eBay Addiction

Of all the things that I have ever done, one of the funnest and most addicting things I started doing to reverse the cash flow in our house was to start selling stuff on eBay. This financial plan was not well thought through, and I am sure to have some level of regret at tax time, but I have to say that cleaning the ever present junk out of my house and making money while doing it is very appealing!

I suppose that I could have just had a garage sale in the front yard. I could have sold the empty Avon bottles and hair pieces posing as tissue box covers in person, but lets face the facts. I'm lazy and avoid generating any physical effort if at all possible (and there's way too much packing and unpacking of items and moving of furniture in the yard sale business).

Here's some more good news... I have made a total of three new friends whom work at the local post office, and I'm almost on a first name basis with my mail carrier! Befriending government employees can never be a bad thing, right?

Now, I can't tell you that there are no crazy people that wander into the cyber yard I set up in My eBay. In reality, there are way more crazy people online that I have ever met in any city in Texas. However, atleast I have the comfort of not smelling their garlicky breath as they call me explicit names and threaten with retaliation, right? I can get let my frustrations with them out in the privacy of my home before driving to the post office to visit my new friends.

Money Efficient Don'ts

In an effort to save some moola we bought some cheap DollarTree batteries for our two month old's swing. Bad idea. He's really irritated with the weak G-force. I really think he would prefer that I take him to Six Flags, and to be honest, he's gonna make the height requirement within the next year. Yikes!

Anyone else have some money efficient don'ts? Share them! The world wants to know what just plain doesn't save money.

Thanksgiving Game Plan

I never skimp on Thanksgiving. It is the one meal every year that we get to be frivolous and have gorge on high fat, higher carb, sugary, buttery greatness. Just thinking about it makes my heart skip a beat...of course that could be my heart gearing up for a clogged artery, but it should be worth it. To make up for the expense of this high cost meal, I am going try to look at the meal plan for Thanksgiving and the following four days. By doing this I should be able to avoid spending too much more than I normally do on any other week. This is my game plan.

1.) Nail down how many guests I am feeding and for how long. This is going to allow you to make sure that you have enough plates, forks, and glasses, without having to buy disposable ones. I truly believe there is nothing more depressing that eating expensive food on styrofoam plates

2.) Write down every dish that my guests and I want to have, and include a list of the ingredients that each dish requires. FlyLady.net has an awesome control journal that I use for this purpose every year. It really saves me from finding myself driving 20 miles to the one gas station that's open on Thanksgiving and spending 7 bucks on a small tub of sour cream. And yes, I have done that in the past.

3.) Think of how big each casserole dish needs to be for each item. Doing this in advance gives me time to call mom and ask if you can borrow one of hers. Doing this now keeps me from spending extra money on those flimsy disposable pans, and no more making pans out of tin foil when I figure out that the pan I wanted to use is in the garage with paint stains on it (again, thank you FlyLady!).

Then, for the shopping...

1.) I try to figure out which will require name brands, like the shoe peg corn that I can only ever find in the Green Giant brand, and which ingredients can be generic brands, like the canned green beans in my awesome green bean casserole (and lets face it, it's the sausage that makes the green bean casserole awesome). 

2.) Buy enough to eat for several days. Everyone expects to have leftover turkey the next day, but I try cook enough to eat Thanksgiving for atleast two days after the actual meal, and then to make soup on the third day following. That means that we cook on Thursday (Thanksgiving day) and then eat leftovers Friday and Saturday, and make soup with the dregs of the meal on Sunday. By Monday, my fridge is clear of any straggler casseroles and turkey carcasses and I can start Monday with a clean slate.

3.) I always make sure that I get a few loaves of bread to freeze for the ham and turkey sandwiches, and I want to buy extra potatoes and frozen veggies for the soup. Fixings for a salad and a loaf of french bread will help to make the soup stretch out through Monday. (That way, you don't have to worry about dinner on your first day back to work, and you can spend the time shopping online, right?)

I have a lot of new people in my family and have found out that they prefer some things cooked a little different than I do. I have actually been told that I won't have to cook the entire meal...though that actually makes me a little sad. I LOVE cooking at Thanksgiving! Hopefully, things go smoothly. My next goal is going to be figuring out how to cram 12 people into my one bathroom house...maybe a picnic table outside for the kids would be helpful. Wish me luck!

Little Old Lady Style

I was wondering if there is anyone out there who is as rolling your eyes to the ceiling tired of hearing news about pampered party princesses getting into trouble as I am. Could it be that our economy has made Hollywood shenanigan's old school? Is it possible that we now crave rich content instead of rich role models?

I find myself ignoring the weeklies at the checkout stand and gravitating to the Better Homes and Gardens section. I want to research how to be happy instead of living vicariously through the tabloids. Did I become a 60 year old woman when I hit my third decade? What happened?

