Thrift Shopping!

Now that Nathan is getting a little easier to cart out in public, I've spent some time thrift shopping. I went to Salvation Army the other day and picked up 3 shirts for $5.99. The one I'm wearing right now is an Old Navy brown waffle print hoodie - tags still on it. I also picked up this shirt:



It was $.99. It's super long (I struggle with shirts showing my belly too much, so this is a huge plus), and American Apparel. It's also super, super soft.

I haven't been clothes shopping at Salvation Army in years, since I made $9 an hour and was in my first apartment and seriously couldn't afford anything. But it's fun when you have a bunch of free time, for sure. My aim is to get a dress for an upcoming wedding for cheap.

Oh, and I bought a second breast pump - a manual one. I'm going to keep it in the diaper bag for emergency situations. I'd been thinking about buying it knowing it was $40 - but at building 19 they had them for $16. Sold.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Some of you know we spent two weeks in the hospital with Nathan, who had bacterial meningitis. Thankfully, we caught it early and he will be no worse for the wear, pending a hearing test (but it's obvious he can hear just fine).

Today we stopped by a place called Used Book Superstore in Burlington. They have books for 10% of their list price, and all childrens' books are a dollar. I bought a book on raising poultry as well as four or five cute-looking books for Nathan. I'll need to troll craigslist for a wooden bookcase for his room, I think.

Craigslist Rules.

Last night I got this $300 Ikea desk for $50, and it came with an office chair. I had been looking at a smaller, cheaper $130 black desk but this one is nice and huge, I'm actually going to put the sewing machine on it and still have room for my laptop to go there if I'm doing schoolwork.

I have a no-particleboard rule that both Mike and I enacted after our first IKEA bed started to suck after a year of use, but this one's actual wood. I mean, besides the drawer bottoms and assorted minutae, that doesnt count.

It baarely fit in the Xb even with the front seat folded, I picked up Mike at work afterward to save a train fare and he had to sit in the backseat behind me, fearing for his life the entire time.

Mirena

Pre-baby, my birth control was the Ortho-Evra patch. Even with insurance, it was $40 per month. It was a pain in the ass.

Now I can get Mirena, since it's apparently meant for people who have already had a baby. It will cost me a total of $40 to put it in and it lasts for five years. It will most likely lighten or stop my periods, and is more effective than a vasectomy.

Whoever invented this should be given some kind of medal.

$3 shirt!

I got this shirt for $3 at Building 19 yesterday. Perfect for Bruins games.

Also they had cans of pepsi and mountain dew for 19 cents each including deposit. Score, although they're sooo incredibly horrible for me.

I want an EGLU!

This is the cutest damn thing!

Mike sent me the link, and it's on. We're going to buy one soon. Yes, it's pricey, and the it may not pay for itself in eggs during the lifespan of the chickens, but this is something we'd both like to get into.

What kills me is that on the forums, someone in a nearby town was selling one in the color we wanted for $400. I responded about a day too late, and missed it. Dammit, that was several hundred dollars we could've saved... but c'est la vie.

Currently our house is under construction, so I don't want to order until it's ready, although we'll be home relatively soon.

In Which I Begin

Six weeks after the birth of my son, I found myself unexpectedly unemployed. Like so many of my friends and acquaintances, I'm another victim of the economy.

This wasn't a heartbreaking issue for me. Although I wanted to go back to work part-time, I'm happy to stay home with Nathan. My husband and I had discussed me not returning to work, but first and foremost I carried us all on our insurance policy. I'll get into the insanity of COBRA in another post.

While I collect severance and unemployment, I intend to keep this blog to document my attempts to live simply and cheaply to keep our little family with as much cash in hand as possible.