A Blog for Brooke and Andy
Brooke
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Homepage: http://linsenbardt.net
Posts by Brooke
Breastfeeding Savings
Aug 16th
I debated about just adding this information to my Diaper Savings post, but decided that this topic might warrant it’s own comments!
Meg is breastfed and was exclusively (except for about an ounce of formula in the hospital because I was freaking out that she was hungry…I know better now) until she started eating rice cereal at 4 months. There’s another post coming about how that’s going for another time. I still continue to nurse and to pump while she is at daycare about 5-6 times each day, which I’m guessing gets Meg about 28 ounces of breastmilk a day, which should be plenty. I’m starting to think about weaning her to a combination of stored breastmilk and formula from a bottle in the next month or so, mostly because my work schedule is complicated and there’s not always time or a place for me to pump when I need to, and because I’m starting to feel like I’ve done my job in this arena. I have a feeling that weaning will go slowly to ease the hormonal and therefore emotional toll it will take on both of us (or all of us, really because Andy will have to deal with it, too).
I think to breastfeed or not is a very personal decision, just like I think most parenting decisions should be. It’s super easy to start thinking that your way of doing things is better than anyone else’s, and why this is true for each parent’s situation, I’m trying really hard to not worry what other people think of what I’m doing with my job and at the same time not judge other parents for their decisions.
That being said, when I was looking at how much money we’ve saved my cloth diapering, Andy was also interested in how much money we’ve saved by not buying formula. Here are the CDC’s statistics on the numbers of infants in the United States who were breastfed in 2006:
* 73.9% were ever breastfed
* 43.4% were still breastfeeding at 6 months of age
* 22.7% were breastfeeding at 1 year of age
* 33.1% were exclusively breastfed through 3 months of age
* 13.6% were exclusively breastfed through 6 months of age
So, obviously, most babies are being breastfed at least some, so this number isn’t this high unless a baby has only ever had formula. But, for a basic, name brand formula, for the first 6 months of life, you will have spent $717.93 to feed a baby. Breastfeeding is absolutely free!! In our case, since I have a pump and the necessary accessories for storing and feeding pumped breastmilk, the net savings is about $400.00. That’s pretty good from a purely monetary perspective, if you ask me (and I know you didn’t, but whatever…)!
Diaper Savings
Aug 13th
So, I bought a new pair of boots, and in trying to justify the purchase to myself and Andy, I started thinking about all the things I do to save money.
How we’re cloth diapering was discussed here, but not the costs. A lot of people will say that, in the end, the costs associated with cloth diapering doesn’t really save a lot over disposables, while others say that you break even with your first child and the savings come with subsequent children. I contend that disposable diapers are WAY more expensive than cloth. And, from my experience, I’d also say that anything that is cheap is also good for the Earth (hanging clothes on the clothesline, gardening, driving a high gas mileage car…), so we’re doing our part!
I also added in 20% of the cost of our new washing machine because we probably wouldn’t have bought such a nice one if we weren’t washing diapers 2-3 times each week. The amount of electricity used seems fair, as it also includes water since we have a well and sewage since we have a septic tank. We do not currently have trash removal, but if we used disposable diapers, we would have to pay for that as well!
The ongoing costs of cloth diapering from this point will include a few more covers as Meg gets bigger, but the current ones should fit her until she’s at least 18 pounds, and electricity. Our electric bill may increase a little in the winter when I can’t hang the diapers out to dry as often, but I really don’t very often now anyway because they have to hang outside all day and I usually need the clothesline space if it’s a Saturday and I’m doing lots of other laundry.
I totally paid for those boots just in cloth diapering the last 6 months ($186.00 saved!!!!), but now I’m looking for other ways that Andy can thank me for being so frugal! Up next, canning, canning, canning.
A Busy Saturday
Jul 31st
Thanks to my recent incessant PBS watching, I found this recipe for whole grain bread from America’s Test Kitchen. I want to make our sandwich bread, but haven’t seen a recipe I like that’s also easy until now. This one is definitely a keeper (ATK makes you join to get their recipes, but you can do it for free and get everything from this season if you want!)!
I also picked the first several-tomatoes-at-a-time crop today. Andy took this shot of some of them in the window sill ripening a little more. I’ll process them tomorrow, hopefully.
And, for your viewing pleasure, here’s Meg, in her bouncy seat where she spends a lot of time while I’m cooking and whatnot! You can tell how excited she is about the BLTs we had for dinner.
Andy’s Favorite
Jul 7th
Those are from my first picking on Wednesday, but there’s at least that much in the garden ready to be picked today and canned tomorrow!
New Diaper Design
Jun 28th
I explained how we were doing our diapers a couple of months ago, but since I’ve had some time on my hands and plenty of room to spread out a project, I’ve amended things little. I’ve used scrap fabric and about a dollar’s worth of elastic to make about 20 fitted diapers. So, for about 5 cents each, I’ve made what we could have bought for about $14 each on Amazon, plus the new diapers are much prettier, easier to use, and don’t leak poo as readily! I tweaked my pattern several times for ease of sewing and ease of wearing, so if anyone would like my pattern, let me know and I’ll be happy to make you one!
