Toddler’s Toy from Recyclables

I’m at a stage in my life where I have more time than money. I have found that being creative can save me a few bucks, and entertain my boy, Tigger. Here is a simple toy I made from things we had around the house.

A family member gave me a stack of old cards they weren’t using that Tigger could play with. I decided to make a container that he could drop the cards in and then dump out and start again.

I found an old corn meal container to use. I started by cutting a slit in the lid.

I could’ve stopped here, but I wanted to make the container a little more colorful. So I added construction paper and personalized it. I then dropped all the cards inside and let Tigger play to his heart’s content.

Now Tigger has a fun, colorful toy to play with made from recyclable materials. It keeps him and our budget happy, it works for me.

See more ideas at Works for Me Wednesday hosted by We Are That Family.

Storing and Rotating Children’s Clothing

This week, once again, it was time to rotate my little, chubby, 5-month old Sweetpea’s wardrobe. We’ve been blessed with a multitude of outfits and hand-me-downs from friends and family, and in our little apartment I had concerns about storing all of hers and Tigger’s clothes. I used to dread rotating Tigger’s baby clothes because I always felt disorganized. But somehow, with Sweetpea it wasn’t so daunting. Here are a few tips I’ve learned.

1) Decide how many clothes you really need. I know people who only have seven shirts and seven pants for each child, (plus I assume pajamas). Such limited outfits keeps their laundry at bay and their storage and expenses minimized. I’ll admit to having more than seven outfits for each kid, and I’m always amazed at how many outfits I put into storage or donate when rotating that clothing. Perhaps that’s because I keep Sweetpea in pajamas all day in the winter, or let Tigger run around without a shirt on in the summer year-round. These habits are things I need to take into consideration, when deciding how many clothes to keep.

2) Find a storage solution that works for you. Starting out I put Tigger’s clothes in empty diaper boxes, and stored them under his crib. But then I heard about the big Ziplok bags and decided to give them a try. They worked for me and the best thing was that I could easily view the clothing inside, and their smaller size limited the amount of clothes I would save. I store them under cribs, beds, and dressers due to the size of my apartment. My only complaint is that they don’t retain their smaller shape after being shrunken. I also have a couple of sizes of clothing stored in rubbermaid boxes.

3) Keep Track of What You Have

Last summer, I noticed Tigger was outgrowing his clothes and began looking through his size 2 pile. I was surprised to find only a few shirts and a couple of pants, and discovered I had dropped the ball on keeping track of his clothes. We had received hand-me-downs that only ran up to size 2 and I didn’t realize he didn’t have any more clothes. Luckily it was the start of garage sale season and I was able to find some cheap clothes. I tried to keep track of all our clothes in a catalog grouped by size, but I invariably lost the list, or forgot to record new clothes. I’m going to give this a go again this summer when garage sale season comes around so that I am not buying clothes that I already have. If I still can’t manage to keep a list of clothes I’ll just have to go through that size and make a quick  tally of what is missing.

4) Sort, Wash and Store New Clothes Right Away

Soon after giving birth to Sweetpea a good friend of mine blessed me with a trunkload of girl’s clothing ranging from newborn to preschool. I was very grateful but a little daunted with the enormity of the pile. Even though I wasn’t getting much done around the house due to Sweetpea, I made it a priority to take care of the clothing right away. That way I wouldn’t misplace any of the clothes and they would be kept in good condition.

I’m sure as time goes by our clothing system will change, but as for now this system is working for us and keeps all our children’s clothing manageable.

Saving for the Expected: The Baby Fund

I often hear the old adage, “Save for a rainy day”, in reference to unexpected occurrences such as unemployment, health issues, and accidents. But I rarely hear people express the need to save for major expected expenses that can just as easily derail your budget and potentially lead to unwanted debt.

Last year we were fortunate enough to bring baby Sweet Pea into our home. Although we have great health insurance, we still knew that we had to make room in our budget for medical expenses  associated with her birth.

Shortly after we found out we were pregnant, I started doing my research on the estimated costs for a routine delivery in our area. I looked into various doctors, hospitals, etc. and after extensive online research and numerous phone calls I felt confident estimating the cost to deliver our baby.

We put our emergency fund savings on hold for a few months and funneled all of our savings into “The Baby Fund”. After this was fully funded we returned to building up our emergency fund.

My estimation for the cost of her birth, was roughly accurate. The only reason we had to dip a little into savings was an extra day in the NICU.

Knowing that our baby was paid for without going into debt, allowed us to fully enjoy her without worrying about finances.

Garage Sale Season is Here!

One of our family’s favorite things to do in late spring and summer is attend garage sales. We can usually find some good deals and enjoy spending the time together. Here are a few things we do to get the most from garage sales. You can also skip down to the bottom of the post to see our latest finds.

1. Set aside a certain amount of cash each month specifically for garage sales
This month we set aside $14 for garage sales. We already had $11 left over from garage sales last month. The $11 doesn’t include clothing or furniture. We have set aside $20/mo for clothing and in the summer we buy most of that from garage sales. Since we moved into an apartment with less storage space, we have also set some money aside for shelving which we plan to pick up at a garage sale or off of craigslist.com. I simply divide my cash into different envelopes labeled “garage sales”, “clothing” and “furniture”. And when the money’s gone, it’s gone.

2. Know your target price on items
As I have gone to a few sales in the area this year I am starting to set my target price on items like shoes, clothes and children’s books. I try to get clothes for $0.25-$0.50 a piece and will pay no more than $1 for shoes. We are also trying to build our children’s library and my target price for books is $0.25-$0.50. Since I could go overboard easily on clothes and books, having a target price helps limit my spending.

