Let’s get cooking and be a little frugal!

Now bear doesn’t follow a dairy free diet shopping has become simple. We no longer have to read every label and we can try new things. We always encourage Bear to at least try things, he obviously has the things he likes and things he doesn’t like, but nothing makes us prouder when he just tries things because he wants to. the other day he helped himself to his daddy’s hummus, dipping some of his daddy’s cucumber (he didn’t like that much) and a raw carrot (he enjoyed chewing) although he has had these things before, he didn’t like them on a number of previous tries, but we were so pleased he gave them another go…..and all by himself. He also ate a slice of ham for the first time ever (he has very recently just cut 3 back teeth…..making it 11 teeth in total!! We think this helped him to chew, and enjoy, the ham)

We also like to encourage Bear to help with the cooking, and some fun baking too. We are trying to encourage a healthy relationship with food for him. We all love good, healthy, home cooked meals….cooked from scratch. We have discovered muscle foods as a source for amazing quality meat for a cheap price (they often do really awesome deals on big bundles, so we are definitely needing our big freezer!) I have included a link to muscle foods in case anyone is interested, if you use my referral code you will also get a free item (and i will receive some credit too). Our meat portion of our meals work out at around £2 a meal (with the latest order made, should come out somewhere near £1.50 a meal…..and that is for the 3 of us!) You can also get great groupon deals for muscle food bundles, that is where we sourced our last order…..and don’t forget you can get cashback on it if using quidco (I will also include a quidco referral code for anyone who wants it, once you start earning, we both get £5 cashback) Using quidco I have received almost £200 cashback in the last 15 months on things that I would have bought anyway…..we are really trying to live a little more frugally to save money for the finer things in life (life trips out and nice holidays!) I am thinking I may start to turn this blog into a frugal living and general life type of blog to share my experiences now we don’t have allergies to concern ourselves with. Will see how it goes and see what our followers reaction to it may be.

Muscle food link, and referral code: Receive a free gift (and i get a little bit of account credit!)

http://www.musclefood.com/LS201491

LS201491

 

Quidco referral code: we both get £5 cashback once you start earning!

http://www.quidco.com/user/4763630/2147432/

Black Friday Madness and lots of Nappy goodness

So, I am not one to be tempted into black Friday…..cannot be bothered to go wait outside the shops with my elbows raised ready to attack anyone who gets in my way! But from the comfort of my computer I am pleased to say I have succumbed to the Black Friday madness a little.

I have been toying over getting some Cheeky wipes for a while now, but struggled to justify the cost….but with their 25% off Black Friday sale and the fact I sold some stuff so had a decent fund in my paypal, I treated myself and Bear to some lovely new wipes with their snazzy clean/dirty boxes and bags! I am so excited!

On another nappy note….we have fallen in love with Gnappies (I completely blame Ocado for that one, their latest offer was unreal!!) But we get way longer out of them, with no leaks at all. I have 5 medium block colours which I am managing to use plenty as I wash the pouches and covers in with the normal wash and the inserts with the nappy wash, but have plenty of inserts (need to wash at 40, my normal nappy wash is 60 so would rather be safe than sorry!) But love them so much I have purchased a christmas themed one for Bear…..only down side is i didnt realise I was buying from the USA…..fingers crossed it arrives in time!!

Also, I won a competition by Ecopipo and got one of their newest nappies. I am very impressed with the inserts and overall quality by them too. We have been discovering lots of new brands just lately and loving it.

Our stash is somewhat impressive now, fingers crossed I can get some new stash shots and On the bum pictures soon….Bear is getting so big now!!!

Cloth bum rocks….but what is best!?!

So, having only a stash of little bloom ebay ‘cheapies’ to begin our cloth journey we started to experience leaks now bear is constantly on the move. We also found bed time a challenge, even when double or even triple stuffing. So we purchased some more bamboo inserts (rookie mistake thinking mainly microfibre was going to be a good idea!) and some charcoal bamboo for bedtime. We also bought some super cheap china import nappies to try for bed time with a variety of ‘stuffings’ to see what worked (currently having success with a charcoal insert, a bamboo insert, both wrapped inside a standard muslin, reused from bears sicky days, stuffed inside a popper little bloom). Mummy also got tempted by pretty prints (Spiderman, ninja turtles, star wars, fire engines, dinosaurs, the list goes on!) and some amazing bargains (an absolute steal of a deal on a local selling page and a reduced price of cloth in morrisons coupled with my brothers 20% staff discount weekend, practically jumped in the trolley!) so our stash is currently HUGE!! consisting of 5 super cheap china imports, 27 little blooms, 2 TJ nappies, 1 bambino mio and 21 tots bots v3&v4’s…..56!!!! (We are not mental, the ‘steal’ referred to above was far too good to let go so we should now have enough nappies to cloth 2 bubs at the same time when we finally have another!)

My thoughts on our nappy journey!

Super cheapies are failing us a little at the moment, so will be retired for a while.

Little blooms will always have a special place in my heart, Bears 1st ever cloth bum….been relatively reliably so far, just with occasional pressure leaks or ill-timed naps meaning we are attempting to squeeze another hour out of them!

