Simply Howland: saving money

When you are pregnant with your first child, everything is so new and exciting. You get to pick out brand new baby items you'd never seen or maybe heard of before, you get to create a baby registry, and you get to coo over all the tiny human sized clothing. While all of those things still apply for me during my pregnancy with Bean, I have noticed a shift in myself. When I was pregnant with Ava, I wanted to have "the best" of everything. The best in my eyes, was always the most expensive and highly rated (almost always). Now, with a two year old, I know the more expensive something is doesn't necessarily mean it's better. Some of the most expensive things we bought for Ava ended up being some of the baby items I disliked. There are probably more than a dozen baby items that cost less than half the price of it's "higher end" rival that I fell in love with. Keeping that in mind, I am determined to be cost efficient with our second child.

Since we are having baby girl # 2, there are a million things we don't need to purchase. All of Ava's newborn/3month/most of 6 month clothing is like new. We have so many sleepers, so many cute outfit sets, I mean it's crazy how much clothing Ava had at that age. Clothes are a huge expense, and I am so thankful to NOT be purchasing hundreds of dollars worth. We also have a fisher price cradle and swing, a mini bassinet/pack and play set, all nursery furniture, etc... It's safe to say bean has been set since the day we found out she was a girl. There are a few items we need to purchase, but all that is needed is coming at an extremely low cost to us compared to purchasing everything all over again.

Yesterday I purchased a full size pack and play for baby girl, and I'm feeling extremely justified in that baby buy. We didn't have an upstairs/downstairs home when Ava was a newborn, and I know that since we spend most of our time downstairs as a family, we needed a nursery like set up for baby girl right there. I am so giddy about it's arrival and watching Justin and Ava put it together. After finally taking the leap on baby buy's I also decided to purchase a diaper bag as well. Now, for those of you who know me personally, you know I have invested almost $200 on a diaper bag in the past. While I'm never excited about spending that much money on a diaper bag, the bags we did purchase have held up nicely and we have used them since Ava was born. This time around, I don't plan on spending that much, like at all.

I really want to shy away from "buying the label" and buying expensive items that aren't necessary. Originally, I planned on purchasing a ju-ju-be bag that would double for Ava and her sister, for almost $180. I cringe when I think about my diaper bag costing more than a full size pack and play. Determined to make the change right now, I sought out for a functional diaper bag that cost less than the ju-ju-be. I stayed up for almost four hours past my normal bedtime doing my research (yes, definitely feeling that lack of sleep today). I came across a diaper bag that was designed by a fellow mom who resides in the UK. The brand is called Pink Lining, and their bags are all the rave. I came across their line of bags called, blooming gorgeous, and I instantly fell in love. The bag had all the features I wanted in a diaper bag, but at a much lower cost to me.

The retail price of the bag was $125, BUT Pink Lining just had a huge sale, so the bag I wanted was marked down to $62.50 for the time being. I ended up subscribing to their mailing list, so I received an additional 10% off of my order. That pretty much took care of the almost $8 dollar shipping fee. I already had funds sitting in my paypal account from an order I returned a couple weeks ago, so the grand total that came out of my bank account for this originally $125 bag was less than 32 dollars! Yes, that's right, almost five times cheaper than the ju-ju-be! While this may seem like common sense to some (to save more), it was actually a pretty big moment for me. Just because you can spend, doesn't mean you should. Now that money we will be saving can go towards something else, someone else, etc. Below is the diaper bag that will be here next week, and a video of a more in depth peek at the blooming gorgeous diaper bag.

Happy Friday all!

♥- Leilani

You're probably wondering what GMO stands for, right? It's genetically modified organisms, or foods. Early in my pregnancy I was trying to make a decision for miss Ava. If we were going to make her food or feed her store bought baby food. After research, we have decided to make her baby food ourselves.

Most store brand baby foods do not contain preservatives, but what the label won't tell you is if the vegetables or fruits were exposed to pesticides or other chemicals. So if you're concerned ( like I was) look for baby foods that are certified organic, since these have to be grown without the use of pesticides. This is where making our own food came into play. The cost of organic baby food is expensive.

Earth's Best Organic carrot baby food retails anywhere from $14.38 -

$8.56 per 12 pack of organic baby food. At highest that is $1.19 per container of baby food.

I posted a picture from the recent sales on earthbound farms organic carrots. Each of these price quotes are from our local Wal-Mart. I don't normally shop at Wal-mart for produce but this price is unbeatable. $0.74 cents per bag of organic carrots. Each bag contains 1 lb. Think about how many feedings you can give your baby with one pound of organic carrots. With a lower price !

So it's obvious that you maximize your savings by making your own food. They even have several different products designed to help you with your baby making food journey. I will list a few: