25 Days of Christmas

As many of you know, our family is VERY into the whole Advent Conspiracy movement in which we spend the month of December focusing on Spending Less, Giving More, Worshiping Fully, and Loving All.  A big part of that is reducing the money we spend at the holidays so that we can do more charitable giving.  Since Ben and I are still in the midst of our Debt Snowball,  we're not so much focusing on charitable giving in large amounts yet.  But we do want to set up some traditions and teach these values to O.

A while back, I saw this idea floating around pinterest and I LOVE it.  So I decided to begin instating in this new tradition this year...

Instead of an Advent Calendar with trinkets, toys, or candy inside, I decided to wrap up our Christmas books!  Then, instead of looking at all of our Christmas books all at one time, O will have the opportunity to open one each day leading up to Christmas.

In order to keep this activity cheap, I've actually been on the look out all year for used and otherwise cheap Christmas books at the Goodwill and at garage sales.  You'd be amazed how many there are, even in July!  Sure, the ones I have aren't necessarily my "all time favorites" right now, but I figure as the years go on, we can weed out, replace, and add to this collection until it becomes Olivia's favorites from her own childhood.  The idea is that you wrap each one, and then number them, opening the one that corresponds with the date each day.

I'll admit that we don't have 25 of them yet… I only own 15 Christmas books at present.  But that works out nicely, since we're not starting until today (12/3), and we are going out of town on 12/18… so we won't be able to continue from 12/18 until 12/25 anyway.

It sort of seems counter intuitive to "teach" Olivia to open one present per day when we're also trying to teach her that the holiday season isn't about gifts.  But here's the lessons that I think are important for her to learn:

1) Being grateful - While Santa isn't going to spray our house with a million gifts on 12/24 and Mom and Dad don't believe in a ton of gifts bought at retail value, O will receive many gifts during her lifetime from family and friends.  It's important to learn to accept gifts graciously and be be happy with each one you receive.

2) Patience - the idea of delayed gratification is very hard to teach any child, much less a toddler.  We may not be totally successful at doing this, the idea of seeing 15 wrapped presents and only getting to open one each day might be hard.  But if we can start instilling this now, maybe it will reduce or prevent the obnoxious habit that many of us (me included!) had as a child to open 15 presents in a row, as fast as possible, and then be bored or disappointed 15 minutes later when it's all over.

3) Reminiscing - this year, all the books will be new for O.  But next year and in the years to come, these will be "old friends" that she remembers from the past and enjoys again, as if they were new!  I have fond memories of the time of year in which my family got out the Christmas books, set them out in the living room to be read over and over for the month.  It was nice to see so many "old friends" on the bookshelf that I'd forgotten about in the 11 months between holidays.

4) Quality Time - each day when we open a book, we'll sit down and read it together, as well as the other books that we've already opened.  Olivia loves to sit on mama and dada's lap and look at pictures.  When we do this, we're not just teaching about receiving a present, we're teaching about spending quality time with family during the holidays-- it's an interaction, not just an item.

5) The Joy of Reading - simply put, any time I can teach my child to love a book instead of a plastic toy that makes noise, I'm thrilled.  I could blather on about that, but it would be a whole post of it's own.  There are all sorts of 'pre reading' skills that are important for O to learn at this age though-- holding a book right side up, turning from left to right, pointing at the pictures and commenting on each page, etc.

And for your viewing pleasure, I thought you'd appreciate the beginnings of our other Holiday pictures from this week…

but before you scroll down, in what ways are you and your family giving less presents and giving more presence this year???

How Will We Ever Afford a Child?

Because Ben and I teach a financial class for our church, we get the opportunity to hear from a lot of young individuals and couples who don't have kids.  And often times, what we hear is the lament that they feel they'll never be able to actually afford having children.  Let me remind you that children don't actually cost that much.  Sure, the marketing departments of all of our favorite retail stores want you to believe that babies cost money.  But they don't.  There are many things you can do to cut down the typical cost of having kids.  Today we'll focus on the clothing side of things...  There are so many sources of cheap and free clothing out there.  And when your little one is little, she's going to out grow the clothes before she can wear them out!

