Chicago

PPPPP

May 20, 2013

As a kid one of my Mom’s favorite phrases was “Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.”

Forgot your lunch at school? She brought it to you, but not before reminding you that PPPPP.

Didn’t give yourself enough time to study? PPPPP.

Found yourself up against a deadline? PPPPP.

The phrase is drilled into my head and now I’m a planner. Probably (ok fine, yes) overly so, but I function best with a lot of prior planning. The only way my family eats dinner, I make it out the door with everything I need and Gracie gets lots of quality time with Mom and Dad is thanks to a lot of prior planning, preparation and lists. Sorry, lists don’t start with a P, but damn if I don’t rely on them daily.

Anyway. My point is that normally B and I are fairly scheduled out, know what is going on, etc., etc. Until it came to our upcoming move, and in that case we have been driving ourselves and everyone we know crazy.

Where are you moving? Have you found a place? When are you moving? Are you going to ask your parents to come? Do you need help? Have you scheduled movers?

For the past 4 months these questions have been met with hemming, hawing, hand flapping and general avoidance. (See what I did there? Alliteration, but we’ve moved on from the “p” set.) It makes perfect sense then that last week- on Wednesday evening to be exact- we decided to move this Friday. At the time we made that decision we had packed exactly zero boxes and the only “we are moving soon” task I’d completed was boxing up my maternity clothes (all but the yoga pants & 1 pair of maternity jeans because I have some serious jean-woes right now and desperately need to hightail it to the store for pants that don’t make me look like a baggy elephant or like I just traveled through time from 2003). Obviously the boxing of maternity clothes is not going to get us from point A to point B so now we are faced with packing our storage locker + 2 bedroom 2 bath place worth of stuff in a week.

Luckily, this bad boy arrives in the mail tonight:

The movers have been booked (B and I decided about a year ago that we are too old to bribe friends with pizza and beer to help us move, conversely, we are no longer bribe-able) and my fantastic friends (including the lovely Kristabella) have offered to come play with the baby in the evening hours so our hands are free to frantically throw things into box with ~~reckless abandon~~ the utmost of care. We are ordering Gracie’s crib mattress, her dresser is set for pick up at the end of the week and I purchased shower curtains for the new place. My inlaws are coming to help us with the day of the actual move (and by help us I mean hang out with their grandbaby and granddog, don’t worry, we are not making them carry boxes). That and I took Thursday and Friday off of work to make myself a nice little 5 day weekend so hey, come next Tuesday morning, I will have boxes unpacked and artwork hung SO HELP ME. Mostly because then my parents are coming and we have birthdays, weddings and Gracie’s baptism (which includes many great-grandparents, all grandparents and godparents in town). And then? THEN I SLEEP.

We can do this. We…can…do…this.

Falling Into Place

April 26, 2013

By Daisy

The first rule of blogging is once you complain or brag about something on the internet, it will change. So it only makes sense that shortly after my whiny, sad, woe-is-me-we-will-be-homeless blog post we found the place. The lease has been signed*. Our security deposit has been mailed. I’ve picked out shower curtains. (This is how you know I’m serious.)

(*To clarify: we are renting a 3 bedroom condo well within Chicago city limits!)

(And in case you are wondering why we are not buying…we are just not there yet. We won’t buy until we can comfortably afford a 3-4 bedroom in the city with and that time isn’t now, THANKS STUDENT LOANS/CITY PRICES)

I know, shower curtains don’t seem important but right now we only have one soaking tub (no need for a shower curtain) and in the new place, both bathrooms have shower/bath combos. Shower curtains keep the floor dry, yo. I have also rescinded all previous birthday wishes and have now told my husband and family that I’m now hoping/asking/finger crossing for Home Depot gift cards to put towards some patio furniture and a grill. After eight years of living in Chicago I’m finally going to live somewhere with a porch and B and I are already daydreaming about outdoor eating and sunshine enjoying. I WANT TO EAT FOOD COOKED OVER FIRE, DAMNIT.

One of those things about moving is that it never fails that you have to rethink some of your storage solutions and general set ups. So other “super fun” things on my new house list include a laundry hamper and some basic shelves for the kitchen to house my cookbooks and frequently used cookware. I KNOW. THE EXCITEMENT NEVER ENDS. But it is also nice, to be able to finally figure out what we’d like (patio furniture) and what we need (baby gates, outlet covers and cabinet locks) and the in-between (shelves for the kitchen).

I’m also really, really enjoying being able to work on Gracie’s nursery which I want to be bright and cheerful and generally a fun spot for her to play and sleep. We have these linens and a white crib waiting:

I’m working on putting artwork into frames and finding a dresser and a mirror for her room. I fall down Etsy rabbit holes daily….

But of course, before we get to moving we have a lot on the agenda. Bachelor and bachelorette parties, a big wedding, my in-laws birthdays, Mother’s Day, my birthday and Gracie’s baptism are all before the big move….so for now I pin and plot and plan and breathe a sigh of relief that at least one more thing has been figured out.

