Category: frugal

What a Way to Make a Living

The Bear loves to help with the filing around the Young Life office (my dining room).  And by help I mean destroy every file folder within reach and repeatedly open and close the filing cabinet drawers. He really has been the best baby ever while I’ve worked from home this year, but it kills me every time he wants my attention and I can’t give it to him fully.  Which brings me to my next point…
Over the past 2 years we have prayed, discussed, debated, and finally decided that it is time for me to quit my job and stay home full time with the Bear.  I am so sad to leave Young Life, but at the same time so excited to start this next chapter.  I can’t wait to be able to focus my attention on my family.  I love my job, but as anyone in full time ministry knows, it has a way of owning you.  This ministry has given me so much over the last 12 years, and I am so thankful to have had the privilege to be a part of the lives of so many people through it.  If you had asked me 5 years ago if I would ever want to be a stay at home mama, I would have said you were crazy.  Now it is the desire of my heart.  Thankfully we have budgeted and saved and are debt free so that we can afford to live off one income.  I know things will be much tighter around here, and I look forward to sharing our even more frugal ways with you.  I have a little over a month left at my job, and am currently trying to finish well and set my yet-to-be-named replacement up for success.  
I would love to hear from any of you have made the transition from workaholic to stay at home mama.  How did you make it work?  How do you structure your days? How do you live on one income?  Share your ideas with me.  

Decorating an Easter Mantle

Spring is here and Easter is one of my favorite holidays.  
Ok, I say that about all the holidays.
But seriously, Easter is my favorite.
I love that it represents the risen Jesus and the hope of new life.
To decorate our mantle, I took inspiration from Pinterest and used lots of items found around our house.  The cute sign I bought on sale last summer at my favorite shop in Little Rock, The Full Moon.  They have an assortment of fabulous things that is ever changing, and they have really great sales a couple of times each year.  I even registered there for my wedding.    

The bunnies were inspired by a few Pinterest finds like this one, but I couldn’t find a pattern that was the right size.  I sketched one out and used it to cut the design out from several different colors of cardstock.  Then I glued little puff ball tails onto my bunnies and glued the bunnies onto a brown ribbon measured to hang across the mantle.

Super cute little baby bunny.  

I brought in 2 giant flowers that we’ve had since our wedding.  They decorated the gift table at our rustic barn reception.  I filled 2 of my Meme’s old blue mason jars with plastic eggs, inspired by this Pinterest find.  I added artificial flowers leftover from last year, and a sweet flocked bunny I won from a blog giveaway at Goodbye House, Hello Home a few years ago.

I love the color the eggs and bunnies and flowers bring into the room.  It feels like spring.

Our wedding and engagement pictures have been on our mantle for a while now, and I’m feeling it is time for a change.  I’ve searched for ideas and landed on a few that I’m working on.

If you are looking for more Easter ideas, here is my Pinterest inspired Easter wreath.  
How do you celebrate Easter? 
Check out the fun craft parties I link to on my right sidebar.  

Frugal Friday: Our Trashy Family

Check out our new jogging stroller.  Guess how much we paid for it.  I’ll give you a few hints.  It is a double jogging stroller, made by the Baby Jogger brand.  It is a few years old, but new ones retail for $400-700.  Give up?  We paid $0.  Jed actually found this stroller on the side of the road, during the lovely time of the month in Dallas called Bulk Trash.  I’ll tell you more about the glories of Bulk Trash later.  First, here’s the tale of the stroller.  Jed was out on a run and saw this sitting on the curb.  He looked it over, grabbed it, and brought it home.  It looked like this… 
Not so pretty.  My genius husband saw potential there and persevered.  He looked over the frame and saw it was in good shape.  The problem was the seat.  He removed it and washed it thoroughly.  It is still a little stained, but looks much better.  We look a little silly rocking a double stroller with only one kid, but I don’t care.  The Bear loves it and kicks his little feet like crazy whenever we take it out.  
Does your neighborhood have a bulk trash pick up?  Ours is once per month, and everyone puts out any large items they want to get rid of for the trash collectors to come and pick up.  This cues every resourceful person in town to drive around and pick through the good stuff before the collectors make their rounds.    Friends have found furniture and all kinds of treasures during Bulk Trash.  We found a jogging stroller.  We are just doing our part to keep good stuff out of the landfill.  Bulk Trash rocks.  One family’s trash is another’s treasure.  
Does your neighborhood have a Bulk Trash pick up?
Would you ever take something home you found 
on the side of the road? 

