Are You Ready for a New Depression?

Am I the only one that is seriously concerned about recent events in our economy? It was already going steadily downhill, largely due to gas prices. If you've been tracking food prices, they are rising rapidly. Processed foods have not gone up as much (less trucking involved, when you're just creating chemical ingredients, virtually out of thin air) but staples have risen dramatically.

A year or two ago, I could get a pound of organic whole wheat flour or wheatberries from the bulk section of any health food store for around 69 cents per pound. I bought the same things last week, and paid $1.09. Even worse, I saw the same product in other health food stores going for as high as $2.39 per pound!! Milk had gone up quite a bit, although for some reason the prices have dropped a bit. But I saw large increases in price for bulk oats, spelt, nuts, eggs, and vegetables.

Oh, and did I mention the foreclosure rates and swan-diving property values?

Now comes this whole bailout situation. Wait a minute--you mean I can start a business, grow it really big, make a lot of bonehead, risky decisions in order to line my own pocket, then go crying to the government to bail me out? Where do I sign up?!

And where is this trillion dollars supposed to come from to bail out these corporations? They keep saying that it's necessary to save the stock market and people's retirement accounts, etc. Guess what? Our stock market is still heading into the toilet, with other country's economies not far behind. As to people's retirement accounts and other savings...do we really think this will save them? And even if it does, won't it be counterbalanced by the amount of taxes, fees and any other penalties the government can come up with to cover the trillion dollars they promised to use in the bailout?

Make no mistake, regardless of the outcome of this November's election, we are going to be in deep dog doo-doo, my friends. McCain is certain to kowtow to liberals in an attempt to appease them and become "non-partisan". Hmmm. Reminds me of the "New Ecumenism" that has been rapidly eroding the faith of Catholics everywhere in a politically-correct attempt to "find common ground" with other religions. But I digress...Our only hope of McCain is elected is that Sarah Palin can find a way to temper his liberal-loving enthusiasm.

And if Obama is elected?...oh, please, don't get me started. Remember a little thing called Nazism? Hitler took over Germany at a time when it was weak. He was divisive and controlling. First went their rights...then their guns...then went the Jews...and the Catholic religious...and the gypsies. Obama cries for change...but his manipulative speeches and repetitive mantras aren't so new. You know the phrase..."everything old is new again."

Left: A 1930 Nazi propaganda poster promoting the slogan "Freedom and Bread"

Am I exaggerating? Well, I guess we'll see, if he ends up winning. But I can tell you, that man is dangerous. Any man that wants to take away all our guns, or who advocates the killing of babies who have been born alive after a botched abortion, or the myriad of other disturbing ideas this man has planned for our poor country...that is a dangerous man. And for anyone who thinks I'm racist...get a life. I would vote for Alan Keyes TODAY if he were running. And there was a lady, I'm forgetting her name now, but I met her a few years back at a lecture. She had been a teacher in Watts, and was extremely bright and was right on the money as far as what she thought this country needed. I'd vote for that woman in a heartbeat, too. No, my dread of an Obama-run United States is solely based on his completely divisive, amoral, dangerous views on how this country should be run. A vote for Obama is a vote for oppression.

A vote for McCain is...well, it's the best we can do, for now. Is there any way to elect just Sarah Palin?

My point (after my long political diatribe, lol) is, again, that we are in deep doo-doo, my friends. Where will this country be in a year? In four years? What will food prices be? Gas prices? Unemployment rate?

If your husband lost his job right now, or he hurt himself off the job (no worker's comp) and you had no income for three months, how would you fare? Would you lose your house? Your car? Could you feed your kids? What if this were to happen a year from now, when the economy is worse, and jobs were more scarce, and prices higher? How many months would it be until you were homeless?

I'm not making this argument to scare anyone. But I do want to get your attention. Because it has come to my attention quite often lately. If my husband lost his job and didn't find one instantly, we'd be up a creek. Virtually no pantry, no emergency supplies. Not a good thing. If it should happen in the future, in a worse economy? I dread even thinking about it.

How would you survive a depression? Our generation has grown up so pampered, that the idea of a depression happening to us, in this day and age, seems preposterous. But it's not. It could happen to anyone, anytime. We are no better than those who have gone before us.

It might be wise for us to behave as our ancestors did for generations upon generations, and prepare for hard times. Prepare for hard times, while you enjoy the good times. It's not about paranoia, extremism, or an end-of-the-world religious belief. It's about good old common sense. The kind our grandparents had...and passed on to our parents...who didn't think, in their era of comfort and plenty, that it was important enough to pass on to us.

Even if you never need a pantry full of food all at once...you will need food. Buy a bunch of what you normally use whenever you see it on sale. Rotate it (use oldest first) and use it as needed. If you never have an emergency, you'll still be using it up, and you'll have saved a ton of money by buying it in bulk, when prices are low.

