Ever since finding out that we're pregnant with twins (TWINS!!), any sort of progress on just about everything has ground to a halt. I'm tired, cranky, nauseous, and all-around pathetic. I can barely go into the kitchen without vomiting, and not because of the awful wallpaper and nasty ceiling tiles. It's all I can do to keep up with Ethan right now, so everything else is just on hold.
I have managed to get the garden planted, though I bought all my plants from the nursery. We have 40 roma tomatoes, about 50 spanish sweet onions, 4 peppers, 8 broccoli, 2 cucumbers, and 2 sweet potato vines. I would have liked to grow some lettuces, but the idea of salad right now makes me feel sick. Maybe in the fall.
We're also trying to plan out how we'll get by on one income. Thankfully, our mortgage payment is fairly low, our car is paid off, and we have no debt. Unfortunately, our car just needed $1400 worth of work. Also unfortunately, before we knew we were pregnant, we bought my step-daughter a car. We did pay cash for it, but it still put a sizable dent in our savings account. But now that she has reliable transportation, hopefully she can find a job and support us (ha-ha!).
The problem with living frugally is that when you need to, there aren't many places left to cut. We've already ditched cable for Netflix, we unplug all our electronics when not in use, and we buy almost everything secondhand. Granted, we also live way below our means, but when you're looking at cutting your income by more than half, it's still a little intimidating. We're obviously trying to save as much between now and when I quit working as possible. We're still eating out more than I'd like, since cooking (or even going into the kitchen) is almost certain to make me throw up. I'll be rectifying that as soon as my hormones settle down and I can cook again. We cut our trash service to the bare minimum, since I doubt we'll be renovating anything any time soon. We're also working on building up our food storage further as things go on sale or are in season.
While part of me is scared to cut our income by so much, part of me is intrigued by the challenge. It will be interesting to see just how far we can get Shayne's salary to go. And since I'm taking a leave of absence from work, we still have a safety net. When I was on maternity leave last time, I was amazed at just how little money we spent. After all, there's no eating out with 2 newborns and a toddler! It might be a bit rough, but it'll definitely be an interesting ride!
2 comments:
My advice is to cloth diaper. We didn't do it at first (started around 4 months) and have saved so much money. We use Kawaii's (about $7/diaper) and they are one-size so we're using the same ones we started with at 4 months (our girls are now 18 months) They're simmilar to Bum Genius, and friends of ours that have BG's are mad that they paid so much more.
We used cloth with our son, starting at birth (I took them to the hospital with me and everything, since I didn't want to risk getting used to disposables). I used Thirsties covers with prefolds up to size medium, then switched to Thirsties Duo pockets when he started getting squirmy at diaper changes. We do have to use disposables at night, since he's a super-heavy wetter; we even use a gDiapers insert in addition to an overnight diaper. I might be able to switch back now that he's almost nightweaned though.
I've heard good things about the Kawaii diapers... Maybe I'll get a few to try out, since I'm going to need more dipes with an "extra" baby to diaper.
I need to e-mail you about the list of useful twin stuff, too...
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