The Greatest Love/Hate Relationship Story of All Time

   Long before I got pregnant with Grady, a good friend of mine  - a fulltime working mom of two -
inspired me. She is a fantastic mother in many ways. The kind you watch in awe of and think to yourself, "I hope I handle a temper tantrum with that much grace, love and effectiveness when I'm a mother" kind of admiration. She breastfed both of her girls until they were a year old. Every day she stopped by my desk on her way to or from pumping. I had absolutely no real understanding of the level of dedication this involved. (She is now nursing her brand new THIRD angel baby girl :) )
   When I got pregnant, I knew I wanted to breastfeed and I set my goal at one year - recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics for optimal growth, development and allergy deterrence. In addition to all those benefits, there is no greater bond between mom and baby than the one established during nursing. The double bonus is the average formula-fed baby consumes about $1,800 in formula in one year. So I consider that we saved that amount by breastfeeding this long.
   Because I work full-time, the only way I was able to succeed at this was by pumping. My pump of choice was the double-electric Medela in the back-pack style bag. **Shout out to Christina Jett for getting me a donated pump from a close friend! I saved $300 there. (I bought all new parts, attachments and tubing. Essentially I was just using the motor and bag second-hand, so don't be grossed out.) The other key piece here is a safe and private location to pump. I work in a building full of cops but luckily our purchasing department is run by some awesome ladies who loaned me their storage closet, electric outlet and a comfy chair twice a day for 9 months.
   I love that I have an amazing bond with my son. I love that we saved $2,000 by sticking with boobie milk. I love that my son has excellent health and no known allergies. But breastfeeding - pumping in particular - had its challenges...moments of frustration, tears, exhaustion, pain and defeat.
   Unless you nurse exclusively, which is impossible as a working mom, you will have to pump. Anytime you're away from the baby, you are with your pump. A trusty side kick. I pumped just about anywhere you can think of. Storage closets, hotel rooms, the bathroom stall inside a church, a locker room at an Emergency Operations Center during training, friends' guest rooms, the back and passenger seat of cars, a Luke Bryan concert, the driver seat stuck in traffic in the pouring rain, and even the bow of a boat during a fishing tournament. It would surprise you how discretely us ladies can get with all that practice! We find our life revolving around our full and leaky boobs. And our pump bag. Wash the parts. Pack them up. Are there batteries in there in case I can't find an outlet? How many milks storage bags do I have left...
   On a few occasions I forgot pieces I needed or forgot the bag alltogether and had to stop what I was doing mid-morning and go all the way home to get it. You cannot just keep working and take care of it later. There is no later. We live and die by the nursing/pumping schedule!! Then there are the days when your schedule is so jam-packed you realize you've gone 5 hours instead 3 without relief and you are DYING to have a rendezvous with that tiny dreaded machine.
   Grady is now eating "food food" including an embarassing amount of cheese and carbs...just like his mother. No judgement. At this point in motherhood, it makes me both elated and slightly depressed to say I am ending this relationship with the black back pack. I will no longer be the bag lady dragging in my purse, pump bag and lunch box cooler to keep the milk cold. I will just carry a purse!! ::happy jig::

I KNOW other working nursing moms feel this way. Stay strong! It is awesome for you, baby and your wallet. A hilarious article --->  Why Working Moms Are Frenemies with Their Breast Pumps

