Surviving a blizzard with a toddler

Blizzard Jonas dropped a ton of snow on the East Coast this past weekend. This was our first big storm that we have had to deal with while having a toddler. Being 30 weeks pregnant on top of that was just an extra bonus. I was due with my daughter when Hurricane Sandy hit so I was just thankful there wasn't a chance I would actually have the baby during a storm this time.

I have honestly never been so busy. I really took for granted the ability to pop out of the house- even if it was to food shop! We ended up home for about 72 hours and thankfully our power did not go out.

Things to have on hand for (non-pregnant) moms and dads: wine and beer. No explanation needed.

Things to have on hand for toddler:
1) puzzles - if you click the link for .99 cents you can get your hands on foam alphabet puzzle pieces. You local dollar store may carry them as well. These have been a constant favorite for the past year for my 3 year old. You can match letter, build blocks, line them up, pop out the letters...she made a cake out of it? All I know is it kept her super busy.
2) coloring/art supplies - do yourself a favor and pick up an art easel. Not only will the drawings stay contained, we were able to play school, trace letters, draw, use chalk - so much variation it held her attention. I love this art easel by Discovery Kids because you can put it on a table top. It doesn't take up too much room and you can wipe away the chalk dust from the table instead of it getting on the floor and in your rug.
3) movie or movies - if you have a toddler you know that there is a good chance you will watch one movie over and over and over.
4) snacks. My husband and I concluded she ate more than both of us combined.
5) MILK - I didn't do the whole rush the grocery store for milk/bread/eggs, mostly because I don't know how to make French toast. We had about a quarter gallon left. When you are home for 3 days I had no idea how much milk we would go through. Especially since we ended up using it for coffee, mac and cheese, cereal, not just drinking. Buy milk!
6) sled - now living in Delaware means no hills so I thought this was an odd Christmas to get from the grandparents, but my daughter had a blast just being pulled around in the sled by mommy. She laughed her face off the entire time and didn't want to stop. We went with a really simple plastic sled that was really easy to pull even at 30 weeks pregnant.

Things to consider:
1) grabbing pantry staples like bread and PB&J in case you lose power
2) extra batteries/flashlights/candles in case you lose power. We set up a pile of blankets as well in case the heat went out.
3) bottled water
4) a shovel - does this sound dumb? We couldn't find ours when it came down to it, check you can remember where everything was from all the winter's you didn't need it, don't just assume it's in the garage.
5) salt - if you can find any left in stores!
6) charge cell phones and kindles while you can in case the power does go out. If we didn't have the ipad with some apps ready to go I would have lost my mind.
7) fill up cars with gas - another thing I side eyed prior, we had half a tank left in the SUV. But when we spent an hour trying to get the car out Monday morning we burned through half of that! Don't get stuck and end up in a bad position.
8) if your kid is over the napping stage - try to have them nap. My daughter who is 3 napped for 2 hours each day, she was so tired (wouldn't admit it). Playing outside and the cold I think wore her out. She was happy to be bundled into her bed and take a nap. Also, mommy needed a nap. She actually also announced she needed to go to bed each night around 7. So really make sure to monitor their activity, the last thing you want is to be snowed in with a cranky toddler. 

Some pictures of our activities, dress up was a hit!

Do you have any additional tips for surviving a snow storm? Share your ideas in the comments below!
 

Last week of no spend month!

Ok I've survived so far! Week 3 went well.

 In terms of clearing out, I sold women's clothes to a local shop for $68 and also earned $33 in credits for the kids items I had on consignment. I also dropped off books at a used book store and scored some credit there. 

Now that I've sold a lot of clothing I really took inventory of what we need and a better amount to keep on hand. I got rid of things I liked but struggled to make outfits out of. Same for my daughters clothes, some things fit her but she refuses to wear so I put it in the sell pile. It's probably time to start letting her go shopping with me and picking out her likes so I can avoid this next season. I didn't get around to using an app to inventory items this week like I planned in my last post but it's still on my to do list.