Maybe there won't be a depression, or even a recession. Maybe everything will be fine for our country. But what about you? Will your family experience unemployment, serious illness, a blizzard, a two-week power outage? People experience such things in this country every day. Why couldn't you? How would you feed your family, keep them warm, provide lighting, take care of toilet needs, feed or diaper an infant, get to work, buy what you need, get needed medication? All I'm talking about here is common sense--basic preparedness, so you'll be ready for whatever comes your way.

Think about it.

T.M.I.

WARNING: This post may fall under the category of "Too Much Information"...discussion of female problems to follow...consider yourself warned! ;-)



I've seen on many websites that many ladies are starting to sew their own reusable sanitary napkins. My first thought upon hearing about this years ago was "yuck". After all, I haven't been a pad kind of woman since I first discovered the convenience of tampons. However, things change. You know I've shown interest in trying to get rid of disposable products from my family's lives in order to not only save money, but be more healthy (I hate the chemicals in disposable diapers). But this is one area I just hadn't investigated yet. I'm thinking about it now because my needs have changed. Here's where a little TMI comes in...

Am I the only one who has an increased "flow" problem after four kids? I'm not sure if it's the number of pregnancies I've had, or the fact that they're so close together, or my age (mid-thirties), or the fact that they were c-sections, or the fact that I am obese. But after this last pregnancy, there's been a lot more flow, and your typical store-bought products aren't doing the job. Part of this I suspect is due to my larger size...most feminine hygiene products just aren't made for larger women. I don't want to have to buy every product on the market each month trying to find something that works.

I was really mad when I bought a box of panty liners this month that turned out to be so small I thought they were for twelve year olds at most! Although I miss the comfort of the products I used to use, I am now thinking of trying to find out where I can buy the giant sanitary pads they give you at the hospitals right after giving birth. It's better than shopping at Walmart, petrified there will be leakage, just like I did when I was in high school!

Okay, end of the TMI. ;-) So now I'm thinking of making my own sanitary napkins. I've seen a variety of styles. The type pictured above was the first style I've seen that is along the lines of what I had in mind. I found them at Homemade Mama's. They are outrageously expensive, although due to the materials and workmanship, and the "reusability factor", I can understand why. But I like the design, and I'm thinking of making some of my own.

So if anyone out there has experience in making their own products, post a comment and let me know how well you thought it worked. I'm particularly interested in the various ways the homesewn pads can be made to stay in place, and what materials can be used to prevent leakage.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled (normal) posts!

Frugal Tip: Ban the Bottles...of cola

...and the cans! If you drink soda (pop, soda pop, whatever you call it in your neck of the woods) you not only might be wasting money, but also wasting your health. I should know!

About ten years ago I started drinking a lot of soda. I gained weight steadily, a little at a time. Then about eight years ago, I started drinking a TON of soda, and gained a TON of weight...well, not literally a ton, but about sixty pounds or so. Yikes! And it was only over the space of about two years! I was drinking regular soda, because I didn't know about Splenda (although that is probably almost as bad as the aspartame) and I was dead set against aspartame, knowing how bad it was. Of course, I was apparently too stupid to do the math...a two liter of Coke a day equals about a pound a week in weight gain!

In recent years, I almost never drink regular soda. I do drink diet, but I usually only drink Diet Rite (no caffeine, no sodium, no aspartame, no calories). I know it's not good for you, but it's better than the regular soda. I've tried to keep a rule in the house, that there is no soda allowed in the house, because if it's there, I will drink it. My husband agrees to this rule of course, though he's not thrilled with it. But if I didn't keep him in check, he could drink a case of soda a day all by himself! That would be $84 a month, at least! Not to mention, I can drink plenty myself. Lately I've given in on this, and we've gotten back in the soda habit, which we now both want to break.

But the other bad thing about soda is that I believe it expands your stomach and makes you eat more. I know there are two camps on opposite sides of this issue. Some nutritionists and doctors say that isn't possible, but some say it is. I believe from my own experience it is. I know when I am in the "soda habit", I eat more every day--whether I drink a soda with the meal or not. I believe the air bubbles in the soda expand your stomach, making you want to eat more, and taking more food to fill you up. I know that when I am out of the habit of drinking soda on a regular basis, I don't eat as much. My husband says the same thing.

So, if my unprofessional opinion is correct, then by giving up soda, you will not only save the money you spend on them, but also save money on extra food, and save your health from being destroyed!

What to drink instead? Milk and juice in moderation, and water, water, water! Now you may think water is boring, and it is if you're used to bubbly overly sweet "beverages". Give it time, and get creative. Drink your water ice-cold. Add a little lemon. Add a little bit of various kinds of flavoring to it. Each night I take a bottle of semi-frozen water to bed in one of those "coolies"...a gel-filled can cooler that you put in the freezer, which keeps drinks cold. If it's cold enough, and not too warm in the room, it will stay cold all night. This is really good if you're pregnant or nursing. You need the water!

Happy non-cola drinking!

Are Newer Cars Frugal?