TJ’s are so cool, totally tempted by the ‘boy’ nappies…..ninja turtles and star wars! I love the style of the velcro on TJ’s, find they fit so tidy and don’t look ‘tired’ after numerous washes due to the style of them. Jackie at TJ’s is lovely too, always chatting to her customers via facebook, I like the interactions with the faces behind some of the small, UK based nappy sellers!

Bambino Mio, this one we have had less than a week and as we only have 1 it has only made it on to the bum once! I love the print (elephants) though. In true Bear tradition, he poo’d in it pretty quickly, as he does to all his new nappies! But the quality feel and fit of it was amazing….can’t wait to get this one back through the wash!

Tots Bots….now having a stash of 21 we are getting to test these out lots. The first one Bear poo’d in almost instantly (was OTB less than an hour!!) the second one, boosted with a single bamboo insert, leaked massively, not sure if it was bad fit, pressure leak, under stuffing or if the fleece liner made the wee run off instead of soak in due to the fleecy inside of the nappy (leaking pattern indicated that it leaked from top and leg holes though!) We have had much better luck with the 3 he has tried since (now increased to double boosted!) I thought I loved the cute patterns he has (rainbow spots, 3 little pigs, london, to name a few) but also find myself loving the block colours too, including the purple ones! What is great about Tots Bots is that when I mentioned I had some leaking troubles with my first try they offered to phone me to trouble shoot and try to improve my experience….I felt I didnt need them too as I feel the cloth journey is very much trial and error suited to each child but it is the little things that make the difference!

At the moment I can’t say what is best, I do find myself grabbing for my favourite prints (ninja turtles and star wars) or my tots bots…..but am sure the mio will be very quick out the clean pile again after nappy wash day! Not sure whether it is because of the novelty of new, feeling that they should be better as they are more expensive or that they actually are yet! Only time will tell.

One thing is for sure, cloth is still definitely working for Bear, we barely have to fight any soreness (only when teething), mummy and daddy both love it and we cannot wait to cloth bum the next one (when we have one!)

Would love to hear what your opinions on nappies and brands are….these are the only ones I have tried so far, there are so many more to experience yet! Due to the lack of a nappy library near me we were forced to go it alone, you never know though, I may end up with enough variety and quantity of nappies to start my own!

Cloth Nappies, Yay or Nay??

As followers of my blog know, I did not switch to cloth nappies for the sake of planet earth or the purse strings…I did it for Bear! But that being said, I have noticed many things since changing and I am somewhat disappointed from the response I received by my local council and children centre (and other negative nellies along the way). There are so many benefits to cloth nappies, which I never considered myself but now they have come to my attention I can see that the positives out way the negatives by a long way. As Bear takes a nap I wanted to share the benefits that are most relevant to myself, Bear and our environment!

Baby benefits: As we have proven on our short journey so far, switching to cloth has considerably improved the sore nappy rash and eczema on Bears zone. We are no longer needing to use up doctor appointment spaces on a weekly basis to get it checked, neither do we need to constantly receive prescriptions for steroids or yet another nappy rash cream as none were working…..this must mean that both Bear and the NHS benefit! (please note, this is a problem caused by Bears allergy to disposable nappies, so would not be applicable to all)

Over the 3-3.5 years (on average) a child is in nappies it contributes to 1-2 tonnes of landfill waste* if they are to use disposable nappies. Once in land fill it is reported by some that it takes 200-500 years to decompose….the nappy wearer will be long gone before their waste is!! If more people were to use cloth then the environment would benefit!

It is also reported by many that it costs just over £2000 in disposable nappies/wipes over the 3-3.5 years from birth to potty trained* compared to the £100-£200 needed to set up a basic reusable system (additional funds may be spent as cloth bums are adorable with so many super cute prints, but please note, well looked after cloth nappies can be resold to others to recoup some funds) with added costs of washing powder and running the washing machine. It is £2000 per child too, where as the reusable set up price is a one off and can be used with several children if well looked after. With this in mind you and your purse benefit!

I have also been told that in our local area, since changes to our bin collections have been made, that almost every reported case of fly tipping has bags of disposable nappies included. If cloth nappies were used there would be less fly tipping so the council will not have to send the poor man  to go and remove the fly tip and his time can be better spent, so both of these will benefit.

As long as you have the time and patience to wash them then cloth are a great idea….it is easier than you think as you get into a routine and it is only 2 extra washes a week. Cloth nappies look so cute, they left the old, ugly Terry towelling behind years ago! Using reusable wipes too make it even easier, they can be used for grubby faces and hands, not just bottoms! I do notice not having to by wipes and nappies on a weekly basis, the initial out lay to purchase our cloth nappies has been and gone so we are now left with that little bit extra every week to save or have a ‘treat’. I am looking forward to when we give bear a brother or sister so we can use the cloth nappies from birth.

There are probably more benefits to cloth than I have mentioned too. I went to both the local council and the children’s centre with my information to ask if they offered an incentive scheme or whether they would consider it and where I could find more information locally to try promote it a little. I either didn’t receive a reply at all or a very unhelpful one with my ‘local’ support group being over 30 miles away….it is really no surprise that cloth bum mum’s are far and few between in my local area. I never thought I would be one to jump on the cloth band wagon, I was purely doing what was best for my son, but having come to the realisation myself that it is not just him that benefits makes me truly believe that more people should be going reusable.

Please help spread the word!

*Please note these are figures collected from an uneducated google search, although many articles used the same figures.