Well, there's no telling. I've always been a little old lady in spirit. I wore vintage clothing before it was fashionable and had helmet hair in high school. I suppose that is the whole point of this blog, huh? To show a peek of my lifestyle.

In an effort to do so, I am trying to share this with as many people as want to see it. Wish me luck!


TYRYXTUWRCRV

Hello, Caffeine!

It's 12.19am and we are currently brewing a pot of coffee and getting geared up for another long night with our 2 month old. Tonight we are a team, though usually, we sleep in shifts. Our life is like a bean bag relay race, with a newborn instead of a bean bag. How fast can we get him dressed before he starts protesting? Can we get the bottle made and into his mouth before he starts pumping his arms and screaming?

Come to think of it, maybe our little bundle of joy is a budding activist. It's just a matter of time before he starts toting around a homemade sign and recruiting people to support his cause. In any case, we have realized that in order to keep up with his demands, our systems require alot of assistance. Hello, caffeine!

I can remember a time, back when I had just one child (and no, I don't remember having none at all), when I could run to the corner coffee shop and order a Grande Carmel Machiato. To be quite honest, I think it was my pride in being able to actually order a drink with a name as long as the Rio Grande that gave me a buzz, rather than the actual beverage. However, nowadays it's my ability to buy a tub of Folgers on sale for six bucks that makes my day.

I didn't just switch brands and forgo ready made for do it yourself, either. I have even stopped using cream and sugar. I can now drink my coffee black. Unfortunately, I also gave up the cool cups with the little cardboard sleeves...but, alas! Someone has even come up with one of those that is reusable! Cool beans, man!

10 Ideas For Living Green, or Being Poor, or However You Want To Define It

Trying to think of ways to save a buck has become my job, and hopefully that job pays off. In my head is an overpopulation of ideas. Too many keywords; too much text. My dreams are defined by eBay ads and Google searches. My days are spent turning off lights and monitoring toilet paper usage. To sum it up, I have decided to make a list. I love lists. That's why I get along so well with Fly Lady.

10 Ideas For Living Green....or Being Poor....However You Want To Define It:

1.) Nix the papertowels. Use dishrags and leftover fastfood napkins.

2.) Open doors and windows. When weather permits, turn off the AC and heaters and let in some air.

3.) Unplug your appliances when not in use, including the car chargers, radios, coffeemakers and any other thing that does not need to run if you aren't around (pretty much everything but the fridge, stove, clocks, washer, and dryer), or use a power strip or surge protector to cut power to everything at once.

4.) Hang out the laundry. Let God bleach your whites instead of Clorox when possible and save $ on your electric and gas bill.


5.) Learn to sew. We have saved a ton by not buying a new pair when our son blows out the knees in his jeans (every other day, btw).

6.) Ask for paper at the grocery store and then use them as trash bags. Paper is biodegradable and the bags are free!

7.) Get a library card. This is usually free, and entertainment is just waiting for you. Books, movies and internet. Can't get much better than that!


8.) Get rid of Cable and get Netflix. If you do it right you could watch 10 movies a month for 10 bucks, but if you forget to mail it back after a day, they don't charge you extra like RedBox, which I suggest if you can't get online...but then how are you reading this? If you're really poor, try the library. They've got movies!


9.) Ditch your cell and get a house phone. We reduced our bill by $170 and now the bill collectors can't reach us at all hours!

10.) Reuse your paper. FlyLady.net suggests making master lists of things, like your grocery list, and keeping it in a plastic sheet protector. You can then cross off items with a dry erase marker.

In no way am I suggesting that anyone make a decision to lower their standard of living, or do anything that would hurt their circumstances. These are just things that we have tried and that work for us. When in doubt, use your common sense! And remember we love you!

Pioneer Panties Flappin' in the Wind?

Lately, I've been feeling like a pilgrim. I'm thankful for what we have, but doing a lot of work the old fashioned way. So, we bit the bullet and got a clothes line in order to keep up with our pioneer mindset. I really thought that this would take tons of time and effort, but I have found that hanging the clothes out is actually a soothing task.

Before I could start, I really had to nag a little and get my guy to help me put the clothesline up. This wasn't hard, cause nagging is really one of my strong points.

We tied one end of the line on a pole holding up our porch awning and ran the line across the yard to the roof of our shed. (When I say "we" what I'm saying is that I stood beside Eliot and made suggestions while he rolled his eyes at me.) I knew that the weight of wet clothing would pull the  line down, and the line would need to be higher than my head. Plus, I don't want to end up clotheslining myself, right? Now, our yard is rigged up for redneck laundry! With the wooden clothespins we bought at the dollar store, we're set.