Some of you may be wondering why we chose to buy a newer vehicle when we are supposed to be trying to be more frugal with our money. Well, it was a decision we thought about for quite a while.

The major problem was the old van. It was ten years old when we bought it last year for about $2600, and seemed fine for a while. But then things suddenly started going on it, one by one. We were spending so much on it, we might as well have had a car payment! Now, we could have tried scraping enough together for another old vehicle, but it just didn't make sense. My husband doesn't know how to make major repairs, and we only have one family vehicle, so having another car that would potentially need repeated repairs wasn't feasible. Plus, my husband drives 90 miles round trip to work each day. He really needed the security and peace of mind that his only vehicle wouldn't break down on him. We have no family or friends in the area, so who would pick him up?

Also, the cars he has owned that he purchased fairly new were all reliable and ran well for a long time. Our truck had almost 300,000 miles on it when we got rid of it, and was still going strong. The cars we bought that already had high miles tended to have problems. It just seems that we get more usage out of cars when we've had control over the car for most of its life. We're not super-careful with our maintenance or anything, I guess a lot of people just abuse their cars.

We just figured it was worth the investment. Plus a newer car gets better gas mileage than old worn out cars. And the previous owner took the hit on the depreciation, leaving us with an almost-new car for a very good price. I'm guessing about ten thousand less than new.

We did a lot of research and carefully chose a model that would fit our needs and wants. It wasn't completely loaded (for the Town & Country--compares to other vans it was) but it had what we really wanted. We also checked the CarFax report to make sure it hadn't been flooded, totalled, etc. It had been owned by a rental company, but leased by an individual customer the entire time. Probably an executive car.

We felt the car would fit in our budget because we could count on no repairs for a good while (still under manufacturer's warranty) and we had recently given up other expenses that added up to about the amount of the car payment. We did have to pay more for insurance, but I never liked having only liability coverage anyway.

Now, buying a newer car might not make sense for other families, particularly if the husband is really good at fixing cars, but for us it was a good choice.

Frugal Tip: Dispose of the Disposables part 2

Have you priced diaper wipes lately? Wow. Now I admit I pay for the good ones. If you're going to buy something to wipe up poop, pay for something you think works, lol! I tried the cheaper ones, they didn't seem to wipe easily, weren't wet enough, etc. I use Huggies Naturals Pop-Up. I think it's $6.84 or something like that, at Walmart.

That was fine before, but now with a fourth child in diapers (well, number one is mostly trained, but he's been using up pull-ups lately) it's crazy. Plus I was using them to wipe the table and dirty hands, too. I stopped that by buying microfiber towels that I cut into quarters (see previous post). But what about their intended purpose? I make homemade wipes.

Gasp! No! Eeeeeww! I can hear it now. But really, it's not that bad, especially if you're using cloth diapers. I thought it would be nasty, but it's no worse than the cloth diapers. They work really well. I use cut-up flannel baby blankets--you know, the ones everybody gives you, but are too small to use with any baby but a preemie? You have to hem the flannel, though. You could use the microfiber cloths, poop would probably rinse even easier off those, but I'd cut them into smaller squares and be sure they're not too wet when you use them--they hold a lot of water.

The easiest way to use them is to get one of those sprayers you can attach to the water line at the back of the toilet. It hangs on the side of the toilet. You just turn it on and spray over the toilet. It's pretty handy for toilet cleaning too. They sell them on a lot of cloth diaper sites. Don't pay more than $35 for it (it's worth it, trust me, and easy to install).

You can use your wipes three ways: wet each one as needed at the sink (sounds like a hassle to me), you can make up some diaper wipe solution and pour it over a stack of wipes in an empty wipes box, or you can keep a stack of dry ones on the diaper changing table, along with a sprayer of wipes solution, and spray each wipe as needed. I prefer method two, although you have to keep in mind that the water in the wipes tub will get mildewy if you don't take steps to prevent it. There are tons of wipes solution recipes on the web. I like the ones with a few drops of tea tree oil and lavender oil. Use distilled water, or it will mildew quicker. Only make up enough wipes that you can use in two days. Smell the wipes every day. If they smell mildewy, throw them in the wash, clean the container, and start over.

The amount of laundry the wipes add is negligible. If you use one pack of brand name wipes a month, this should save you about $7. But it all adds up.
I'll post more about diapers in the future.

Frugal Tip: Dispose of the Disposables part 1

One way I am chipping away at the waste in our budget is trying to ban paper towels. No, not altogether...I think it's worth the money to clean up something particularly greasy or nasty. But for normal spills and messes, paper towels are a waste. I have tried to scrounge up some rags from our towels, but unfortunately we have so few that our "holey" towels are actually still in use, lol!

We're going through way too many of those paper towels. Now I admit to sometimes using them as plate substitutes for PB & J sandwiches, but when my husband uses three of them in one night to dry his hands after doing the dishes, when there is a perfectly clean, dry hand towel...something's got to give!

