When people ask us if we are going to go for kid number five, I wish I could say, “No way, we’re done!” I envy people with that sense of certainty. I love babies so much (and being pregnant and giving birth and nursing and changing diapers — everything), that I’m afraid I’m always going to look longingly upon those beautiful round bellies.

And since my husband recently described us as “old, tired and poor,” I’m thinking my baby-making days are over. SIGH.

Not that how much children cost has ever been a factor in our decisions about family size, but it’s true that people with fewer (or no) children generally have more money. The government predicts it takes about $221,000 to raise a child from birth to age 18. But of course we all know that some parents are still babying their 40-year-old children (embarrassing!), so that figure could easily be close to double.

Since I suspected that our fourth child would also be our last, I have felt a particular urgency about recording all the delicious moments. I really don’t want to be one of those ladies in the grocery store that stop women with young children and plead, “Enjoy it now because the next thing you know, they’re in college!”

Who am I kidding? I’m still going to be one of those ladies. But to distract myself from my fate, I’m focusing on what’s in front of me:  really cute kids.

Easy Ways to Remember Your Kid’s Childhood

Because giving birth has always been an earth-shaking experience for me (in a good way), I have done my best to write down my birth story for each of my children — from the first labor pains to the main event to those yummy days of pampering and bonding in the hospital.

This time around I’ve jotted down all the unique things that newborns do and say in what I call the Newborn Diaries.

With my older children, the most consistent thing I did was to record their first words and funny sayings on a piece of paper posted on the fridge.

Line-a-Day Journal

But I’m excited about a new idea that I think could appeal to a lot of people — with kids or not:   a sentence-a-day journal. Inspired by an interview by Meagan Francis with Gretchen Rubin, author of the Happiness Project, I decided to gift myself a ten-year line-a-day journal.

Being a terrible journal-keeper, I’m hoping that the miniscule scale of what I am asked to do will keep me on task.  (Typically my problem is that, faced with a blank page every night, all it takes is a bad mood or an aching back to make me fall off the journal-wagon.)

After doing some online research, I selected Journal 10+ and Mom’s One Line a Day as my favorites.  I ordered both and kept the big ugly ten-year diary for myself (I need elbow room!) and gave the compact, stylish five-year one to my friend, Cynthia, who just had her fifth baby.  Yay, Cynthia!

I am posting pictures of both of them inside, since I found it hard to find that information online.

Of course there are much more frugal ways to make a line-a-day diary, but considering the urgency of this task and the fact that I am a known journal-lapser, I wanted to get something that seemed fun and purposeful to me so that I would stick with it.

Have I?  It’s been a month, and I’m still faithful!

Last year I kept a line-a-day Twitter diary, called DiaryOfaMother, in which I had mixed success.  A web-based diary is a good solution for someone who has a smart phone, but I’m usually unplugged.  I did like how the accountability of a public diary helped keep me on track, and how it was easy to share with relatives.  However, a pen and paper journal is more intimate and I love that I can climb in bed with it at the end of a long crazy day.

In the end I think the single-most important question to ask yourself when choosing a parent’s journal should be:  which method am I most likely to stick with?

Do you record your life with children?  What ways work for you?

Dear Readers,

It’s been two and a half months since our little Luke was born, and I want to thank you for sticking with me during this sort of maternity leave.  I’ve tried to enjoy every gurgle, kick and coo, all the while trying to get settled into our new house, school and neighborhood in Syracuse.  (Here is the little man in his two-month glory.)

We had some pretty awesome guest bloggers, didn’t we? And there are a few more to come, but I’ll intersperse them with my own posts, because I’m eager to get back to writing.

But there are a few things I’d like to change. Up to now, I’ve mainly written in-depth pieces that read more like magazine articles than chatty blog posts.  Yes it’s true that I am driven to create great content for my readers, but I must confess that there is another explanation for my no-stone-left-unturned style.  I am a recovering perfectionist who is terrified of criticism.

While I think creating “pillar posts,” like my series on online shopping or the one on moving, has been essential to building my blog, the problem with this approach is that too many ideas never see the sunlight. It simply takes too long to make them just right.

And then I wonder, perhaps I’m so concerned about presenting professionally organized information that I miss out on chances to connect with my readers. (Allegedly) perfect people are admirable, but are they likable?

So instead of wishing things were different, here is what I am going to do:

Goal: Making work pay off

I launched my blog a year ago, and the site now attracts more than 2,500 visits per month.  I’m proud of how far I’ve come, and now I’d like to see the site move from a losing enterprise (financially) to one that at least covers its costs.  With my babysitting swap days over in New York City and a fourth child in the mix, we now pay for childcare a few hours a week so my toddler can get to the park and I can get to the keyboard.

Solution:

Because I feel that ads on my site would be counter-message (and I’m not great at business), I’d like to avoid trying to make money that way.  Blogging is fun work, but I wouldn’t be a frugal mama if I didn’t worry about contributing to our household’s finances.

So my mission is to find the time — and the courage — to work toward making my writing profitable.  This can mean several things including growing my blog so that a book publisher would take notice (advice from a literary agent), and selling articles to other publications.

Since life with four children is busier than ever (and I tend to crumple with rejection — but I’m going to work on that too!), I’ll take baby steps toward these goals.  One thing I can do is ask other bloggers to do a guest post, which would increase my exposure.  I’m intimidated by and infatuated with print media, but a baby step in that direction could be the meeting I have next week with the editor-in-chief of a local parenting magazine.

Goal: Getting more ideas out in the world

Life is charging forward while I belabor articles that end up getting dusty in my drafts folder where they benefit no one. I need to find the courage to publish posts that haven’t been slept on three times to iron out all their possible kinks.

Solution:

With my time crunched even more, I’ll save the meatier articles for online or print magazines which I’ll hopefully get paid for.  For Frugal Mama, I’ll focus on bite-sized pieces, which are at the same time more conversational and personal.

Since the pregnancy, move and new baby, I have been posting once a week. With the shorter, more from-the-hip pieces, I’m going to aim for publishing a blog post two to three times a week.  I’m afraid this might be too much for my email subscribers, so I am looking into a way to get Frugal Mama content delivered just once a week.

With this more casual approach, I’ll probably say things that some people won’t like, but I guess that’s the part of the territory.   I can’t stop growing for fear of getting cut down.  Like the grass in our new suburban backyard, I’ll grow back!

Is there a goal you’d like to achieve that requires going against your nature or conquering a fear?   I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

Next time I’ll talk about how I’ve been recording the priceless moments of life with children, because…babies are not frugal.

This is a guest post by essayist Nancy Shohet West, a continuation of a story that started here.  

Chapter 3

The kids have been officially in business together now for a month. (And when I say “officially,” I mean not that they filed for licensure from the Better Business Bureau but that it’s been a month since they put the finishing touches on their sign, a large piece of crimson poster board that says “Who’s On First Banana Bread” in white stencil letters.)

As I wrote about in Part I and Part II of the Banana Bread Blogs, the learning process began long before their first day of sales, as they divvied up the tasks required to produce their flagship product, banana bread, and set themselves on a schedule that would enable them to churn out two dozen loaves a week – which is what they’ve been selling every week so far within the first three hours of the Saturday morning market.

The next major lesson began on their first day of business earlier this month: customer relations. Rick and I sat at their table with them, and at first they were shy, hanging back and waiting for me to greet and chat with customers. “But Daddy, Mommy already knows everyone!” Tim protested when Rick urged him to follow my lead in making conversation.

“Well, how do you think Mommy got to know everyone?” Rick asked. “She makes an effort! She meets people and remembers them!”

I had to smile at Tim’s perception of me. Knowing everyone, or ninety percent of the shoppers and vendors, at Carlisle Farmers’ Market is no great feat: it’s a small town, and a rather select demographic chooses to spend their Saturdays at Farmers’ Market: old-timers, people of all ages who are already knit into the town’s fabric in various ways, or families with young children. In other words, the kinds of people I’d be likely to know.

Still, I was a little bit pleased to hear that in Tim’s eyes, I know everyone: not because the appearance of popularity amidst the Carlisle population is important to me – this isn’t middle school, after all – but because what has always been important to me is imparting the message to my children that they are among friends.

That’s one reason we live in a small town, the same one in which I was raised: so that they can enjoy the rare feeling of being surrounded by familiarity. Having been an overly anxious child myself, I’ve never believed in teaching my children about so-called stranger danger; I feel they’re far safer believing that most of the adults around them are people they can trust. I believe that sense of comfort will help them be better judges of whom not to trust and whom they can turn to when a problem occurs.

But Rick convinced Tim it didn’t matter if I seemed to know everyone and he didn’t; he still needed to reach out to potential customers. So together we urged the kids forward. We reminded them to encourage people to try the samples they’d put out and to greet shoppers with “Good morning!” if there was nothing else to say.

A few visitors to the market engaged them in conversation: one man told them an intriguing piece of trivia about banana distribution, and another customer quizzed them on the ingredients to prove that they really did make it themselves. By the second week, we didn’t need to push them even gently: they were into the rhythm of greeting passers-by, offering samples, chatting with their customers.

So it’s turning out to be yet another positive lesson from Farmers’ Market: greet people as friends and soon they will be. The third week, I left for an hour to go running, and when I came back, the kids gave me a rundown of who had purchased bread. “The lady whose mailbox is across the street, the lady who goes barefoot, the man from church with the plump head, and the people who do yoga with Grandma,” they said. “And some other people we don’t know yet.”

So they’re not great with names, but it’s a start. And they acknowledge that they’ll get more familiar with the clientele if they stay at it. Right now, their biggest incentive to keep their business going is sheer sales: the past two weeks they’ve sold out nearly an hour before the market closed, and needless to say, they love divvying up the cash once they get home.

But they’re learning about customers and community and friends at the same time. I’m not sure which lesson will last longer, but I’m happy to see how much they’ve benefited already, with nearly three months yet to go before the market season ends.

Chapter 4: An Eight-Year-Old with Deep Pockets

When I suggested back in May that my children go into business together as banana bread vendors at Carlisle’s all-inclusive Farmers Market, I wanted to see if they could develop the cooperation skills to work together and the determination to stick with an ongoing project.

I hoped the undertaking would help them to learn patience, organization and customer service skills, and they’ve learned a lot from the experience after their first eight weeks at it.

Interestingly, what I didn’t give much thought to when I first made my suggestion was the fact that if successful, they’d be raking in cash in a manner previously unknown to them. And they’ve been very successful indeed. So their piggy banks have swelled astoundingly over the past two months.

In Tim’s case, it hasn’t affected his spending habits much. He’s a saver; he’s sensible; and the material items he covets tend to be relatively expensive, like X-Box games or online memberships. So he tucked away his earnings for several weeks in a row and then bought a video game he really wanted. Now he’s saving once again.

Holly, on the other hand, is like a crow. Put simply, if it glitters or sparkles, it catches her eye and she wants it. And I don’t just mean jewelry or rhinestones; I mean kitsch. She’s been spending money ever since she started earning it. As the summer progressed, she put her hard-earned cash toward everything from earrings to quiz books to refrigerator magnets to hair clips to the ever-trendy Japanese erasers. And yes, she even bought a pillow pet: a giant stuffed bumble bee that unfolds into a plush pillow.

Since I wasn’t anticipating this newfound wealth on her part, I didn’t think about how much control I should have over it. At eight years old, Holly is old enough to understand what it means to be spending her own money, and she certainly understands the work she put into earning it: she’s right there at Tim’s side every week, greasing pans and beating eggs during the baking phase, and then staffing the booth with him every Saturday morning. So for the most part I’ve taken a hands-off attitude, merely reminding her frequently during our many shopping expeditions that she should think twice about what’s really worth buying and what’s not, but then letting her make her own decisions.

Rick did intervene once in a purchase he simply considered too irresponsible to watch transpire: she wanted to buy a rubber duckie from a sidewalk vendor. “She doesn’t even take baths,” he pointed out to me after firmly steering her away. “And even if it’s her own money she’s wasting, we have to take some responsibility for the environmental side of it. We have the right to tell her she can’t buy useless plastic that will end up in a landfill.”

I agreed with him in that case, but it’s not an easy call. Even as she spent money on odds and ends all summer, she was still saving a lot of it, and eventually she shared with me her scheme: during the last week of vacation, she hoped to do a spending spree at the Build-a-Bear Workshop at the mall.

She’s been asking for weeks now, and yesterday I finally caved and took her to the mall. On the one hand, I was loathe to see her lay out cash for stuffed animals (of which she has dozens already, naturally) and stuffed-animal outfits. On the other, as I’ve been telling her all summer, it’s her money and she has to decide for herself what to do with it. At Build-a-Bear, I asked her as she selected each item – first a stuffed owl, then a pile of outfits and accessories for the owl – “Is this really something you want? Do you really think this is worth buying?”

She did. I did not. And so I struggled with the question about whether to allow it. But I reminded myself these were not impulse buys; she’s been talking about the Build-a-Bear excursion for weeks. And I do believe that mistakes in spending are low-hanging fruit as far as object lessons go: surely as soon as she wishes she had the money for something else, she’ll start thinking more seriously about whether that workout suit and matching headband for the stuffed owl were really so important, and she’ll probably think harder about a similar purchase next time.

More significantly, she didn’t spend all her money at Build-a-Bear. She spent about two-thirds of it, but made a point of keeping some for later. And that amount went right back into her piggy bank when we returned home.

At the cash register, the Build-a-Bear associate tallied up the owl’s outfits and told Holly the total. Then she gave Holly the standard spiel about how she could add an extra dollar to the total as a contribution for a particular charity the company supports.