No spend month made me really have to evaluate all my wants and it turns out I can survive without a lot of impulse items. I managed not to buy a French press even though it would be better to make more than one cup of coffee at a time (we only have a keurig) and we lived the past 3 weeks just fine. But I'm still eyeing these on amazon:

French Press

 I've also been better about meal planning and shopping the sales at the grocery store. I relied on the slow cooker a lot more as well and the family was happy with all the meals. Last week, chicken, steak and potatoes were all BOGO free so I stocked up as those all are ingredients that make good slow cooker recipes. If you are an amazon prime member, I suggest you look into subscribe and save items, I did really well stacking up on some easy sides. One of our favorites is Near East Couscous (takes 5 minutes to cook and even my picky toddler is a fan) and I scored a box of 12 for around $7 using the S&S 15% discount and additional coupons offered by amazon.

Neat East Couscous

I'm not going to pretend that this month wasn't tough...and there are 5 weeks in January making it drag on for another week! The blizzard dumped on us helped curb spending since we were home bound all this weekend.

 My daughter kept me so busy being stuck inside I didn't even online shop. And let me tell you, Gap had 40% off, plus 18% back in ebates (check it out  http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=qD%2FUPm%2FKQ1CTbopaGq8hnQ%3D%3D&eeid=29773) and you earned $25 gap cash for every $50 spent! Do you know how hard it was to buy nothing?? On top of it I have $90 in reward money from their credit card so it would have been easy to justify it was free. I have a lot more will power now then when the month began! Baby steps! 

Have you ever passed up a really good deal and felt proud of yourself after the fact? Share your stories in the comments below!

 

Clothing Selling App Reviews

I purged all the closets this past weekend leaving me with a pretty hefty pile of women's, men's and toddler clothing. After sorting out what to donate, I was left with this:

I started looking online, I have sold kids clothing on Facebook groups before but I was looking at a way to mass list items. I decided on 3 apps: Poshmark (women's only), Kidizen (kid's only) and Totspot (all).

Poshmark: I've used this in the past and my general feeling is that people want a deal. Be prepared to receive and accept offers. I really don't mind as my general view is I'm getting money I didn't have for clothes I'm not wearing, so I'm happy to negotiate. You also need to spend a fair amount of time sharing items to help "bump" them into the feed for people to see. This also helps you gain followers. It's pretty simply, the more followers you have the more shares you are likely to get and the more people see your items. For a seller, it's easy to list items and ship as once a purchase is made you receive a prepaid mail slip. Simply print, package up your items and they are out the door. It's easy to transfer the money you received out of the app into your paypal account.

Kidizen: This is a children's clothing only app. It's easy to list items and search. When you join you will receive an email to join a Facebook group called "Hello Kidizen." I found this helpful, the community is great and they help and share ideas on how to get items sold. I learned from this group that commenting on items is what bumps the items into the main feed. I've spent a good amount of time commenting on items from other closets and hope they comment back on mine. Most people did reciprocate. This helped me gain followers and in one week I sold 6 items. As a buyer using this app, you know exactly what the final price of an item will be as it includes shipping. Selling on this app is a little different, as you are responsible to ship the item and pay the shipping out of pocket. You need to keep this in mind when listing the price of your items. Most kids clothing run me about $2.50 shipped via paypal so that is what I add on average. Make sure you have a paypal account set up, that is how you will receive the payment for your items and how you will generate your shipping labels. The great thing about this app is you are paid immediately and do not have your funds help until the item is delivered. To ship, you will also need a scale at home so you know the weight of your package. I'm not 100% certain but I believe that only iPhone users have the option to ship on their own, Android users are able to select the ability to receive prepaid labels or ship on their own. If you want to switch they way you manage this, the woman who runs the Facebook group can assist you.

In terms of what you can list here, well you can list anything, but what really sells...higher end brands do well. Matilda Jane, Gap, Hanna Anderson, Mini Boden, high end shoes, are all sought after. For lower end brands I suggest bundling them all into one listing "4 pairs of Carter's shorts" because the shipping fees often are too high to justify the lower prices of these items. I personally drop those brands at my local Once Upon a Child to get cash quick, however minimal it may be since shipping isn't really worth it.