The Great Cloth Diaper Trials – 11 Brands Tried and Tested

  When we made the decision to use cloth diapers, I had no idea where to start.  I started reading every blog and website I could find that had information to help me.  I entered lots of diaper giveaways and won a few.  I asked the few friends I knew who had tried cloth.  There are so many options out there, and it was hard to know where to start.
Here the Bear is modeling his SoftBums Hot Diggity Dog Diaper.  Does it have wiener dogs on it?  Why yes, yes it does.
clothdiapertrials

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Frugal Friday: Choosing Cloth Diapers

If you had asked me 5 years ago if I would ever use cloth diapers, I would have looked at you like you were crazy and said “Not possible.”  Now we are 9 months in and loving our choice.  If you are an expectant mama or want to have kids (or more kids) someday, I hope you will read on and consider cloth diapers.  Why did we choose cloth diapers?  There are so many reasons.
1) Cost
Here’s a calculator that will show you exactly how much you can save using cloth diapers, including cost of water, detergent, etc.  We broke even after about 4 months and will save well over $1000 after 18 months.  If we continue to use our cloth diapers with future children, the savings increase exponentially.  The average savings per child are between $1500-2000.  Nice.  Hello, starter college fund.  We went with one size diapers, and love some of the more expensive brands.  We could have saved even more using prefolds, but we couldn’t get on board with them.  We love the ease of use of our one size diapers and were willing to pay a little more initially.  Our favorite brands are Soft Bums, Apple Cheeks, and BumGenius.  I will explain our cloth diaper trials in a post coming next week.
2) Environmental Impact
Did you know that each baby using disposable diapers creates about a ton of landfill diaper trash during their diaper years?  It’s true.  Disposable diapers create over 3.6 MILLION TONS of landfill trash per year.  HOLY CRAP.  Literally.  Some folks argue that the additional energy used to launder cloth diapers negate the environmental positives.  Not true.  We do maybe 3 more loads of laundry per week than we used to do.  We line dry our diapers whenever possible, so that saves on some energy usage.
3) Safer for Baby
Disposable diapers contain so many chemicals, synthetics, and toxins (like dioxin) that I would rather avoid putting next to my Little Bear’s skin.  We have to use disposables occasionally (for Mother’s Day Out, church nursery, MOPS, etc) and know that when we do he is prone to get diaper rash.  He never gets it from his cloth diapers.
4) Functionality
Cloth diapers work better than disposable.  Really.  We have had very few leaks or blowouts with our cloth diapers, really almost none.  Disposables are a whole other messy story.
5) Cuteness
Cloth diapers are just so cute.  Seriously.  They come in a million fun patterns and colors and you can match every outfit.  So fun.
I plan to most more about our cloth diaper
decisions and routine soon.
Do you use cloth diapers?
Why or why not?
Would you ever use them?
Do you think we are crazy?

Let’s Make an Easter Wreath

Easter is my favorite holiday.
Spring is my favorite season.
I really love the joy of Jesus risen and all of the bloom of new life.
I searched Pinterest for spring and Easter decorating inspiration and found this and this and decided to combine them using my interchangeable burlap wreath that I made here.
Here’s how it came about:
I stripped the Valentine’s Day stuff off the burlap wreath and wrapped the bottom of it in haute fur yarn, pinning the ends of it into the wreath with straight pins. Then I cut individual daisies off the daisy chain ribbon and pinned them into the “grass” using coordinating straight pins.  I arranged a few plastic Easter eggs in the grass using the straight pins and moved them until I was happy with their placement.
I created the words using dollar store pipe cleaners and ribbon leftover from the nursery decorating.
You can find the pipecleaner letter directions found here.
I couldn’t decide where to put my lil birdie.  I moved him around and took him off and put him back on.  He sticks in with yet another straight pin, so it was super easy to move him.  What do you think- bird or no bird?
He ended up here.
 I’m super happy with the way it turned out.
 The letters were WAY more difficult than I thought they would be.
Pipecleaner molding is not my best skill, apparently.
I also had a bit of a fiasco with the ribbon.  I ran out on the happy and had to go back and make it super tight so it would cover the whole thing.  In between I went to Hobby Lobby to find another spool of ribbon.  They were out.  They had just received a huge shipment of literally every other type of ribbon except the one I needed.  A craftastrophe! Oh well.  It all worked out in the end.
 Does the Easter Bunny visit your house?