Then I heard rumors on other blogs about these microfiber towels available at Sam's Club. Found in the automotive section, they are sky blue in color, and come in packs of 25 for about $11.25. They are almost as big as normal kitchen towels, but square. Kind of an odd shape, and a little unwieldy for anything other than drying dishes. So I cut them into quarters. Brilliant!! They don't even need to be hemmed, just cut and use. They are just the right size for wiping faces (I admit to using baby wipes for this normally, yikes), wiping tables, counters, floors, chairs, etc. They catch crumbs great, and hold a TON of water. I originally heard about these on blogs and websites about cloth diapers, because uncut and folded into thirds, they're supposed to make great diaper doublers or inserts for cloth pocket diapers--and they do.

If you cut all the towels up, that makes 100 cloths, plenty for my family. A really large family may want two packs. If you think of the savings, it could really add up. It's almost $17 for a large pack of paper towels at Sam's. If you use Bounty. I don't know how long that lasts us. I think a month, maybe more. So the microfiber cloths more than pay for themselves in a month. And the cloths are so small that if you're using just a few a day, it won't add to your laundry at all. If your family would normally use one large pack of paper towels a month, this will save you around $193 a year, and a lot more if you use more paper towels than that,or if you buy them a roll or two at a time.

There are many other uses too, such as "cloth diapers" for dolls. ;-)

So I've asked my husband nicely if he might think of using the hand towels to dry his hands, and the cloths to wipe up spills, etc., so we can try to conserve money. Hopefully he'll remember. :-) If not, at least I'll save money using them myself!

Yard Sale Fever

I think I am coming down with something. The symptoms are: racing pulse, breathing fast, breaking out into a cold sweat. What is the cause? Well, the symptoms occur only when I am driving down the street and see it...the YARD SALE sign!!

Oh, how I love to turn the car around and follow those beloved neon paper signs to that "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow...a driveway full of someone else's junk! There is no thrill quite like discovering a treasure--either something you can't get anymore, or something you've been wanting, for a great price.

My chest swells with pride as I climb back into my car with a pretty picture, a cute toy, or a really neat book, for less than a dollar. I can't wait to show my husband my new dress, or the kids their new toys, or put that new knick-knack on a shelf. Even better yet, when I look into the FREE box, and find something that I can't believe they are giving away! Yeee haaaww!

Garage sales (yard sales, moving sales, tag sales, whatever) can be a great way to get things you need for a great price. Some stuff is like new, and some (with a little creativity) can be good as new...and even more interesting. Once I paid twenty dollars for two van loads of furniture plus a bunch of smaller miscellaneous items. It saved my family a lot of money, because we really needed some dressers and dining chairs (I later found a table and three more chairs for free).

However, these sales can also become addictive, to the point where instead of saving money, you are wasting it. It is easy to buy things you don't need. Sometimes you can even develop a habit of buying without thinking, and end up with a bunch of things you never use cluttering up your house.

It can also cause strain between you and your husband. He may resent seeing you drag other people's junk in the house week after week, knowing that most of it wasn't needed, and your budget is very tight. This isn't fair to him.

I realized this myself recently. Although my husband has been wonderful about it, I can tell it has been bothering him when I go yard saling. I have cut way back, and resisted most temptations, but I can't hide it anymore. Yes, my friends...

My name is Mommaroo2, and I am a sale-aholic.

I can't pass up a yard sale. If I have only two dollars to my name, I will still stop. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I have even been known to make arrangements with kind souls to have them hold an item for me until later in the week, when we get paid. Thec worst thing is, I will tell my husband I'm only going to look for a particular item we need, and that is my intention...then I'll come home with a big bag of other stuff.

I told myself that I had it under control. I can stop anytime I want. Yesterday, I went out to find those clothes for my son, because he really needed it. I was strong at first. I passed up the box of flexi blocks for three dollars, the marble run game for two dollars, and even the Brita water filtering pitcher for a dollar that we really (kind of) needed. I was so proud!

But then I saw it...the cutest framed picture you ever saw. It was very similar to a Thomas Kincade. I loved it. I wanted it. I HAD to have it! It was five dollars. I'll offer them three, I thought. No, $2.50. They'll never take it. But...they did. Well, it's a great deal, and it's sooooo pretty. Okay, that's the only extra thing I'll buy. At the next sale, there were three heavy hardcover fairy tale books for children. 25 cents each!!!!! How could I pass them up...after all, that's just 75 cents. After that, it was all a blur. Fifteen yard sales and twenty dollars later, I made my way home, mortified. I couldn't resist the temptations!

I had told myself we could afford for me to spend a few dollars, but at home I realized I had spent money my family truly needed this week. Here I am trying to find was to save my family money, and I was throwing it out the window!

Yes friends, the time has come to admit my addiction. Unfortunately, there are no "sale-aholics anonymous" groups, therefore I will have to overcome this addiction on my own. It will be difficult, yet it must be done for the good of my family. So from this day on, I'm going cold-turkey. No more yard sales. None, nada, zip, zilch. Until I can control my impulses, the Queen of Yard Sales must abdicate her throne. It won't be easy. I know that the Fever will strike, and I will have to force myself to drive past the lovely neon signs, quell the shakes, and fight the uncontrollable urge to screech to a halt and race up the seller's driveway, purse in hand...but...*sigh*...it's the only way.

