I've Joined The Bandwagon

The cloth diapering bandwagon, that is. I said I would never do it, but I am learning more and more that you should never say never. With all of Jonah's issues we were spending over $25 per week just to keep the younger ones in diapers. I an NOT a fan of poop, but I decided to try the cloth just to see if it would work for us and ended up loving it! I wish I had done this way back when I had Noah in diapers. We have been going strong with cloth for nearly a month now and I have to say that it is so much easier than I anticipated.

Cloth diapers today are NOTHING like the ones that my parents used on me. I could go into detail, but my friend Melissa has done such a good job of explaining it on her blog, that I will direct you to her posts here if you are interested. They are actually so easy that even Joe is using them. (On the children of course, not on himself!)

The number one reason that I switched to cloth diapers was cost. In just three months, I will have "broken even" with my up front costs of cloth diapering by just not having to buy disposables. Add to that the fact that we will be cancelling our trash service this month since the only reason we were using it was for diapers as everything else is either recycled, composted, or goes to the rabbit, chickens, or dog. I will also be saving on disposable wipes since I have switched to cloth wipes. In total I figure we will save over $1,000 in one year.

I still don't like poop, but I love saving money! And how can you complain about the poop when they look so cute in those little cloth diapers?

Coupons

Everyone knows what a cheapskate I am, so every since reading on my friend Melissa's Blog about how she saves lots of money by using coupons, I have been dying to try it out. I went to the ladies meeting at Community Church Monday night (a great time) and they taught all about how to shop with coupons, what stores double coupons, and how to get the most for your money by using the ECB program at CVS. I was so excited to try it out! Well Joe brought home eleven coupons that he had gotten at work for $.50 off of 32oz Gatorade. Today I went to Bi-Lo where the Gatorade was on sale 4 for $5.00. I used my eleven $.50 coupons (which were doubled to eleven $1.00 coupons) so in the end, I paid only $.25 per Gatorade. Wow, I was so proud of myself! I now can't wait to get started on the CVS thing!