Holly looked uncertainly at me. “You don’t have to do that,” I told her.

“I do want to give the extra dollar,” she announced firmly. “I want to help.”

That made me feel a lot better about Holly’s spending habits. Not that a dollar for charity is much compared to her overall total, but if spending is going to be a long-term habit of hers, then I can only hope the donation to charity will be as well. In the end, I was proud of that decision if not so much the Build-a-Bear trip in general. But most likely as she grows older, Holly will put less of a priority on stuffed animals and outfit changes for them.

And as that change happens, I can only hope that her priority on charity remains.

Chapter 5: Knowing When to Fold Them

The kids announced yesterday that they feel ready to give up Farmers Market for the season.

They weren’t exasperated or frustrated. They just thought they’d had enough fun with it and were ready to move on. They’ve baked and sold banana bread nearly every week since July 3rd. Over the summer, it proved to be a great project for them, just as I’d hoped. Our summer was characterized by an absence of structured plans, and I encouraged them to pursue the idea of a banana bread business.

From a purely fiscal perspective, it went better than we ever imagined: selling 25 to 30 loaves a week, they raked in the cash. And from the perspective of a learning experience, they acquired new skills as well, just as I’d hoped they would: marketing, sales, customer service.

But it’s possible that no skill they’ve displayed throughout the Farmers’ Market experience was quite so valuable as the one that clued them into the fact that now was the right time to give it up. With homework after school and a need to relax at the end of the day that they didn’t have throughout the summer, they stopped enjoying the process of baking together. Nor did they find it so easy to wake up early on Saturday mornings and load up the car with all their Farmers Market equipment – table, signs, samples, product, cash box – once Saturday became the day they could sleep late after a week of early rising for school.

I admire my kids for this. I know how to bake bread. I know how to talk to customers and count out change. What I’m not so good at is knowing when enough is enough with any given project. But it turns out they do.

It’s harder for me to put an end date on something I’ve decided to do. When I joined the society of “streak runners” – runners who run a mile or more 365 days a year without taking any days off, per the definition of the United States Running Streak Association – I thought it would be a hard commitment to maintain, but three years and one month in, I’m not finding it difficult at all. Getting out there for my few miles every day feels necessary, and I’m never tempted these days to give it up. It’s easier to just get out there and go every day than come up with a reason to stop.

The commitment I find somewhat more difficult to maintain is blogging five days a week. Sometimes I can’t imagine how – or why – I plan to do this day after day without any idea of when I’ll end it. But I can’t seem to entertain the possibility of just changing the schedule. When I launched my blog thirteen months ago, I set out to post every weekday, and that’s what I’ve done. I find it very hard to imagine giving myself permission to change the rules.

My kids, it turns out, are a little less rigid than I am. “Farmers Market was fun. We will definitely do it again next year,” they told me yesterday. “But we’re finished for now.”

I thought about that. They weren’t burned out. Unlike many adults I know, who devote far too much energy to work or volunteer projects, Tim and Holly don’t even know the meaning of “burned out.” True, as children, they don’t have livelihoods that depend on facing down fatigue with persistence, but maybe that’s just one of the perks of childhood: there aren’t that many difficult things that you force yourself to do past the point of where you want to do them.

And for the two of them, it was easy enough to wrap up the Farmers Market season cheerfully. They’ll be back next year. They’re not burned out; they’ve just had enough, and they are able to recognize that fact. I could stand to learn a lot from them in this regard, I suspect.

Nancy Shohet West is a freelance journalist, essayist and blogger in suburban Boston. You can see more of her work at www.NancyShohetWest.com.

We had a baby in late July and I’m taking some time off to welcome him to the world. I am grateful to friends and fellow bloggers who are helping out with guest posts.  This article is by MakingTime of What There’s Time For.

In the past three and a half years, I have used cloth diapers in four countries, on day trips and overnight trips, even on months-long trips.  I’ve used flat pre-folds and contour diapers, all-in-ones, a diaper service, and sewed my own with elastic leg gussets. (I promise you I’m not crazy! I use disposables on airplane trips, on medium-length trips, when moving, usually for sleeping, and, now that we have two kids, sometimes just because.)

For most of that time, I figured I must be saving money (even if I did make a few mistakes, like buying 30 yards of organic cotton/hemp terry cloth to get the full bolt discount – that’s about 27 yards more than I needed… someday everyone I know will get bathrobes for Christmas) and I really hoped I was doing something good for the environment.

