Teaching the kids

Teaching the kids Spanish as I am learning has been both harder and easier then I thought it would be.  My son is 4 so he is pretty much set in the way he speaks but is still somewhat open to new words.  I really thought it would be easier with him because he is still so young.  He does pick up the meaning to words pretty quickly.  I only need to translate twice to him but for full sentences, he still needs translation unless I say that particular bunch of words all the time like "wash your hands and face".  I guess I thought he would just "get it".  My daughter is 2 so she is still pointing at things and asking their names.  It is super easy to insert a Spanish word instead of English.  I am not worried about her not getting enough English, she hears it from her daddy and brother all day long.  We decided that only I would speak Spanish to the kids so that they would not get too confused and because my husband does not know Spanish and does not have the time or desire to learn.  I am amazed that my daughter got this so fast.  She never tries to speak Spanish to her daddy, or to other people, only to me. 

I started with just inserting Spanish in to my everyday speech with the kids.  I have read that this is not a good idea but my kids (and my limited vocab) needed to start slowly.  I began to see the words that I would need, to be able to speak to my kids in all Spanish and made flash cards on my phone to help me learn them.  I keep moving along with my Pimsular lessons to help fill in the "in between" words such as: us, them, the, he, she, because, etc and how to conjugate verbs and put together sentences.  I found a great website that had a list of common things you say to children in Spanish:
  http://www.biculturalmom.com/2011/04/13/infant-toddler-spanish-pt-1/#axzz1xWJwM8Ek
I printed it out and carried it around with me. 

Today I decided to just jump in and try to speak all Spanish to the kids, all day.  I am amazed at how well I did.  I have only been studying for almost 2 months and I was able to speak Spanish to the kids 80% of the day.  I did have to stop and consult my list sometimes but not as often as I thought I would.  This also tells you that I do not have "deep" conversations with my children although when my son did want a complex answer I switched back to English.  I am impressed that my kids did so well with it too.  My daughter used some Spanish words that she had not before and my son did not get annoyed with me.  All and all a success!  I think I will keep it up.  My goal is to speak 100% Spanish 100% of the time to my kids.    

Learning Spanish on my own 2

I took Spanish about 5 years ago in college and was very surprised at how little I knew by the end of two courses.  So this time around I am not eager to get back in to a classroom.  I started by going to the library.  I picked up a starter Pimsuler set with 10 lessons on CD and some books meant to help children with their Spanish.  After just 5 of the CDs I felt like I had already re-learned everything I learned in those classes.  I was pretty impressed.  I don't memorize easily so anything that could get me to remember something was worth looking in to.  I found the entire Pimsuler Spanish set lesson 1-90 on Ebay for $100 on a memory book chip.  I jumped and took a chance buying them.  It takes me about 3 days to finish a lesson and I couple that with reading Spanish children's books, listening to music in Spanish and watching tv shows and movies in Spanish.  I also make flash cards of animal, body, food, house, and any other words I might want to say to my kids with the Anki app I have on my phone.  It have been about a month now and I must say I have come a long way.  The Pimsuler is really working well for me.  All of the words I have learned are words I can use when speaking to the kids and words that I here all the time on tv.  I am only on lession 17 and already can keep up with some tv shows.  I don't know everything that is said but I catch enough to understand what is going on.  I feel like the shows are a puzzle that is becoming clearer with each lesson I go through.     

Learning Spanish on my own (and teaching it to the kids)

I have always wanted to learn Spanish and have always been ridiculously jealous of anyone who can speak more then one language.  My grandma spent many years in Spain and my mom was born there.  Both my mom and grandma used to know a lot of Spanish but they never spoke it to me.  I was never able to take Spanish in school due to a scheduling conflict with band.  I did take two classes of Spanish in collage and really learned very little.  I remember watching some movies in Spanish in class and we were all shocked at how little we understood.  After going through 4 hours of class for 3 days a week for two months straight we thought we would understand at least 10% of what was said but it was closer to 1%.  Now I have a little time on my hands an a strong motivation to finally just do it.  I want to teach my kids.  That is the mantra that is going through my head every time I think I am just crazy for even trying to learn Spanish.  No one else can do it, it has to be me.  If I can teach myself how to run a small business office, and make cheese then certainly I can do this.   

