Eating the Baking Chocolate with Random Thoughts

Yep, I am.  Unsweetened dark chocolate is surprisingly good when you dip it in honey.  It's not doing anything for my weight loss goals, but I am so tired that I just can't bring myself to care.

Haven't gotten anything done this week, really.  Fortunately, there is still the rest of the week to go.  I am very blessed to have enough help that, despite Football's constant stomach troubles for the last three days, I've been able to get some sleep.

I am also blessed to have them at all; a good friend's 3 month old granddaughter died this week, and the doctors aren't even sure why. The funeral is on Friday so that they can do the autopsy today and tomorrow.  My babies got a lot of extra hugs and kisses for the last couple of days.

I don't blog much about firearms because there are so many other people on the web who do it better than I ever could, but I've found that the range is generally a great place to meet incredibly nice people.  A Girl and Her Gun talks a bit about her experiences with the firearms community this week, and, to give back, she is hosting a fantastic giveaway.  Since I've been lucky enough to attend some solid training, so that what I need is constant practice, I'm not entering, but I encourage any lady who is interested in the shooting arts, particularly in their self-defense applications, to put in an entry (it's easy).

Four more days until I have to post my dirty fridge picture ... I gotta get on that fridge cleaning thing!

Week in Reivew - 1/1 - 1/7

Carla's Low Spend Challenge - I have spent 49% of our monthly budget and we are 25% through the month. A cheque that I wrote last month and forgot about hit my account today.  Ouch.  Also, Mr. Goat went to town to get milk and came back with more groceries.  $100 more groceries.  I've decided that anything I sell can go toward the household budget for the month and still meet the challenge; now all I have to do is find the time to sell something.

I've started on my refrigerator - all the obviously spoiled food is gone.  Now I just need to clear it out, organize, wash it out, and put it all back.  I did remember to take a before picture, and to motivate myself, I am going to post it next week whether I have the fridge finished or not (I do not want you to see this picture unless there's one of a clean refrigerator next to it.).

2012 Goals
I signed up for Proverb 31 Ministries' daily devotions, but they haven't hit my inbox yet.  Not sure what is going on there.  I decided that my bible to read this year is The Holy Bible, English Standard Version because it is free on Kindle right now.  Aside from that, I haven't even made it to church - today I slept through my alarm again, which is crazy; before I had babies I never slept through alarms.  I'm not sure what to do about this since Carla's challenge prevents me from buying Clocky.

I worked out five times this week, once less than my goal.  Four days I pushed the twins in their stroller; one day I returned Christmas presents and walked around the mall.  I never made it to the gym because I had no one to watch babies in the afternoon; the person who usually does' mother died last week and so she was not available.  I will "make up" the visits over the rest of the month.  Since I don't need a Weight Watcher's membership, it doesn't meet the terms of the challenge; I will start tracking food next month.

All the money is on autopilot.  Mr. Goat's acting CEO told him they are planning to hire another programmer; hopefully that means we will continue to get paid.  More on that as I know more.

I was getting together stuff to go out to the berm ... and then both babies woke up at once.  Then I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the Broncos-Steelers game with a friend and feeding babies.  After football season, Sunday afternoons should be a great time to shoot; until then I'd  better plan for weekday afternoons. Aside from a bit of fridge cleaning, and keeping up with the dishes, no household work has been done.

All in all, a pretty good week, but next week I hope to do better.  If you tend to sleep through your alarm clock, how do you make sure and get up on time in the morning?

Carla's Low Spend Challenge - Late to the Party

Carla is having a Low Spend Challenge this month.  Since Mr. Goat has major job uncertainty right now (his CEO quit the week before Christmas and, before leaving, said that his company was out of money) it is a good month to be frugal.  My goal is to save as much as possible this month while not neglecting any purchases that need to be made anyway.  I'm late in posting my goals, but I've been trying to keep to them since the beginning of the month.