My biggest challenge, so far, has been trying to time my laundry. I tend to wait until later in the day to get the laundry going and once it's dark outside, it's very tempting to just throw everything into the dryer. I have alleviated this by using the FlyLady system, which asks "Where is your Laundry" first thing when you get up in the morning. My answer to that question? It's on the floor, in front of the empty hamper.

Is "Going Green" a new concept?

Is "Going Green" a new concept? I know that this has to have been said a million times, and I don't know who came up with the motto or slogan or whatever it is, but I want to repeat it. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! What I can remember is this line being pounded into my head during my entire public school career. We had drawing contests and essays assigned, all with the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle topic. We saw signs saying it on every concrete wall we encountered. There were t-shirts, coffee mugs, commercials and politicians all chanting the same line in unison, brainwashing our little minds. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! Nowadays, we call it "going green". Same concept, but more politically correct, I guess... I really don't care for politics. I reduce, reuse and recycle in my house. This must prove that I really am a child of the '80's and spent my teenage years in the '90's.

Let's take a moment and think about this. We reduce the amount of things we buy by reusing the things we have so that the cycle of life that our possessions have is diminished, right? Some would argue that to recycle, you have to put out a special bin on certain days of the week with plastic, paper and glass in it, but I think not. Recycling in my house is defined by reducing and reusing. I refuse to pay more money on my city water bill to have some company reuse things I bought. Why would I pay for someone else to gain profit on my water bill and then gain more profit on my possessions that I paid them to take away? Seems stupid to me...so instead, before I buy something or throw something out, I try to think of all the ways that an item can be used.

One day, while I was cleaning out my car, I realized that I had about a gazillion napkins floating around with little advertisements for fast food restaurants on them. Every time I went through a drive-thru I was handed a small stack and they were just thrown in the floorboard with the greasy sacks and plastic cup lids. A little light bulb flickered and then dimly lit up and grew brighter and brighter over about a 15 minute period...obviously this was one of the fluorescent bulbs that we're supposed to use that supposedly last for a decade (my mother's words). I could use these napkins instead of spending money on paper towels.

I'll admit, the best cost saving decision I ever made was to stop buying paper towels. I completely refuse. All by myself, I can go through a whole roll in a day, just because they are there calling out to me that I don't have to turn around and use energy to get a dishtowel out of the drawer. Paper towels are like the devil sitting on my shoulder. Now, no one wants to dry their hands on a Mickey D's napkin, so (drum roll) dishtowel it is! We do, however, keep a stack of the napkins we acquire and use them with messy dinners or to use when paper is just better or easier, but we have reduced our cost on grocery day and our trash by doing this.

FlyLady.net suggests setting out a new dishtowel each evening for use the next day. I my mind, by doing this, you can keep the reusable towel visible, thereby actually using it, and reduce the times that you grab one that's going straight in the trash. Think about it, just because it got wet with clean water you throw it away. Some people argue that dishtowels are less sanitary, but my question is this...if you only use a towel to dry clean dishes or hands that were just washed, then why is it less sanitary? You touch the surfaces in your home with your bare hands. Let's get real here and use our common sense,. If you wipe up egg yolk with a dish towel, common sense says to throw it in the dirty laundry and get a new one, right? Or better yet, spray some all purpose cleaner on it, use your counter rag to wipe it up...rinse your rag that is disinfected with the bleach in the cleaner, and let the wet counter air dry. Problem solved, and I don't have to be responsible for making paper factory owners millionaires...of course there's still toilet paper....hmmmmm. I wonder.

Gerber Is More Than Pureed Food!

When I first began to think about using cloth diapers, my first thought was Gerber. The cute little baby on the package (whom I believe is more famous than Britney Spears' children) just calls out to me, I guess. So, I ran out to Wal-mart and bought a pack of 6 prefolds and a pack 12 flatfold dipes. I figured that if worse came to worse we would use them to mop up regurgitated milk puddles or shine the car (even though we have not shined the car...ever).


PREFOLD DIPES...
I knew from reading diaperpin.com and cottonbabies.com that prefolds were a little smaller but easier to fold and a little thicker than the flatfolds. I also remembered accidentally buying the prefold diapers to use as burp cloths when I had my first son, and for the record, prefold diapers will work as a milk sponge, but the flatfolds work waaaaay better. To fold the prefold cloth diapers for their intended use as a diaper, you simply :

A.) Fold the shorter side down a few inches so that it is the length that will fit well over the baby's bottom and around up to the waist. (When baby gets bigger you can skip this step if necessary)
B.) Fold the left side halfway over toward the right. 
C.) Fold the right side halfway over toward the left.
D.) Tuck the right side into the fold on the left side.
E.) Fan the untucked ends out that will be at baby's back and will wrap around the waist when pinned.