No Santa

When I was a kid my family DID Santa. My mom and my Grandparents took great care to keep up the Santa thing for me. The presents were done in special handwriting, with a special gold pen. They never left out receipts, boxes, bags, or anything else for me to find. The media helped as well. I loved the movie The Santa Clause, I took it to be close to the truth. My mom told me that the mall Santa's were just helpers. I had it all figured out and when my friends said there was no Santa, I thought they were crazy. At the age of nine, my step father entered my life and was a bit less careful with his evidence. I saw the candy wrappers for the candy that goes in my stockings, in the trash. So I asked and I was told that yes, Santa was just my mom and grandparents. Boy did I feel stupid. All of my friends were right. It took all the magic out of the holidays for me for many years.

Fast forward to now, I have a family of my own. My son is getting to the age (3) where Santa becomes important to children. So it falls on me and my husband to figure out what is going to be our family traditions. I would like to do it differently. Since we celebrate Yule, we will be focusing on that. I am not going to ban Santa but we will not have pictures done with him, read stories about him, or make any kind of big deal about him. I will tell him that I fill his stockings, and our family buys him presents. If he asks about Santa, I will answer his question and nothing more.

I did eventually figure out that there is a lot of magic in this world even without Santa. As for those that say I am somehow "robbing my children of the magic of childhood" I would say that we live in an amazing world with it's own beauty and magic. I don't need to make it up with a fat man and presents, it is already there. All I need to do is show it to them.

Homemade Laundry and Dishwasher Detergent

I have found yet another way to save money in my house. I now make all of our own laundry and dishwasher detergent. We go though so much of this stuff. I have to run the dishwasher and the wash at least once a day. We also have allergies to many of the scents and dyes they put in to laundry soap so I can't just go out and buy the cheapest brand available. So I found these recipes and tried them out and they have been working great. Not only that but they only cost about 2 cents a load for laundry and 4 cents a load for the dishwasher detergent. I got the recipes off of

tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/ AND
frugallygreen.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-make-your-own-dishwasher.html

Laundry Soap
2 cups Ivory soap grated fine
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
Use 2 tablespoons per large load (use one tablespoon per load for diapers)

Dishwashing Detergent
2 cups Borax
2 cups Baking Soda
4 packs lemon Kool-Aid (no sugar)
Use 1 tablespoon in each cup

What I have learned that is helpful is
1. Don't use more then the amount stated. It is not helpful and will leave streaks on your dishes or make your diapers wick.
2. Use vinger as a rinse aid
3. Washing soda is in the laundry aisle at the store. Call around if you don't know if your local store has it.

I have read some comments on the safety of using Borax in the dishwasher. All I can say is that you can not eat store bought dishwasher detergent either so I don't see much of a difference. I don't even have any idea what is in that stuff.

Cramps

A while ago I posted about how much I love my Diva Cup. Well, I have something else to add. I don't get cramps anymore. That's right, none. This has nothing to do with using the Diva Cup and everything to do with NOT using normal store bought pads and tampons. I don't even know when my period is coming. I used to get really bad cramps for the first two days of my cycle. I would always know when I was going to get it. Now I don't and I have some personal, very non-scientific evidence as to why that is.

I started getting my period at the age of 10. The first time I got it, I had no cramping and after that I always had pretty bad cramping for the first two days. I had to take Advil every 6 hours for two days. Fast forward to my first child. I discovered the Diva Cup when he was a few months old and it took a while to get the hang of it so I always used a pad with it until the last two months or so. I only used it alone for a couple of months, then I got pregnant with my daughter and did not have to worry about periods for a while. After I had her, I used pads for a few months until I decided to go back to the Diva Cup. While using pads I had my normal cramping. After three months of using ONLY the Diva Cup, I stopped getting cramps.

