I’ve always taken Miss Petrie for professional photos every few months.  I had thought that with Miss Petrie Deux turning 6 months old I would take the girls for another photo shoot.  But I just didn’t want to pay big bucks for new pictures, so I decided to take the girls to the park and take pictures of them myself.

I bought faux flowers at the Dollar Tree and turned them into hair accessories.  I dressed both girls in white to offer nice contrast to the grass and trees.  I also like to use light clothing so when I make pictures black and white, it’s easier to see the darker details, like facial features.

I’ve grown to love editing photos with the Picnic editing feature we have with our Flickr account.  I cropped the picture of Miss Petrie and made it b&w with a selected portion of color.

I think the photos came out even better than what we get at a portrait studio.  And the cost was about $10 for hair accessories and photo developing at Walgreens.

Have a fabulous day!

Before Miss Petrie Deux was born, my friend gifted us with 35 flat diapers and six plastic covers.  We did not cloth diaper Miss Petrie, but we knew the expense of disposables was going to put quite a strain on our pocketbooks with our new baby.  So, we decided to give the cloth diapers a try when Miss Petrie Deux fit into them at about 3 weeks of age.

The flat diapers worked brilliantly!  The plastic covers kept the messy stuff in the diaper.  The diapers washed out easily and air-dried quickly.  This was slightly more laundry (another load every other day).

I decided to buy used Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers from the same friend.  We began using them with Miss Petrie Deux around 4.5 months.  I would have liked to have kept her in the flat diapers for longer, but she became too chubby for them!

The Math:

Pampers diapers average $.23 /diaper.

Babies use about 10 diapers a day.

That would be a cost of $2.30 per day.

Over a 30 day month, the cost would be $69 per month on disposable diapers.

The cost of the flat diapers was $0.

The pocket diapers cost $7 each.  I bought 24 for a total of $168.

I bought plastic covers online; 3 for $18 total.

I have spent $186 on cloth diapers and plastic covers.

I have purchased about $50 worth of disposable diapers.  We have been lucky to get some disposables as gifts.  We used them when Miss Petrie Deux was a newborn and too small for cloth and I use them when I am out of the house (although I have been trying to stick to cloth lately, even out of the house).

An absorbent towel is inserted into the pocket part of the diaper.

Miss Petrie Deux is 6 months old or about 180 days old.

If we had used disposables exclusively, the cost so far would have been $414.

I have spent $186 on cloth and $50 on disposables for a total of $236.

We have saved $178 in six months.

I know I’m not counting the cost of washing extra diapers, but we have not seen an increase in our water or electricity bill.

Over the next 6 months, Miss Petrie Deux will continue to use these diapers.  We will have no additional cost for cloth diapers, but I will update you on our diaper saga in a few months.

Miss Petrie’s birthday is coming up very soon and I’ve started working on some of the small details for her party.  I bought these photo pins at Hobby Lobby this summer.

I cut out some denim-polka dot paper to use as the background for the stamp.

I stamped a horse onto white cardstock and punched out the head area using my 1 3/4” circle punch.

Here’s the almost finished pin.  I still need to add blue ribbon to give it a little more texture.

I made 12 pins.  A 12-pack of plastic pins was $1 (on sale), blue ribbon was $1 and all the other supplies were on hand.  That comes out to $.17 per pin plus labor.  Miss Petrie thought these pins were great and kept trying to steal them away from me!

I’ll post pictures of the totally finished pins soon and the rest of the schwag bag.

Have a great day.

Over the past couple of days I gathered coupons from the past few weeks of newspapers.  I clipped the coupons for food we certainly would eat.  I made a menu based on the coupons.  All of this took me a couple of hours.  I got to the store and carefully looked for the coupon brands.  Some were there and some were not.  After all was said and done, I saved $6.70 on $128.00 bill.  Bleh…

I give myself credit for trying something new.  (I do try to use coupons when I see they are for a product we use and need, but I don’t usually do it in a systematic way.)

I think what I’ve done before works better for my family and I need to keep these ideas in mind.

• We try to eat whole foods, not prepackaged meals.  Buying more prepackaged food isn’t healthier, cheaper, or more environmentally friendly.
• I buy generics unless there is a name-brand product we really love. Unless there is a great deal on name-brand products, generics are almost always cheaper per ounce.
• The weekly store fliers have the best deals.  It’s worth it to wait for deals on meat, produce, and dairy and stock up.
• My menu is separated into two categories, entrees and sides.  I list both on a white board on the fridge and erase as we eat through the menu.  This has worked really well for helping me know what is available and we eat the most perishable items first.

Here are some ideas I’d like to institute with food planning.

• Have a month’s worth of recipes with food everyone enjoys.  Make this a list that I refer to when I make my grocery list.
• Create a price book for products we buy on a regular basis.
• Make double dinners and freeze a portion for later use.  This would help us when we are busy and don’t feel like cooking.
• I usually only plan dinner.  We eat dinner leftovers for lunch.  I’m not a good breakfast eater, but that’s no excuse for not having good breakfast food in the house.  I’m sure I’ll feel better and we’ll spend less money if breakfast food is easily available.

Any strategies for grocery shopping and menu planning that work well for your family?  I’d love to hear your ideas.

Have a wonderful day.

Miss Petrie got in some more riding time at the Galloping Grace Youth Ranch in Rio Rancho last week.  

She had been wanting to ride Black since I had mentioned to her that he had been sick.  He’s a 30-something year old horse and this poor old man had an evil tooth infection that caused him to have very gross nasal drainage.  I guess three year old girls have their reasons…

Anyway, Miss Petrie has loved horses since she was about 18 months old.  I’m not exactly sure why, because her dad and I know nothing about horses, but I hear this is a pretty normal little girl thing.  She’s finally at the age that she can start to ride a horse with lots of assistance and GGYR allows kids to come twice a month for riding with very experienced volunteers.  And it’s free. 