With our second baby, I bought a whole new set of diapers (knowing better what would work for me) and at the same time used them less often (we’re now living in Europe – our washing machine and dryer are small and slow). I started to worry maybe I wasn’t saving money anymore.

Then Amy asked me to write a guest post for Frugal Mama and I happily offered to write about cloth diapers… then quickly realized I’d better do some math!

Here’s the good news: Using cloth diapers, even only part of the time, is good for the environment (for a quick rundown on the debate – yes, there is one – check out this article on Slate). And it can save you a lot of money, depending on how you do it. It’s also a whole lot easier than you probably think.

How Cloth Diapers Save You Money

As big a price range as you can find with disposable diapers, cloth diapers are even more dramatic — you can get a cloth diaper for free (by making it yourself from old towels or sweatshirts or whatever you’ve got), for less than $5 (by buying second-hand or going with prefolds, the cheapest style of diaper), or for more than $20 (by buying a fancy new organic all-in-one that goes on and off exactly like a disposable).

If you can get your cloth diapers for free (you’ll need covers, too — you can make them yourself from old wool sweaters — but, no, I haven’t done it) and wash them for free (maybe you do your laundry at your mom’s or something?) and you never use a disposable diaper, you could save $1600-$2300 by the time your baby is potty-trained, according to SureBaby.

If you have to buy your diapers and you’re washing them on your own dime, you save less, but still a lot as long as you don’t succumb to the lure of disposables too often. And if you have more than one child in the plans, you will save even more by choosing durable diapers (where the absorbent part, which lasts an age, separates from the waterproof cover, which wears out faster).

Let’s take our family as an example. With my son, I used cloth diapers almost all the time. I did a load of diapers nearly every other day and there were typically 20 diapers in a load (he was a prolific outputer and did not like feeling wet). I wash on hot (some people don’t think that’s necessary, but I feel better about it). I also usually dry my diapers in the dryer because line-drying leaves them pretty darn stiff. (I do line-dry them when it’s too hot in our un-air-conditioned European apartment to run the dryer).

Using some sample numbers from Michael Bluejay and knowing that when we buy disposables, we spend about $0.26 per diaper, every load of diapers I ran for my son was saving me $5.20 while costing me $1.44 (possibly less), for a net savings of at least $3.76.

Saying (conservatively) I ran 3 loads of diapers per week, I had covered the approximately $300 cost of the diapers (that includes the silly fabric over-buy and several different kinds and sizes of covers) within 27 weeks. Since I used cloth with him at that rate for about 100 weeks, I figure I saved close to $1000. In reality, it was probably more, since I’m pretty sure I’m overestimating the laundry costs. (Although, I haven’t accounted for detergent – diapers should be washed with very little detergent, anyway.)

With my daughter, I try to use cloth about half the time. I bought 12 contour diapers (that means they’re shaped like a diaper, but don’t have any elastic) and 4 covers in her current size (which she’ll be wearing for a good long time) for $126.88. When I’m in my cloth groove, I do about three loads of diapers per week (12 diapers is a reasonable load for our tiny European machine, but with a bigger washer, you would probably want 24 diapers for a full load).

Using sample numbers like I did above, I figure I’ve paid back that cost after 16 to 25 weeks of 3 loads per week (depending on how efficient our washer/dryer really is). So, yes, we will be saving a chunk of cash by the time she’s out of diapers, even if we need a few larger covers before then.

5 Reasons Cloth Diapers Make Me Happy

Maybe you’re thinking, Gee, I don’t think I want to do all that work just to save a few hundred dollars over several years! And maybe you don’t. But before you go, let me tell you why I love using cloth diapers.

1. My house smells better.

Seriously. We don’t soak our diapers, just get the poop off (into the toilet – my daughter’s just shake out, my son’s required more effort and a dedicated “poo stick” that we stored in the toilet brush holder) and toss them in the pail. There’s a lid on the pail that provides all the odor-containment we need, even though it isn’t air-tight. Disposables, though? One poopy in the kitchen trash really stinks up the place. Even the wet ones can smell.

2. The laundry is easy.

I have a reusable liner in the pail that can withstand hot washing, and I just turn it inside-out into the machine so I never touch the dirty diapers. I often start the load (on super-duper cycle) at night and put them in the dryer in the morning. The jumble of diapers and covers can go straight into the diaper basket. Simple.

3. I don’t have to buy diapers as often.

I don’t have to carry them from the car to the elevator and from the elevator to our apartment. Or, worse, lug them all the way up the hill from the drugstore while also pushing two kids in a stroller. Doing the laundry is honestly easier.

