Adventures into Cloth Diapers : The Lingo

One day I was on Face Book talking with my Momville aka the June Bugs and the topic of cloth diapering came up. I have to be honest I never even considered cloth diapering my three year old and therefor never consider doing it with my newest addition. I have never been more confused about a baby product in my life. I asked question after question and scoured the internet for information. I instantly felt like I was totally over my head and I nearly gave up on the idea.  Learning about cloth diapers was in a sense like being thrown into a new Country where I didn't know the language or culture but being the determined type of person I am I just took a deep breath and powered on.  I want to make these post easy to understand and I feel that doing that means breaking the post up a bit.  It seemed to me during my research that if the information would have been in smaller bite size chunks that I might not have gotten so overwhelmed and nearly gave up.

When you go to a new Country the first thing you may want to learn is the language and this is no different when it comes to CD's....See, right there is a perfect example! You are thinking what is CD?!? I have compiled a short list of some of the language when it comes to CDing aka Cloth Diapering.  Just put this list in your back pocket as we move forward into the world that is CDing. Try not to put too much though into what some of these words mean just yet. This is just your introduction into the culture...Think of it like you need to know how to pronounce the words before you really understand how to use them..These are most of the helpful abbreviations and words that I came accross when on my adventor. I am sure I have missed some but this will get us started...

AIO - All In One cloth diaper, has a soaker pad and waterproof material sewn all together like a disposable diaper

AI2 - All In Two cloth diaper, waterproof cover with snap in soakers that can be used more than one time

CD - cloth diaper

Chinese prefold- made of high quality cotton, requires a cover

Dry Pail- A diaper pail where you keep dirty diapers until they are able to be washed

DSQ - Diaper service quality

Fluff- cloth diaper

Fluffy Mail- cloth diaper package in your mailbox

Fluffy Butt- a cute little cloth diapered baby bum!

HE - High efficiency (when referring to washing machines)

Hyena - A term for hard to get, popular diapers that are stalked by diaper hungry moms

Indian Prefold= A type of prefold that is not as soft as cotton but durable

MF=Microfiber. A type of fabric that wicks moisture away from the skin leaving the skin to feel dry

OS= One size fits most diaper

Pail Liner- A liner for your diaper pail

Prefold- A tri sectioned prefolded cloth diaper you pin or snappi on, requires a cover. You will see numbers like 2x4x2 which refers to the number of layers of fabric in the prefold.

PUL - polyurethane laminate, a material used to make diaper covers/wraps

Snappi- An ingenious little three sided stretchy fastener used to hold prefolds or flat diapers closed. The Snappi eliminates the need for pins.

Soaker- the area where you want to accumulate moisture.  These can also be added material to enhance the absorbency of the diaper.

TLer - Top loader washing machine

WAHM - work-at-home mom (Usually refers to diapers made by mom’s who work from home)

Wet Pail- A diaper pail filled with water

Wicking- The movement of moisture

Traveling and Family Vacations : We are here!

We started our adventure at 9am on Saturday morning and by 3pm we were in our room at Saratoga Springs Resort in Disney! My son was beyond excited and so was I.  We chose our room for a few very specific reasons.  1) it had a kitchen 2) it had a washer and dryer 3) we had two places to sleep separated by a door so that Aubrey's night feeding wouldn't disturb Trey or my husband. One of us had to have a full night sleep and energy to run on.

We decided early on that we would not be visiting a park every single day.  We needed down time and so did the kids.  We organized our trip months in advance along with our reservations for meals(which is a must for a Disney trip.  Reservations for character meals book up months in advance).  We sat down with a piece of paper and listed which park we wanted to be at on a particular day.  Next we scheduled our character breakfast, lunch or dinners.  We did not always have a scheduled meal and would write that down too.  Needless to say with a husband that is an engineer and my OCD we were very planned.  I believe this is super important when traveling with children with the note that plans change and everything must be tentative. For us, having a plan allows us to relax more and enjoy the trip.  We were not worried about what we were going to do for meals and where we were going to be when.