Carla's Rules (with my annotations):

1. Track purchases! Write down every single penny we spend! 
2. Continue with my “sealed pot challenge”. Any coins smaller than $1.00 go into my pot! (I'm not participating in this challenge)
3. Menu plan & shop from a list Make the effort to eat all the meals I have stocked up in the freezer, rather than buying more groceries, as they won't last forever! This will probably be the best single way we’ll be able to stick to the budget!
4. Find free & cheap activities to have fun! 
5. Focus on simplicity, organizing, & donating/tossing as much as is possible with 2 month old twins. Before my January challenge starts I’ll be posting a list of projects I’d like to accomplish during the month right below this. 
6. Medicines/medical care doesn’t count. If something comes up & we need meds, I’m buying them. 
7. No “pre-stocking-up”. I won’t spend $800 on groceries the week before my challenge starts in order to “get by”. It’s business as usual this month. (It is too late for me to restock anyway)

8. No purchasing anything unnecessary.  If it would be nice, but not essential, to have, it can wait until I know if we have a paycheck coming in.  This means that the toy budget for this month is $0.  I have also cut the household budget (bills, gas, food, etc.) by 13% in the hopes of socking that away at the end of the month.

Projects to Accomplish:

(1) Clean out kitchen pantry.  We had mice last month (ugh) and I am dreading cleaning this out.  No more procrastinating; it needs to be clean and usable by the end of the month.

(2) Organize Dining Room.  The dining room has become the "catch all" room and we are not making efficient use of the space at all.  I'd like to get it set up in such a way that we could put a couple of rockers in there for babies, as well as eat dinner without shoving piles out of the way.


(3) Organize and Clean Fridge.  Some of out food waste comes from the fact that our fridge has not been cleaned thoroughly in months.  I need to find all the spoiled and expired food and throw it out so that we can see what we have easily.


I know it sounds like I have the nastiest house in the world, but the truth is that I've devoted my small amount of cleaning time and energy to keeping the babies' areas clean and organized, to the detriment of the adult areas.  Some parts of my house are actually quite nice, I promise.  The bathrooms and kitchen have been cleaned every week without fail.  And once I get these projects done, my home will be almost acceptable again.


So far, I have spent 23% of the monthly budget and we are 19% of the way through the month.  I'm a bit behind, but I shouldn't need to shop for groceries for another week, so I'll be on track if I can maintain the same spending pattern until then.

2012 Goals

Last year, my 2011 goals got derailed by babies.  I debated whether it was even worthwhile to post goals this year, because, well, babies.  Keeping babies in mind, I decided to make my goal this year to do consistently the things that I know work, rather than undertaking new projects.

1)Religious/Spiritual

I feel like I am progressing the best in this area.  I still need a more active prayer life, but I attend church regularly (a 2010 goal) and have an off and on relationship with daily devotionals and prayer journals.  So basically I plan to do what I did last year, with small improvements.

(a) Continue to Tithe - a no-brainer, but it can be hard on months when money is tight.  I missed this goal in 2011 because I kept October's money back in case I needed it for cash flow (babies were born in October) and then it got spent in dribs and drabs until it was all gone.  I need to catch up on last year (hopefully with the tax refund) and then keep going in this one.

(b) Read another edition of the Bible from cover to cover - I didn't actually make this happen last year, because paper books are too hard to keep track of.  I did read The Message NT several times, though, because it was on my Kindle.  Now that I know what works, I plan to buy another bible edition for my annual reading - anyone have a favorite that they can recommend?

(c) Find a daily devotional or prayer journal that I can stick with - Again, this probably needs to be electronic to work, although the Kindle ones look hard to annotate properly.  Perhaps an app - any suggestions here?

2)Health

At the end of this year, I want to randori at 90% for 3 three minute rounds in a row and still have some energy left at the end of it.  To get there, I need to:

(a) Lose 50 lbs - I gained 65 pounds when I was pregnant, and it does not appear to be melting away quickly.  On the other hand, I am breastfeeding two babies, and I don't want to do anything to affect my milk supply.  So my plan is to begin tracking what I eat, but not restrict calories until the babies start solid food.  So I may not make the full 50 lbs this year, but I need to get started.

(b) Work out 15 mins 6x a week; make it to gym 3x a week - Babies also destroyed my ab muscles and my cardiovascular fitness, and I want it back.  My parents gave me a gym membership for a year for my birthday, and I want to use it in a frugal manner.  Also, I have a stroller to take the twins around the farm in when the weather is nice, or I can do crunches or whatever when the weather is nasty.  By the end of the year I want to be back to swimming 45 mins easily.

3) Financial

For the first time in our marriage, Mr. Goat and I have a positive net worth!  This is not to say we are debt -free; our money is mostly in retirement accounts and we still have a pile of debt.  Our highest APR is 1.65% fixed, though, so our debt has felt far less pressing than in past years.  Still , I've allowed myself to get distracted by fantasies of Namibia and such, when I should be focusing on debt before pleasure.

(a) Save in anticipation of loss of primary income - Once again, Mr. Goat's job is on the bubble.  Baby-related expenses have put us in a more precarious short-term savings spot than we were last year.  This month we are both going without toy budgets and non-essentials (I should see if I can join Carla's low-spend Challenge late).  More on this as I know more.

(b) Fully fund 2 Roth IRAs - Mr. Goat and I are 100% in Roths because our employer IRAs are always shitty and have no match (125 basis points for an index fund?  No, thanks.) and Roths are easy.  Mr. Goat is actually eligible for an employer match if his job lasts until July, and I'll revisit this then if the job is still around, but otherwise it is Roths again for us this year.

(c) Save $1200 for each baby in a 529 - Louisiana has one of the best 529 programs in the country - no fees, and a match ranging from 2-14% depending on income.  We'd be fools to pass this up.  This won't come near to the amount they will need for college, of course, but it's all we can afford at this time, and surely higher education can't go up 8% a year every year for the next eighteen.  I have them open and the auto-debit started, we just need to keep enough cash in the checking account to make this happen.

(d) Pay off debt to parents by the end of the year - About 1/5 of my total remaining debt is a loan from my parents.  Right now, I am hoarding cash, but if I can get through the year without needing to draw it down, I can pay them off.  They are not hurting for it or missing it, but I would like to get it off my ledger, because then all I would have left is student loan debt.

4) Household

My house is a wreck and our personal defense plans need a serious re-vamp because, well, babies.  To ameliorate that, I need to:

(a) Begin again on Flylady Routines - They work if you do them.  I can find 30 mins a day to keep my house clean.  I can.  Really.

(b) Set up firearm storage in anticipation of toddlers -  I need to get a safe so that everything is neatly organized and put out of reach.  Storing my shotgun unloaded in my closet isn't going to cut it anymore.  I also need to get my touch safe set up so that I have something accessible if I need it at 3 am.

(c) Practice with my carry firearms once a week- They don't do you much good if you don't know how to use them.  I have a berm now (yay!) so I have no excuse.

Not sure how I am going to track this yet - maybe a bunch of sidebars.  I wish I were better at making my blog pretty, but that will have to be a 2013 goal because, well ...

Also, Geaux Saints!

Homemade Christmas Presents 2011 - Bath Salts

Last year, I did crochet for my homemade presents, but this year I have babies and therefore no time.  I still wanted to give homemade Christmas presents, though, as the thoughtfulness of homemade compensates for the lack of money spent.  Minting Nickels has a post on gifts in a jar, which inspired me for this year.  She likes food gifts, but I prefer not to give food, since most of the recipes seem really unhealthy, and because taste preferences and food allergies vary widely and I would hate to get them wrong.  However, she included a link to Martha Stewart's bath fizzies, which I thought looked amazing.  But then I found out that 5 pounds of citric acid cost $20.  Since Martha was talking cups, and this was weight, I wasn't even sure that 5 pounds would be enough for the 7 people I wanted to gift.

So I decided to be less ambitious and make bath salts instead.  I used Martha's recipe, but I substituted ice cream salt for sea salt.  I figure that salt is salt and, as long as no one tries to eat the bath salts, there's no difference except for the massive price difference.  I might try pickling salt if I did it again, since the rock salt was pretty large, and so the salts did not look homogenized because my Epson salt was fine.  They came out really cute:

I especially liked the striped effect I got from layering colored salts and uncolored ones.

Cost: $4.16 each; $29.17 total
Rock Salt: 3.82
Epsom salt: 3.56
Baking Soda:1.06
Essential Oil: 7.89
Food coloring: 3.12
Cute Jars: 9.72


As you can see, the jars were a third of the cost; I could have saved even more by reusing jars.  This was a rush project, though, and I didn't have time to come up with jars this year.  Next year, I think I'll try the bath fizzies, and save up jars, and it will probably end up costing about the same, although, if I have some of the essential oil left, it will cost less.  I've got nearly the whole bottle left, but I use a Fuzzi Bunz Diaper Bag, which has a place to put essential oils to cover the diaper smell, and I am planning to try it out.  If it works, I expect that my essential oil will be depleted by next year.

Baby Spending - The Good, the Bad, and Ouch

As I said earlier, I've spent more than $2K in the last two months on baby supplies.  I've listed everything I bought below, and categorized them by usefulness to get an idea of how much value I really got.  I didn't buy everything on Amazon, but I did buy most of it, which made it easy to keep track.  I put down the price I paid, rather than the current price, which accounts for any discrepancies.


