Need A New Car Seat?

We bought our current 5 point harness 4.5 years ago, at Wal Mart. It's a Safety 1st Vantage. I love this seat, and it has served us well through 2 children. But now that our youngest daughter is outgrowing it, we've had to get her a new seat. The Vantage only goes up to 40lbs/40" as a 5 Pt harness, and she is also too young to be in a belt positioning booster seat.

I did my research, and since we're on a budget, I decided to go with another Safety 1st Seat. I really like their products, and since this seat held up so well, I figured another one would. I purchased a new Safety 1st Apex 65 seat from Albee Baby. The ladies over at Car-Seat.Org were very helpful in giving me any sort of information I needed on this seat, including the height of the top tether strap (17.25"!!). So if you're looking for a good, AFFORDABLE seat, this one is available on Albeebaby for only 94.94, including UPS Ground shipping. If you buy it elsewhere, expect to pay upwards of $130 US for it.

What I love about this seat is that it puts the child in a 5 pt harness till 65lbs and 57" tall! I don't think I'll keep her in the 5pt harness till she is 57" tall, but at least till kindergarten. That's only 2 years away anyway! Right now she is 40" tall and 38lbs, and you have to get a new seat once your child has outgrown either of the height and weight limits. I don't think she'll outgrow this one for awhile. Once the 5pt harness has been outgrown, the seat can be used as a belt positioning booster to 100lbs. And it also uses a LATCH, which we have in our van. Our LATCH is only good for weights up to 48lbs, and after that only the tether can be used. And thankfully, we have both!

I know my husband thinks I'm a little crazy for wanting her in a 5pt harness still because she's 3.5, but I just feel safer that way. We didn't know any better with the older 3 kids, and put them in a booster quite early. His reasoning for putting her in a belt positioning booster seat was just because we did it with the other kids, so why not her? I don't exactly recall how old the twins were, but it was a lot younger than they needed to be. We didn't know any better. And with our middle daughter, she moved out of the current seat once she hit the height and weight limit, right around 3.5 too if I recall.

At least now I have peace of mind, and I'm happy with that.

The Yearly Yardsale

Ever year, for the last three years, the kids and I have gone to a huge yard sale at a local middle school. I love it, because I get a ton of stuff for cheap. It's run by the homeless coordinator for the school district, and she collects donations all year long for this huge sale.

So this week it finally happened. I look forward to it every year. This morning we got up bright and early and drover over to the middle school and gorged ourselves on deals.

I only spent about $7, but all the stuff I bought, I just rounded up to an even $10. I do that because the proceeds help the homeless students and families in this particular school district, so I don't mind giving extra. Sometimes I go more than once during the week, and I might again on Friday. I'm not sure yet though.

Prices at the sale are cheap, super super cheap.

Winter jackets were $0.25

Halloween costumes were $0.05

Jeans were $0.15

Tops were $0.10

Sweatshirts/Hoodies were $0.10

Shoes were $.025

Misc/Toys were $0.05

I came home with 3 winter jackets (one is a dark purple DOWN coat for my 3 year old), a Gap jacket for my oldest, a light weight Lands End coat for one of the girls, 3 pairs of jeans, 3 skirts, numerous hoodies (and I mean numerous, I have 4 kids to buy for), a few sweaters for each girl, 2 pairs of shoes, a few tops for the girls, about 10 different Halloween costumes for dress up and maybe Halloween this year. I got 3 tops and a hoodie for myself too. And we probably got at least a dollar's worth of toys/purses/stationary.

You know those big huge blue Ikea bags? I came home with TWO of those stuffed and bulging, plus two large reusable bags from Ikea also stuffed full. A few of the brands we came home with were Fox, Aeropostale, Gap, Lands End, Puma, Hurley, and Old Navy.

I love a good bargain!

Non-Commercial Christmas

Yes, yes, I know it's june! But being that Christmas is only 6 months away, it is time to start planning! Yep, I do start planning sometime during the summer. Usually around mid July after the Hallmark Ornament premiere. So this year it is early, but that's ok.

Last year we spent a lot of money on the kids and each other. The two highlights of Christmas 2008 were the Wii and accessories we bought as a family gift, and my iPod Touch (that my husband saved up for out of his own truck money without telling me. awwww! <3).

Since he and I are all about being more frugal this year due to The Big Project, we've decided to do a non-commercial Christmas as best as we can. Our goal is to buy nothing that is electronic, nothing that involves electronics, nothing that uses electricity. That means no DVDs, no Wii games etc etc. I think we can do it. I know we can for the kids, but we're not sure about each other yet. It will challenge us to think outside the box, that's for sure.

We did set a price limit, but I'm thinking of discussing a raise in that department. I'm not sure yet though, I have to give it some time, shop the sales and see what I can do with our amount. I think the kids will be easy, I just have to really watch the clearance aisles. The amount does not include stocking stuffers, or clothing. Or stuff I can make on my own. So I could make the girls a whole bunch of hair bows, korkers and clips, and it wouldn't count towards the budget.