Wise Wife's Guide to Stretching Her Husband's Dollar

Over at Getting Back to Basics, there is an ongoing series called the Wise Wife's Guide to Stretching Her Husband's Dollar. It's a fabulous title for a fabulous bunch of posts about conserving your family's resources. I highly recommend it. This is one of my favorite blogs to read.

I have been trying to cut back on expenses, by cooking only healthy foods from scratch, trying to eliminate "disposable" products in my house (diapers, paper towels, baby wipes), making my own cleaning products, and hanging some of my laundry to dry. I can always use more advice on the subject. I know I have a long way to go before I can consider myself to be a good steward of my husband's money.

Treasure Hunting

Journey to Homemaker

I've been yard saling and going to thrift stores to find some decorative and practical items for my home. This weekend I passed through a small town on the way home from a Walmart trip and saw piles of junk by the curb of many houses. Then I saw trucks going by loaded with some of the good "junk". It was a neighborhood curbside pickup weekend!

Towns often have one day a year that you can set out anything--furniture, appliances, junk, etc.--to be picked up for free. Thrifty-minded people often scavenge most of the good stuff before the truck come. Last night I loaded my car with useful items--two sets of nice looking metal shelving for the garage, some children's riding toys, a couple of cabinets, a lawn seeder, a wooden rocking horse, a four-drawer filing cabinet, a stereo cabinet, a nice tapestry footstool, and much more.

Today I went back and got even more. A nice green wing-back chair (will go well with the footstool), a baby gate, a nice Eddie Bauer infant car seat with matching stroller, a flip-and-fold cushion chair for my son, a white dresser for my daughter, a race car bed for my son, a little tikes picnic table, a little tikes double easel/chalkboard, a razor-type scooter, a little tikes toddler basketball hoop, a nice decorative shelf, and miscellaneous smaller items. It was a great haul!

Most of it I want to keep, but some of it I plan to repaint and repair (only a few things were damaged) and sell at a future yard sale. I happened upon a "vintage home sale" today. Basically a fancy garage sale. The lady had her garage arranged like a little country gift shop. She had white Christmas lights strung up, painted lattice as a back drop, and carefully merchandised furniture pieces. Looking closely at the furniture, I'm sure it was stuff she got at the previous weekend's curbside pickup, which I misssed. Or they were very cheap yard sale finds. She repainted them nice, pastel colors, and arranged nice decorative items in them. She had homemade soaps tied in tulle and ribbon, and most of her stuff was very expensive. If she had priced stuff half of what she was asking, she could have made a good profit and had more traffic. But I got some really good ideas!

One thing she did was to take a waist-high cabinet and place a small bookcase on top, and paint them both a light sage green. I've seen this trick on Decorating Cents on HGTV. Though I think she should have permanently mounted the two together, for safety. It made it look similar to an old china hutch. It looked pretty cute.

I had so much fun this weekend. The only thing better than getting great deals on cool yard sale stuff, is to get a huge haul of good stuff for free! Just recently I had been wanting to wait and do without the furniture we needed til we could afford nice, new furniture. But now I remind myself that by being thrifty and re-doing old furniture inexpensively, I can help keep down my family's expensive, and still make my home look nice. In a way, I'm "earning" money for us. And if I paint and re-sell some furniture, I will really be earning some money for the family.

Of course, I have to remind my husband of this, when he sees our garage so full of stuff, he can't park in it!! But it's just for a few weeks. ;-)

Kitchen Organization on a Budget

When I organized some of my kitchen drawers, I didn't have the money to buy neat organizing thingies. So I came up with cheap imitations. I used a tall round tin I found at a yard sale with a victorian picture on it, as a container for long-handled cooking utensils, and placed it next to the stove. For the drawer with other cooking utensils, I cut the bottom off some cereal boxes and some soda cases (the long type of box that you can keep in the fridge). The sides were about an inch and a half tall. I put long utensils in one, measuring spoons in another. There is another small box I use for smaller miscellaneous items.

Boxes are great to use in the kitchen, because no one really sees what's in your drawers and cabinets, and if they do, they'll probably marvel at your ingenuity and organizational skills. You can replace them at a later date with wicker baskets or plastic dividers if you want.

To organize some items in my baking cabinet, I'm using plastic jars that my cous cous and peanuts come in. They are sort of square shaped with round lids. I'm using them for brown sugar and shredded coconut so far. I buy this cous cous a lot, so it won't take long to accumulate a lot of them...if I can keep my husband from throwing them away!

I re-organized my tupperware cabinet. My loving husband put it all in a jumble up on the top shelf, which I can NOT reach. So I stacked and organized them, and put the kids' sippy cups on the bottom shelf, so it's all in a place that makes sense.