The Good
Super useful things that I use every day, or nearly

Crib and Changing Table - 200.00
I bought these used from a friend.  The crib is a drop-down model, but she used it successfully with two babies so I am not too worried.  Also, my back has enough trouble picking up babies as it is, I am glad that I don't have sides any higher than they are already.  The changing table is great - I'd get one again.  If you don't have a friend getting rid of theirs, though, it's a great piece of furniture to pick up at a secondhand store.

Pump in Style Breast Pump (Backpack) = 266.69
This has replaced the Lactina Select Hospital Grade Breast Pump I rented previously with no problems so far.  It does get condensation in the tubes every time, though, which is kind of a pain.  If I had it to do over I might have just rented, especially since the window of time I plan to spend nursing shrinks the longer I do it.
Simple Wishes Hands Free Breastpump Bra = 37.99
An essential accessory to anyone who pumps with an electric pump.  Other websites have suggested cutting holes in a sports bra but at my current size (38G) that would be more expensive than this one is.
Medela Tender Care Lanolin x 2 = 17.08
Nipple Cream is also essential if you plan to pump.  This is my favorite of the two I have tried.

The First Years BabyPro Bottle Warmer x2 = 31.08
Mr. Goat uses this every day (I seldom bottle feed the babies).  But we only needed one.

Carters Keep Me Dry Flannel Bassinet Pad x4 = 27.96
Convenient for changing babies on when you don't want leakage (on beds, etc.)  As with the bottle warmer, though, we didn't need 4, 2 would have done.

Changing Pad Cover x 2 = 35.98
Keeps urine and feces off the changing table.  The pad under these can be wiped clean, but it's much nicer to just toss this in the washer, and the babies can't kick it away like they do receiving blankets.

Cloth Diapers - 537.03
Huggies Pure & Natural Diapers, 160 count x3 = 143.94
I thought Cloth Diapers were really expensive - until I looked at paper.  We mostly use cloth, but paper comes in handy for excursions and those nights when all the cloth diapers are in the wash.  They go through them like mad; I can't imagine what we'd spend a month if paper diapers were all we used.  Plus, paper diapers are an environmental disaster.  So we try to minimize their use, and most nights we are even successful.

Tweezerman's Children's Nail Care Kit = 24.51

Maybe I didn't need to buy the premium kit, but babies' nails are finally short.

Bravodo! The Bliss Nursing Bra = 48.60

Medela Nursing Bra = 25.00

Motherhood Maternity Sports Nursing Bra x4 = 81.50

Before I got pregnant, I was a 36C or D, depending on the brand.  Now I'm a 38G.  Finding an inexpensive, confortable nursing bra has been a real challenge.  The Bliss is comfortable but expensive.  The Medela is comfortable and cheap but not lined, so every tiny leak shows through my clothing.  I'm hoping the Motherhood Maternity bra will work, as it is a lot cheaper but still lined.  I tried the XL and it was a bit small but looked like it might be comfortable.  Hopefully the 1X will fit and not be too wide in the band.  If it doesn't, I plan to buy one more each of the Bliss and Medela, do a lot of laundry, and hope the leaking clears up soon.

Boppy Pillow x 2 = 59.48

Highly useful for bottle feeding two babies at the same time, per Mr. Goat.

Philips Avent Soothie Pacifier, 0-6 Months, 2 Pack x 3 = 14.38

The babies love these, especially Football, and we love them too when they stop the screaming for even a minute.  

Philips AVENT Standard Nipple Protector x 4 = 31.08

Allows both babies to nurse on my flat nipple easily.  Monkey has figured out how to nurse it without if absolutely necessary, but they both prefer the prosthetic.  Not necessary if you don't have nipple issues.

Philips AVENT 4 Ounce BPA Free Bottles x3 = 15.67

The bottles we are using now.  Per Mr.Goat, far superior to the bottles we were using before.

Fisher-Price Rainforest Open-Top Cradle Swing = 85.36

Has been known to soothe the babies, especially Monkey, to sleep on occasion.  On those nights, worth weight in gold.  I bought this one specifically because I wanted a plug-in, as I expected it to run constantly and didn't wan't to have to buy batteries.  I'd have bought a swing secondhand if a plug-in had been available, but it wasn't.  