When I stopped working when Miss Petrie was born, I became committed to seeking out enriching activities for her and for our family.  Now, there are so many things you can pay to do that are enriching, but when one of the breadwinners stops working, you have to be creative about finding inexpensive or free activities.  I knew all the regulars: the park, museums, the zoo.  But I knew there was only so much time we could spend at those places with a baby/toddler in tow.  

So I did pay to take Miss Petrie to a baby gymnastics class when she was six months old.  I made friends with other women who were taking time from their careers to raise their children.  I found out about a local moms club while taking Miss Petrie to her class.  I joined the club and then started attending a weekly playgroup.  When Miss Petrie was a baby I didn’t go to many of the activities besides playgroup, but as she’s gotten older, taking her out to club activities has become part of our weekly routine.   These activities are usually free or there is a nominal fee paid to the business we are patronizing.  This month we’re going to a corn maze, a pumpkin patch,   the Albuquerque Balloon Museum for children’s hour, and a Halloween costume ball potluck.  

And even though I’ll pay about $20 for those four activities, I feel like Miss Petrie will learn something new, we’ll celebrate fall in a way unique to Albuquerque and we’ll enjoy time with good friends.  

There are so many other facets to my family’s take on frugality, but that is for another post.  Today I wanted to celebrate all the wonderful activities we enjoy on a regular basis.

Enjoy your day.

I took Miss Petrie to the Galloping Grace Youth Ranch this week.  The ranch is located in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.  It’s a non-profit ranch that provides hippotherapy (horse-related therapy) to kids of all ages.  We had a wonderful time! Miss Petrie has loved horses since she was 18 months old and she was ready to ride a horse.  

The volunteers at the ranch were amazingly patient with the kids and let each child ride for about 15 minutes.  We attended this free activity with our local moms club.  

After spending a morning with these majestic, gentle animals, I have horse-inspired design on the brain.  I’ll see what I can dig up for tomorrow. 

Have a graceful day!

I may be shunned for the following statement, but I’m attempting to stay out of the thrift stores unless I am looking for something specific.  I have good reasons for abstaining, such as no room for more stuff!  However, I did sneak in a recreational trip to the Goodwill and I found a couple of deals.  ;)

This toy tool set was brand new and Miss Petrie has played with it for days now. Can't beat $3.99 for a new toy.

This custom stationary was $.59. The original price was $8.

The envelopes are covered with sushi-isn't that cute?

Check out all the other great deals at  Homebody Holly’s Thrift Store Thursday and Bloggeritaville’s Thrifty Thursday.

Thanks to We Are THAT Family for hosting Works for Me Wednesday.

Does your family enjoy Eggo waffles?  Make your own at home for a fraction of the cost.  I use a Kenmore waffle maker that we got years ago for Christmas.  I see them new from $20 and you can get them used at your favorite thrift store for a few dollars.

I use a recipe from my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.  This recipe is similar to the one I use.  I also add in a handful of frozen fruit and nuts for a little extra nutrition.  The estimated cost of the waffles plus fruit and/or nuts is $2.00.  Here’s what I got from that $2.

That is 40- 1/4 waffles, or 10 very large waffles.  My husband and I will eat one large waffle each and my daughter will eat 1/2 of a waffle.  I freeze the waffles and toast them up just like Eggo’s.  And of course they taste much better!

How long did it take me to make this pile of waffles?  About thirty minutes from start to finish.

Bon appetit!

Thanks to Homebody Holly for hosting Thrift Store Thursday and Bloggeritaville for hosting Thrifty Thursday.

I did quite a bit of thrift store shopping this week.  I had $3 off of $10 coupons for both Savers and Thrift Town.  I know, I’m such a big spender!

At Savers-

I got this cloche/baked goods cover for $2.99. 

I had planned on using these animals for an Easter egg hunt, but now I think I might use them for crafting.  These were a little more expensive than I wanted to pay, but much cheaper than something similar at Target.

My dad went to the University of Michigan.  I think this tissue paper will make his Father’s Day gift look really wolverine-ish.  ;)

Miss Petrie has been really into buying and selling and exchanging money.  When it’s my turn to sell her something she always tells me my price is “‘spensive!!”.  This money drawer had lots of bills and coins in very good condition.  

At Thrift Town-

I got an egg wreath!  Woo hoo!!  I’ll fancy it up for Spring next year by adding a bird over the missing paint.

I’m trying to hold off on buying Miss Petrie clothes, but little dresses are so cute on her.  

These fairy dolls were in beautiful condition.  The best thing we found at Thrift Town was Dora the Explora’s backpack.  Miss Petrie was enchanted by the map attached to the backpack.  It was a total deal at $.99.

I got this iridescent shredded paper for gift bags I’ll be making for my friend’s baby shower.  I do free-hand embroidery and I thought this embroidering contraption would help keep my fabric steady.

I spent less than $20 on my spending spree.  On my next few outings, I’ll be on the lookout for a big silver tray to turn into a message board and a big frame to make into an accessories holder.

Happy hunting!

We were at Savers this week.  They had two huge carts of brand new books.  I imagine the books were from Costco or Sam’s Club.  I’m always looking for books to give as gifts and I hit the jackpot with children’s books.

These beautiful hardback books were $.69 each and buy 4 get the 5th free!  I got 7 books for $4.23!

Check out the thrifting goodness at:

and

Happy hunting!