Totspot: I have used this in the past and it's easy to list items. The main change is that you can now list women's and men's clothing as well. I've found the main users are looking for kid's clothing and the adult items don't really sell. Be prepared to list them cheaply. All the apps allow for a "bundle" feature, and you can even indicate a discount such as a certain percentage off a number of items bought at one time. Totspot users really like to bundle. It helps to have a lot of items listed in your closet to generate sales. The shipping feature is the opposite of Kidizen, Totspot is like Poshmark in that they provide the seller with a prepaid shipping label. The user will know what the item costs and will receive an alert that shipping is either $3.99 or $6.99 depending on weight. This adds on to the final price. For this reason you may see the same item listed at a lower price if a user has a closet on both Totspot and Kidizen (this is the case with my items). This is the best kids app option if you don't have a scale at home to ship on your own. Money transfers easily to your bank account.

For brands, people love to bundle here and since shipping is a set amount, you can sell lower end brands such as Carters, Cherokee, etc. If you list a shirt for $2, it likely won't sell on it's own with the $3.99 shipping fee, but if you have a bunch of separate listings of low priced items, they can be bundled.

 

In the end I sold 10 items in 5 days and made a profit of $76 after my shipping fees. Not too bad!

 

Breakdown was 5 women's items on Poshmark, 1 kids item on Totspot, and 7 items on Kidizen. Men's items were only allowed on Totspot and there's been no action there on my adult items so I'll be taking them to Goodwill the end of this week.

Follow me on these apps:

Totspot: @januebanana
Use code FGDVAJ to get a $5 credit on your first purchase!

Poshmark: @amyjudith
Use code JGEGC to get a $10 credit when you download the app!

Kidizen: @janiebanana
Use code gac6u to be entered into a giveaway when you sign up!

If you have any tips you wish to share about selling in any of these apps please leave them in the comments!

One week down! Hello to week 2 of No Spend Month

OK if you read my last post, I had set some goals for my first week of no spend month. I was like 99% successful. First, I unsubscribed from all store emails. Now not only am I not tempted but I'm not wasting my day clearing out my inbox. Secondly, I dropped off my daughter's higher end clothing along with some maternity items at a consignment shop and they were all accepted so I'm looking forward to seeing them sell! Finally, I did make iced coffee at home.

I did have one slip up. On the day I was food shopping and heading to the consignment store I had a major caffeine headache. I'm pregnant and I barely slept the night before, I was up like 15 times. I stopped by Starbucks to use my gift card and grab a coffee but the app wouldn't load. I was out about $3 that I wouldn't have otherwise spent this month. Good note for the future to make sure when using apps that they load properly if you plan to use them for payment. Not a huge set back, but lesson learned.

Bonus items that happened in week 1....

I got some things for free! As an Amazon prime member I was able to download my pick of 1 of the 6 books they offer for free to my kindle. That's a nice bonus as I'm saving up some novels to read while on maternity leave and our kid free vacation this summer. Also, since the Eagles won on Sunday night, Dunking Donuts offers free coffee on Monday mornings via a coupon in their app. Yay for free coffee! When I logged into the app I saw I actually had earned a free coffee coupon just for using the app so I will save that for next week. Then I started looking into how to get other things for free and my sister told me about Amazon Reviewer (https://www.amzreviewtrader.com/) where you can get things cheap, and there are some totally free, in exchange for your honest reviews! I was approved for a reviewer for a free baby hat but I would have had to pay shipping so I ended up passing. Still worth checking out if you have the time.


So now for week 2. It's easier to not shop online as much, I'm busy at work with everyone back from the holidays and I have been spending more time after work on meal prep since hubby decided he was no longer eating carbs. I shopped last week at Sam's club so I could buy in bulk. We are obviously allowing food purchases, but less frequent trips to the grocery store remove a lot of temptations and I don't plan to make another run out again this week. Mostly because it always turns into this:

Week 2 goals:

1) No food shopping, eat from the pantry and freezer. We received Omaha Steaks as a gift so this helped fill up the freezer with some yummy options.

2) Start to bring all the baby items from the attic out so we can start washing/cleaning all the gear and make an inventory of what we truly need to purchase for baby #2 in February. I can't tell you how many times I rebought something I *knew* I had somewhere and was too lazy to go find it or pull it out of the attic.