Champion Blue Disposable Underpads (Chux), Large Size 23 x 36, Pk/25 x3 = 30.75

Mr. Goat likes to use these in the crib to reduce sheet changes.  Monkey soaks his back regularly, so they come in handy nearly every week.

The Bad
Things that I no longer use

Platex Drop-Ins Newborn Starter Set x 2 = $29.03
This looked like a good idea, but wasn't a time save over other bottles.  I'm washing all my breast pumping equipment 3-5x a day anyway, so these don't save me any time and continue to cost money for the plastic liners.  Not to mention they are bad for the environment.
NUK Orthodontic Latex Nipples = 2.37
Playtex Baby Drop-Ins Orthodontic Nipple = 5.20
Accessories to the above.

Playtex One-Step Breast Milk Storage Kit = 30.00

Also an accessory to the above, but worth a mention because the breast pump adapter is for one side only.  So if you really wanted to pump directly into the bags, you'd need to buy this twice.  Basically it's $30 for a few caps and one breast pump adapter - can we say rip-off?

Lansinoh Breast Cream x 5 = 52.43

I bought a ton of this and then liked the Medela cream better.  It is so expensive, though, that I'm using it until it runs out, I just won't buy more.

NUK 2 Pack Classic Silicone BPA Free Fashion Pacifier, Size 1 = 4.59

The babies never liked these as well as the Soothies.  Football will take these instead sometimes; Monkey never.

Ouch
Things that were never useful, or that I haven't managed to use

Baby K'Tan Sling x 2 = $109.98
These would probably be great - if I ever had time to figure out the manual.  I should have bought a more intuitive sling, as I have not ever found the time to figure out how to use these complicated babies.  Hopefully I'll be able to wear them a couple of times before the babies get too big, when I have enough sleep to read the instructions.


Graco Pack 'N Play Twin Bassinet Sheet x2 = 21.98
The actual Pack 'N Play is super useful; I got the kind with the twin bassinets and keep the babies in them at my Mom's house.  But these sheets are crap - ill-fitting and cheap feeling.

Safety 1st Prograde Gentle Vibes Nail Filer = 10.99

Bought because you are not supposed to trim babies' nails before two weeks of age and they were drawing blood.  Made absolutely no difference in nail sharpness...

green sprouts 2 Pack Organic Cotton Mitts, 0-6 Months x2 = 13.98

So we tried this.  They hated them and refused to nurse with them on, unless they were absolutely starving.

Baby Sign Language Basics = 13.57
We haven't used this yet, but they are a bit young still.


Medela Pump & Save Breastmilk Bags with easy-connect adapter 20-pack = 12.99

Medela Breastmilk Freezing & Storage 12 Pack of 80ml Bottles = 14.50

Had complicated directions for use; just haven't managed to figure out yet.  Also, I tend to pump a bit more than 5oz per breast, so I am not sure if these will even work for me.

Total = 2035.69, of which 315.13 (17%) was unnecessary or wasted.  

Not where I hoped to be at this point, but expenses going forward should be low for the next couple of months.  I need a few more cloth diapers, and we might buy a second swing, but hopefully all the big purchases are out of the way until we need to buy a food processor at 5-6 months.  

I have 718.28 left over in my new baby account (I had a little less than 3K saved for new baby expenses), and I plan to toss that back into general EF and have the babies integrated into the household budget going forward.  We'll see how that works.

SmartyPig Interest Rates Fall Again

As I have said before, you lose purchasing power if you put money into savings accounts at the current interest rates.  SmartyPig has decided to exacerbate this by cutting its interest rate to .7%.  Apparently, SmartyPig was designed to make money off the optional gift card redemptions, and the high interest rates were too tempting to savers like myself who never redeemed any of my cash for gift cards.  So now they have a new bank, and are cutting rates.

I am hoping that this is not a sign of things to come.  SmartyPig has been a consistent canary in a coal mine.  Since I complained about SmartyPig's savings accounts rates in June, Discover's rate has gone from 1.25% to 1.05% as well.

I'm contemplating putting more of my medium-term savings into divided paying stocks with low beta.  Unfortunately, so is everyone else in the entire universe, which means that my chances of principal loss are pretty good in the medium term when something else comes into fashion.

Fortunately, since the babies have drained our savings a bit, there's less short and medium term money in the Goat household for me to worry about:)  Where are you stashing your medium-term savings now?  Any good suggestions?