Stash Cash for Traveling

   Once upon a time, we traveled as often as we could. Before Grady (B/G), we took to the world by air, land and sea - cruised to the Bahamas, took the train up the coast from Florida to New York, and salmon fishing in Alaska! If you want to see the world, please understand that having a baby doesn't squash your hopes and dreams. It just puts them on hold for a little while.
   In the last year, the farthest we've been from home was Georgia and the baby went with us. We've had some really sweet and fun little family vacations like St. Pete Beach. But now that Grady is almost a year old and I am no longer his primary food source, we are itching to get away. So where to? Europe!! Some of our very dear friends are stationed in England serving in the Air Force. They will be there until May 2015 so we decided to visit them in March 2015. Why March? To snag a good rate before the spring season prices are jacked up AND in March, you catch the very tail of winter and early spring so the weather is not too bad. (It is England so rain boots and a trench coat will still be on my packing list!) Europe's "off season" is October - April. For awesome tips on saving money while traveling to/in Europe go here and more tips here.
    Now to discuss how we will afford this insanely expensive trip. First things first. If you are a traveler, get a credit card that earns you points/miles. I researched rewards credit cards extensively. The best I could find to meet our needs was the Capital One Venture card. You earn 2 points on the dollar and there are no foreign transaction fees so when you travel outside the U.S., there's not a hidden fee every time you buy something. Each point is $.01. We maximize our point earnings by putting everything on our credit card. EVERYTHING. We actually never use our debit cards. Any purchase, big or small, goes on the credit card including some of our utilities. Car insurance, doctor visits, gas, groceries, all of it. We pay it off every month as to not acquire debt or pay interest. This is an easy way to earn money back on things you buy anyway. So in just 5 months, we earned enough points to save $530 on our airfare to England. Score!
   If you do any kind of side job that brings in money not considered part of your regular income, I recommend putting it aside for travel (or whatever you might be saving for). In April, I started consulting for Pampered Chef. I've done 5 parties in 6 weeks and earned $560 in commission. Every dime of that is going into the Europe fund. When I started PC I decided all my earnings would go toward this trip so who knows what I'll be able to stash away between now and then! Visit my page to support the biz :)
   This goes for any extra income. If you have a garage sale, a running tab at a consignment store you can cash out, selling homemade stuff on Etsy - tuck it away!

How Our House Calendar Will Save Us $$ (and Sanity)

   We are almost a year into parenthood and finally nailing out a system that works for us. Up until about a week ago, our house was in constant disarray. Clutter everywhere. Clean laundry piled high and waiting to be folded. Produce spoiling before we had a chance to eat it. Rushing to pick out clothes, pack lunch, school and work bags just moments before needing to leave the house. Not only is that not the environment I want to live and love in, but it was adding stress and tension to our marriage.
    I am not a fan of reinventing the wheel so I browsed the beloved Pinterest for some home organizing ideas. Enter stage right, the Lowe Family Calendar. Dusting off my scrapbooking arsenal, I assembled this beauty. Space to fill in  appointments, reminders, etc. during the week, a menu and a love note section. Colored dry erase markers allow me to put in writing what exactly my husband needs to help with. So no more "Well I just don't know what you need me to do..." shenanigan. In a separate frame, is a chore list with things that need to be done daily, weekly and monthly. Each person will have a few things to finish before bed time to keep the house running without getting to an overwhelming state of chaos.

  So how is this saving us money you ask? Previously when I did my grocery shopping on Sundays, I put anything in the cart I thought we might need for the week. Then, each afternoon I would think of something to make and rummage through the fridge and pantry trying to assemble dinner. We were wasting a lot of fresh produce this way because we couldn't eat it all before it went bad. I was overbuying pretty much everything. The average grocery bill was between $150-200.
   By creating a menu and only buying exactly the items needed for those 6-7 meals, and by taking regular inventory of the pantry, I can minimize the grocery bill drastically. My trip to the store this past Sunday was only $87. This is a pretty significant savings!

   Another way is using the calendar for reminders. We always forget to change the A/C filter until we notice the house is warmer than it should be for the setting we have it on. When we check, of course the filter is clogged and the AC is cranking away and we're still sweating. This causes your electric bill to be much higher than it needs to be if you just change your filter regularly. Add reminders to pay bills by the deadline, return Redbox rentals, cancel subscriptions, etc. so you never get charged late fees for silly things. I couldn't put a dollar amount on this kind of savings but it's obvious this system will prevent us from wasting food, energy and money in the long run.