3) Inventory all baby clothing. We were "team green" last pregnancy so a lot of our 0-3m onsies and sleepers are gender neutral. I'm certain we have enough to hold us over for 3 months. After that baby #2 is being born in the opposite season of our daughter anyway, but I shouldn't have to purchase any baby clothing until it's warm out. Honestly, I'm looking forward to shopping for summer clothing while on maternity leave, it will give me something to do, so I'm trying to not "buy ahead" even if it's adorable and on super sale like I did for my daughter. I'm actually hoping to use my credits from the clothes I consigned to score some like new items and not have to pay anything out of pocket!

Almost there...week 3 of no spend month

Half way through and I'm heading into week 3 of no spend month!

How did week 2 go? Well I was able to clear out all the baby items and made a list for what we absolutely NEED to purchase before baby arrives. Pretty much some bottle nipples, bibs and pacifiers and we will be all set. I'm hoping that people gift us some cute boy clothes and blankets because those are on my list of "wants"...and also my daughter has made if very clear that baby 2 needs his own blankies. 

If you check out my last post you will see that I spent time selling clothing via apps and made some cash. Tomorrow is the launch of a higher end consignment store where I have about 20 items for sale. I'm hoping to generate some income there! Women's items that didn't sell on Poshmark I'm taking to Style Encore to sell for some quick cash and get these items out of my house. 

I did purchase a few items. For one, I was asked to be a godmother for 2 babies and the first baptism is this month. I work from home so I have been slumming it in yoga pants. I made it to 30 weeks pregnant but I'll need a dress. I was able to score a used dress in great condition that I can wear to both events. I also bought my daughter a dress that will get used for both baptisms, Easter and future baby newborn photos and it was a steal for $17 from JCrew's clearance section. Ok, I sound like I'm justifying those purchases but we did need them. Did we need the milkshakes we got earlier in the week? That depends if you think a pregnant woman should be deprived of a milkshake ;) I guess I didn't realize my 3 year old daughter never had a milkshake before either, and it was like the best night of her life. 

This week I want to look into an app that will allow me to take pictures of my clothes and inventory them. This way I can work to mix and match outfits and find out what I never wear. I'll start with spring items since that is when I will finally be out of maternity clothes. This way I'll know what I wore a lot vs. never and can bring items to a cash for clothing place and unload items. Hey, while I'm not spending money this month, might as well use my free time to find ways to save money through out the house...and frankly I keep a lot of money hanging in my closet ;) 

No Spend Month Begins

Happy New Years! I'm kicking off 2016 with a no spend month.


 A few reasons why I think January is a perfect month for this:

1) With the holidays just past us we have everything we could want plus some
2) Baby #2 arrives in March so we have to save up for that lovely 3 month no pay maternity leave I'm planning
3) iI's winter and we have no where to be or any events to attend. Won't be tempted to head to the beach for the day or any impromptu trips.
4) We have 2 vacations coming up and 2 weddings to attend right when I return to work from maternity leave. We are expecting an expensive summer. Hoping that a month of cut backs will help us determine things we don't miss and can cut back for good.

If you are thinking of a no spend month why not pick a month you are most likely to be successful? It's about helping to save towards a goal, not to make your month miserable.

Also, think about what "no spending" means and set up the guidelines you will follow. For us it's food, gas, and toiletries only. No entertainment, eating out (we are allowing one "emergency" night for take out...like I said we aren't trying to make our lives miserable), no beer money for hubby, packing lunches, no shopping for clothes or extras. And of course we will pay all standard bills and utilities.

I have a few goals for the first week:

1) Unsubscribe to store emails alerts and remove temptation
2) Swing by a new higher end consignment store and drop off all my daughters clothes from last summer and some summer maternity items I no longer need. I'll opt for 50% store credit payout that I'll get right before #2 is born so I can use it on new baby items. It's nice because unlike getting immediate cash at other places I won't get my payout until no spend month is over.
3) Make iced coffee at home and avoid the coffee shop. I will say...I received some gift cards and I'm going to spread it out over the month and still treat myself. But no daily trips with my own money anymore.


I'm going to try to blog through this challenge instead of spending any free time online window shopping. Share any tips in the comments on how to get started on a no spend month.