A Bow Tie Onesie for Your Little Man

As a dapper southern gentleman, Fisher rocks a bow tie on occasion.  Being only 8 months old, said bow tie is best worn painted on a onesie.  I’ve seen some really cute bowtie onesies on Pinterest and Etsy, and decided to try to make one for my little man.  It was so super easy that I had to show you.    
 Here’s what you need:
cardstock or magazine
disappearing ink pen
onesie
fabric paint & brush
or fabric paint pen
1) Stick your card stock or magazine inside your onesie to prevent bleed through. 
2) Use your disappearing ink pen to draw a basic bow tie outline on your onesie, just below the collar.  Keep redrawing until you are satisfied with your design. 

3) Trace the outline of your bow tie with your paint and brush or paint pen.
 I used a paint pen, so I had to dot it on to really fill it in.  I will definitely use fabric paint and a brush in the future as it goes on much smoother.

4) Fill in the outline of your bow tie.  
5) Let your little man rock that bow tie onesie.
  So cute.
So easy.
So frugal.  

 This is his Zoolander Blue Steel Baby Model Pose. 
  This is his “Mama, how many pictures are you going to take?” pose.  
I’m sharing this tutorial at some lovely link parties.  
Check out their buttons on my right sidebar and join in the fun.  
Did you pay attention to the Superbowl or were you crafting and blogging like me? 

Austin, TX with a Baby

For your viewing enjoyment, I present a photo collage via Instagram of our trip to Austin this week.  
It was in the 30s and 40s, with a hazy shade of winter cast over the city.  We stayed downtown at the Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental Hotel, because we were in town for a state teacher testing conference representing Jed’s school.  Fisher and I did a lot of lounging around in our room because of the cold both weather and illness affecting us.  We shopped and ate and enjoyed ourselves, and would love to go back when the weather is nice.  Downtown is very walkable, and the city has so much to explore.  I would choose a different hotel next time.  The Intercontinental was nice and had lots of architectural interest, but our room was tiny and expensive (paid for by the school) and the mandatory valet parking was very pricey.    
Where did we eat? 
The Mellow Mushroom near the University of Texas campus was our first dinner stop.  We were headed out to Hula Hut at the lake, but traffic was horrendous so we decided to stay close.  We love Mellow Mushroom in Asheville, so we went for what we know.  We had the Funky Chicken pizza and the soft pretzels.  The key at MM is to order a side of the Esperanza house dressing.  That junk is so good.  
The next day Jed had a long lunch break so we went to Mellow Johnny’s, Lance Armstrong’s bike shop.  My husband is a cyclist and could entertain himself in a bike shop for hours.  He showed Fisher all the cool bike stuff while I shopped for Christmas presents for him.  If you are into bikes, the shop is a must see.  Many of Lance’s bikes are on display along with a well thought out selection of cycling gear and accessories.  It also has a cafe called Juan Pelota’s that serves breakfast burritos and coffee.  
For lunch we headed to the Taco Shack.  I had a chicken torta with bread that melted in my mouth.  Delicioso.  
At the Taco Shack, Fisher had a big first.  He sat up in a high chair throughout the meal.  Yay!!  He loved playing with his toys and sitting up like a big boy while we ate.  

Fisher and I did a little more exploring, driving around the state capitol and South Congress shops.  We picked up a few cupcakes from Hey Cupcake, one of the famous food trucks on South Congress.  I surprised Jed with them when he got back to the hotel.  

Fisher and I did lots of snuggling on the big king sized bed in our room.  A sniffly baby makes exploring in the cold not so much of an option.    
Our last night in town we went to Magnolia Cafe on South Congress.  It rocked my world.  It was cheap and delicious with a laid back atmosphere and creative menu.  I had baked acorn squash with the chef’s special pecan pesto on top, with a side of curried shrimp and veggies.  Oh my.  I was in broccoli heaven.  
We came back to Dallas and were greeted by gridlock.  We loved the feel of Austin and hope to go back and explore more when the weather is nicer.  Where would you like to explore?   