If you buy the cheap gallon tubs of ice cream at the store, you can save the tubs for keeping cleaning supplies in.

Budget Decorating

I've been making some progress at home. I've organized some drawers, and have turned my attention to some decorating. I really should do more decluttering and organizing first, but I wanted to make the house look nicer too.

We moved here just last fall, and had gotten rid of a lot of the furniture we had (which wasn't much) thinking we'd buy new. Well, the money hasn't been available, meanwhile we're sleeping on mattresses on the floor, eating sitting on the couch, and stacking our clothes in the closets with no drawers to use.

Now that I've accumulated some furniture (see previous post) I have some great plans. I plan to paint all the furniture a nice sage green. Someone from Freecycle is giving me two low, wide dressers, which I plan to also paint green, and paint the knobs white with a spray of flowers on each. Then I'll put them in the dining area, to use for arts and crafts supplies, homeschooling supplies, and kitchen/dining room linens. I have some pieces of wood in the basement that will make great wood shelves. I'll paint them green also and buy some white brackets to put them up, two on each side of the dining area's window. I have a Battenburg lace valance that I'll put over the windows, and I'll buy some matching lace trim to trim the edges of the shelves. Then I'll put some pictures, small religious statues, and small baskets on the shelves.

For the table I'll try to find a nice table cloth, and keep some fresh flowers in a vase. When I get a table, that is! The table and chairs will be green also (cheaper to just get a whole gallon of the green paint for everything).

I'm not sure what to do with the dressers. The kids' clothes are in plastic drawers, stacked in the laundry room. There's no room for both dressers in there because of the clothes rack. I'll probably use one up in our bedroom. Maybe I'll keep the other one in the upstairs hall closet. It's big, like a bedroom closet, and I can keep the kids' bedding in there, and maybe winter coats. We have tons of closet space here.

The bookcase I will put in the computer room. I have many baskets that I am utilizing as decoration and storage througout the house, primarily in the living area.

The other day I took my yard sale and thrift store doilies and pictures and redecorated the living room. I have a set of shelves with religious statues that had become cluttered with Christmas candles, our Nativity set, children's books, etc. I cleaned it off, dusted it (first time ever...seriously, I'm a bad housekeeper, I never dust) redid the decorations. I took some of the smaller picture frames and replaced the tacky pictures with pictures I printed off the computer of my kids. Sad to say, the only picture I had on my walls our whole marriage was one Walmart portrait of my first son when he was a newborn. So for the first time ever, there are now framed pictures, one of each child, in our living room. The top shelf of the unit has a large round doily with the lace draped over the edge, and two tall statues of saints. The next shelf has two smaller statues, a doily with pink flowers embroidered on it, and a small picture of my newborn daughter. The next shelf has a Battenburg lace runner on it, a very small religious statue, and a picture of my almost-two-year-old son. The bottom shelf has a round basket with books for my children. If I ever figure out how to post pictures on my blog, I'll post a picture of the shelves. It was a big improvement.

I also put up a matted framed picture with the Footprints poem on it, and another with a poem about marriage. I added two picture frames with pictures of my oldest son and daughter, next to the larger picture of my first son as a newborn, creating a grouping of pictures, which looks much better than a single lonely picture.

I found an old cheapo plastic wall clock that was in bad shape, banged up from the move. I took off the plastic face, and decided it was to scratched to be saved. The white cardboard face was warped from moisture damage, and stained as well. I printed off a piece of paper with a light green scrollwork background, then fed it back into the printer and printed off a clock face from the internet, and put it into the clock. I used double sided tape to keep the face in place, and put the clock on the wall in the corner behind the tv, so no one will get too close to see my cheap fix. ;-)

I need to do something with the curtains. I had bought some tan fabric that has a suede look to it, and hung it from tension rods and rings with clips on them. But in the sun, the fabric looks terrible, like a seventies gold! I may use it instead to reupholster our ugly stained cream colored couch. I'm thinking white Battenburg lace curtains, or something similar.

With our budget of...well, next to nothing...I'm trying to be creative. I'm using and re-purposing things that I'm finding as we (still) unpack. I've found some fabric that I may use to make bedding for my daughter, who just got a toddler bed. I also have some toile in a blue print that is soooo cute, and may make an apron out of. If it works out, I'll make a matching one for my daughter.

Now if I can just find a table!!!!

Happenings, and bargains

Journey to Homemaker

The diet isn't going so well...we're tight on money, so I really can't afford to have some of the more expensive foods I need. But I'm trying to watch what I eat. I'm holding at about 243, so that's not too bad.

My husband isn't applying for that job transfer. His bosses said he's not really ready for the next step up yet. We're pretty frustrated though. He liked that job a lot, but then they transferred him to a different building to help them make improvements in that building, and his new boss has a major attitude. Plus they told him he'd be switched to first shift, which we really want, and now they're hinting that it's not going to happen. Plus they didn't give him as big a raise as they'd promised. So he's not feeling very appreciated. All that, plus they raised the insurance rates for the employees' families in order to offer benefits to gay employees' "partners". It's all making him feel like looking for a new job. He'll probably start looking in two months, when his contract is up and he's free to leave. It's too bad, things were going really great there for a while.

