16 Months

 

Declan, today you are 16 months old! You are growing up so fast and are, of course, still bigger than most everyone else your age. Daddy says you are going to be a defensive tackle with the build you have, lol. Your current size makes dressing you a bit difficult at times because things are either way too big or way too small. Carter's, Target and The Children's Place need to get on the ball and realize some kid are going to weigh in at 2T/3T, but their  height will be around the 24 months range. Due to this fitting issue all of your pants drag the ground. The simplicity of one size fits all kiddo ranges is no longer working for us. This was not an issue over the summer because you were always wearing shorts, but now that it is cooling off we are going to have to get creative with some hemming.

It has been such an exciting time lately with all you are learning! My absolute favorite thing is that you love to sing songs with us. The "ABC's" are still your favorite and you love when we sing this in your room and point at all the letters on your wall. You make it pretty clearly saying A-G and then trail off until it is time for you to yell "ella mm no p" as loud as you can. Sometimes you keep singing with us after that, but most of the time you consider that the end of the song. Other hits are "Old McDonald" with you providing all of the e-i-e-i-o's and a few animal sounds, as well as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "Ring Around the Rosies" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" complete with all of the hand motions.

On top of singing, you are becoming more and more vocal as a whole. Your favorite word is Wade, and by favorite we mean that you call for him about 1,000x a day, but you have only said Fia a handful of times. You count to three and then yell "GO!" but really only "three" and "go" are easily understood when you say them, but we know what you are trying to get at with the attempts at "one" and "two". You say mommy, daddy, and Jake, which you say just like I do when I am trying to get daddy to hurry up and do something, lol. Poor Daddy!
This is how you currently say each of your grandparent's names:

CeeCee = TeeTee

Papi = Puppy, but sometimes Pahpeee

MawMaw = Mamna

PawPaw = also Puppy

Nanny= Nanny (you said it so well the other day!)

Pappy = Pappy, but more often you say Puppy

 

Additional favorite words are: shoes, yum, mine, up, cup, baby,
uh oh, bye, ouch, and pish (aka fish).

 

Speaking of shoes being one of your favorite words to say, I should probably point out that you really like your shoes. You find them around the house and bring them all to one spot and then shove one or two in our faces until we put them back on your feet. I always thought kids were supposed to hate their shoes and take them off, but you want them on most of the time. As soon as you get a pair on, you promptly remind us that we are then supposed to take you outside. :)

 

 

You love to "grocery shop" at home with your shopping cart and play food. However, shopping sometimes turns into more of a Godzilla moment and you knock the cart over and kick the food everywhere. Poor HB is occasionally still in the seat of the buggy when you do this. Wade and Fia both run when you start pusing the cart around the living room because you are not a very cautious driver.

 

You still love playing in pools, fountains, the shower and pretty much anywhere else water can be found (like the dog bowl). You blow kisses when we say "I love you," wave at everyone we meet and give the best hugs. You love both of your sweet little cousins and have a blast each time you get together to play with one of them. Luckily, all three of you are very energetic so they are not phased at all by how big you are and how rough you play at times....we still keep a close watch just in case you get a bit too rough.

 

It is remarkable how much you have changed just since your birthday. There are still times when you really want to snuggle, but it is usually just at bedtime these days. You have become so independent and always want to show that you are able to feed yourself (with a spoon!) and hold your own drink even though it is just a cup with a straw. We make a lot of messes this way, but your puppy brother and sister are always glad to help you clean it up.

 

We love you!

Mommy and Daddy 





     

Cheap Challenge 2013- Lessons Learned

Total spent: $290.47

 

	Groceries	Eating Out	Gas	Household	Entertainment	Clothing	Dog Needs
Week 1	$25.10	$13.86	$0.00	$5.34	$4.99	$0.00	$0.00
Week 2	$5.23	$22.71	$44.65	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$22.98
Week 3	$43.59	$15.47	$20.08	$0.00	$2.76	$7.34	$0.00
Week 4	$0.00	$0.00	$20.00	$5.37	$31.00	$0.00	$0.00
TOTAL	$73.92	$52.04	$84.73	$10.71	$38.75	$7.34	$22.98



 Groceries and Household Items:

I am so proud of our grocery spending considering I can easily spend $75 or more each week on these items and there are definitely times where I spend even more. We had so much food in our freezer and pantry that needed to be eaten, but we had simply been piling more and more new items on top of it all so it was just lying around forgotten and at risk of freezer burn. I am glad to say we are starting with pretty much a clean slate at the end of the challenge and I definitely plan to make wiser decisions about what to purchase in bulk and what to purchase as needed.

Jake and I have both learned the value of planning out our meals and shopping trips so we do not come home from the store with a lot of unnecessary items that will potentially go unused and ruin because we did not have a plan in place to use them. For household items, we were actually stockpiled in this area as well because I make purchases when I have coupons. If we did this more often, we could definitely save even more. I just need to make sure to only purchase things we actually need because even if I get it cheap, it is money wasted if it wasn't something we needed.


Eating Out:

 

On average Jake and I each eat lunch out three days a week at roughly $8 per meal. By cutting that out for this month we saved over $190! This is something I definitely think we should keep up in the months to come. We saved so much money by bringing lunches from home and we had far less food waste than we normally do in a month because we actively planned to use leftovers for lunches.

 

We tend to do really well about cooking at home during the week, but we realized we use being tired from the workday as an excuse to eat out/order in. This month we just toughed it out and cooked even when we did not feel like it. We ate a lot healthier this way and we both actually lost a little bit of weight (bonus!). Declan also got to try some new foods since I was planning a variety of meals so we would not get burned out on having the same thing over and over. Weekend dinners out are where we normally spend a good bit of money since it is what our groups of friends tend to want to do when we hang out. After taking the time to see how much we spend here even though we don't do it all that often definitely has me planning to invite folks over for dinner parties/potlucks on occasion instead of always eating out.

