there are many things i want to accomplish in the next few months, but one recurring theme seems to be trying to become more frugal and more "green".
one thing i'm looking into is how we can buy a home instead of continuing to rent... there are many homes in our area for sale, and several in our subdivision are super low in price...so there has to be one out there somewhere! a place with a pool would be a bonus, but not totally unlikely, right? this fits into my "frugality" because of the fact that we'd be owning a home and not throwing away money to fund someone else's investment.
another thing...we need a new vehicle for our growing family, but we don't want a minivan. we'd love to have an suv that has seating for 7, but we'd also like to have a hybrid. not sure if we can swing payments for a hybrid, but it's what we'd like...it's not easy being green...
with another baby on the way, it's tempting to go all out and get matching furniture and have an awesome nursery. i'm determined not to spend a ton and reuse previously baby-fied items. we've been given a bassinet (i may make a new cover/skirt or whatever for it to match our decor), have a crib we can get from a friend, a toddler bed and mattress, and a stroller. we have found a carseat/stroller combo we really like, but i think that will be the only major purchase we're going to need to make. once we know if the baby's a boy or girl, i'll be buying fabric to make the crib set and accessories for the nursery.
along with my frugal mentality, i've been looking at patterns and fabric i already have and trying to figure out what i can make for myself for maternity clothing...stuff that's cute but cheap because it's so expensive to buy that stuff and it's only for a little while. i think i can sufficiently make several pairs of shorts/capris and maybe a couple of skirts, and i've looked at a few patterns for tops that i plan to modify so i have some fashionable stuff without having to pay the maternity clothing industry's full prices for them.
another green/frugal thing i've been contemplating...and this is where it gets dangerous and i'm feeling a little crazy for even considering it...cloth diapers. yes, you read that right, i am actually considering using cloth diapers for this baby. i mentioned it at supper tonight and my whole family flipped out. but after looking at sites for info and reading up on it, i really think it will be a good thing. i can even make a lot of them myself if i want, but even if i don't it'd be cheaper than disposables and would save a lot of landfill space too. we'll see. jerry said it's stupid because we can't seem to keep up with the laundry we already have, but if i'm not working full-time, that won't be as much of an issue. guess i'll be catching up on laundry and getting the closets/dressers in better order this summer (while i'm not working) to show him it can actually be done! lol i took it as a challenge to prove him wrong. rofl