We just have to be creative!

My New Obsession Saves The Earth

I just recently got into reusable shopping bags, and I have now amassed quite a selection.

I love that I don't have to carry bags upon bags of groceries into the house, and I can now use my reusable bags and have to carry in less than half of what I previously did.

I have about 8 blue Wal Mart bags, 3 Safeway bags, 1 large Target bag and 1 smaller target bag, and one large Gymboree bag as shown below



When I was at Ikea with my husband on Friday, I was also able to pick up 4 other bags that I love. I actually took home all our stuff in the bags. Two are navy blue and red with floral prints, one was black with bright circles and lines all over it, and the last was green with the same print. Now I can just take them with me when I go shopping and don't have to worry about plastic bags anymore. Though I still do need plastic bags for some things (like cleaning out the litter box), so I guess we'll have to use some plastic once in awhile.

I was able to get all of these bags for less than $2 each (I think I spent less than $10-12 total to get them all, if that), and the Wal Mart ones were only .50 cents. I want to get some more "stylish" bags, but unfortunately all the nice ones are so expensive. I really like my Target, Ikea and Gymboree bags, but the Wal Mart and Safeway bags are just bare bones.

Does anyone know where I can find some cute, affordable, reusable bags? Even if you have a shop on Etsy, I might be interested in buying some!!

Did you know that each reusable bag used can potentially eliminate an average of 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime? I found that out at Reusablebags.com When I go grocery shopping, I use tons and tons of plastic bags. So by using my 16 reusable bags, I have now elminiated 16,000 plastic bags!!!

Another interesting fact that I found was how plastic bags are created:

"These days, most plastic bags are made from a type of plastic called polyethylene. 80% of polyethylene is produced from natural gas - an abundant, yet non-renewable resource. Polyethylene, as a raw material, can be manipulated into any shape, size, form or color. It’s watertight and can made UV resistant. It can be printed on and reused many, many times. In many cases, it can be recycled but is not considered “cradle to cradle” meaning it cannot be recycled over and over nor returned to an organic state."
GreenFeet.com

I'd love to quote more from the above mentioned blog, but there is just a plethora of information, so I highly suggest you go and read it yourself. I found it a very very interesting article to read.

Awesome Deal I Got Today

only have a minute to write as I am off to the gym. I'm forcing myself to go today! ugh!!

Anyway, awhile back I found a 15% off code for The Children's Place, on a message board I frequent. It was for online only, but I didnt think I would use it. Well, when we were in the actual store last weekend buying clothes, the SA gave me a coupon for free shipping b/c I couldn't find my middle kid jeans. So a lightbulb went off in my head today! lol

I did find her jeans at Value Village for the summer, brand new. But today I looked at TCP's website and found the baby 3 pairs of jeans for the fall for REALLY cheap. They were on sale already, so I got 3 pairs of jeans for $15.45. Free shipping, and a 15% off coupon let me save around 6 or 7 dollars. I only paid for the jeans and tax, and the jeans were $4.75 each. Score!!!

The grey jeans I actually have for her in her current size, as well as the dark wash ones with the flare. I didnt like the grey jeans at first, but in person they are really really cute!

And yes, I did look for the other kids too, but there was nothing on sale that was as good of a deal as this! How can you beat $4.75 for jeans?






I LOVE the children's place, they have such cute clothes and great deals!
Now off to work out...blech!

Start Sampling

Scroll to the bottom of my blog and see my new widget! I'm a frequent visitor over at Start Sampling and thought I would share the goodness!!

We're Even Closer

I just got notification from our Real Estate Agent that everything on the buyer's end has been approved!! That's great news for us, as it means we will close EARLY, and even better than that...we're closing NEXT WEEK!!!! WooHoo!! Yeah, we won't get to keep our awesome fridge, but what is better, keeping our credit and avoiding a foreclosure, or keeping a good fridge? At least I was able to purchase a new washer and dryer last month right?

So next week is proving to be quite hectic already. Tuesday our daughter has a dental appointment, Wednesday we have a WIC appointment, Thursday I have my MOM's group to attend, and I have to fit the closing in between that too. But the kids will be back to school, and I will only have the youngest in the mornings. I have actually enjoyed the laid back pace of spring break much more than I thought I would. It has been so relaxing, even though I am still battling my cold.

So off to prepare dinner...or should I say, re-heating last night's Papa Murphy's Pizza. Oh...I forgot to mention my pizza savings! We have a stamp card with Papa Murphy's. Once you accrue 12 stamps, you are given $10 off any pizza order. So last night the kids and I ordered two pizzas, and I also had a $2 off coupon. I was able to get a 2 liter of Pepsi, a Family size Chicago style and a Family size Hawaiin for only $16.46 because I had accrued my 12 stamps. If you want to break that down, with 5 of us eating for two nights (as dear hubby is not home), that is only $1.64 per person, per meal. I think that's pretty good, if you ask me.

Ok, a whiny toddler is forcing me to get off of here...I need to get the kids fed!