Month: March 2017

Amazon is Mom’s Best Friend

amazon is mom's best friend

Moms, let’s talk about how Amazon is Mom’s best friend.

There’s a saying about how a dog is man’s best friend. Which I totally get and would have agreed with before having a baby.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love my dogs.  I would do just about anything for them, which is evident in the $1500 we’ve shelled out for Bud recently.  They still think they’re my best friend, which usually ends up in me asking “why do you love me so much?” when they are follow me through the entire house. Tiny with always having to be under my feet. Bud with finding ways to stick his entire head in the shower each morning. And Maggie only wanting to play when I’m sitting in the floor with the baby.

But let’s talk about my real, real best friend – Amazon. Let’s get serious, shall we? Only a true friend is there for you around the clock. Only a true friend will bring you whatever you heart desires. And Only a true friend will have a little dot that sits on our TV console that allows me to add laundry detergent (or chocolate) to my car without judgment.

This true friend is Amazon, folks.

The other night while sleep training our little guy I realized we desperately needed a white noise machine.  Our neighbors park their trucks close to his bedroom window and their son works odd hours through the night.  So around 4am each night he is either returning home or leaving for work.  The start of a F150 is enough to wake our little guy out of a deep sleep.   Of course the idea hit me at 4am, when I had to stumble through the dark to comfort our son.  What did I do? Grabbed my phone and added a white noise machine to my shopping cart. It arrived two days later.  Easy!

Let’s talk about all the other wonderful stuff you can buy on Amazon.  Like… protein powders I get to buy without ever having to step foot into a store. I can do my research, read reviews from people and then make my selection. No small town options for me!  Or how I have the dogs’ food delivered once a month automatically.  They go through close to 100 pounds of food a month now I don’t have to haul it around the store or make a special stop since we feed them a higher quality food then the local Wal-Mart sells.  

amazon is mom's best friend, love of amazon

amazon is mom's best friend, love of amazon

We’ve ordered step-ups for J’s truck, a TV console, clothes, nursing gear (that I ended up not being able to use), jewelry, dog food, diapers, wipes, protein powders, ready-to-drink shakes, toilet paper, detergent, veggie spiralizer, chew toys (for dogs and baby), and so, so much more. My order history looks like a cornucopia of wild thoughts!

A best friend remembers even when you forget.

Can we talk about diapers for a second? Moms our little ones go through so many diapers. Who knew a child so small could produce so much?! Am I right? Nothing is worse than having to run to Wal-Mart in the middle of the night leaving one parent home with a diaperless child because you ran out. What do you do with them? Put a bunch of blankets around them? Sit them in the bathtub?

I mean, seriously what do you do with them?

Amazon will remember your diapers for you. Once a month I receive a case. Did I remember to hit the “buy now” button? No. But Amazon remembered.  It remembers two bags of dog food a month, a case of wipes and a case of toilet paper every three months.

It’s magical. Every month two bags of dog food and one case of diapers just appear. Then every three months I also get a case of toilet paper and wipes. Pure happiness.  I have to admit, I just added the TP to my subscribe & save feature.  I needed one more item to boost my savings and I thought it would be a good fit.  The case came but we didn’t need it right away so I stuck it in the garage.  The other morning J yells down the hall that we’re out of TP.  So I go out into the garage, grab my case and set it down in front of him.  I said “here ya go, think this is enough?”  He just looked at me.  I knew what he was thinking – why did you order a CASE of toilet paper?  Then I showed him the math from buying that same amount at the store compared to what I spent… it was enough to pay for half of the case.  

Not only does Amazon remember what I need, but it gives me a discount for forgetting! Seriously?!

Thank you Amazon for being the best friend I didn’t know I needed during the hardest transition of my life – parenthood.

A Daily Schedule for Baby

daily routine for baby, daily schedule for baby, daily schedule for 10 month old

Having a daily schedule for baby can be great. But it can also be very difficult to follow. Days are not always mapped out perfectly, no matter how hard I try. Things come up, stuff goes wrong and nap times go out the window when dealing with a 10 month old. However, I’ve been trying since January to get our little guy on a better sleep schedule so that has rolled over to the rest of our day.

The reason I’m sharing our weekend schedule is because he goes to a sitter Monday – Friday. Plus, his schedule is pretty similar to the weekdays, but the weekends are where we try to set-in-stone his nap and sleep times.  I’ve also shared what my daily life looks like too.  It’s so hard for this OCD planner to not have a set schedule.  

7:00am – wake up (some days he’s up by 6:15 and other days he wants to sleep in until 7:30, but on average he’s awake by 7:00), change diaper and get dressed for the day
7:15am – first bottle of the day. He’s not super hungry first thing in the morning (I blame me for him not being a morning person). So we stick with a smaller bottle until he’s fully awake.
7:45-10:30 – playtime. We try to burn off some energy by playing around the house. It’s been too cold to do much outside. We play games, paint, or just play with some of his toys.
10:30 – another bottle, this time is a full 6 oz. one.
11:00-12:30 – we run any errands that we need to for the day.
12:30-1:00 – We try to be back home for lunch and to get Baby Boy settled to take a nap
1:00 – bottle time again
1:30-3:00 – naptime. He will usually fall asleep somewhere between 1 and 3. Usually his naps last an hour or longer.
3:00 – 4:00 wake up for a diaper change and then we play some more. It’s also time for another bottle
4:30-5:30 – play time, we usually play with the toys in the living room while waiting for dinner to finish cooking.
5:30 – 6:00 – dinner as a family. I eat while also feeding Baby Boy his solids.
6:00 – 7:00 – play time, again we’re back in the family room playing with all the toys.
7:00 – 8:00 – start bedtime routine, which consists of a bath, change into pajamas, start the nighttime bottle and read stories to. Typically he’s asleep within 30 minutes, but some nights it takes longer than others.

What’s your daily schedule for baby?  Have you found it a lot easier if your little one is in a routine?  We have for sure!

Wrapping up February’s Focus on Finances

focus on finances month, finances, money help

February’s Focus on Finances is done!

How did you do last month? Did you hit your goal of increasing your emergency fund or making a dent in your debt? I set a pretty lofty goal for our money and I knew it would be hard to hit it. But I made a serious dent in reaching it. It won’t be long before we have $3,000 in our emergency fund.
Why did I want $3,000?

Well each of our health insurance deductibles is $1,000. Since there is three of us in the family I wanted $3,000 in the bank. You never know what will happen and having that amount would be a weight off of our shoulders.

What did you focus on to increase your money?

We planned our meals for the entire month. It was hard to not give into temptation, but if we didn’t have eating out in the plan that week then we stuck with it. I was able to create some new recipes that we really loved.

We also sold quite a few things on our area’s Facebook Swap Shops. That money went straight into the savings account at the bank. Whatever I didn’t sell I ended up donating at the end of the month to our local Rescue Mission.

Now that you have spent the past 28 days really focusing on your money and what areas you need to improve, it’s time to stick with it. I understand it may be hard to stay so strict, but don’t relax all of the way. Keep working with the cash envelope method. It can help you stop overspending. We use an easier cash method that I’ve talked about before.

Leave me a comment letting me know one thing that really helped you through February’s Focus on Finances.  I’d love to know!