At first I thought this was a fluke. Just a one month thing, then it happened again and again and I remembered that many of the women that reviewed it on Amazon, said that they had no or less cramping then before. That was not proof enough for me though. I started taking an exercising class that required me to where a pad for um "leaks" (women who have had children know what I mean). I used normal brand name pads. That month I got cramps. Really bad ones. I went out and bought the natural organic pads and threw away the others. This month, no cramps, not one. To be honest, this pisses me off. So for years I had really painful bad cramps and they were caused by my PADS??? As I said before, this is in no way scientific, just my own experience. And I grantee there will never be any research put toward this idea. Who would pay for it? But I will say that my daughter will never use "normal" pads or tampons. I will pay the extra money for the natural ones for her.

Summer Love

I love summer. There are so many things I can do now that I can't the rest of the year. Most of these things happen to save me money. I love going to BBQs where I only have to bring one dish and can eat a whole dinner. I love putting my clothing out on the line. It is very relaxing to me. I love that I don't have to touch the heat and it never gets hot enough to wish I had AC for more then one day. I love to pack up the kids and head to the beach which thanks to our wonderful Pacific North West is only a 15 minute drive.

I love going to farmers markets even if I never buy anything because I never carry cash and everything cost so much. I love all the verity of Washington grown veggies in my CSA box I get delivered to my door once a week. I love picking veggies out of my own small garden. This is the time of year my family goes camping and Aaron and I get to go somewhere for a whole weekend by ourselves for our anniversary. This year Aaron and I tried river rafting. It was wonderful and surprisingly cheap. $65 per person bought us lunch, all our gear and 2.5 hours on the river. Summer is short around here but it is very sweet.

Chickens

I have wanted backyard chickens for a long time. I really want access to cheap, extra nutritious eggs. Yesterday a friend of mine brought over some of her dad's chicks to let her mom friends take pictures of with the kids. All was going well until my son and his big new rain boots stepped on one of the chicks and killed it. He did not seem to notice despite me trying to make him understand but I was totally traumatized.

I was however renewed in my effort to get some chickens (full grown ones) for our own yard. I know that my city lets people have up to 6 chickens, no roosters. So I set to work trying to figure out if it would save our egg eating family to have chickens. In the past I have heard both that having your own chickens saves you money and that it does not. So I looked for the best deals on coops on Craigslist and found a deal where you get five, 6 month old chickens, a coop and everything the chickens need for $300. That seems to be a good deal. Then I looked at what feed would cost for 5 chickens. About $16 a bag and we would need one bag a month. This alone is more then we spend on eggs in one month (about $10), even if we bought all organic, cage free eggs. That does not even take in to consideration the start up costs, possible vet costs, and lack of egg laying in the Winter.

So there goes that dream. While I could look at them as pets, I have a firm rule against introducing anything else in my life to take care of unless it gives me some value. And by value I do not mean something nebulous and undefinable, I mean saves me money.

First Cheese

Last week I attempted my first cheese. I used the 1 gallon Farmers Cheese recipe from the website I posted. I warmed up my milk and added the yogurt and let it sit all night. In the morning I warmed up the milk and added the Rennet and then waited, and waited, and waited some more. No clean break. I began to suspect that I let the milk sit to long before adding the rennet.

I was eager to try again so this time I warmed the milk, added the yogurt and only let it sit for 3 hours before adding the rennet. Nothing happened. I did not even get a messy kind of break. Nothing, it still looked like milk. I decided to warm it up an make something else with it. When I came back to check on the milk it was firming up just like it was supposed too! I kept it warm and followed the rest of the directions and put the curd in to my homemade cheese press (also found on the website). I let it press all night and then took it out and wrapped it in a handkerchief that I had boiled to serialize and put it in the fridge.

This is the hardest part, waiting. I can't help but check on my cheese all the time. I really try not to but I can't help it. It seems to be drying just like it is supposed to. When it is dry I will wax it and wait some more. The sad part is that I will not know if I got it right for a few more weeks!