 

Gas:

 

I hope we can find a way to cut our gas expenses in the future because it ended up being nearly 34% of the original $250 budget. This was with us being fairly conservative about where we drove, but we still had two trips home during this month, which meant we had an extra 312 miles driven outside of our normal routine. For my car that is a little over a full tank of gas worth of driving. We own both of our cars which is a huge savings for us each month since we do not have car payments, but when the time comes to purchase a new one we will definitely be looking into better mileage options.

Entertainment:

We normally keep our spending pretty low in this area, but we do have times where we spend more than we should. I tend to justify these expenses though since we do not pay for cable or go out all the time. Jake and I actually have not gotten to go to a movie together since February 2012, just a few months before Declan was born. Since we have a young child, we always have to be mindful that dinner and a movie or going to an event that is not kid friendly also means paying a babysitter since our families live more than an hour away. We have a zoo membership and a children's theatre membership so we save money by covering Declan's entertainment for the year in advance.

Clothing:

Purchases in this area have been my weakness for a while. I really don't spend a ton, but $30 here and there adds up over the course of the year. I have lost weight since Declan was born, but am not back to my pre-pregnancy size so some things still fit from my original wardrobe, but a lot doesn't. I tend to go out and buy something for myself when I feel stressed about a specific event that is coming up and I need something to wear. This month was helpful because I was forced to make things work without running out to buy something new and I realized I can make more of my old wardrobe work than I thought. Plus, even without purchasing anything new in the near future, I have a pretty decent wardrobe as is so I need to save my clothing purchases for things I really want. Jake never buys new clothes so he is good here...he could actually stand to spend a little more and be fine. As for Declan's clothes, I will continue shopping consignment sales, clearance racks and couponing like crazy. We still get really cute clothes and it doesn't break the bank when he outgrows it all 6 weeks later.

Dog Needs:

Wade and Fia are our furbabies and I probably spend way more getting them treats than I should, but I only get them treats when I have a coupon so I am glad to splurge a bit because they really are great dogs. They hated the cheaper dog food and refused to eat it for a bit even though it was from the same brand we normally get so it looks like we are back to Purina One and the occasional canned food. I am sure they had a celebration about the Cheap Challenge reaching an end.

Closing Thoughts

 

I would definitely like to try the Cheap Challenge again in the future, but it needs to be a month where we know we do not have any major travel plans or trips home to visit our families. We will also have to be more diligent about not eating out at all during the month. It was really hard for us to say no when people we do not get to see very often asked us out for a meal, but we could have easily told them to go ahead and eat so we could just meet up with them later. I am confident we will be able to stay under the $250 limit after going through it and knowing where we can improve for the next try.

 

 

Cheap Challenge 2013- Week 4 and Final 3 Days

August 22-31
Spending total: $56.37

Groceries	Eating Out	Gas	Household	Entertainment	Clothing	Dog Needs
$0.00	$0.00	$20.00	$5.37	$31.00	$0.00	$0.00

I was really worried going into this week since we had just over $15 remaining in the budget. Luckily, the week began with our trip to Parris Island, which I had already said would not count against the budget since we could not plan when my brother was going to graduate and it just happened to fall in the month we had picked for the Cheap Challenge. We were there from the 22nd-25th and we actually spent hardly any money because the home we stayed in during the trip was paid for in advance by my parents, we rode up as a family so travel was also covered for all of the kids in the family by our parents, and my dad did just as he did for everyone else's graduations and treated us all to dinner when we ate out.

We did not go grocery shopping at all the last week. We had purchased enough the week before that we even made it through with enough milk for Declan. We also toughed it out and ate some really strange dinners that we pieced together from the pantry odds and ends I mentioned last week. We did have to stop at the store and buy a pack of paper towels though because we were completely out. We bought a cheaper brand and a smaller pack than we normally would, but it still cost us $5.37.

Jake and I both continued to pack our lunches this last week and we both had days free meals due to luncheons and such during the week. I got two lunches out of the planning meeting we had on Thursday. We had salads from Urban Cookhouse and I had enough leftover for my lunch the next day. This was a big bonus since I love their food, but definitely could not have stayed anywhere near budget if I had been spending $9 or more on lunch each day. I also had a coupon for a free drink from Starbucks since my birthday is August 30th so it was nice to be able to get a coffee this week.

Wade and Fia had enough food to make it through the last of the challenge, but we are definitely going to need to go to the store and get them some more dog food early next week.

Our entertainment purchases hurt us this last part of the challenge. Although we had free tickets and food at the Barons game we attended on the 29th, we did still have to pay the $5 parking fee. We also went home to see my brother while he was still on leave and one of the things he wanted to do was go to a football game. We paid $12 to get in and then spent $14 at the concession stand to get food and drinks (it was so hot at the game!).

We had to make one final gas purchase for the drive home this weekend. I have decided I absolutely hate buying gas! I never realized just how much we spend on it from month to month. I did not realize it was goint to turn out to be our highest expense this month.

Now, I know I busted the budget instantly with that one purchase at the football game, but I wanted to go ahead and list out the rest of our spending for this last portion of the challenge because we actually came incredibly close to staying under $250. I am disappointed that we went over, but I am still really proud of how much we saved during this month. My birthday was the night of the football game and I know $26 is probably the smallest amount Jake has ever spent on celebrating my birthday in the 9 years we have been together. That right there is a win in my book! :)

Budget remaining: -$40.47