Our kick off event for the trip was a character dinner called Mickey's Back Yard BBQ.  We told Trey about it the second we were walking out the door of the hotel room.  He was so excited!  I was kind of worried about Aubrey getting over stimulated and freaking out but she was fine.  Trey on the other hand was extremely over whelmed.  The music was very loud and there was a ton of people moving in all different directions.  At first, he kind of shut down and stayed close to me then his brain needed to increase the intensity of a already very intense situation and he wound him self up.  He had a good time but at some point he kept asking to go to the bathroom and when I took him the second or third time I asked him if he was okay.  He flat out told me it was too loud and he did not want to re enter the BBQ.  So, we left. We had already eaten and he had seen Mickey so it was fine with us.  It was already around 9pm when we got back to the room so we settled in and went to bed.

First Character meet-up at Micky's Back Yard BBQ

The rest of the trip was equally as over whelming for Trey and I took notice of situations where the music was too loud or the situation was to intense.  We watched parades from a distance and would tell him to put his hands over his ears.  This helped a ton and he really enjoyed himself.

Watching from a distance with the best seat in the house

We are very lucky to have a child who doesn't ask for much so we never spent any money on expensive gift items(You already read the post where I pre bought items and packed them).  The one thing Trey asked for was a fan that squirts water but I refused to get it.  Well, to make a long story short we were waiting for a custodian to bring us a screwdriver to put batteries in the stroller fan for Aubrey for the 2nd time that day (note to self bring a screwdriver on vacation!) and the souvenir lady felt bad that it was taking so long and gave Trey the fan!

The fan!

Lets talk about NIP.  You all know I exclusively breastfeed Aubrey and I have to give a big thumbs up to Disney for this! They have air conditioned nursing stations in each park.  They are so nice! I met some wonderful women in the room and it was a nice quite place to let Aubrey relax and cool down and to give me 15 or 20 minutes to relax myself!

The nursing lounge in Magic Kingdom

I also nursed all over the place and not one single dirty look or rude comment! I became very comfortable with NIP on this trip and I never used a cover.  It was far to hot.  I did get a suggestion to get a A&A blanket in the nursing center.  I had never seen them before and now I really want one.  I did use my Undercover Mama so we kept it discreet.

All in All it was an amazingly exhausting trip filled with memories that I will never forget.  My son still talk about it a month later so I pray he still remembers it as an older child and adult. We already are planning our next trip to Disney.  We want to go for Halloween, Christmas and once in the summer to enjoy the water parks :)

My favorite family picture

How to Generate Income and Make Money For Your Family : Part 2

Besides coupons and cutting cost by making our own house hold cleaners and laundry supplies I have taken to the internet and my cell phone to make some extra cash.

Internet

I knew there had to be a way to earn a small amount of legit money from the internet.  First, I Googled " how to make money from home" I read an blog post about survey sights that listed the pros and cons.  Pros: You can make money just giving your opinion in your spare time.  Which is perfect for a SAHM with very little time on my hands.  Con's: It is not a ton of money but every dollar counts.  Then I Googled reputable survey sights. I found some very reputable internet survey sites and signed up. My favorites are E Poll, American Consumer Opinion and My Points. Much like blogging this is in no way a get rich quick type of endeavor but I earn about 100.00 to 150.00 a month in gift cards.  You can use PayPal but I prefer to not use the paypal deposits because they charge you to redeem your cash. Typically, I request Amazon online credit and I can then purchase items on my extensive Amazon wishlist.  The E Poll site requires you to complete surveys to earn points that you can redeem for gift cards ect. Super-points and My Points site also have surveys you can complete but with they also add an email feature.  They send you emails that you just read and click on and you can earn points for simply visiting a particular website. You are not required to purchases anything or give your email address to these site to earn points.  You can also use both of these websites when you do purchases items online and you can receive points for every dollar you are already intending to spend.  For instance, I purchased items from Macy's website and when I used the site I was able to receive 10 pts for every dollar I spent.  I was already going to buy the items.  I look at it like a shopper card.  I receive points for what I buy then I can get gift cards.

Phone

The way I am using my cell phone to make money is by far my favorite.  You have to have a smart phone FYI...I down loaded an app to my phone called Viggle.  This site awards points for television that you watch.  It works like Shazam or other tagging applications. I am already home with the TV playing so this works really well for me.  You just hit a button and tag into a TV show.  You then earn the points.  Once you accumulate a certain number of points you can redeem them for Amazon credits, Starbucks gift cards ect...So far, I have earned 4 5$ Starbucks cards and 2 25$ Amazon credits!  They often offer bonus points for watching a particular show and my favorite is the Play Along feature when the ask questions that go along with a show where you can also earn more bonus points.  There are rules like you can't tag more then 12 hours of TV in a day or accumulate more then 6000 points in a 24hr period but it is still worth it to me to earn points for something that I am already doing.

