Budgeting and setting goals

Inspired by my cousin, who runs a household of 5.5 kids in Southern California, I thought it might be a good idea to start paying more attention to our budget.  Okay, to have a budget at all.  And then we bought a new car.  It couldn't have been timed better.

I'm linking up with Frugal Friday!!

Last month we wrote down all our spending and kept a running list on the fridge.  We also included a (much shorter) column for incoming money.  This list didn't include bills or paychecks.

Yesterday, I did some math and here's what I learned.

We tried to keep our spending (other than bills) to $800 for the month.  We went over that by just a little, which I was actually pretty impressed by since we weren't really paying that much attention or trying to save money too much.  (Plus if we hadn't bought a new car that costs $60 to fill the gas tank, we probably could have stayed within that $800 limit.)  But most of that spending, 78%, to be exact, went to groceries.  This included spending at Target, because mostly I buy things we need at Target... like diapers, dish soap, or baby food.

1. We spend a LOT of money on groceries.  I could probably cut that down a little just by paying closer attention to things.  I'm not ready to jump on the coupon train yet (I don't have the time or the energy between taking care of Sadie and being pregnant), but I can buy more generic brands.  We are also going to try to be better about making a menu and using stuff that's already in our cupboards.  We kind of fell off the wagon when I got pregnant, and I truly believe making a menu helps keep your grocery bill down.  I don't want to spend more than $550 on groceries this month.

So, then I went through our bills and wrote all those down and added them up.  We had a lot of random bills this month that aren't recurring, but I kind of think we're gonna have a few of those every month.  Buying a car didn't help with that.  Plus we paid for Yuri to get neutered this month.

2. Our electricity bill is TOO HIGH.  A few months ago I signed up for this plan where electrcity is more expensive between 3:00-6:00, so that other times of the day it is cheaper.  So, I've been really trying to turn the AC off during that time and "powering down" everywhere else.  We don't start dinner until 6:00, and last month we saved $40-something and this month it was over $50.  The problem is that we don't have a programmable thermostat, so I have to remember to turn it down at 3:00 and I don't always.  So, this month, I'm going to set an alarm on my phone to remember to turn off the AC at 3:00, and all other times of the day, I'm going to set the AC to 80 degrees, instead of 78 degrees where it's been always.  The goal is to get that electricity bill under $200 this month...which will be our last hot month since in October things start cooling down.

We had to finance a bit of the van, luckily though, not as much as we put down.  And we got a REALLY great interest rate, considering our credit.  Our car payment is $300-something a month, but we really want to pay it off in a year, so our goal is to pay $1000 on it each month instead, which is basically what we were trying to save each month in order to buy a new car...remember how that came upon us sooner than we expected?

3. We should still be able to put $1000 in savings every month even after paying $1000 on the van.  If we can get that van paid off in a year, we can then start shopping for another new car for Brian.  Basically, my paychecks are going to van-payments, then what's left over + Brian's travel/mileage reimbursement will go to savings.  I can't keep my closet/room/house/kitchen organized, but I have a good handle on my bank account!

4. As you know from last week, I got out the cloth diapers and muddled through them all to find which ones are still usable.  I'm hoping that by using those the majority of the time on Sadie I can shrink the diaper bill.  So, I'm making a goal to not buy any diapers this month.

5. This isn't really a goal for this month, but for October, and maybe not even until November... but we have been buying our Bountiful Basket each week, which is a good deal on produce as long as you don't get 2 heads of cauliflower, 18 chiles, and half a dozen onions every week (who can use those up so fast?!).  Buying through the food co-op saves us money, but in October, the food rescue starts back up and we can get twice as much produce as Bountiful Baskets for about the same price.  We now have a freezer and a Food Saver, so we're going to start preserving, saving, and using what's in the freezer (even if it's all cauliflower and onions).

We feel very blessed that we both have jobs that support us well, we have no mortgage, and we were able to put a LOT of money down on our new van.  Being able to manage money is something that definitely takes practice, but it's a good habit to be in to pay attention to your spending so that you can always be saving.  I would encourage anybody reading this to start writing things down, and look at your spending habits, set some realistic goals, and start saving!! 

Good luck everybody!

Let's get dirty with Cloth Diapers

My cousin Mary, One Realistic Mom, has started a blog-hop called Frugal Friday!

So, I am working hard to be part of it and show her some bloggy love.  I'm going to write about cloth diapers and what they mean to me...and to my wallet.