The prefold cloth diapers are wonderful. They soak up everything but your cash, and though it has been stated in other forums websites and blogs that cloth diapers need to be changed more often, I have not had this experience at all. For us, they work just as long and just as well as their disposable siblings.

FLATFOLD DIPES...
However, I found it interesting that I actually prefer the harder to fold flatfolds! The flatfolds are thinner and larger, and require  more work to fold...but they fit under the diaper covers much better and are easier to make fit baby no matter if yours is chunky or skinny, so that kinda evens the score. We actually started out with a smallish baby
(born 5 weeks early) and now, two months and many feedings later he's a chunk. There are a lot of ways to fold a flatfold cloth diaper, but the only one we use, and the only fold I've tried for that matter (can you say lazy?) is the kite fold. I tried this once and stuck with it. To fold on your lap:

A.) Put baby down...you can't fold a diaper in your lap if your lap is already occupied, silly!
B.) Lay diaper on your lap with the short edge closest to you and fold the short edge up a few inches to make the diaper square.
C.) Hold the bottom right corner with one hand and then fold the bottom left corner diagonally about halfway.
D.) Repeat step C holding the bottom right edge and folding the top right edge (diaper now looks like a kite)
E.) Fold the longer pointed edge up a few inches toward the left.
F.) Fold the wider pointed edge down toward the right

When I fold the flatfold dipes, I always add another step and fold the sides of the crotch area in toward the middle. Doing this seems to keep poo in the diaper in a potentially explosive situation and also makes the fit better. I also use two flatfolds at once for more absorbency (laying one on top of the other before beginning to fold with step A) unless I have an outfit that requires a less bulky bottom.

Gerber Diapers have worked wonders for me (I wonder why I paid all that money for something I threw in the trash 10 times a day, 2 straight years for two children! That's approximately 7300 diapers per kid!!!) There are other brands of cloth dipes, and I have purchased Chinese and Indian prefold diapers on cottonbabies.com, however, since most people have heard of the Gerber brand and because I have far more of the Gerber brand diapers I can recommend without question. And yes! I love my cottonbabies diapers. They are very soft and absorbent. I use them when I know someone besides us at home might change a diapie. lol

Cloth Diapering Know How

I have physically given birth to three boys, but it was only after my last that I discovered cloth diapers. Let me be honest; it was only our strong like of eating regularly and our weak cash flow that prodded me on this one.

I won't do something that takes too much time, too much money, or too much hassle. I thought cloth diapers was too much of all of these things. LOL! But, besides the two packages I bought before he came and the pack I received as a gift, I haven't bought any disposables since my son was born two months ago! I can not believe that I allowed myself to form an opinion of something before trying it. You don't even need diaper pins, anymore! We use a new contraption called a Snappi. The greatest diaper doodad ever!

Although you really can't find a whole lot of merchandise, aside from Gerber cloth diapers, in actual stores (think buildings) like Wal-mart or Target, a quick google search sent me to CottonBabies.com, and I don't think there has ever been a website that I was more excited about!

I really had to put the brakes on here, cause there are so many cute covers. They even have a clearance section of what they call "seconds". I bought only seconds, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with anything. I take that back. One cover has a tag that lays backwards...hey, it's gonna be covered up by the baby's clothes anyway!

CottonBabies has alot of information to help you get started, and alot of products to choose from. Even in our situation, where money is tight enough to split in half and cough up dust, we were able to inch our way up to full time cloth dipes.

Another great site that I found through CottonBabies.com is diaperpin.com. Lots of know-how! I don't think I will ever use disposables again, and this is coming from a me. I hate inefficiency. Unless it's talking when I should be working. I really need to get out of here and get up the road to the cleft doctor!

Does anyone have any views on cloth diapering? Any good or bad experience?

The Beginning of Making Ends Meet

Today, the day that I begin, I am short on time. I have two hours to get packed. I have three bills past due and not enough cash to pay them. I need to kiss three boys goodbye, but boys #2 and #3 are in school and boy #1 is busy trying to alleviate all of my other issues, so he's still wanting too. Another boy, boy #5,  is getting prepared for his two month checkup with a craniofacial specialist that is four hours away...well, he's demanding to be fed and diapered, anyway. I'm hoping to see boy #4 this weekend. Boy #4 needs lots of kisses. I have a load of diapers in the dryer 'cause I don't have time to hang them out on the line (Help me, FlyLady!), and another load needing to be folded before I leave. I really wish I could afford to buy another diaper cover on CottonBabies.com. If I could afford another addiction, it would be diaper covers! There is a stack of old magazines sitting beside me, just waiting for someone to claim them on eBay (Oh! I need to check my eBayness before I leave) and I'm hoping that my latest item listed will bring in enough to pay for one of those bills. All of these problems need an end. I'm tired of worrying about them. I am at the beginning of making ends meet, but how do I get to the end?