Budget follow-up

I know this is all very tangentially related to our whole theme around here, but I just had to follow up on our budgeting discussion to say that I’ve started using mint.com and it is neat-o frito bandito, people. Thanks so much for the recommendations!

Being able to see credit card/bank transactions and categorize them as soon as they’re made is awesome (I think if I can commit to doing that, we might be able to be trusted to go back to using our credit/debit cards for everything!). It definitely caters to the all-electronic set. One downside is that not all banks are hooked up to it – some of our savings are at a rinky-dink local bank, and my retirement accounts are in a weird industry-specific fund, so I can’t hook up to either of those. It would be nice for the bigger picture but hardly critical for day-to-day budgeting. It took awhile to set up all our accounts and get the budget categories how I wanted them, but I think it was worth it.

I did also check out pear budget, after reading some reviews that it was easy-to-use and no-frills, and while it did seem to be both of those things, it was SO no-frills I’m not sure I’d pay $3 a month for it – you could accomplish the same thing with some very basic spreadsheet skillz yourself (mint.com is free, there is just some advertising on it – I haven’t found it annoying so far). Having to personally enter every receipt would be my downfall – the glory of mint.com is just logging in once a week or whatever and categorizing any transactions, many of which will automatically show up in the correct category anyway all by themselves! Oh, wonder of wonders!

Diva Cup = Awesome

A while back, Larms got me all motivated to go disposable-feminine-product-free. It took a few months to use up my pre-pregnancy stash of  tampons and (ew) post-pregnancy pads, but I finally tried out the Diva Cup this month.

The verdict is that this thing is fantastic! And it’s yet another example of how bizarrely illogical the “norm” so often is. Yes, let’s all shove this toxic-shock-syndrome-risk-carrying object into our bodies and worry about how often it needs to be changed and whether or not we brought enough extras with us to work and if it will start to leak at just the wrong moment and OMG! It’s been in for 10 hours and I forgot about it!!! Noooooo!!!!! And that’s not even considering the massively negative environmental impact, of course.

Meanwhile, here’s a menstrual cup which can be left in safely for 12 hours at a stretch, is not associated with toxic shock syndrome, doesn’t cost you a dime after the initial purchase (see end of post for cheap-o website to buy!), and basically is no more inconvenient/icky than a tampon–actually even less so, in my brief experience thus far. (It took about a day to get used to the insertion process, which was a bit intimidating the very first time, but very quickly has become no biggie.)

So yes. I would highly recommend it to everyone. And nobody told me to say any of these things to you–I am really just that thrilled with the concept. (There are plenty of other brands of cup out there for you to research if you want and I’m sure they all work great, too!)

Here is the website I used to buy the Diva Cup–it seemed like a good price, especially if you enter the code below for a discount on your first purchase. (You can also throw in a filler item to get free shipping if you’re so inclined!)

First time buyer code: BEV426

(While I was at all this, I also bought a few cloth liners from Wee Essentials on Etsy–they are super adorable/comfy/well-made! Would also highly recommend!)

Mama loves her some Borax.

After Larms introduced us all to Borax awhile back, I just had to buy some. Turns out that was a smart move because it doesn’t just clean toilets. In fact, I’m discovering that much like our good friends baking soda and vinegar, it can be used for basically everything.

For starters, I whipped up a batch of that dishwasher detergent I mentioned the other day and it works GREAT! The actual recipe I used was simply one part Borax and one part baking soda, plus some salt because that was recommended in some places (didn’t bother to figure out why). Although citric acid was also recommended frequently, Whole Foods doesn’t sell it (and it’s probably pricey), so I skipped it. I threw some vinegar in the rinse dispenser and the dishes came out squeaky clean!

I also started using it in my laundry as a stain-remover (just add 1/2 c. per load), something I had been meaning to look into ever since my spray bottle of Shout ran out a month ago. Of course, I hadn’t gotten to it yet. Enter Borax! Today a white shirt with at least one-day-old frozen blueberry stains (and you know those are NO JOKE) came out completely spotless.

That’s all I’ve had time to play around with, but just from reading the back of the box it claims to clean garbage disposals, be great for hand-washing your delicates, make your clothes smell cleaner and fresher, and clean carpets. If we’ve learned anything by now, it’s that those ideas are only the tip of the iceberg.

(Also, in case you sticklers out there have been wondering, I AM aware that these cleaning materials we’ve been talking about are, in fact, chemical compounds and that we need to come up with a more accurate name for this quest for the natural and/or non-toxic than “Chemical-Free”.)

This is NOT an essay on produce.

That has been officially pushed back until sometime near the end of May.

To throw you a very small bone in keeping with the theme, though, I have two nifty links tonight:

1. A ridiculously beautiful photo essay of agriculture all over the world

2. A handy-dandy and oh-so-cute printable chart to keep with you so you’ll always know when to buy organic (sent to us by extremely alert reader Carrie!!)

My Secondhand Baby

No, I didn’t actually pick her up at the consignment shop. But pretty much everything else in her life was passed down to her!

We can look high and low for sustainable products made locally without too much radioactive runoff (and trust me, we will be doing plenty of that here in the next few months!), but the simple fact is that one of the best ways to protect the environment is simply not to buy anything. Ever. Or at least as infrequently as possible. (Btw, this blog is not about how to get us out of a recession–obviously not spending money is highly counter-productive in that sense.)

The great thing (environmentally speaking) about babies is that their needs are few (though we are often told otherwise), and their stages of development fly by extremely fast! Thus most of the products they DO need can be reused, as the average child will not, in most cases, be sleeping in her crib for the 20 years or so that it might take for said crib to deteriorate to an unsafe level of sturdiness.

