Random thoughts on thriftiness and the domestic lifestyle

I am sitting here drinking some iced nettle tea on this muggy day. I am listening to lullabies and our fan (the king of fans as it is known) is droning on upstairs because Lili is having her afternoon nap. The house is truly a disaster, but I hesitate to clean it lest I wake her. I don't know how with my genes in her she got such light-sleeping genes... That is one difficult thing about living in a house that has no doors- everyone can hear everything. Hence me not cleaning, and rocking out to Enya instead...

Alex and I purchased a budgeting program last week, and today is our official launch of our new budgeted, regulated life. I am not a crazy spender, but, budgeting has never been my forte (Alex is much better) However, now that things have been so tight financially (since having a baby. or... maybe since we started building a house. Or, maybe when I realized all I wanted to be was an artist... I guess I can't pinpoint the exact moment things started to feel constricted, but here we are) we decided we needed a little extra budgeting help. To tell the truth, the thing I am most nervous about is remembering and keeping track of all my receipts. You wouldn't think this would be so hard- but for me, receipts are like little birds that fly out of my jean pockets, or the bottom of a grocery bag, or my pocketbook, or my wallet, or the coat, or the car... I have faith that I can reign them in though...Never fear. Anyways, I will keep you updated on this exciting budgeting adventure you can be sure.

Speaking of being thrifty, I have been making baby food the last couple of months. Organic baby food in jars is expensive (around 90 cents a small jar) and she eats at least three a day jarfuls a day. Alex and I don't eat exclusively organic ourselves, but, I feel it is important to try and feed Lili organic food since toxins effect a baby's body more than an adult. We have this great store in town called "Amazing Savings" and they sell all sorts of discounted organic veggies and fruits. I stock up on them when I can, steam them if need be, and then I blend them in this hand held mixer:
Then I pour the blended stuff into ice cube trays. Freeze them, pop them out and put them in labeled ziplock freezer bags like this:

Then each day we pull out an assortment of food cubes to thaw, sometimes mixing them together like so:
This is a mixture of kale from our garden and ripe bananas. YUM. right???
It has been a little extra work, but satisfying too. I have been doing a little reading in this book as well and gotten some good tips.

I hope this day finds everyone doing swell!
XOXO