First Yogurt

I did it! I made my fist batch of yogurt. All kinds of things went wrong but the yogurt still turned out just fine. I used the cheap 2% milk found a my normal grocery store. I used a candy thermometer that I already had. A normal pot and 8 oz canning jars. I used the half gallon recipe because I did not want to waste a whole gallon of milk if I did it wrong.

Most of the cooking went fine except that the milk scorched on the bottom of the pan but I just did not scrape it and the yogurt tasted normal. I tried to pour the milk in to the jars from the pan but ended up getting it everywhere. I put the milk in to a pitcher and had much better luck. Then I had more milk then jars so I had to use a clean spaghetti sauce jar. Then there was not enough room in the cooler for the big jar. Lucky for me, I found a very fat thermos that worked just as well. Then I fell asleep and let the yogurt sit for longer then 3 hours. At 3:30 am I tip toed down stairs and looked at my yogurt. It was solid! I had done it! I put the yogurt in the fridge and went back to bed. Then next morning I served it to the kids with honey in it. They loved it.

Yogurt and Cheese

According to my husband I have finally gone off the deep end. The other day I was listening to Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbra Kingsolver (with our MP3 player that we got for free) and I heard her talking about making cheese. I love cheese. I like it just as much as chocolate. My mom and I even go to a free monthly cheese class at a high class market in our city just to hear about and taste different cheeses. I always assumed that cheese making was super hard and never something I could do in a cost effective way. But to hear Ms. Kingsolver talk about it, it really is not that difficult. So I looked in to it and it turns out she is right. It is not that hard. I even found this great website where the author is committed to making cheese, yogurt and other things using all stuff you would find at a normal grocery store or already in your home.

I was so excited. Husband thought I was so crazy. Why? was all he could say. Because it is cheaper, better for you (no weird additives) and because I can. I love to cook and I also love a good challenge. Besides wouldn't it be way cooler to give cheese at Christmas instead of cookies?

Here is the website I will be using to make yogurt and cheese with -

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese_course/Cheese_course.htm

He even has nice pictures for every step.

Holiday Burnout

It is just a few days away from Christmas and I find it really hard to get excited this year. I feel like I have put in way to much work for this holiday and it has left me wondering "Is it really worth it?". It seems that the mom always get stuck with the holiday chores. It is my job to get all gifts for my husbands family, my own, the kids, wrap them, distribute them, figure out what to put in stockings, what to eat on the big day, fill out and mail cards and packages, get the business cards picked out and mailed and so on. I will admit that I used to enjoy this so I took it upon myself but now that I have two very young children, and a business to help run, I want to step back. I don't want to do everything. I don't even want to do half of it. This years holiday work has resulted in some bitterness on my part. I will admit to reading cards sent to us, smiling and then throwing the picture-less ones away just because I don't want them cluttering up my bar. I have no interest in getting the kids pictures done with Santa or doing any holiday activities that require any waiting in line. So my goal for the new year is to figure out how to step back and not spend so much time on the holidays. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Black Friday Deals!

On this lovely snowy Thanksgiving I am busy cooking a turkey that myself, my children and my mom will not be eating. We only eat fish meat so we will be having lobster (the suffering we go through!) for our Thanksgiving dinner but I still cook a turkey for my sister, husband and my cousin. We have so much to be thankful for this year! Our business, our family, our health and of course SALES! My favorite sale on Black Friday and the only one I will be going to this year is the Goodwill sale. Most of the country's Goodwill stores have a almost everything 50% off for Black Friday and the day after. Some do it for the whole three day weekend. They will be opening an hour early at 8am. Goodwill does not really do a good job of advertising this so I thought I would post about it. I only found it by accident one year when I happened in to one as a last minute decision.

I love Goodwill. If you have more time then money or just want a good deal it is the place for you. It takes time to look through things there but it is well worth it. I love to get my son like new books for $1 or less, baking-were, and clothing for myself and my hubby. I remember finding a Boppy with a cover there for $2, new they cost $40. The only thing that I would not bother with would be the baby clothing. Everyone takes their nice clothing to the used kids stuff stores like Once Upon A Child to get money. I also like that I am not buying new stuff and therefore helping to keep things out of the landfill. Save money and the planet, a double win!