Earlier this month I had the joy of returning to the Needham rummage sale that I have spoken so highly of in the last year.  You'll remember that a year ago, I posted about my first trip to Needham here.  The deal for this sale is that dozens of families all pool together to create a huge sale.  So in the morning, they sell items at typical rummage sale prices.  But at noon, they have a bag sale, where they give you anything you can take in your brown paper grocery bag for $10.  So after we wandered around a little bit during the regular priced morning sale, we anxiously stood in line and each bought a bag... and...

I think she likes it!  :-)

Okay, seriously... below is a slightly better organized picture of what we brought home.  We spent $32 on 70 items.  Do the math, friend!  That's 46 cents PER ITEM!  To quote my mother, "she can wear it and then throw it away at that price!"  And she's right.  The clothes we bought are literally cheaper than some disposable diaper prices I've seen.  

This is an invaluable tool in parenting, in my mind.  Rummage sales, garage sales, craigslisting, clothing swaps... I'll say it again, children don't have to be expensive!  Now we just have to see if she's still as happy with her loot when she's 8 years old. :-)

The dark side of "reusing."

"...by one estimate, used clothing is now the United States’ number one export by volume..."  


Really?  


Take a look here:


The Afterlife of Cheap Clothes


It makes me think that I might possibly never shop in a 1st hand clothing store again.  Why would I when I have such awesome resources here in Boston for 2nd hand clothing anyway?  Some of my current favorites:


Goodwill - close, convenient, easy to drop off things I don't want or need anymore.


Savers - a little bit farther out of the way from my house, but in comparison to my local Goodwill, they sort their store more, so I can more quickly find exactly what I'm looking for-- a certain size, a certain length of sleeve, etc.  And they have member discounts frequently.  Discounts at a 2nd hand store?  Now you're talking my language...


Kid to Kid - a franchise 2nd hand store, focused on children.  Interesting.  And a very accessible website.  


Two Little Monkeys - like supporting local businesses?  This is your gold mine.  She closed the shop on father's day!  How cute is that?


Boomerangs - like your proceeds to go to a good cause?  Check out Boomerangs!



Where do you do your 2nd hand shopping?

Good Karma

Last fall I wrote a short post on a company I'd discovered called Thred Up, which was an online clothing swap company.  Well, without ever using the service even once, I've discovered this week that they have changed their business model and no longer are doing swaps.  Instead, they're now a platform for consignment!  Interesting change.  I wonder how they're business is doing now with the switch.

Anyway, I've meanwhile found another interesting "reused" children's clothing site.  And given that I seem to be writing about reduce, reuse, recycle this week, I thought I'd share it all with you!  Warning, I've not used this service and I have no attachment to them... I'd love to hear from any of you who have/will though!

Good Karma is a web based business where you can, for a small monthly fee, get a rotating wardrobe for your wee one.  It seems like a great idea, as baby clothes are rarely ever "worn out" before their out grown.  Sure, it's not the most frugal option -- and since I have frugal options at my finger tips, I'm more likely to pursue those than this -- but for a mama who feels reusing and reducing our overall consumption is important but doesn't have the budget restraints that I have, this might be an excellent option!

I also love that they have a system for your church/school/organization to host a fundraiser by donating gently used baby clothes toward Good Karma.  Maybe I should consider this with some of the organizations with which I work!

The frugal side of "Reusing"

I'm happily spending part of my maternity leave doing my best to be a frugal mama.  This feels especially salient to me as I enter the half of my maternity leave that is unpaid!  I've become obsessed with craigslist as well as the JP Moms, Garden Moms, and DotMoms groups on Big Tent.  I stalk the classifieds for free items that can be of use to me... sort of obsessively... maybe too often. :-)

But this spring, I've successfully brought home 3 trashbags of infant clothes, a boppy, a breast friend, a nursing stool, an infant travel bed, an (unused) nursing sports bra, and a pack of 30 size 1 diapers... FOR FREE.  All I had to do was go to the person's house and pick them up!