Pennies on the Dollar

April 11, 2013

By Daisy

I’ll go ahead and start this out by saying if you are not a parent or a parent-to-be you’ll probably find this post a big old snooze-fest. Fair is fair and you are most obviously not obligated to stick around. Second, I’m talking about money which is tacky and rude and full of assumptions (and we all know what making an assumption makes you….) but here I go with an earth shattering revelation:

Babies are expensive yo.

Of course this is something B and I knew and considered going into it. We saw the price tags on all the gear, both necessary and not (sorry but you can’t just not buy a car seat because they cost a lot of dollars) and we know how much higher education costs since we are still paying off law school, and we talked to friends about nannies and day cares and au pairs and we started calculating how much money here and there and into this account and that.

And while I knew the basics like diapers and formula (if you are using it, we supplement with it, end of discussion) and wipes could add up I didn’t really realize just how many diapers you need. Last month? We used 260. Wipes I have no idea but so far we’ve gone through a case of Pampers wipes and we’ve made a significant dent in a Costco case of wipes since February 1. Right around the time I found myself making yet another Amazon order of diapers I decided it was time to get savvy about all these necessities and I did some serious price comparing. Down to the penny. I figured out how much formula was per ounce and how many pennies I was paying per wipe and how many cents this diaper was versus that diaper. I busted out the Ti83 ya’ll. (Amazon did the math for me, but other stores made me do my own division.) (Please note I’ve been a long time Amazon devotee, as a Prime member for years as The Namby Pamby’s “sister” since you can add 4 people to your Prime account- and I do the vast majority of my Christmas and birthday shopping on Amazon.)

And I came to the conclusion that bar none, Amazon Mom/Prime + Subscribe and Save was the way to go. I compared the following:

- Buying goods at Costco, where we have a membership ($100 a year, we will pay for this no matter what, so sunken cost)

- Buying goods at Target and grocery store

- Buying goods on Amazon, where I have Amazon Prime ($79 a year, we use this like crazy, so sunken cost)

- Buying goods on Amazon with Subscribe & Save (you save 5%)

-Buying goods on Amazon with Amazon Mom + doing a Subscribe and Save bundle of 5 or more monthly items (you save 20%)

Generally speaking I found that Costco shopping was on par with costs similar to purchasing on Amazon with Subscribe & Save bundling, however you have significantly less choice in the brands you can choose from. For instance you can buy Kirkland (Costco’s store brand diapers) for about 15 cents a diaper versus Pampers Swaddlers (considered a “premium” diaper) for 16 cents a diaper, and you can buy wipes for 3 cents a wipe at Costco (Kirkland) or on Amazon (Pampers Sensitive).

The most expensive option, by far, was just shopping at the regular grocery store. How much more expensive? For us, about $110 a month more expensive. The next option is just using Amazon to purchase as you need things, with Prime you get free shipping and it is tax free and generally has a slightly lower price…compared to the least expensive option, this was about $45 to $50 a month pricier. Sticking with Subscribe & Save bundles of five or more (or using Costco for all your needs) was the best savings. Here, let me illustrate!

Earth’s Best formula, the formula we use, is about $31 a can at the grocery store near my house. Lets say you go through a can a week (which is on the high end if you are supplementing, lower end if you are exclusively formula feeding, we fall somewhere in the middle) so you are spending about $124 a month on formula. Yikes.

(At this point I’m embarrassed by my excitement of sharing non-earth shattering money saving tips. THIS IS WHO I’VE BECOME.)

If you order it through Amazon the regular way you can get it for $26 a can. And you can see, off to the side, if you do Subscribe & Save (i.e. you tell Amazon to deliver it once a month) you can get it for $24 a can. Yup, a lot cheaper for a month’s worth, you are now paying about $100 a month. Compared to grocery store shopping, you just saved yourself a night at the movies!

But wait, you say? There is a way to save even more?

(Most of you are like “hey dummy, we figured this out a long time ago” but you know what, I’m new to this so bear with me.)

Amazon lets you create a 5 item bundle with Subscribe and Save, and if you do that, you save 20% on all the items in your bundle. So once you hit the magical “5 items set to be delivered that month” you now see this:

And suddenly the formula is almost $21 a can, which means, well, $10 a can less than the grocery store by my house.

*Fans self with dollar bills*

(Don’t even tell me that if you exclusively breast feed you can save money on formula, THANK YOU CAPTAIN OBVIOUS, but some of us need a little help and saving money on formula offsets how much I’ve spent on making breastfeeding as successful as possible.)

Worth noting, I also compared prices with Honest Company, and while I love their cute products and their environmentally friendly message, for now it isn’t for us. B just can’t handle that their diapers don’t have a wetness indicator and we can’t get quite as good of a fit with our tiny child as we can with Pampers. Their diapers are about twenty eight cents a piece, and with all my savings here, I’m paying about sixteen cents a diaper – which is substantial when you factor that by over 200 diapers a month. If you buy premium diapers at the grocery store, you will pay about the same as Honest diapers, so it can be competitive and comes with the bonus of door to door delivery.