Let's get down and dirty and talk about the Cons first:

Cloth diapers are work.  You have to be on top of the laundry or you'll run out.  And once they're clean you have to sometimes do some work to get them back in working order (stuff them, fold them so they'll fit in the drawer, etc).

Then there's the poop issue.  It's not a big deal when your baby is breastfed only, breastmilk poop can go in the dryer.  However, if they're on formula, or once they start eating solids (which aren't really solid, they're just liquids of other foods), you have to spray off the diapers before washing them.  This requires an attachment to the toilet called a diaper sprayer, and if you can swing it, an extra diaper pail in the bathroom so you don't have to carry the dripping wet diaper through the house back to the nursery where the changing table is. Oh, and this process can often cause poop-water to get on you.  So, if the idea of that makes you dry-heave, then just forget about cloth diapers at all!!!

And they smell.  Especially if you don't launder them every couple of days.  But even then, the amonia from the pee tends to get stuck in certain kinds of fabric (don't buy/make flannel cloth diapers!!) and then you have to strip them to get the amonia out, which requires soaking them in certain laundry detergents that are meant for cloth diapers, or, what I've found works well, is the fish tank cleaner that's meant to get amonia out of your fish bowl!!

Oh, and laundry detergent.  You can't just use any kind.  It needs to be gentle, or if you really want to splurge, you can buy special cloth diaper laundry soap.  Or you can get the kind of laundry soap that they sell at Whole Foods that is made from orange peels and lye or something...totally natural.  Or, you can make your own...but I've never tried.

So, after knowing all this...why would anyone want to use cloth diapers??!!!  They seem like a royal pain in the pooper!

Money.  They really will save you money, and that's the kicker right there.  It costs me almost $30 to buy Sadie about 2 weeks worth of disposable diapers (and I buy the Target brand, which are definitely the cheapest out there!).  That's $60 a month on average.  That's $720 a year (don't be impressed, I had to get out my calculator to do that!).  And let's just say your child is in diapers about 3 years, that's... over $2000!!  For the CHEAP diapers!!!

When I was pregnant with Sadie I went all gung-ho for cloth diapers and decided I could make my own.  I mean, I know how to sew and they can't be THAT hard, right?  The tricky part was finding the right kind of fabric.  I mean, you have to have safe-for-baby's-skin fabric on the inside, but not only that, the inside fabric has to "wick" moisture away from the skin so baby isn't wet all the time.  Then you have to buy the PUL, which is the fancy way of saying fabric-that's-been-laminated-on-one-side-so-it's-waterproof.  But, once you find this... easy.

I also bought some cloth diapers, to supplement what I had made, and also to get an idea for pattern/size (because really, I was making it up as I go along...some worked better than others).

So, last weekend, I pulled out all the cloth diapers I own to get ready for baby, and because I want to try to get Sadie back in cloth to save us some money.  I had NO IDEA how many I really had.  I was overwhelmed by the mountain of diapers I had just created on Sadie's bed, and I called Brian for help in organizing them.  I probably have about 2 dozen in sizes newborn, 0-3 months, 3-9 months, and 9+ months, plus I had a separate mountain that I had saved, but that I probably won't ever use again, but I'm not ready to throw them away quite yet.  It was when Sadie was about 18 months that I decided to buy a bunch of cloth diapers that adjust in size (so I can use them for the next baby, of course).  Luckily, these still fit her.  And after she turns 3, I believe the state will pay for her diapers, so at that point it doesn't matter if they fit her.  (Although, because for me, it's kind of about the environment and making trash, I may try to make some even bigger diapers...I found a pattern for youth-adult size)

All in all, I've probably spent over $1000 on cloth diaper supplies, and cloth diapers themselves, maybe even over $2000, who knows.  But I am using the same ones for the next kid.  And I will probably use them again on the third.  Oh, and here's the best part... when I'm done having kids, the diapers that are still usable and in good shape, I can sell used to other cloth diapering Mamas!!  So, really, all the cost is up front, which scares people initially, but with baby #2 and #3, that's where we're gonna see the savings!

And there you have it, folks!  My tip for Frugal Friday.  If you can get past the convenience of disposables in order to save a little money (an honestly, how convenient is coupon clipping and organizing and remembering to use-ing?  But people are all about that!), then I say give it a try!!

Oh, and we still use some disposables...like when we leave the house, and at night.  But WAAAAYYYYY fewer than if we weren't using any cloth at all!  So, don't feel like a traitor or a hypocrite if you only go half-way!

Cute, right?