I've been taking Zoloft for about six months now for stress and depression, and since the baby was born, I've been feeling better. Probably getting my hormones more balanced, plus the beneficial hormones from breastfeeding. So I've been cutting back on the medication. I'm only taking 2/3 of a dose everyday. I'm doing okay on it, but had a bad couple of days. The hardest thing is weaning myself off it when it's a "good time"...which, as a mom of four, there's never really a "good" time, lol. So when I have a day when a lot of small things go wrong, I start to lose it. I stop cleaning, don't spend as much time with the kids, they get cranky, and it all goes downhill. I'm trying to stay motivated by reading some of my favorite homemaking blogs for inspiration, and that helps.

This past weekend I scored big time at a yard sale. I got a ton of stuff for $24--five wood chairs, two dressers, a bookcase, a sewing basket, and some nicely matted poems in picture frames. The furniture is older and needs to be repainted, but totally worth the money. I hesitated on the ten dollar table, and someone scooped it up! Grrr. Oh well, it was too small, really. I also picked up some matted picture frames and some nice doilies and battenburg lace table runners at the thrift store. Good bargain weekend overall. Now I just need a table!

The Importance of a Pantry

Journey to Homemaker

I'm interrupting my series on modesty to bring you this important message... :-)

It occurred to me that this is a good time to bring up the importance of having a fully stocked kitchen, or better yet, a whole pantry. When Y2K was on the horizon, many people who wouldn't normally stock up food spent a lot of time and money becoming prepared for "the end of the world as we know it". Then when Y2K was a bust, they either ate up their food, gave it away, or let it sit unused to gather dust. What they didn't think about was the every day emergencies that even the most financially sound among us can experience.

It is said that most Americans are only two paychecks away from poverty, and perhaps even homelessness. For those with an available credit line, you may be able to get by for a few months more. There are so many instances where a pantry can become invaluable to the survival of the family...or at the very least, make hard times a little easier. Just think about hurricane Katrina. Many people's homes were wiped out near the coast, and a pantry in that situation might not have helped them immediately, but think of all the thousands of other homes along the coastal states that were in part or in whole, spared. They were stuck there with local supplies low, no supply trucks getting in for a long time, and the supplies that did get in went to the neediest families. If they were in an area with long-term blackouts, credit cards and checks did them no good. Only the cash they had on hand would help them, and chances are there were a lot of gougers out there profitting from the pain of others. The people who were prepared probably didn't suffer nearly as badly. They had plenty of food and water, and if they were smart, a generator and fuel, and other basic necessities. For those who weathered Katrina's aftermath rather well due to their preparedness, I'm sure some of them used their surplus food supply to help others in need.

There are many other emergencies to consider. The family breadwinner dying or becoming incapacitated. Life insurance and disability insurance helps, but most Americans are way under-insured...and how quickly will that money come in? Having basic necessities on hand gives a family time to get their resources together and find a solution. There is a lot of talk nowadays about the bird flu. I don't know if it's something to really worry about or not, but I've heard "experts" say that if it did happen, it would be catastrophic, and world-wide. There would be no other states to send relief, as they would be in the midst of chaos themselves. No one would want to go outdoors or travel for fear of contracting the lethal virus, and the supply chain would come to a standstill. What then?

I know first-hand how important a pantry can be. In the past four and a half years that my husband and I have been married, he had a few bouts of unemployment (we had moved to a very family-friendly area, and shortly afterwards the job market dried up). When he did get a job, we were so far in the hole financially that it took a long time to even begin to dig ourselves out. During those hard times, we had to depend on a local food bank for help. It was very hard, because my husband felt like he'd failed us, and I felt bad going to the food bank because I kept thinking that maybe I was taking food away from people who were even worse off than we were. But we really did need it. When we had more money, we started our food pantry. When another hard time hit, it was much better--the extra food saw us through. Instead of trying to figure out how to buy food and pay for gas (very necessary so my husband could get to work), we were able to get by, because all the money went in the gas tank.

Right now money is pretty tight. We're getting ready for the baby, and there's so much we need (we stupidly sold a lot before our last move, because a lot of it was second hand anyway). Plus me and my "pregnancy brain" forgot to pay some bills, so now we're behind...and since I read Fascinating Womanhood, luckily I don't have to worry about the bills anymore, because I turned that over to my husband. We paid our rent this week, and that used most of it up. It's been very stressful trying to figure out how to get gas in the tank and keep food on the table. We do have enough food, but you know how it is when you run low...you're always missing something needed for every recipe!! So it's an exercise in frustration trying to put a meal together. Luckily we do have baking supplies, and I hit a sale a few weeks ago on chicken--one pound of thighs for a dollar!!!! I stocked up on chicken, though not as much as I'd have liked, only 10 packs ...no freezer space. :-( I'd be a lot better off if I hadn't let the kitchen become a disaster area. Dirty kitchen=no desire to cook!