How to Generate Income and Make Money For Your Family : Coupons

I am currently a stay at home mom (SAHM) but I am really a full time student and my area of study is nursing.  I will begin my clinical study in the fall of 2013.  I can't wait! But..until then I will be staying at home with our new little baby and it is a blessing.  I am able to exclusively breastfeed among other things.  One of the "other" things I am doing is trying to generate income for our family to allow me to finish school.  I have found that there are more ways to generate income then actually bringing cash in the door and I would love to share my secrets and journey with you all.

Let's talk coupons!

I LOVE coupons and trust me they are not just for groceries.  I use coupons for everything from clothes to make-up.  I have found that the key to getting coupons that you actually want to use is applying for frequent shopping cards at all the places you love to shop weather it be groceries, clothing or make-up.  Yes, when you sign up for the frequent shopping cards and programs they will ask for your email but don't worry about your inbox filling with junk.  All you need to do is unsubscribe from the email and they will stop but you will still receive your valuable money saving coupons in the mail.

Grocery Cards:
I have shoppers card for our local grocery store Kroger and along with saving money at the register on in store deals they also track my most frequent purchases and send me coupons in the mail about once a month for those items.  In addition to those in mail coupons I also downloaded the free coupon app they have to my phone.  I can load e-coupons to my card before I head to the store...TIP* be careful about this. You cannot combine e-coupons and paper coupons for a single item and most stores will double your paper coupon but not the e-coupon..So, if you have a paper one you will probably save more money!  

Frequent Shopping Cards for Retailers:
My favorite frequent shopping card by far is for Express! I love getting coupons in the mail for their store. I love their clothes and practically live in black legging from their store and my husband LOVES their pants and shorts.  Typically, about once every 6 weeks I get a coupon for x amount of dollars off a 30$, 75$, 200$ ect..purchase.  The last time we shopped their I had two of these coupons we spent 500$ but after the discounts it was only 210$ out of pocket!  I did have to split the purchases in to two but it was so worth it.  In addition to the great deal I received I was able to order some items that were not in the store in my size I received FREE shipping to my home!  I also received points for my purchases and once I accumulate a certain number of points I can get cash to spend at the store.

I also LOVE Sephora.  Their card works a bit differently.  I get a free gift on my birthday and I earn points for every dollar I spend and once I spend 'x' amount of money I get a gift.  I am currently saving enough points to get a collection of full size Bare Essentials lip glosses.  

I suggest signing up for these cards where ever you can.

General Coupons:
Personally, I don't like websites like coupons.com or others like that. I never find coupons for things I actually need in my home.  We don't eat a ton of processed foods, chips, or frozen products and usually that is all I run across. Also, I have been meaning to get a Sunday paper subscription for over a year now. I totally get that if I subscribe for a year that I will save .50 cents a paper on Sundays but I keep forgetting to do it.  I also know that not every Sunday paper has good coupons or some at all! Sunday papers that are distributed over holiday weekends like Easter and Christmas DO NOT have coupons so to me that paper would be useless.  The rule of thumb is that if the bank closes there will be no coupons.  Instead, I get a paper two times a month.  I save the coupons in a folder like this one (Jokari-US 55047 E-Z Coupon Holder - Taupe ) and I always take a few minutes to flip though them before I make my list.

Here is the BIG way I save money on groceries without extreme couponing.  I mean honestly what mom has the time to clip coupons for hours and troll the recycling centers for inserts. I have a screaming three year old and a newborn who eats every 2-3 hours. I keep a running list on my refrigerator and we do not deviate from the list.  This is great for two reasons. First, it makes the shopping quick and I usually can get in and out of the store before any major melt downs occur.  Second, It totally helps us stay on budget and I don't fill the house with crap that we don't need.  Right before we run out the door to do the shopping I thumb though my coupons and phone app and add the coupons I want to my card.

These are not ways that I am bringing money into my home in the traditional sense but every penny I save us on things we were going to buy anyways frees up money to be spent in other places.  These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my penny pinching ways..Much more to come later!