You deserve a (kid free) vacation!

PEACE OUT BABIES.

Let me tell you why you should ditch your kids and hop on a plane with your spouse for a kid free vacation.

Listen, I'm not a world traveler, I keep it simple. My requirement is adult only and all inclusive. Because yes, I'm leaving my kids behind. I believe the definition of vacation is "time spent not changing diapers." Let's be real, taking kids on vacation is a CHORE. You have to practically rent a U-Haul to pack all their little items to make them comfortable and keep them alive for a week. You have to cook at the vacation home or go out and pay $8 for a hot dog they won't eat. You have to leave the beach in the afternoon because it's too hot and these kids need to take a nap. So you sit in silence from 1-3 instead of day drinking by a pool. I love my babies and we will take them to the beach but let's talk about the "real" vacation I like to plan.

MEXICO. Can't say enough good things. Quick and direct flight for us and 4 nights for two people at an all inclusive is less than a beach house at the Jersey shore. We first went to the area in 2009 for our honeymoon to a beautiful 5 start resort. And if it ain't broke don't fix it - we returned every year for the next 5 years. Now that we have two kids that suck our resources dry, we had to downgrade to a 4.5 start hotel (the horror) which we are about to visit for the second time.

A lot of moms can't get past the guilt of leaving their babies behind. I get it. The first time we went away after my daughter was born she was 6 months old and I had anxiety. I was sick to my stomach the whole time. Didn't stop me from drinking or eating though because I like to get my money's worth. But what I've found from vacationing without kids is this....

1) THEY DON'T CARE. Last year my 3 year old thought she was the one on vacation. We shipped her off to the grandparents and she had no idea that we weren't at home, despite the daily face time call. I mean she was totally spoiled and went to the pool and the park and probably had way too much juice. Even when she saw pictures of our trip it didn't click in her mind that we went somewhere without her, because she was the one somewhere without us.

2) Kids are so easily pleased. Set up a baby pool in the back yard, a sprinkler and let them skip their nap and they just had the best day ever and it cost you NOTHING. There's no reason for me to drag my kids to Mexico, pay $$$ to pack 15 bags full of diapers and bottles and all different size blankies depending on their mood, when they won't be any more blown away by the pool there. We still do a "family" vacation that involves going to the local beach/boardwalk, but my daughter would rather stay home or visit her grandparents and play. The baby hasn't said either way how he feels about it.

3) You deserve it. These kids are hanging all over you 24/7, wiping their snot on your arm and you take it. You go to bed at 8pm every night because these bundles of joy have sucked all the energy out of you. You make a dinner every night that the kids won't eat because it's on an orange plate and NOT THE GREEN ONE. It's in my kids best interest that I get the hell outta there for 5 days each year. Spend time around other adults without cooking or cleaning. I can eat dessert without hiding in fear that a kid will pop in and declare it's theirs now and I can't have any. I can drink without fearing that a child will wake up at 3am and need help going potty and I'll be too hung over to help. I have some serious mom goals.

So now I count the days until August when I will have my toes in the sand and a drink in each hand. I'll probably still wake up at 6am on vacation but I can go get coffee that I can drink while it's still hot. I will enjoy my long showers and kid free bathroom trips. I'll have 5 free days of not being asked "do you want to come see?" every time my toddler goes to the bathroom. So don't be sad to leave the kids behind or feel guilty. While you are swimming in the giant pool asking your husband "wouldn't the kids just love this???" trust me that your babies are not at the park wondering if you would love to swing with them. If you are going to be sad about something it should probably be that despite the fact that you cater to their every need and are constantly consumed with making their life the best ever, they probably won't even care that you are gone. Kids can be such assholes.

KONMARI decluttering summarized.

If you have read my recent posts you know I dedicated January to a no spend month. By the time February rolled around I was too pregnant to just go shopping for fun and then the stomach bug ran through our house making it impossible to leave.

I did a lot of reading about organizing over the month of January and was drawn to one particular method the life changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo aka the KONMARIE method. It has  basic pillars:

 

1) declutter by category

2) touch each item to see if it sparks joy

3) start to organize after you declutter 

Decluttering by category was a definite mind shift. Typically we clean by room. When you tackle this by category it puts into perspective how much of one item you have. Very eye opening! 

We concentrated on these categories:

1) clothing

2) shoes

3) stored baby clothes

4) books

5) kitchen items 

6) baby items 

Ok clothing, emptying out our closets made me realize not only the quantity of clothes but the fact that we needed to clean! Oh man some spaces were not as well kept as they seemed once emptied. My clothing was easy because I'm pregnant, nothing fits and after baby #2 I'm in need of a wardrobe overhaul anyway. How many "going out" tops do I really need when most of my outings are to Target?

Shoes, easy! I work from home and wear flats. Kept one pair of black heels and sold or donated the rest. I think my days of being in weddings are over so all those shoes I bought for one off reasons were given new homes. 

Stored baby clothes, so easy since #2 is opposite gender. Neutral items were hung in the nursery closet, girl items went to my niece, consignment and goodwill. Freed up space in our attic. It was tempting to then start cleaning the attic but I stuck with categories and not rooms. 

Books, a tad harder since they are mostly my husbands and daughters. All duplicate kids books were sent to my niece. My husband dropped his at a local book store and used his credit to get a new book. So about 15 out and one back in. Books are what I call a "community item." I read another book about minimalist living that stressed that items easily found in the community don't need to be owned. So, books you can get at a library, and you can play on a swing set at a park, no need to own your own. If you have espresso once a week, go to a coffee shop instead of buying the machine...since in the end it's probably the experience of going to the coffee shop you enjoy more and if you had a machine you'd never make espresso. Just some things to consider!

Kitchen items. Another area where we were like wow we need to clean out the inside of all our cabinets. We donated boxes and boxes to goodwill. We got rid of all duplicates. Only one giant pot for pasta. 3 baking sheets kept since that's all we can even use at one time. Extra bags of utensils in case 45 people show up for dinner are gone. The kitchen made us consider our lifestyle and it doesn't include fancy dinner parties...just the occasional family birthday. We have never had to transport 30 cupcakes anywhere in a special carrier. We have never even baked cupcakes...

Finally we get to baby items. This was needed as we had to see what needed replacing from baby #1 and what we didn't end up even using and know is a waste as second time parents. Lots of items sold, shipped as back ups to grandparents, donated and replaced. We didn't need 30 receiving blankets, multiple monitors, or baby shoes (for real - a waste of money!). Had to replace changing pads and crib sheets. Sent extra strollers to grandparents houses so we don't have to cart things all over for visits. 

In the end everything was organized and had a place. The whole process took about 6 weeks. It was time consuming getting RID of items. Filling boxes, packing the car, trips to goodwill and the post office. It really was a lot of effort! And that's with a pregnant lady in nesting mode (you don't get more motivated than that!). This whole process made me realize I don't want to go through this again, so I'm embracing this minimalist living for now and second guessing anything we bring into the house. Wish me luck!

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 ;)