For my own baby shower, I decided it would be great to try to get as many people to lend, pass down, or buy that baby equipment used as I could. I made a sad little GeoCities webpage (that’s right, kickin’ it 1997-style) that served as my secondhand registry. For the most part, people adhered to it. And many of them were really happy to have a sanctioned way to get rid of the extra baby stuff in their house they were sick of storing and/or wondering what to do with. Guilt-free re-gifting ahoy!

My self-made approach was time-consuming, however, as well as sort of clunky, as I asked guests to email my husband when they got something so that he could remove it from the list. Or tell me to remove it since he’s not-so-quick on the technological uptake.

Well, how handy that a talented friend of mine (with more programming skills than either me or my husband) got so inspired by this idea that he decided to create a website that would do the job for future moms-to-be. It works just like a typical registry–except that you’re using it to request items that were already purchased long ago and now are out there waiting to find their way to you! Brilliant. And oh, so earth-friendly.

Check it out here: www.mysecondhandbaby.com and then go tell your pregnant momma-friends!

Baby Gear Avalanche!

First of all, hello! I’m (Kinda)Rural(Almost)Mom to Olivemom’s UrbanMom. And might be breezing through now and again with a post or two!

We’re expecting baby #1 in early April and currently experiencing the special, joyful time experienced by all new parents: when your home is overtaken by a nonstop flood of gigantic plastic baby items, cardboard, packaging, and general crap. We have two extra bedrooms with huge closets and a two-car garage for storage and still feel like we are swimming in baby stuff! I started shopping several months ago so it’s been a pretty slow, steady stream – I can’t imagine how drowning it must feel to folks who get all of it all at once, all new, fairly late in pregnancy.

Being close to Olivemom, it was great to be able to observe her going through this whole process a year in advance to brace myself. And she instilled in me the (very accurate, I believe) knowledge that a huge percentage of all this baby stuff is 1) not necessary; 2) wildly overpriced; and 3) not all that hard to find in high-quality used form. Yes, there’s plenty of crusty used baby gear out there. There’s also lots of high-quality, practically new stuff!

While I did not have the fortitude or technological aptitude to make an online registry of needed baby items and request that folks looking to give us gifts give us used things (a la Olivemom), I did still want to follow her lead and buy some used baby gear. Why? Well, for starters, I am selectively cheap. A giant hunk of brand-new brightly colored plastic for $80? No way. Expensive once-a-year pedicure? Yes please! And I enjoy the thrill of the hunt for a bargain.

I never used craigslist before starting to search for baby things, so I’m certainly no expert. But it’s been a fun exercise, less time-consuming than I thought, and definitely confirmed for me that not everything for baby needs to be brand-spanking-new – especially when you consider that many of the bigger, more expensive items only get used for a very short time! So, should you decide that you don’t really need a $150 brand-new pack’n'play or $90 exersaucer or jumper, here are some reflections on consignment-store and craigslist shopping from my limited newbie experience:

• Watch postings for awhile to get a sense for typical prices on items, condition, etc. – I checked listings every day for weeks before I was ready to buy stuff, and also shopped a fair bit online to get a sense of what retail was (and sale prices) on most items so I had a frame of reference for deals. This really doesn’t take that long!
• Stop at your local consignment stores whenever you get the chance. Again, to check out prices in addition to looking for finds. Pricing can be a bit unpredictable – some things may seem overpriced for their desirability/condition but you might also find the occasional fantastic steal.
• Shop where you know there are high concentrations of middle/higher-income suburban families, both consignment stores and keep an eye out for these towns/areas on craigslist. Yes, I know this is being stereotypical. But every now and then some poor fool will post a string of ten barely-used things they surely paid full retail for all at once for dirt cheap. That is always a beautiful, beautiful day!

Asking prices on Craigslist can also be a bit all over the place. There’s the folks who just want to get rid of something and way underprice it, and there are those who think that 90% of the Babies R Us retail price is a completely legitimate asking price for their five-year old stained pack’n'play. This is why it’s so important to get a sense for typical retail and used prices. I probably paid a bit more for a swing than I should have in those heady early days! For the most part, I expect a price on craigslist to be a bit less than the typical consignment-store price, since they’re not taking a cut. At least in my local stores, the bigger gear items always seemed a bit overpriced and often not in great condition.

Depending on the time of year, you can also add to my meek craigslist/consignment store shopping strategies with yard sales and big organized children’s consignment sales (which frequently advertise on craigslist) – I’m sure further into spring and summer would be great times to get lots of bargains at these spots too.

Sadly, there were several things I had hoped to find but just didn’t seem to be very common in my area (Arm’s Reach cosleeper, for example – I’ve been watching my local craigslist like a hawk for probably four months and have only ever seen ONE.). And while I was committed to finding things used, I was pretty picky about what exactly I was looking for – neutral colors, specific brands – which limited the field a bit. Even though a Maclaren stroller was on my list of “snap up if I find one!” items, I just couldn’t quite bring myself to buy a completely hot pink stroller for our baby boy. Even if it was a steal!

All that aside, I’ve still been able to save a good bit of money and avoid personally adding to the volume of baby-gear plastic in the world, at least a little bit, without all that much effort and without turning myself into a standing-outside-at-sunrise-waiting-for-yard-sales-to-open or spending-hours-combing-the-classifieds type. If you’ve got a baby on the way and are needing some of these things, maybe think about shopping used!

But, um, be prepared for your mother and friends to maybe yell at you a bit if you get overexcited about it and don’t leave any big items for your baby shower.

stuffy-nosed haiku

man-made medicine
so sucks in comparison
eucalyptus rules