Sweet Deals @ Wholesale

   We have a Sam's Club membership. Not everyone should buy everything in bulk unless you have unlimited storage space and a chunk of change to front buying supplies on a bi-annual basis. Who has the space for 97 rolls of Bounty? It's such a deal though! BUT if you can figure out how the wholesale system works best for your household, there is a lot of money to be saved that way. And wholesale clubs usually carry high-end name brand products so you can score a 64 oz bottle of salon-quality shampoo and a pair of Seven jeans in the same place. #winning

   In my most recent trip I found 3 deals that made me do a happy jig. Here they are:

I was looking for a Keurig (for the spindown on coffee costs and why I chose to buy one click here ). Bed Bath & Beyond had the Keurig 65 Signature model listed for $179.99. Everyone knows BBB is the priciest place for things like this but I had a 20% coupon so it would have been a good deal. However, in my wholesale adventures this weekend I see the SAME Keurig model in a BONUS pack including 36 K-cups and the reusable filter already included - a $27 value by itself - at Sam's Club for $129 plus an extra $20 off instantly. So of course I loaded it in my cart as fast as possible. It was mine for $109!  

On the baby aisle, Pampers Cruisers are already a good deal at wholesale price unless you have more than $4 per case in coupons. (You can't use coupons at Sams) A case of size 4, 136 count was $39.98 with a $6 instant savings. This comes out to $.25 per diaper. A savings of at least $6.80 per case if I bought them anywhere else including Wal-Mart, Sam's sister store. ::loading cart::

Another steal was in the health and beauty section. I *love* Neutragena pink grapefruit face wash. They just so happened to have a double pack for $13.98 = $6.99 per bottle compared to $8.99 at Wal-mart. And the combo pack had a $3.50 instant savings making them $5.24 per bottle. Done. In the cart.

The key to shopping at Sam's, especially in the health and beauty section, is you cannot always count on the same things in stock. Sometimes they have the hairspray I like. Sometimes they don't but then they will have the razors I like. It's hit or miss. But it makes sense because if last month I bought a twin pack of hairspray, I likely do not need it again this month. But I will need something else that wasn't there last month. The Sam's Club Instant Savings is going on through June 8th so if you are a member, get there fast before it ends or shop online using this link!

 

The Great Coffee Debate - Traditional vs. Keurig

   This morning, our beautiful red Kitchen Aid coffee maker that was a wedding present finally died. It gave us 4+ solid years of morning pick-me-up. Now that we must lay it to rest, the question is do we replace it with another traditional coffee pot, or the ever popular Keurig? After polling Facebook and getting a unanimous vote for the Keurig...I did some research. I know the K-cups are hella-expensive. But I just learned there is a reusable cup insert to put your every day brew in there. So we can keep buying the giant can of Folgers French or Columbian medium roast at Sam's Club for $9.88. Holler. I also believe this will cut down on waste because I brew more coffee than I drink, religiously, every day. Why I continue to scoop the same amount of grounds is beyond me. I only drink half of my Tervis tumbler full. Without fail. #wasteful The Keurig reusable cup holds .3 oz of grounds for one cup of coffee. I was using an entire ounce (2 tbs. scoops) for a Tervis of coffee. So lets say in the future I use .5 oz (1 scoop), so it's still strong but I'm only brewing the actual amount I drink. I would still be cutting down on the waste. It seems like a no brainer.

   Just for personal education, I crunched the numbers to share with fellow coffee lovers. Here they are:

Loose Grounds: Folgers 27.8 oz can at Publix runs around $11.99. You can score the 35 oz. can at Sam's Club for only $9.88 so I definitely recommend that steal. You can get the reusable cup insert at Bed Bath & Beyond for $12.99 and a double pack of reusable filters for $8.99 or a pack of 50 disposable filters for $4.99. Use a BBB coupon for additional savings :)

K-Cups: First of all, there are 100 different brands of K-cups and 150 different flavors and roasts. The average 18 pack of Folgers medium roast runs $11.50 at Publix. Starbucks 16 pack is $12.99. Occassionally you can find $4 off coupons in the paper for Starbucks. Wait for a sale on them and sweep in there like a ninja with all your coupons. Otherwise, I would just go run-of-the-mill coffee to save money. Again, Sam's has the better deal of 80 K-cups for $34.98.

Conclusion: The Keurig will cut down on waste, thus saving money. It's also very convenient if only one person wants coffee or if everyone in your house (or guests) like different brews and flavors. Doing your own scoops from a can of loose grounds using the insert will cost you about $.14 per cup of coffee. Purchasing maufactured K-cups even at the bargain price is still more expensive at $.44 per cup. If there are 2 people in your household drinking coffee every morning, you save $4.20/wk or $16.80/mo on coffee just by doing the reusable cup and packing it yourself.