4. It’s easier to go green (and cheap!) for other yucky stuff.

I use washable microfiber wipes for my floors and to clean the bathroom, including the toilet every day (my son is potty training) and they go straight in the diaper pail. Any peed or pooped on underwear goes in the pail, too (did I mention my son is potty training?). I guess I could put all those things in the regular laundry, but it’s nice to have a full yucky load every few days for all the yucky stuff.

5. They’re cute and they feel nice.

Cloth diapers are nice to touch and see; disposables, not so much.

Getting Started with Cloth

There is a lot of information out there on the web about using cloth diapers and plenty of forums with dedicated cloth diaperers thrilled to answer your questions. The biggest problem, in my experience, is deciding which diapers to try since there are so many choices! As with most things, more expensive does not mean better.

I highly recommend contour diapers because they are not too expensive, give a reasonably trim fit, and wash and dry easily. They will also last well because there’s no waterproofed fabric attached (which can only take so many washes before it’s not waterproof anymore), no velcro (which gets gunked up over time), and no elastic (which can also wear out after lots of hot washes).

Get a few waterproof covers in each size (I wouldn’t recommend one-size-fits-all diapers; they don’t) and you’re good to go! Make sure to get covers that can be washed on hot if you don’t want to wash them separately.

If you’re still not sure about cloth, consider waiting until your baby is 3 months old – they should stay in that size for a while, giving you a better return on your investment, and the first crazy months of adapting to parenthood will be behind you.

Have fun diapering!

MakingTime blogs at What There’s Time For about the sublime, the surreal, the mundane, and the hilarious of life as a stay-at-home mom to two in Vienna, Austria.

Ever since I wrote about saving money on diapers, I knew we needed to open up the cloth discussion. How do you feel about cloth vs. disposables? Please let me know in the comments section below.

While we have always rented out of necessity, sometimes I wonder why I look forward to owning our own place.  Is the idea of owning a house so ingrained in our culture that it becomes an unquestionably virtuous mission?

The American Dream is a little shaky now, as housing prices in mid-2010 continue to fall (despite more rosy predictions).  Even though we could actually benefit from falling prices, my dream is a little shaky too.

Blame it on the Coupon Clipper Magazine, Savvy Decor and Home, which arrived in our Syracuse mail box. On the cover, an attractive Greek-revival living room with crown molding, arched windows and a fire blazing in the fireplace.  Underneath curlicue script taunting:  “Another dream realized.”

Yet, when I looked inside for thousands of dollars of savings, I was horrified to realize what home-owners are going through:

• cracking driveways and snow to plow
• pools to maintain and playgrounds to install
• drafty windows and clogged air ducts
• radon testing and foundation damage
• landscaping, pruning, mulching, aerating and hydro-seeding
• sealing decks and repairing fences

If these ads are any indicator of real needs, I’m worried.  Do I want to become a harried grown-up with a furrowed brow, sighing over the next $600 spent on a broken furnace, a sagging gutter, or a nest of foxes under the deck?

Already I feel like we get huffy enough over our cars, which we’ve owned for a total of three months.  One or the other always seems to need fixing. Yes, I’m new here, but among my closest friends I can almost count Kevin in Honda Service.

Yet our determination to buy a place persists. Next year we hope to smack down our life savings on an abode. I agree there is a lot to love about a single-family house, but really, a 4-bedroom apartment is looking really good right now.

You may have seen a version of this article on my site a few months ago. I’ve revamped it for Buttoned Up this week, and you can read the short article here.

For a very compelling argument on why renting is better than buying, see this article from Get Rich Slowly.

I’m curious.  If you own a house, do you think it’s worth the trouble?  I’d love to hear your take in the comments section below.

We had a baby in late July and I’m taking some time off to welcome him to the world. I am grateful to friends and fellow bloggers who are helping out with guest posts.  This article is by Stefanie Cloutier of Thoughts from Space.

I don’t love to exercise, but I do love to eat chocolate, so as a result, I am committed to exercising five times a week. It really started as a way to counteract my (anticipated) slowing metabolism, because I just wasn’t willing to give up my afternoon sweet snack.

And after years of exercising five times a week, I’ve found I really need it as much for my mental/emotional health as for my physical well-being.

But I hate to spend a lot for it, and I get bored inside a gym. So I do a lot of my exercising from home, which is not to say I’ve set up a fancy home gym. Instead, I’ve collected a variety of inexpensive items to use indoors and out.

Indoors

It’s really so easy to outfit yourself for exercise at home: a few hand weights in different sizes, a stretchy band, and a mat and you can seriously do any exercise in your living room. I bought most of my stuff at TJ Maxx and Home Goods, but you can also check out Target, Walmart, or one of the warehouse stores.

