness of any pair of jeans. 

Before you start cutting, it's important to know what shoes you normally wear with each pair of jeans. This will affect where your hemline should be. Longer hems are better with high heels and boots, but shorter hems work great with flip flops or ballet flats. Tennis shoes- what I wear with most jeans- are somewhere in between.

There are a million different "guides" out there to how long your jeans are supposed to be. I found that the best guides were actually from men's websites. Sites for women were all over the place in regards to hem advice, and most of it was based on unflattering fads like skinny jeans or ballet flats. I didn't see a single site that addressed wearing tennis shoes or anything else that is actually comfortable. Women's fashion is so fickle.

How to Hem
1. Determine the proper break for your jeans. You can do this by folding and pinning, and then looking at the hem in a mirror. In general, you want the hem to fall on the top of your shoe, but not be all bunched up. And you want to be able to walk around with stepping on your pants. Once you have found the right length, sit down. Are you flashing a bunch of ankle or sock? You don't want to look perfect when you're standing up and dorky when you sit down, because let's face it- most of our lives are spent sitting down anyway. 

After you determine where you want the hem to fall, add one inch* and cut off the extra. On this pair of pants, I only ended up cutting about an inch off each leg, even though I wanted the hem to be two inches shorter. It's important to leave some seam allowance! You can always cut more off, but you can't put it back on.

Fold the end under a half inch, and then pin it down. Use a hem gauge to keep checking for the right length. After you've pinned everything, iron it little by little. Take out a pin, iron that section, put the pin back. Take out another pin... you get the idea.

Now it's time to do it all over again. Fold the hem up another half inch; this hides any raw edges. Take out a pin, fold over another half inch, iron, and pin it back into place. Unpin, fold, iron, pin. Repeat until the whole leg is done. If you are working with flared jeans, you may have some issues with puckering and/or stretching. Here is a great tutorial for working with flared or tapered jeans. In fact, I am binge-reading her website like candy right now... you should too, after you finish reading this.

Load your bobbin and thread your sewing machine with orange (or another color) thread. I use "Dual Duty Plus" from Walmart, advertised as "extra strong for jeans". It's a little more expensive, so hemming is about the only thing I use it for.

Sew 3/8 inch from the bottom of the pants, all around each pant leg. You want the stitch length to be pretty long. You might have to slow down and gently work your way through thick side seams. Usually the inseam is the thickest. While you are sewing, try not to stretch the fabric. This can make the fabric bubble in and out.

After you've finished sewing, iron the hem from top to bottom, with the grain line. If you iron the pant leg from left to right, it will skew the hem line. Ironing is very important. Here I'm using a round pressing ham to make it easier.

The new hem will be a little more stiff than the old one, and it won't be distressed. There are plenty of tutorials and Youtube videos that show how to distress jeans. I might do a tutorial on this when I get it figured out. :) 

I'm really looking forward to not stepping on the backs of my pant legs!

Do you find that pants are always too long or short on you? Have you had your pants hemmed before, or possibly hemmed them yourself? Tell me about it!

-Bethany

*This is just a standard length to add. Some jeans have wide hems (1" instead of 1/2"- this means you would have to add 1.5-2" past the break point marked with pins) and you can make the hem as wide or narrow as you'd like. One inch (a half inch for each time you fold up) is easy to remember, though.

I wanted to write about garage sales this spring (as garage sales are more often held that time of the year), but never got around to it. Yesterday my mom and I and a couple of siblings went to a citywide garage sale event. This reminded me of the article I wanted to write. Better late than never!


Look Richer Than You Are... With Garage Sales
Garage sales are my secret weapon when it comes to home decorating, clothing, and amusing myself WITHOUT a budget! I just keep all of my petty cash from odd jobs in a little coin purse, and then buy whatever I want until the money is gone. But garage sale stuff is so cheap that my purse keeps getting fatter! I only wish that everyone could realize what a great deal this is.


Clothing
Many "experts" advise budgeting 4-5% of your income on clothing. For someone making a conservative $30,000 household income, 5% would be $125 per month on clothing. To be fair, let's say that this 30k household has four kids to clothe. Divide $125 between six people, and that gives each person a little over $20 to spend per month. If this family went to Walmart, they wouldn't be able to buy a much- maybe one or two items per person every month. And those items wouldn't be brand name or top quality... they'd just be run-of-the-mill Walmart clothes.