3. Make a ListI find this especially helpful when trying to buy children’s clothes 1-2 seasons in advance. We have been very blessed to have been giving most of my son’s clothing up until 24 months, but one day I realized he had no clothing beyond 24 months. Since his 2nd birthday is this summer I recognized I had to get busy building his wardrobe during garage sale season. I have since compiled a list of the number of shirts, pants, etc he has in each size so that I know exactly what types of clothes to look for at garage sales.

4. Plan your route and if possible attend neighborhood or multi-family sales
On mornings when we are going to garage sales, we look up listings from our local newspaper online and check out craigslist.com for sales in our area. We highlight any neighborhood or multi-family sales to save on gas and time. We also take into account the areas where sales are. Since we live close to some wealthier suburbs we can often find high-quality items for a cheap price. After we have chosen the sales we print out a multi-destination map from mapquest and head on the road.

5. Leave early and bring snacks for kids
Although we rarely are out the door by 8:00 AM, we try to leave before 9:00 to beat the summer heat. In addition, leaving early means we make it back home by lunchtime and have a happier child. We have also learned the importance of bringing snacks for the road.

We have made great memories as a family attending garage sales and finding steals. Sometimes, like this morning, I just drive to a neighborhood garage sale and walk around to get some exercise and enjoy the weather. On these days if I happen to find a deal then great, if not I’m not too concerned.

This morning I went to a local neighborhood garage sale and picked up the following items in the top photo for a total of $10.

Here was the breakdown of the prices:

Baby BJorn Carrier: $3
Baby Bath: $1
Child’s Sleeping Bag: $2
Boy’s Snow Boots: $1
Boy’s Dress Shoes: $1
3 Bottles: $0.25/ea
2 Cans of Formula: $0.50/can
Girl’s Dress: $0.25

I was very excited to find the carrier and reasonably priced snow boots for my son. I am planning on breastfeeding our next baby but I picked up some bottles and formula just in case in an emergency we would need formula on hand. One of the lessons I learned from this week was to remember to check the condition of each item. After I got home I found that the sleeping bag’s zipper was broken. For only $2 I can’t complain since I could maybe (?) fix it, but I still should have checked the condition at the time. Overall though I thought I did great for $10.

The Simple Life: Using Creativity to Solve Problems

Since our son is allergic to milk, eggs and peanuts I struggle with feeding him enough protein. It doesn’t help that he usually spits out any chicken or hamburger that I try to sneak in. Then I had a revelation, why not make eating chicken fun?

When we went on our trip last week we introduced our son to the joys of dunking his french fries in ketchup. I usually cover our son’s chicken nuggets in ketchup but I had never tried to show him how to dip it himself. So, when Tim made some homemade chicken nuggets for our son, I squirted some ketchup in a bowl and demonstrated the dipping technique. He loved it and ate every piece of chicken!

Now I know this is a simple remedy that probably every other mother in the world would have thought of before me, but it worked and that is what counts. I think in many areas of our life if we try to be a little more creative we can find simple solutions to our everyday problems.

Dollar Tree Cookie Cutters

I was so excited. I found this set of Christmas cookie cutters for $1. Now we can make some fun decorations to hang on the tree without worrying about our little boy getting into trouble.

The Simple Life

Part of achieving simplicity is counting your blessings and being content with what you have. Making a list of what you are grateful for truly puts life into perspective.

Every Thanksgiving I make a thankful list. By doing this I feel so much gratitude for what I have and I realize the most important things in life aren’t money or things. Below are twenty of the things which I am grateful for, and this is just the beginning.

• God
• Family
• Friends
• Health
• Youth
• Education
• Freedom
• Food on the table and in the cupboards
• Warm clothes
• Shelter
• Running water
• Hot showers
• Sight
• Hearing
• Running car
• Technology
• Beautiful world
• Husband’s employment
• Savings
• Opportunity to stay at home and raise my child

Homemade Baby Wipes

One day I would like to try using cloth diapers and baby wipes to save money. But since we live in an apartment without washer/dryer hookups–and have to pay for every load we wash–cloth diapers wouldn’t be economical at the moment. So until we move into an apartment with hookups I’ve had to find other ways to save on diapers and wipes.

One of the easiest ways I’ve found to cut diapering costs is to make your own baby wipes. I got sick of paying $7.00-$8.00 for wipes every month on top of what we paid for diapers. So I gave making our own wipes a try and have enjoyed the savings!

Below is the recipe for homemade baby wipes and the cost savings of homemade wipes compared to Wal-mart Generic Unscented wipes.

Recipe for Homemade Baby Wipes

Items needed:
1 durable paper towel roll
1 1/2-2 cups water
1 Tablespoon baby shampoo
1/2 Tablespoon baby or mineral oil
Round wipes container

Directions:
Cut the paper towel roll in two pieces that resemble toilet paper rolls. Pull the inner core out of both small rolls. Put one roll in the round container and the other away for future use. Mix the 2 cups water, shampoo and oil in separate container. Pour mixture over towels. Let sit 5-10 minutes. Pull out center sheet from roll to use.

Cost:

Wal-Mart generic wipes
480 Wal-Mart generic wipes=$7.50

Homemade Wipes:
1/2 Scott Paper Towels Roll 60 sheets= $0.27 (8 rolls/$4.29 on sale)
1/2 T Mineral Oil=$0.03 ($1.52/16 oz)
1 T Baby Wash=$0.04 ($1.18/15 oz)

Total cost for homemade wipes =$0.34
$0.34/60 sheets=$0.006/wipe

480 Wal-Mart baby wipes=$7.50
480 homemade baby wipes=$2.72
Savings=64%

As you can see there are substantial savings in investing a little extra time and making your own baby wipes. Of course the savings will depend on the prices of items in your area, but even if you can’t find the ingredients on sale you’ll still save at least 40%-70% by making your own wipes instead of buying generic.