So now I have a monthly bundle coming from Amazon – diapers, wipes, Diaper Genie refill bags, formula, some dog supplies, hand soap for the bathroom, and laundry detergent. I don’t need all of these items monthly but I can pause a delivery and I have more than 5 items in my rotation so I’m confident that I can ensure 5 items being delivered every month, to put me into the 20% savings bracket. And worth noting, with Amazon Mom you always save 20% on diapers and wipes so if that is all you need you don’t need to create a 5 item bundle. Amazon Mom does require you to be the Prime subscription holder, so I did have to shell out for my own annual account, which is fine.

And for those of you who want to save on something not-baby related? The hand soap we use is about $3.50 a bottle at Target…with all the Amazon deals factored in, I can buy a 6 pack of the soaps for $16 and have it delivered to my door. Dollar, dollar bills.

All of this fails to factor in the awesome luxury of subscription services that arrive by mail: these items just show up outside my door and don’t require me to go out and buy them, which in the city where parking is scarce and our trunk is small…well, it helps.

And thus concludes my non-sponsored, totally not earth shattering post on how much babies cost and how Amazon is my new favorite thing all over again.

I promise to never go there again.

Have Pass, Will Travel

March 26, 2013

By Daisy

Last week I flew out to Salt Lake City with Gracie to visit my parents, brother and nephew. Lest you think I’m totally insane, I’ll start with the good news- my Dad flew from Chicago to Salt Lake City with me (both legs) and my Mom flew from Salt Lake City to Phoenix with me and helped me make my connection to Chicago before she flew home. Perks of being an airline employee (my Dad)!

The bad news….it was Spring Break, March Madness and Gracie and I were flying on free tickets, aka space available. The last ones to board the plane on a full flight (they let you family board if they know there are plenty of seats to spare and they are not going to kick you off for a revenue passenger) and, you know, stressful. Oh, and for the first flight? My Dad and I had to be at the airport at 5 am, which meant I woke up for Gracie’s middle of the night feeding and never went back to sleep. Once there Dad went through the employee security lane while I went through with the regular people. Well, me and…one tote bag, one diaper bag, one baby in an Ergo, one stroller, one car seat attached to the stroller, two ziptop bags of 3 ounce liquids and oneeeeeeeee pair of shoes that had to be removed for the scanner.

This is where I announce I got all of us and all our crap through security without holding up the line. Where is my gold star?

Our first flight was to Las Vegas, which in retrospect, HAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Gracie and I got the last seat on the airplane, so all of the excited travelers looked up to see me, wearing her in the Ergo, carrying a diaper bag and tote bag, making our way to the last remaining seat on board- in the second to last row, in the middle. Among 25 bachelor party attendees. I’ll let you guess how that flight went.

We made it to Las Vegas where my Dad procured the most amazing burritos from a food truck in an employee-only area (WHY LAS VEGAS, WHY?) and then onto our second leg to Salt Lake City. This flight was much more open so my Dad sat in an aisle seat and held Gracie, in his pilot’s uniform, while I put the bags away. I’m convinced that the passengers on the flight though this was a new onboard service you could pay for- for an extra $100, they’ll give you a pilot to hold your baby!

Our flights home were a little more open and this time my Mom was coming along to give me a hand. Now, let me start by saying that while my Mom and I are best friends, we don’t always work well together. When I was little we went on a big group camping and canoeing trip and my Mom and I were paired in a canoe together, at least for the first twenty minutes. Then everyone else got tired of waiting as my Mom and I’s canoe spun in circles as we both yelled “THE OTHER SIDE, PADDLE ON THE OTHER SIDE” and we were given new canoeing partners, but not before we crashed into the riverbank. So here we were, the dynamic duo, setting off to fly with an infant! What could go wrong?

Well, first my Mom misplaced her boarding pass so me, and all the aforementioned gear, went through security alone while Mom went to reprint her pass. Once we arrived at the gate with plenty of time until our flight we were told that the reservations had all changed and if we had any hope of making it to Phoenix, we needed to get on a plane RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND, RUN, RUN, RUN. So we ran. And boarded the flight and made it to Phoenix, where, without elaborating, I will tell you I was down to 2 diapers. TWO DIAPERS. And I had a 2 hour layover and a 3 hour flight ahead of me. YOU DO THE MATH. (In my defense: I had done the math and we had plenty of diapers, and extras, but Gracie was feeling prolific and that is that.)

At this point I was frazzled and tired and my Mom found another Mom with a small-ish baby and she generously gave us 2 diapers that were only 2 sizes bigger than what we needed and I figured in a pinch, they’d do the trick. Now my flight to Chicago was boarding, as was another flight to Chicago in the gate right next to it, so I tried to board. And I know you can guess what happened…but yes, I tried to board the wrong flight. But! Hold on! There is more! I tried to board the wrong flight….AS MY MOTHER TOOK PHOTOS OF ME “DOING IT MYSELF” AND BOARDING WITH ALL OF OUR CRAP. ON THE WRONG AIRPLANE. I can’t even share the photo for the shame of it all. I, a seasoned world traveler, tried to get on the wrong airplane, as a man yelled out to the crowd “Don’t worry, you are still a new Mom.”

Yeah. A new Mom that managed to get all that gear through security without holding up the line. (What? I’m holding that as my ace card.)