What I wouldn't give for a pantry right now! I told my husband as soon as we catch up, we're stocking up! I think a lack of food in the house is particularly hard for the wife, because she's the one who has to put the meals together, and worries about it. And if she lets herself express frustration (which I admit to doing this week, I'm afraid) it can make the husband feel that she's criticizing him.

In the future, I'll try to post more about a pantry and what should be in it. In the meantime there are plenty of websites on the web with this kind of info.

Money and babies and money

It must be the nesting thing. I didn't have it too bad with the others, but I feel like I am getting it. I still have 8 weeks to go, and I'm not in a cleaning craze (I wish I was) but I sure am in a buying craze! I can't even go into Baby Depot or Babies R Us, for fear of bankrupting my family! My poor husband is trying to get the bills paid, and I just can't help but get "a few more little things"...which all add up.

I spent money on all the cloth diaper stuff, then I bought a standing cabinet for the kitchen that I'm using as a changing table (I wanted one with doors to keep out the toddlers who'd love to fling clean cloth diapers everywhere). Now it was on clearance for fifty bucks, which was a great deal, but again, it adds up. I'm wanting to get a dining room table, so I can use the card table downstairs for laundry folding and sewing. I have a lot of baby sewing I want to do.

We have so many things to buy, it's not even funny. We've moved a lot, and ended up selling our second hand baby stuff at yard sales. And we've hit a point where there are some things we just don't want to buy second hand anymore, like cribs and baby swings. It seems with cribs especially that either people are asking way too much for them (I mean, you can't sell a two year old crib for more than fifty percent of the original price) or they are several years old, don't have any features on them, and tend to be more rickety than the newer ones. My daughter bangs and rocks in her crib, and she's strong, so a strong crib is a necessity for our family!

I'm trying to find a sleep solution for our baby before she gets here. Usually I co-sleep, but it's gotten to the point that in our queen bed there's barely enough room for us to sleep comfortably as it is, even without a baby. We're both big. Buying a king size isn't possible right now. We've learned the hard way that for us, used beds aren't worth the trouble, it's best to try to save up for a new one. I thought of a co-sleeper or attaching a convertible crib to our bed without the fourth side on it, but we can't do either of these right now. Our mattress is on the floor because we can't fit the queen size box spring up the stairs in our new rental house. Another reason to get a king bed--we can bend a king mattress, and the box spring for a king comes in two pieces. Another possiblity is to get an Amby baby bed, as I mentioned in another post, and keep it next to the bed, bringing her into bed for feeding only. I do have a bassinet, but it's become really rickety with all the moving, and my babies are long so they don't last long in it.

My last resort method may be to use a crib mattress on the floor, butted in between our mattress and the wall. Not the best choice, but probably the only one right now.

It's amazing to me the new inventions they are coming out with now for babies. Some are kind of silly and definitely geared towards yuppies with lots of money to blow on the one baby they plan on having, but a lot of them are so cool. I love the new papasan style Nature's Touch swing from Fisher Price, and the new "bandolier" style baby bags that you can wear across your chest or back. That is great for moms who wear their babies in a sling...ever tried to carry a bulky baby bag, a purse, and a baby in a sling? Something's always falling off your shoulder! I've longed for an easy bag that would work with a sling. This one I would only use when taking just the baby somewhere, but I can transfer my wallet, makeup, and cell phone into it, and can be completely hands free! Other things I'd love to get is the hand-free double breast pump I saw online, and the Breastbottle, which is shaped like a breast. My husband bottle feeds our babies breastmilk once the baby is three months old, when I occassionally want to leave the house for a couple of hours with no one attached to me, lol. I also saw online a quad stroller that was much like a jogging stroller, but fit four. We have a double jogger now, which we love to death, but with four kids, we need another alternative. BUT...four hundred dollars is a little much for a stroller, right now. :-)

Doing okay on the cloth diapering so far, better than the first two times I tried. But I really need more microfleece inserts and some Chinese prefolds. These old Gerber prefolds are so inferior, and not easy to work with. Had a leak today, but I suspect that it was because my husband put the cloth diaper on wrong...I don't think it was snug enough, and it was coming out of the back of the cover. Luckily since he didn't feel like putting on a cloth one the second time, both younger ones did their poop in a disposable, which made my wash easier today! It's still more work than a disposable, but I try to remind myself why we're doing it. If we can get to the point that we have a bunch of Fuzzi Bunz and inserts, I can pre-stuff them and it should streamline the process. Another ten should do it...only another $185! But I can make that back in about two months of cloth diapering. Luckily son number one is doing better on the potty, and often wears underwear when not sleeping. I have a few all in one diapers for him, so if he can stay dry all day, I don't mind if he wets a cloth diaper at night. That will save us some money too.