I have five- and ten-pound weights, as well as a couple of wrist weights, and with those can put together several combinations of weights to use as I improve.

For weight programs, I troll through fitness magazines, and pick up tips and hints from websites. (Just google “exercise programs” and you’ll be amazed at the variety of programs that show up.)

In addition, my cable package includes on-demand programming, which has a variety of exercise programs right there on my TV. Whenever I want them – who knew?

Outdoors

Walking briskly and biking are two great ways to get outdoor exercise. Your bike really doesn’t have to be fancy — just in good working condition. I do join a bike group in the spring and the fall, partly to find new, interesting routes that take me out of my rut, and partly for the social aspect.

The cost is about $10 a ride, but for me it’s worth it. I also go on my own, and in the nice weather, I even use my bike to run errands around town, thereby killing two birds with one stone.

When I power-walk, I use the wrist weights to add challenge to the walk.  (I don’t run – don’t like to, never have). I really like walking with a friend, and mixing it up by walking through woods as well as along roadways. Again, it’s a great way to get your exercise in while having a social visit.

And since I live in an area where it snows in the winter, I have cross-country skis. Don’t be afraid to dig out your old equipment — I happen to be using the same equipment I’ve had for over twenty years.  If you don’t already own skis, wait until after the season is underway and most equipment will go on sale.

Plus, you can cross-country ski for free in so many places: in fields, wooded areas, across the local playground. There’s nothing more peaceful than gliding along after a snowstorm.

Plus, it’s a great way to make the winter go by faster, at least for someone like me who doesn’t really relish the season.

I think I’ll head outside and burn a few calories…

Stefanie co-wrote and performed in “The MOMologues,” the original comedy about motherhood; she does promotional writing and is the mother of two children who conducts her life as if every day was a recession.

Photo credit

Imported food often comes with gourmet price tags.  Not so in the grocery’s international section, where food can be had for less than better-known brands.  An added plus:  no special trips or coupons.

In an article this week at Buttoned Up, I talk about how to Explore the Ethnic Aisle to Save Money at the Supermarket, including finding delicious espresso at a fraction of the cost.

See you at Buttoned Up!

Although I’m still officially on maternity leave (thank goodness because I’m not ready to throw the blog into the juggle yet), I managed to pull together a few things I wanted to share with you.  They both touch on a theme I’ve come to believe in:

If you cultivate your talents and focus on your passions, the rest will fall in line, including happiness and money.

Bad Businesswoman

Are you a momtrepreneur?  I didn’t realize I was until I was approached by Jill Salzman of The Momtrepreneur Exchange, a network of business-owning moms who exchange advice and learn from one another in casual, kid-friendly gatherings across the country.

I love that Jill is bringing together communities of women at the local level.  As wonderful as the far-reaching connections made online can be, there are few things as satisfying as gabbing, laughing and griping with real live people who share a common interest.  (One reason why I’m currently trying to organize a get-together of bloggers in Syracuse and Central New York.)

Even though I admit in an interview on the Momtrepreneur blog that I’m terrible at the business of making money, Jill published it anyway, and she includes a few American Express “cardmember since” questions about things like childhood ambitions.

The interview appears this week on the Momtrepreneur blog.

No Impact Woman

Can you imagine living without electricity or without creating trash?  That’s what Michelle Conlin, her toddler and her husband, No Impact Man, did for a whole year.  I spent a lunch hour chatting with Michelle, co-star of the documentary No Impact Man, in a live talk organized by Discovery and TheMotherhood.

Even though Michelle was reluctant to go along with her husband’s radical idea, she discovered a lot of win-wins in the equation.  She lost weight, saved money, learned how to cook, weaned herself from a TV and retail addiction, and more.

Among other things, we discussed making sacrifices to support our families’ larger dreams, and the many ways we are succeeding or struggling in reducing our environmental impact.

When Michelle asked, “I’m curious what all of you do to live more sustainably….I’d love to learn from all of you what you are doing to realize your family’s larger goals……for example, one of the things we do is no-impact vacations where we take the train and our bikes to a local spot instead of going far, far away…….”

I loved how Susan Hunt Stevens of Practically Green responded:

We try and think about it wholistically, asking how we can change our time and money allocations–away from unsustainable products, unhealthy food, unhealthy activities, and boring things like electricity and gas bills–and towards the things we love: delicious and healthy food, fresh air, a night out on the town, an after school program.

You can read many more insightful tidbits from the talk at TheMotherhood.

That’s it for now.  I hope you are enjoying the series of guest posts that have been keeping my blog alive!