On the other hand, at 7 weeks old, Baby O is getting big enough that she's outgrown some of her clothes as well as a few of the house hold items that we acquired for her arrival.  Thus, I'm also selling some of my own items on the same sites!  I've sold tiny gdiapers that she's outgrown, a bag or two of unisex newborn sized clothes, and a spare playmat that she doesn't need since she ended up with two.  And I've brought in $70 and a gallon of organic milk in return!  Not bad, eh?

I've got many other items posted and am hoping to continue the trend of buying or obtaining for cheap/free and re-selling the items after Olivia gently uses them.  In this way, I hope I can continue to minimize the cost of having my little treasure and teach myself (and others) that providing for your child doesn't have to be a million dollar industry.  I love that I'm keeping things out of landfills, reducing the USA's overall consumption, and also connecting with some other moms near by in the process!

In what ways do you benefit from hand-me-downs and "reusing" with your kids?

Maternity Clothes

In my group of friends, recycling is pretty common.  But Recycling is only one piece of the puzzle.  It's definitely better than landfills, don't get me wrong.  But it still has a financial impact on society when you think about collection, plants for breaking down the goods, and energy to rebuild the raw materials into something new.  We all need to be doing our part to Reduce and Reuse as well if we're going to make an impact on our limited resources.

That's why I'm SUPER PROUD of my newest addition to my house.  I've joined a listserv of moms in the Jamaica Plain area.  It seems to be a good, supportive forum for moms to ask advice, get advice, etc.  But they also have a "classifieds" area where folks will post cheap and free items to be reused by other families in the area.  Most of the stuff is kid toys/clothes/etc.  But this week, a mom posted about free maternity clothes in my size!  All I had to do was pick the stuff up at her house and I could prevent all those items from being in a landfill, make 'double' use of items which took energy and economic resources to create, and also build my wardrobe while saving myself a pile of cash!

Check out the loot:

8 pairs of black pants and khakis
1 pair of black sweatpants
2 pairs of jeans
9 long sleeved shirts
6 short sleeved shirts
2 tank tops
2 cardigans (one cream, one black)
2 skirts
2 dresses
3 swim suits
3 shorts
4 capris






Even when you "subtract" the items that I've gotten which aren't gonna be seasonally appropriate for me, I'd say I still SWEPT UP!!!

Agreed?

This basically doubles my maternity wardrobe.  It means I can put away all of the non-maternity clothes which I've been trying (only partially successfully) to stretch over my growing belly and feel confident in the clothes I have that fit me.  It also means that in the next couple weeks as my belly officially out-grows my scrub bottoms, I have enough stuff to wear to work without needing to make any purchases!

I'd count this one as a success.  It'll be a double success when I can hand these items down to someone else in the future, as well!

Advent and other gifty memories

As a child, I remember pulling out the christmas decorations (typically around my birthday, thankyouverymuch!) and getting excited to see the "new" things each December that were included.  They weren't new... it's just that after 10 or 11 months off of them, they were re-"new" and exciting to look at, play with, or read.  There were nativities, advent candles, and of course, christmas story books... the best.  When my parents could get us to sit still (I'm sure some years were better than others) we'd even take the time to read favorites aloud.

That's why I was so excited to see this idea on a blog I like to keep up with: An Advent "Calendar" made of Books!  How brilliant is that?  Take the same books that your kids loved last christmas season, wrap them up, and open one at a time!  What a great way to keep the excitement going all month long.  Of course, we should also consider more eco-friendly options than using all that wrapping paper.  Anyone have suggestions for some sort of re-usable wrapping that might work?  Or you could re-use old wrapping paper if you're one of those who unwraps carefully enough.  Or what about a big Santa bag that a child could blindly grab one out of per day?  Hm... I've got time to figure out what works for us, huh?

It also reminds me of the habit my mom had when we were kids about bringing "presents" along on long trips.  I wish I knew where she got the idea from.  But when we'd get in the car for a road trip, her purse would always be secretly full of these little cheesy toys... each one probably worth a dollar at the local Walgreens... each one carefully wrapped.  We'd get a little too bored, too restless, or too irritating, and POOF!  Out would come a NEW TOY to be unwrapped and played with.  Small travel games, little books of riddles... whatever it was, it kept us busy for a few more minutes or hours as dad drove farther down the road.  Brilliant, if you ask me.