**If you want a breakdown of brewing at home vs. buying a daily latte from a drive thru, check out my "Coffee Costing You Lots?" blog from when I first starting my savings project. http://rubbingpennies.blogspot.com/2012/01/coffee-costing-you-lots_09.html

Buying vs. Making Baby Food

   In our house we eat (*mostly*) fresh and healthy foods. I buy organic dairy (always) and everything else organic when it's on sale. Organic baby food is stupid expensive. But I don't want to feed my son jars of chemicals and preservatives. So I choose to make his food. It is significantly less expensive than buying it - unless it's on sale and you have a stack of coupons - and it's really not that hard. I invested in a bagging station made by Infantino that I scored on clearance at Target. $15 for the station and $7 for a box of 50 bags and caps. #winning

   I strictly breastfed until Baby G was 6 months old. That was a HUGE savings by itself because the average formula-fed baby consumes $1,200 in formula in one year. Ouch. So when he was ready for solids I started with plain sweet potato, butternut squash, carrots, green beans and sweet peas. Most of those went over well except for the peas. ::bleh:: After introducing fruits and saving berries for last, I started experimenting with recipes. Spinanaberry = 1 bag steamed fresh spinach, 1 whole banana, 8 whole strawberries = 10 bags of baby food. **This is G's favorite flavor and mine as well because spinach is loaded with all the best nutrients. The banana sweetens it enough to make him nuts for it. Don't waste your time fighting babies to eat peas! Spinach is where it's at!! You can add apples or banana to just about anything to sweeten it to baby's satisfaction and still sneak in the good stuff they need.

   Recipes I tried that bombed: Sweetpoturkey = Sweet potato and turkey. It tasted fine when I made it but after sitting in the freezer for a few weeks, the meat flavor became overwhelming and it was disgusting. Cinnappleturkey - Apples, cinnamon and cooked ground turkey. Same outcome. Yuck.

Savings breakdown: The average 4 oz. bag of organic baby food is $1.39. They range from $1.09 up to $2 per bag. To make my own I bought spinach: $1.99/large bag, strawberries $1.50/half carton, and a banana for $.59. To make 10 - 4 oz. bags of Spinanaberry cost me $4.09 ($.40 per bag). (The cost of different recipes vary but this is just one example) Currently Grady eats a whole bag at every meal, $1.20 a day. If I was buying organic baby food in the same size bags, he would be consuming $4.17 each day. This is a savings of $20.79 every week and $83.16 every month. Just by making my own baby food. Wash it. Steam it. Process/puree it. I label bags with the date it was made, the flavor and his name so I can send them to school. I keep a variety of flavors in stock in the freezer and whip up another batch when I run low.

P.S. I do stock up on store bought organic baby food when it's a good sale. They have better flavors (I'm not a chef) and it saves me some time. But overall, I highly recommend making your own.

Back on the Wagon

  

I am finally getting back on the blog train after almost a year hiatus. It's easy to fall off the savings wagon because it can be tedious and time consuming to think about saving $.50 here, $3 there. But at the end of the month, it matters. All the dollars and cents matter!
   My new obsession is diaper deals. Those suckers are expensive! If I can find a sale on diapers and use coupons, stand back while I do a happy jig. Check out this awesome trip to Publix where I was able to double stack my coupons on a Pampers sale and saved $77+ JUST ON DIAPERS!
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Diapers are one of those things (like razors) that are worth the money you spend on them. You really want the landing pad responsible for holding in nuclear baby poo and 30+ oz/day of milk and other liquids to be a quality item. I currently buy Pampers (only on sale and w/ coups) because I believe they are tested, tried and true. All other brands have let me down at this point. I have a 5 box stash right now, but when I run low again, I do plan to try the Target brand UP & UP - I've heard good things. We shall see.

Speaking of spending more money than you should every damn time you go there, Target has a Cartwheel app for your phone that allows you to "clip" digital coupons and put them in your cart. Then at checkout, they scan a single barcode that calculates all your coupon savings. This is in addition to in-store sales and other manufacturer coupons you might already have! Get on it!