The day after Halloween. It”s like one second you can put your wallet away from the pumpkin patches, hayrides, costumes, and candy before you have to pick it back up again and start on the next round of holidays. I”m taking the morning for a bit of a reflective post. Don”t let the title mislead you- these frugal tips are not so much a “things you should know BEFORE you had kids,” no, just the things I didn”t know until I had them.
1. Cheap Strollers are Cheap- So maybe this one IS more for the “one day I”ll have kids” viewers, but it is one of my few serious claims. Like, ever. I started with a Snap-n-Go for Number1. Great Stroller for trying to wean yourself from the mall. Because from the time your first hits any stage she can move, well into the time you have two kids, you will never, ever, ever find yourself wanting to go stroll through the mall again. Ever. That stroller only works for infant carriers. Then you need an upgrade. A small portable? or a big Beach/Parade/ “Sure I”ll run with this Stroller”? Or, you know, one of each? Need I point out they were all crap? And no, I never once ran with that stroller. Ironically.
Double strollers didn”t really interest me, but after 3 weeks of Baby-Totin” Number2 while pushing Number1, I realized it may not be such a bad idea. I don”t know where I started looking, but I found Baby Jogger City Select. If you Google this, you will think, “Whoa. Not cheap.” Well, no. But you can find a previous year clearance model.(Cha-Ching! Remember me? Coins in the bank!) Had I bought this first, I could”ve used it from infant stage up to the point I needed it for two, added the second, and then went back down to one when 40 lbs of ONE child became too much to push, with another strapped in too. And. adding up what I paid for ALL of my bonafide stroller collection… I should”ve just got this one first. Oh yeah, Retrouvez d’autres jeux de machine a sous gratuite en ligne a sous similaires a Wasabi San. and I run with two kids in it. A lot.
(Baby Jogger in no way paid me for that. If you want to, that”s fine. You can find me, oh, strolling EVERYWHERE with that freekin thing.)
2. CDs are not cheap . Look at the price tage. In the grand scheme of things, they still seem pretty cheap. (Oh, did I skip something? Yes. I STILL buy albums. I love having the album, driving somewhere you can listen to the whole thing through. Sure I know you can buy a full digital album, but where”s the culture in that?) When comparing the cost of a CD to the three different kinds of milk you have to buy, two or more times a week, I can”t justify it. I recently found myself alone in Wal-Mart (what?) and came across the $5 CD bin. Why, oh why did I never stop to smell these roses in my days of spare change? Sure, they”re all old. And kinda cheesy. But what is a collection without a little Merle Haggard or the greatest hits of ABBA. You never know when you might have to prove you are, in fact, the dancing queen.
3. The Library is awesome. So… I always thought the library was for small kids and old people. I bought horrid books for my book club like “Freakonomics” and even “Atonement”- which promptly went into the trash can upon completion. I honestly never knew the Library had new releases. And CDs. And movies. And I knew they had reference books, but I didn”t know they had USEFUL ones, like Eating No Preservatives, and Running Faster (I made those titles up so you would have to look for books that actually interest you.). Here in Charlotte, the whole catalog is online, you can request a book to be sent to your local branch, and when it becomes available (they have a hold list if it isn”t immediate), the library will CALL YOU and hold that book in a VIP section so you can just dash in and grab it. The first time I was ever “kid free” after having kids? I spent two hours in the library just enjoying what we regularly refer to as the “mommy section”. Bliss.
4. Europe is never gonna get any cheaper. This most of all applies to anyone who is now, or who ever will be planning a trip to Europe. We were planning one for a friend”s wedding. We stalled on the flight and the tickets doubled. For some strange reason we thought tickets might get cheaper closer to the event??? Or in a few years??? Cause the really old and cool stuff was only getting older and more historically spectacular? I don”t know. But in the 5 years since we didn”t go, the cost of going has yet to drop, at all.
I might have even been willing to trade all those CDs I didn”t buy for that trip to Europe I didn”t get to take. But it”s a good thing I have an incredible stroller now because if I do go, I”ll certainly be dragging my kids with me!
What about you? Any incredible advice you”d like to share on what you wish you knew before kids- cheap or otherwise? I”d love to hear them!
Stay Thrifty My Friends!
DD
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