Dave Ramsey would be SO FRICKIN' PROUD!

I cannot stop smiling about how much of a deal I got today.  So some how (maybe craigslist???) I ran into an ad for this event at an organization called Parent Talk in Needham.  Basically, twice a year, they host a HUGE rummage sale aimed at ages 0-8 years.  The sale runs at typical yard sale prices from 10am-11:45am.  Then at 12:00, they switch over to a "bag sale" where anything you can fit inside a brown paper grocery bag you get for $10 total for the bag.  Well, T.E. (soon to be T.B.... if she's taking his name, that is...) went with me today to scope out the sale at 11:15 and to do some MONDO shopping at 12:00 sharp.  And look what we came up with!!!

In case you can't tell from the picture, that includes:

1 baby bath tub

1 bouncy seat

1 boppy

1 changing table top pad

9 board books

7 cloth books

6 other random cloth toys

5 hats

11 bibs

2 blankies

3 maternity tops

1 maternity pants

20 onsies

10 cotton/light weight sleepers

5 warm/fuzzy sleepers

9 light weight sleep sacks

25 pairs of pants

6 kimono/wrap tops

4 sweaters

4 other longsleeved tops

1 bathrobe

1 pair of socks

If my (really bad) math is correct, I think thats 133 items... 

wanna guess how much I spent?!?!?!

Oh yeah... $36.00 even.  Not a penny more or less! 

T.E. and I totaled up what the sale prices were if I'd shopped before the 12:00 bag sale.  That alone was $200+.  And when we estimated what the likely retail price was of these items, we felt it was highly likely over $1,500.  

I pretty much feel like a rock star.  And you can bet I'm joining whatever listserv I need to be on in order to be alerted of the next sale.  If they do this twice a year, I think I've found my only necessary source of kids clothes, toys, etc for the next few years.  

Maternity Clothes

So tonight's obsession is about how the heck I'm gonna make it through the pregnancy without spending a fortune on maternity clothes. It doesn't make sense to me to buy a bunch of new stuff for several reasons. First, I'll only wear the stuff a few months, and then they're back in a box for years (or ever?) until I... what... have another? That's so not something we're even gonna discuss right now. Secondly, what a WASTE of money!!!

Thus, I'm really keeping my eyes peeled for interesting ways to keep my maternity expenses down. Right now, I'm using the 'rubber band trick' which, from what I can tell, most moms know about. (Where did we learn this stuff before the internet?) And things like Belly Bands, of course, make a lot of sense to stretch my 'normal' pants a few more weeks/months (I'm ordering mine tonight, because they were out of my size at Isis this weekend). But what other ideas can I find or think of?

Turns out, there's a lot of great ideas out there on the internet! Who would have thought?!?! Take a look:

make-baby-stuff.com shows how to turn two shirts that are too-short into one that's long enough. It's actually brilliant for tees and for tanks. The question is, are the bright, contrasting colors too cheesy? Maybe putting a neutral like tan or black in the middle would make sense for work.

homemadebyjill.blogspot.com shows how to take one larger shirt and turn it into a slightly tighter one. Hm... might require a trip to good will, especially if I don't want to just steal all of Ben's shirts. ;-)

diymaternity.com's ribbon tied top

and finally, here's a couple top patterns that honestly, while I have the skill for, I probably just won't take the time:

ruthie-lilmamasews.blogspot.com

diymaternity.com's men's button down top

Any other ideas for me???

Reduce reuse recycle

Hey! I feel strongly about the ideas of 'cheap' and 'reuse' in all walks of life. But especially as I start this new chapter as a parent, I really want to get off on the right foot. Thus, I've signed up for this awesome new website called Thred Up. You can find them at thredup.com. The principle is that you exchange (for a small fee) your box of unwanted items for a box of someone else's unwanted items. It looks pretty cool, actually! If you're a parent or grandparent (or uncle, aunt, or cousin with a spending problem), I highly recommend you check it out.

Thred Up even has a referral program. So if you decide to join, use my referral code in the pic above and we both get a deal!