— Amy

We are expecting a baby at the end of July and I’ll be taking some time off to welcome him to the world. I am grateful to friends and fellow bloggers who are helping out with guest posts.  This article is by Dagmar Bleasdale of Dagmar’s Momsense.

Here are just a few money-saving tricks I use, and some of them not only save you green, they also let you be green.

1.  We just moved, and I didn’t pay a cent for moving boxes (and we needed a lot of them). I asked for free ones at our local Panera Bread, and they were very happy to give them to me. When we moved from Los Angeles to New York two years ago, I did the same thing at my local Starbucks.

2.  I always use those free store cards from grocery stores and pharmacy chains, and I use coupons. I try to only buy the products I have the coupons for when they are also on sale; that adds up to incredible savings. Sometimes the product is free that way. I saved close to $1,000 in two years, and that was just at the grocery store!

3.  A lot of people don’t know that Target takes coupons. I find that their food prices are lower than supermarket prices on a lot of items. I also use the coupons Target sends me.  Here is a link to the Target coupon site. Just pick the ones you need and print them out!

4.  There is no need to shell out a lot of money to entertain your child — find out about the kids’ programs at your local library and find free events in the free parenting magazines in your area.

5.  I buy cards, gift wrapping paper, toilet brushes, sponges, etc. at dollar stores. You can’t beat their prices for those items. I have scored beautiful silk pillow covers, Gund plush toys, and Filofaxes there. If you are spending more than a dollar on a great calendar these days, you are wasting your hard-earned money.

6.  Use the comic pages of your newspaper to wrap gifts! It’s colorful and I always get a great reaction when I do that.

7.  Check out Freecycle.org for free items someone else wants to get rid of.  Craigslist.org also has a free section, or you can get used things on there for very cheap. I have also sold a few items through Craislist, and I don’t have to worry about shipping them since the people who want them are local and pick them up.

8.  Buy generic brands instead of the brand items. Different package — same item inside. Before your doctor writes you a prescription, make sure he or she writes it for the generic drug. Also, ask for the stronger prescription and cut the pills in half — it’s the same strength in the end, yet insurance companies often make you pay more for the lower-dose pills.

9.  I go to VistaPrint.com for all my printing needs — I love them. Occasionally they offer free products — cards, stamps, business cards, sticky notes, calendars, etc. I have free rubber stamps from them and used to get my 10 beautiful, personalized Christmas cards there (with envelopes) for our closest family members — everyone else gets pretty cards I bought at the dollar store (10 for a dollar!). Every year, I make my parents (who live in Germany) a beautiful calendar with recent pictures of my son at Vistaprint. I get everything done in one order and save on shipping costs that way.

10.  Breastfeed! Can you imagine how much I saved in formula and food costs in three years? I am going to let my son self-wean because of the amazing health benefits of breastfeeding for him AND me, so the savings are secondary, but they are a welcome side effect!

11.  Buy affordable, multi-functional furniture pieces that can be made smaller or bigger. I love Ikea. There might be nicer furniture around, but with a 3-year-old in the house, you can’t beat the prices, plus I don’t have to stress if something gets scratched or dinged up. If you go shopping at Ikea, you HAVE to eat breakfast or lunch there:  it’s such a steal for a nice meal. Plus you can leave older kids in the playroom while you shop in peace.

12.  I love the dollar/$2.50 station at Target. I avoid the toys made in China, but I like the storage gizmo for shoes that you hang on the door. You can use those to organize all kinds of things — we have one in the hallway closet for scarves and hats and one in my son’s room for little toys. Super functional.

13.  I only buy batteries from the Target dollar station or the dollar store — you can’t beat getting four for a buck. My son’s Thomas train seems to need another battery every day — I’d be in the poorhouse by now if I bought batteries at their regular price. Better yet, invest in re-chargeable batteries.  (Make sure you collect and recycle batteries.  Find out from your town where and when you can drop them off, or bring them to Ikea — they have a recycling program for batteries and other things.)

14.  Save cardboard, address stickers, and toilet paper rolls for fun, free and green art and craft projects. I have a box full of those free address stickers. I cut off the address and let my son play with the pretty little pictures.  Here is a free e-book on recycling crafts.

15.  Before I go shopping at stores like the Children’s Place, Borders, or The Body Shop, I go online and find and print out coupons for the stores. I can always find one with at least 10 if not 20 percent off.

These 15 tips should save you some nice green!

Leave a comment and add to this list!  What do you do to save money and be green?

Dagmar Bleasdale, a writer, copyeditor, and social media consultant, blogs about natural birth, breastfeeding, attachment parenting, green and frugal living, and her addiction to Twitter at Dagmar’s momsense.

Photo credits:  grass, comics, furniture.