All About Cloth Diapering When You're Straight Up Poor

You may have looked at cloth diapering before and decided that you just couldn't do it. Maybe you thought it would be too much work with all the special care they require (not!) but you probably just saw some figures estimating what a diaper stash would cost you, which usually looks something like $350 or more for a decent amount of diapers. Yes, they will pay for themselves over disposables, but a lot of us just don't have the funds to make an initial investment like that.

Recently, I read a statistic on Green Mountain Diapers that said the average income of families who cloth diaper is over $95,000 a year! (I'll be darned if we fall anyway near into that income bracket. Try around $15,000 a year.)

So why is this? Unfortunately, it's people with higher education and more money that have the information and resources to commit to a decision like cloth diapering.

For those of you out there like us, I want to outline how to get cloth diapers for cheap, how to use and care for them easily, how to sell or swap ones that just don't work well for you, and more. It doesn't have to cost hundreds of dollars!

NOTE: This is a LONG post! But it's important! If you need to save money and you have babies/will have babies, you need to read this. It's free to read!

DIY Kitty Litter & How to Toilet Train a Cat

If you ever thought it ridiculous to pay for something for your cat to crap on, you might consider making your own cat litter. Bonus - it's more sustainable!

Baby Carriers: A Review & How I Made My Own

I knew even before I got pregnant that when I had a baby, I would hold him as much as possible. I also knew that this would be hard! That's why, when I did get pregnant, I went ahead and bought a baby carrier. I've now tried several and read many reviews about all the types of carriers. I thought it would be wrong of me not to share the results with those of you who may be interested in using a carrier, because figuring all this stuff out was a pretty painful process (both literally and figuratively). These have been my findings. I hope you find them useful.

Make Your Own Diaper Pail

If you make the decision we did to use cloth diapers and/or cloth wipes, here's another simple way to reduce waste.

It's a Boy!

Pictures and some interesting info after the jump.

House Wife?! (& Sneak Peak)

Yep. Yesterday was my very last day of work! And with just over 2 weeks until my due date, I couldn't be happier. My employer was cool with me bringing the baby to work with me, and I appreciate that. But Stevie and I decided that at home would be the best place for me and the baby. So now I'm home-free, or should a I say home-bound?

Kitchen Improv - Vegetarian Fajita Mix

Another improv recipe...

DIY Dog Bed

We were sorting through our clothing in an effort to downsize, and some of our unwanted stuff was not nice enough to donate to the local thrift stores as we usually would. I've also been using every excuse I can to practice sewing now that I finally tried out my old Singer. During my most recent sewing fix, I made a dog bed for my terrier using old clothing.

Kitchen Improv - Stuffed Sweet Peppers

Got some leftover sweet peppers and Italian cheeses from recipes used earlier in the week? I did, and I needed to use them up before they were wasted. This is a fine example of the "kitchen improv" we do at least once a week.

Hand Wash, Hang Dry

What first began as a "crazy idea" that I found very interesting soon turned out to be the second largest cut to our monthly utility bill we have ever accomplished (first was heating/cooling habits). This method of clothes washing uses minimal electricity, minimal water, and wastes little to no water. We also have no washer or dryer to ever maintain or repair. For the past year, we have been doing the wash by hand, though not exactly the old fashioned washboard way that you might imagine.

Bed Building Time!

We recently purchased a small park home (about 223 sq. ft.) and are in the process of fixing it up. It came only insulated, wired, partially plumbed (there's a toilet installed), and with a screened in porch, which adds another 81 sq. ft., but it needs flooring, the rest of the plumbing, and some finishing touches.
Because of the tiny square footage, we decided to build a loft bed so that space under the bed can be utilized better. Read on for how we did it.

Child Bearing and Rearing

Our baby is not due until December 6th, so this post may be a little preemptive. However, once the baby comes I may not have much time to blog. So I want to go ahead and discuss some choices we have made regarding pregnancy, birth, and early parenting and why we have made them.

Home Made Futon Mattress

We recently built our own loft bed to save space in our new place (more to come on that later) and since it is high off the ground, we couldn't use our old straw mattress. It's heavy and requires fluffing every couple weeks and sometimes flipping, and that just didn't seem feasible with the mattress being between 4 and 5 feet off the floor.

Of course we didn't want to buy a new mattress, and then again we didn't want a used one. We also needed a firm mattress because we like it that way, it's better for your back, and we plan to co-sleep with our baby (firmer mattresses are safer for babies). All of this led me to decide on making our own futon type mattress. This way, we could decide just how firm and thick we wanted it and also we'd know exactly what materials were used in it. Read on for pictures and brief instructions.

Our Wedding

It's been a while - pregnancy has its distractions - but today I thought I would share how we managed to have a nice, simple wedding without borrowing any money, or even being under any financial stress!

Entertainment

Sustainability doesn't mean constant work or that you never get to have fun. There are also plenty of ways to have a blast on a tight budget. Rather than eating out, you can have some friends or family over and all cook a nice dinner together. And instead of going to the matinee, take turns hosting movie nights with friends with pizza and popcorn. There are tons of things to do if you just think a little outside the box.