Drinking the Cool-aid

Well I am not one to jump on bandwagons but I am about to "drink the Cool-aid" so to speak. I am in the planing stages of starting Dave Ramsey's 7 steps. Just recently, I was at the library picking up some books I had ordered and Dave Ramsey's book Total Money Makeover was sitting on counter. I started to flip through it and saw a clip about a couple making $30,000 a year that did his program. I decided to get it right there. It was free right?

Our family does not have massive debt but we did just start a business so we have some. Even before reading the book, we had decided to sell the riding mower we bought to get rid of the payment. We have gotten out of debt before but something always comes up (usually emergencies but not always) and we end up back in. Once you are in a little, it is so easy to get in a little more for something that is not an emergency.

Dave Ramsey's plan is simple and seemed to fit my family. We don't have a high income or huge credit card debt. I am a stay at home mom and it is important to us that I stay one. I don't like how many other financial gurus answer is just for the mom to get a job outside the home. That will not work for us. I also don't like how many plans seem targeted at higher earners then we are. Dave's plan made it seem possible to get rich with out having to make more money. Another thing is that no one seems to speak to the self employed. We don't have access to a 401k so I don't care to hear about it as the be all and end all thing. Dave has worksheets in the back with alternatives for those that are self employed. The last thing is that Dave's plan addresses people's real behavior. I am a very cheap person. I am capable of having a credit card sit in my wallet unused for years. My husband, bless him, is not. He is not the type to get in to debt on small things but when he wanted to start a business, he just went out and charged it. I needed a plan that would convince and reward him enough that he would stick with it. So here I am, about to take the first step to a credit free life. Wish me good luck!

Fall Fun in the City

I am amazed how many free things there are to do with your kids during the fall. In our city the parks hosts at least 4 different Halloween parties in different parts of the city, some nature walks, and even some evening spooky stories over a campfire with hot cider. All of these events are free or under $5. Then there are all of the harvest parties hosted by local churches. Our church is hosting a Samhain party the night before Halloween and a haunted house the day of. Many of my mom friends have invited me to their churches harvest festivals as well. Then there are the parties hosted by my local moms groups. Each group is having one for the kids and in years past they have also had a party just for the adults.

How do you find out about these fun cheap parties? The web of course! Most cities have a parks and rec department and it will have its own web page with all the happenings of the month. Church parties may be a bit harder to find if you don't go to that particular church but all you have to do is ask around and you might find something fun to go to. I found all of my moms groups through Meetup.com. I love Meetup, I have met all of my mom friends through this website that was designed to get people with similar interests to meet up in real life. Some groups charge a fee but it is usually no more then $10 a year. Others get sponsored and so don't charge a fee at all. All it takes is a little time and any city slicker can find some fun, cheap, things to do during the fall with their little ones!

Cloth Diapers at Target and Walmart

It would be so great to be able to get cloth diapers at a big chain like Target or Walmart. Here in my city we have one very small and very limited store that sells cloth diapers. It has limited selection, and limited hours and many moms and dads just don't know it exists. I think that many more people might be at least willing to consider the idea of cloth if they could SEE the covers, Snappies, and diapers. I know that for me it was really hard when I had to buy everything sight unseen over the internet, with only pictures to look at. I was unemployed and pregnant at the time and had nothing better to do then spend hours researching what diapers to buy. Most people don't have that kind of time. Cloth can be very confusing for a beginner and it is even harder to try to pick what you might like (pocket diaper, prefolds, all-in-ones) when you can't even see them. Then you have to pay shipping too. There are many places that the only store around is a Walmart. These people are (most likely) not going to drive way out of there way to see some diapers. Think of all the money it would save people to put their babies in cloth!

Sign the petition to tell Target, Walmart and other retailers to carry cloth diapers!

