House Hunting

This is pretty scary.  Matt & I are looking to buy a house on land contract (basically rent to own), this coming spring.  What's the scary part?  Is it having a mortgage to pay every month?  Nope.  Is it because if we are late even once they can evict us & we won't get a penny of it back?  Nope. 

It is because ever since I was a little kid, I have been dreaming of this house.  Yep, it's my dream house.  I love everything about it.  I can't stop thinking about it.  I stare at pics of it that I d/l'd onto my phone ALL.OF.THE.TIME.  Seriously, before I wrote this, I was staring at the pics.  Mentally making notes on what furniture will go where, what color to paint the walls, even daydreaming about making the kids breakfast in the kitchen.  I am already so emotionally invested in this house, I am going to be devastated if it sells before we get our tax return this February.  Seriously, this is worse then your first love.  This is first house love.  Well the first house I have loved.  We own a home right now...but I don't love it...i don't even kind of like it really.  It is just a place to live.  But this house we are waiting on.  Omg, words can not describe it.  I spend hours on the internet downloading pictures of furniture, rugs, kitchen tables, end tables, artwork, even shower curtains.  I spend hours on www.pinterest.com, for decorating inspiration.  I am forming pictures in my mind on how this is going to look or how that is going to be laid out. 

I can not wait to update this with a "We got it!" post. 

Now I am going back to stare at those pictures again, I think I know where to put the girl's beds at.......

08.13.2012

So I made the mistake of driving past the house.  Now I love it even more.  Please don't sell.  Please don't sell.  Please don't sell.

Baby $ Savers, part 1.

I am the mother of three children; ages 4, 2 & 8 mos.  I am on this adventure called motherhood with a yearly salary of $15,000.  Yep.  I am always looking for ways to save money.   One good way I have found is by using cloth diapers.  I never thought in a million years that I would be a cloth diaperer.  But here I am, 6 mos in and still loving it.  I love that I never have to worry about running out of diapers at home (unless I don't keep up on laundry), I love that my kids no longer develop diaper rash.  I love that spending the relatively small price of $200, gets me through at least 2 kids in diapers and would more, if we were to have more.  I mean these diapers last like clothing does, well duh they are clothing, a one time purchase will last through all of the kids you will have.  The hippy in me loves that I am not contributing to land fill waste.  The materialist in me loves how cute they are and that they can always match my kids outfits.  And I love not having to buy those outrageously priced disposable diapers and swim diapers...bc I can just use the shell of my pocket diapers as a swim diaper.  So what kind of cd's (cloth diapers) do I use?  I use one-size (as in they fit babies and toddlers from 7 lbs up to 35 lbs), pocket diapers.  Pocket diapers have, umm a pocket, that you slide an insert (think of a semi-thick cloth maxipad) into.  And mine came with 2 inserts for every diaper so I can put one in the pocket & and one between baby and diaper for extra absorbancy.  Mine are Kawaii Baby brand diapers and I highly recommend this brand as they are cheap in price and high on quality!  And while cd's are very easy on the pocketbook, they are highly addictive and while I don't need any more in my stash to diaper my kids, I find myself online window shopping ALL OF THE TIME.  I also daydream of making my own, but I know that will never happen.   So I just daydream.  Most of all, I love the money I am saving.  A big box of 70 disposable diapers is $20.  And that case of diapers will last maybe 2 weeks at my house...maybe.  So say I would be spending $40/month on diapers...in 5 mos I have spent the money that I spent on my entire stash of cd's.  I really can not give cd's enough praise.  Seriously, give them a try...you won't be sorry.