Now let's say that this family starts shopping at garage sales. All of a sudden each piece of clothing is $1-2 at the MOST. In addition to a better variety, you can also find better quality name brand clothes. If you keep buying only 10 items of clothing per month (like you have been at Walmart), the 5% budget can be cut down to 1%.

OR, perhaps you would like to keep that clothing budget at 5%, but instead of spending it all on outfits, you take the extra 4% and allocate that toward expensive shoes or something else that you really like. An extra $1200 per year could buy each family member a $100 pair of shoes and $100 coat or other purchase. And remember folks- this is a LOW income household with FOUR kids.

I can't speak for having kids because I don't have any, but there is no reason an adult (who is done growing) should have to spend more than $100 per year on clothes. Each year buy one bag of socks/underwear, and ONE quality item- shoes, coat, etc. All the rest can be free or $0.50 at a garage sale. I am no fashionista, but there are plenty of ladies out there who have great fashion blogs and Youtube channels, and I'm sure they would be happy to help you make some great outfits from someone else's cast-offs.

What Can You Find?
You can find pretty much anything at a garage sale, if you wait long enough. I've found all manner of household items, clothing, jewelry, books, movies, and even consumable items like paper products. Yesterday I found a roll of Christmas toilet paper for $0.50. I just couldn't pass it up. Who wouldn't want to wipe their butt with boughs of holly?!


Things that I have found (new and used):


Clothing, jewelry, accessories
Cookware, mason jars, wash clothes, dishes & silverware
Home decor, candles, baskets, Christmas decorations
Books, movies, CD's
Gift wrap, tissue paper, party streamers  
Educational games, curriculum, kids' toys
Musical instruments, craft supplies, electronics

These are things you will never have to buy at Walmart again, with some creativity and planning. I've also found antiques and things to resell on Ebay. Ebay sales will help pay for the gas and re-fund the "garage sale money".

Now What?
Even though garage sale season is over, there are some things you can plan to do for next year.

1. Be aware of "stuff" that you are buying. Ask yourself, could I get this at a garage sale? If so, put it on your garage sale list. It can be tedious, but try to make note of every single thing you buy. At the end of the year, you can look at everything you bought- and I mean every little thing- and ask yourself if that is something you can buy during garage sale season. If so, put it on your garage sale list.

2. Keep your Thursday and Friday mornings open. It's easy at the end of winter to fill up your schedule with activities and forget about garage sales. If you want to get any good deals, you'll have to go on a weekday morning. By noon or the second day, all the good stuff is gone.

3. Make a plan of what you will buy; especially kids clothing. If you want to buy all of your kid clothes at garage sales, you'll have to do a whole year's shopping in a matter of months. This is not as easy as walking into Walmart whenever little Jonny needs a new pair of pants. Note what sizes, colors and styles you will be needing in the next year. When we were little, my mom kept a boxes of clothing for several sizes larger than we were. When we grew into a new size, she would just pull out the next box. It is some work, but the savings from garage sales (even compared to thrift stores) is enormous. Do this same kind of planning for other things you might need. You could even clean out the closet and make space for it ahead of time!

4. Make a list of community-wide garage sales. In our area, every town has an annual garage sale event sometime in the spring or during their town festival. I can make a list of five to ten different towns, and then in the spring I'll keep an eye out for dates and times (unfortunately I haven't had much luck finding this information more than a few weeks ahead of time). Some city wide garage sales will be duds, but some neighborhoods will have great stuff. Shopping in a variety of towns will give you a better chance of finding what you need.

Happy garage sale planning!
-Bethany

Hey everyone! I haven't made a habit of doing product reviews here on the blog, but last year I made an interesting purchase that many people have commented on and asked about. Now that I've owned a pair of Vibram FiveFingers shoes for almost an entire year, I thought it would be appropriate to give an honest review.

"Those Weird Toe-Shoes"
About two years ago, I read about CrossFit and the whole gamut of things that go with it- Paleo, weightlifting, and barefoot running. I also read about these weird minimalist shoes that people were buying that had the toes separated. The shoes were supposedly better for your feet, allowing you to feel the ground and eliminate "heel striking", or putting more pressure on your heel than necessary. I've always been a sucker for good running shoes and thought about buying a pair, but they were so expensive and I wasn't sure I would like them.