Toddlers and poop

Life with a toddler is never dull. In fact it can be quite stressful. I used to work at a daycare were we primarily took care of toddlers and I loved the job. I thought toddlers were just "so fun!". Then I was a nanny to three girls 2, 4, and 6 and that was also "so fun!". Now I would describe toddlers as just "so stressful!". Right now my son loves poop. Now I know there are plenty of toddlers that do not like poop but I was lucky enough not to have one of those lovely children. Lately he thinks it is so funny to poop in the tub when he is getting a bath. I was doing laundry in the other room one day when I hear a splat! I come in and he is slinging handfuls of poop on to the floor. Then there was the time that I look over and my son is putting his finger in his butt and then putting it in his mouth! Or when I came in to his room one day (this was a while ago) to find that he had taken off his pants and diaper and was dancing all over his poop on his crib mattress. It took me an hour to clean that up. My son is a really sweet boy but there are some days when I just want to say "wake me when it's over".

Cloth Diapering on the Cheap: Rashes, and other odd things

There are always odd things that come up when cloth diapering. One is the dreaded diaper rash. Some people say that you are less likely to get diaper rash with cloth. I think that depends on why your kid is getting the rash. If you child is sensitive to the chemicals that are in paper diapers then yes, they will get less rashes with cloth. If however your child gets diaper rash from having pee against their skin (like my children) then you may get more from cloth diapers. The solution to this is fleece. You simply get some fleece (from the fabric store or an old blanket) and cut it in to diaper sized rectangles and place them in the diapers. This will keep your child's skin dry and rash free. You can wash the liners with the diapers and reuse them.

For wipes I use white wash cloths. We use white because our other wash cloths are not white so we can tell the difference. I went to Target and for $5 I got a pack of 12 wash cloths. I bought 3 of these packs. Then I just use a squirt bottle of water to get them wet and wipe the baby up with them. They can be washed with the diapers just the same way. Really why not use cloth wipes when you are cloth diapering anyways right?

Some babies are super heavy wetters at night. For them it would be a good idea to get some overnight diapers. Many different bands make them. They cost a bit more but you only need a few of them. I got 3 because I do my wash every 3 days. I got the Happy Hempy pocket diapers. Hemp is very absorbent and works well for overnights. They cost $18 but like I said, I only needed 3. There are other hemp diapers that will work too.

Cloth diapering is really not as hard as it sounds and the pay off money wise and environmentally are huge. So give it a try! If it does not work out you can sell your stash and make back at least some of your money. Some websites even have a "try it" package that will let you return all or part of the diapers and get your money back.

Cloth Diapering on the Cheap: Taking Care of Your Diapers

Taking care of prefold diapers is really easy. It is one of the reasons I prefer prefolds to other types of diapers. When you get your prefolds (if they are new) they will be flat and kind of rough feeling. You need to run them through the wash three times before you use them. Just run them on hot/whites and put in a little bit of detergent. You can just wash them three times back to back, you don't need to dry them in between. When that is done, dry them and they should be fluffed up nicely and ready for use. You do not need to wash your covers before using them.

Next you will need a diaper pail to put the diapers in. Any kind will do, it is up to you. You do not need to put water or bleach in the pail. In fact you should never soak your diapers in bleach unless you want them to last for all of two weeks and then fall apart on you. I just put a plastic bag in my pail but if you want you can get what is called a "wet bag". This is a water proof, washable bag, that you put diapers in and then throw in the wash with the diapers. You can get them on any web site that sells cloth diapers.

Now you need to know how to wash your diapers. There are some people that will tell you that you need to pre-soak, or pre-rinse, and then do another rinse or some such nonsense but I disagree. I think these people are making it sound way to complicated and scaring people away from cloth diapering. All you need to do is set your wash to whites, put in the detergent, and wash them on hot. That is ALL! It is really simple. I should note that I do not know if it is different for front loader washers. I have a top loader. For detergent you want to use about 1/4 of the amount of detergent you would normally use. You do need to be careful about the brand of detergent you use. I know that Tide Free and Arm N Hammer Free both work well and are easily available at most stores.