Frugal Friday – Buying a Used Car with CASH

Meet Betty, our new-to-us ride.  
Isn’t she lovely?
Here is her story.
After much discussion, Jed and I decided it was time to purchase a car.  We already have 2 cars, both completely free to us thanks to the generosity of Jesus/Young Life donors/family.  Those cars are 10 and 20 years old respectively.  We love them in their old age, and are so thankful for their faithful service. Big Red, Jed’s 20 year old GMC pick up has developed some issues that are pretty serious, so we know her days of dependability are numbered.  We thought about waiting until she died a natural death, but decided the wiser thing to do would be to start the search for our next car while we still had the flexibility of two working cars.  
My 10 yr old XTerra has almost 150,000 miles on her, so we thought it would be good to make her our secondary car before the miles get too high.  We also discussed going to one car, but our current living/working situations don’t allow for that.    
We set a budget of $10-12,000, knowing we could pay cash for that.  We are FAR from wealthy by American standards, but we have worked hard to save most of my paycheck each month for over a year.  We also have a 6 month emergency fund built up that we didn’t touch for this purchase.  
We started looking on Craigslist for lots of different models.  We both like Tahoes, Outbacks, and other small SUVs and station wagons.  We looked at mini vans, but just couldn’t do it.  Not that there is anything wrong with mini vans.  They are great, I’m sure, just not for us right now.  We test drove cars from dealers and individuals, including 2 Tahoes that I’m pretty sure were stolen or from police auctions.  SOOO SKETCHY.  
We looked at used car dealers in our area that were part of bigger dealerships with good reputations.  At one dealer we found a 2005 Honda Pilot listed at $16,915.  She was beautiful, but way out of our price range.  We wanted around 80,000 miles or less, she had 81,000.  She also came fully loaded with leather, a sunroof, DVD, 3rd row, rear air, and more cup holders than you could ever want or use.  Right off the bat the salesman told us he could mark her down to $13,900, because she was a Honda on a Chevy lot.  Still way out of our range.  We drove her, and she was such a smooth ride.  We went home, ate lunch and let Fisher take a nap.  We checked the Kelly Blue Book and her Carfax.  The Carfax came back saying that she was worth $330 more than the KBB value, which was $18,600.  Whoa.  So, she was offered to us at $5000 less than the KBB value.  She was still over our budget by almost $2000.  Not ok.  Then we pulled up the dealer website to look over the details again, and noticed that the rock bottom internet only price they had listed was $12,500.  Hmmm.  That might be doable for a car that is far beyond anything we had hoped to find.  
We went back to the dealer that afternoon and told our salesman about the internet price.  He said he would have to honor it.  We went for it, on the contingency that our trusted mechanic could take a look at it first.  He asked us about financing, and we told him we were paying cash.  That threw him off completely.  He didn’t really know what to do, and said no one had done that since he had been there.  
They wouldn’t let us use our debit card or write a check, so we had to wait until Monday morning when I could go to the bank and get a cashier’s check.  I handed the check to the dealer, they gave me the keys, and we were done.  No car payments for us!  We love our new ride and are so thankful to not have a big car payment every month. 
Why pay cash?  Interest my friends, interest.  Let’s do a little math.  If we put down $1000 and financed $11,500, we would actually end up paying over $1000 extra for our car.  Yikes.  That’s a lot of money.   
Have you ever paid cash for a big purchase? How did you make it happen?  Would you do it again?

Frugal Friday- Halloween Costumes

Halloween has come and gone, but I had to share my cute little bear with y’all.  Fisher was asleep before the first trick-or-treaters hit our house, so we had to do a little photo shoot earlier in the evening.  We set him up on a vintage quilt with pumpkins in his little bear suit.  Here are the best things about his costume, besides the obvious cute factor.  
It was free.  
My mama and her bff bought it for Fisher from the Carter’s outlet.  Thanks Mom and Tricia!  
It is a legitimate piece of clothing.  
It is a full suit with feet and a hood, made for real wear, instead of a cheap-o costume made for one time use.  It will be his winter coat until he grows out of it (which may be sooner than I’d hoped).  
It is warm and comfy.  
He loves wearing it.  
I’m hoping we can go this route in the future, wearing real clothes that can useful in daily life as a Halloween costume.  I’ve seen so many DIY costumes that use this kind of practicality across the internet and I think it is genius.  With a few handmade accessories, you can turn an outfit into a costume for a day, then wear it for the rest of the season.  I’ve also heard about great finds at consignment stores and garage sales, since most costumes are worn only once.  
How do you save money on costumes?