Last year- a whole year after hearing about it- I asked Hubs for a pair for my birthday. We went to a couple different shoe stores and I tried some on, making note of my favorite best-fitting type. After we got home, I price shopped and bought the least expensive pair (of the model that I liked) on Amazon. With shipping, the shoes cost $89. 

Fit
Wearing FiveFingers takes a little getting used to. They sell socks that you can wear with the shoes, but many people wear them without socks. When I first tried a pair on, it felt like wearing pants with no underwear. Weird. Immediately I could tell the difference between my left and right feet. Because of the way my toes are shaped, my "middle" toe and big toe fit snug, and the other toes were loose in the shoes. My right foot especially seemed a little too long and the arch too tall for the shoe, but my left foot fit perfectly. Wearing these shoes will clue you in on how symmetrical (or asymmetrical) your feet really are.

I tried wearing some toe socks I already owned with my new shoes. Unfortunately, the toe socks had embroidered monkeys on them, and the monkeys didn't fit well between my feet and the shoes. :( In addition, the socks made my shoes feel tight and very warm, and I seemed to get blisters more easily. Because of this, I haven't worn socks with the shoes since.

The Good News
My new shoes were an excellent fit for our three-week trip to Guatemala. Besides my FiveFingers, the only shoes I took were a pair of flip flops (that ended up breaking about half way through). The shoes were lightweight and good for the warm Central American weather, but they were sturdy enough to do a lot of walking, even through jungles and mountains and dirty cobblestone streets. And they really stood out when we walked/swam our way through a candle-lit cave tour. Yep, we were swimming with candles through dark, rocky caves. While Hubs was battling with a broken flip flop, I was easily able to feel and grip the rocks, never worried about losing a shoe.

So the FiveFingers are lightweight for traveling and also double as water shoes. In addition, they are easy to wash and quick to dry. When we were staying at a hostel, I just took them in the shower with me and set them on the floor to catch some of the soap and water. Primitive, but it was a $6/night hostel. The shoes were mostly dry after a day.

The Bad News
The bad news is that I live in Michigan. This means that we have snow 6-7 months out of the year, and two or three months are full of mud. This makes wearing toe shoes impractical and/or uncomfortable. So when I'm not traveling in Central America, I only get to wear my shoes half the year.

Toe shoes are also not good for bike riding (bicycle OR motorcycle), so those activities are out. Nor do I wear them in the house, while gardening or doing barn chores. So that eliminates most of my daily activities.

Apart from my climate and lifestyle, there is only one other downside to these shoes, and that is the STINK. People talk about stinky feet and stinky shoes, but I'd never really experienced it. Until now, that is. Because I wear my toe shoes without socks and they aren't waterproof, the dirt and sweat collect and produce the worst stick ever, especially if you are wearing them all day. It helps if you keep your feet clean before putting them on, but still, the shoes need to be washed much more often than regular running or walking shoes.

Conclusion
Are these shoes worth it? That depends. The main draw for me was 1) improving health/posture, 2) comfort, and 3) looks. Have they improved my health or the way I walk? I'm not sure. Unfortunately I don't wear them enough to know. I'm happy with the level of comfort and also the novelty factor and all of the strange looks and interesting comments I get. I've had random people stop me at the gas station and car shows to gawk at my shoes. One man I was talking to said, "I'm sorry, I can't concentrate. Those shoes are so distracting!" 

The FiveFingers work very well for traveling in warm climates, which is something Hubs and I plan on doing at least once a year. This is something I didn't take into account when buying the shoes, but it's a big bonus for me, personally. 

I'll be honest... for me this was a not-very-practical luxury purchase. I can't recommend them to someone who lives in a colder climate and spends their free time biking, and I DEFINITELY wouldn't recommend them to someone who is trying to save money or whose utmost priority is to be frugal. It can be tempting to buy health stuff because it promises to fix all of your problems, but if you are trying to get healthier I would recommend going for daily bike rides and making your own healthy food for pennies on the dollar before buying a pair of crazy-expensive shoes.

But to financially stable and attention-seeking globe trotters... buy yourself a pair of these awesome shoes!

-Bethany