The last thing most people wonder about is poop. If your baby is not eating solids yet, you don't need to do anything. The liquid they poop can go right in to the wash and will come out just fine. If your child is eating solids then you need to make a decision. You can do poop the cheap gross way or for very little more money you can do it the easy way. The cheap gross way is to get a small bucket and when you get a poop that will not just roll off the diaper, you put the whole diaper in the bucket of water. Then when you are ready to wash, you take out the diaper to wash it and all the poop will stay in the water. Then dump the water in the toilet. The easy way is to either buy a sprayer that hooks to your toilet for about $35 and spray the poop off or to buy a roll of liners for about $6.50. I use the liners. You get a roll of 100 and then just tear one off and put it in the diaper. When your kid poops, you just take the liner and flush it down the toilet. They look about like dryer liners.

Your covers can be washed with the diapers. You can put them in the dryer but they will last longer if you pull them out after washing and just let them air dry. If you go with Velcro diapers, don't forget to use your laundry tabs. These are the little squares of Velcro next to the tabs. You just fold the tab down on the square and then you won't have chains of diaper covers in your wash. Next time I will talk about overnights, diaper rash, cloth wipes and other odd items.

Cloth Diapering on the Cheap: Amassing your Stash

Cloth diapering has long been seen as a good way to save money as compared with paper diapers. I will not debate whether or not it is more environmentally friendly then paper (although the WHO has declared cloth the winner due to the ability to wash and reuse on multiple children) but it is almost always cheaper. But how much cheaper is up to you. I started cloth diapering my son when he was born with the idea of being as cheap as possible. Cloth diapers come in many different brands and types, it can be very overwhelming to a newcomer to decided what to get. I will go over the CHEAPEST (in my opinion) way to cloth diaper.

First you start with what diapers to buy. There are three types of cloth diapers: Prefolds with covers, pockets with inserts, and all in ones. Prefolds are the cheapest to buy, last the longest, and are the easiest to wash. These are what I went with. You simply need to buy a bunch of prefold diapers and wash them three times to get them nice and fluffy and they are ready for use. Prefolds come in Indian and Chinese, bleached and un-bleached. There is no great difference in price or quality, you can get whatever type you want. DO NOT buy Gerber prefolds. These are not meant to be used as real diapers no matter what it says on the package. You can buy prefolds used as well. A good website to help you with this is diaperswapers.com. It is sort of like Crag's list for diapers. How many should you buy? That depends on how often you want to wash. I have three dozen small sized and that is about three days worth of diapers. As for sizes, that is also up to you. I did not bother with the new born sized diapers. My new born fit in to the regular ones with only a few poop blow outs until he was 8 lbs. Then we had no more blow outs unless he was put in to paper diapers.

Next you need to decide what covers to get. This is entirely personal preference. You can buy used covers but be careful not to get them too used. They ware out much faster then the prefolds themselves. Many people choose to get a verity of covers and then decide what their favorites are and buy more of those. I personally love the Bumies Whisper Wrap covers. I love Velcro for middle of the night changes (I can't handle snaps when I am tired) and love the cute pictures on the covers. Some people really love snaps though, it is up to you. I also have some Thirstys that are good too but they are not as cute. Six covers was enough for me to get though three days before I needed to wash. I have small covers (8 lbs - 15 lbs) and medium covers (15 lbs - 30 lbs). My son is almost two and we have not needed to buy the large size even though he is over 30 lbs now. I do not use pins or Snappies but if you prefer, Snappies are the way to go. They are pretty cheap and really easy to use. Just look them up on YouTube for instructions.

If you want a nice all in one package that has everything you need until your baby goes over 15 lbs I would recommend the Bumies Cotton Diaper Kit. You can find it on Amazon or through Thanksmama.com This kit has three dozen diapers, six covers, and a roll of liners for about $150. This is enough to go for about three days before washing. They also have a 15-30 lb kit as well. And no, they are not paying me (although I wish they were!) Next time I will go over the cheapest way to take care of them.