What a Deal

Maybe I'm super resourceful.  Maybe I just have way too much time on my hands.  Probably a little bit of both!  Either way I have become quite the bargain shopper. Actually it's borderline hostile frugality but come on, who doesn't love a deal?  I think my thrifty issues actually began as a bride. Valuable lesson...a cake is just a cake by any other name...unless you accidentally call it a wedding cake.  Then it's magically better and costs 30% more.

Call it what we may, I have become very focused on finding deals and thought it might be helpful to share a few findings...

• Politics aside, thanks to the Affordable Care Act I am the proud owner of a free new breast pump of my choosing.  I called our health insurance provider to see if any portion of my purchase would be covered and learned that we (and most everyone else) are eligible to receive a pump without cost. This was a big one--pass it on!
• It turns out you can't buy many baby items in-store and are forced to purchase online. ( I'll defer my rant on the ridiculousness of this for another time)  This triggers my biggest nemesis--shipping and handling.  I found a great website, Diapers.com, that has many online retailer and manufacturer coupons in addition to free shipping and handling and waived sales tax.  By triple dipping, I was able to save $70 on just one item!  I read that they actually sell diapers at cost too, but since I have yet to change an actual diaper, don't feel qualified to advise on this one. :)
• Buying maternity clothes--I read a great idea to buy maternity clothes early when they are on sale in the off season, so I did.  Bad bad idea for me and my sweet tooth.  Turns out that you can't just assume that you'll remain your regular size and buy your standard because maternity clothes are so much bigger.  It's a little depressing and that 's all I'm going to say about that.

On a random note, our Keurig recently died.  This is a borderline crisis in our house.  After calling directly I was told that they would send me a new one for half the price.  When I escalated the issue by graciously pointing out my dissatisfaction that $149 only gets you only a little over a year of product life, I received a call back the next day that we were being sent a new Keurig for free. Interestingly they made me send back a small part of my broken one which felt a little like a weird ransom situation, but I was still pleased with the outcome and learned that it's always worth making the call!

In the end we think we have all that we need for this baby, at least for now. It's been very fun to learn about the best baby products, and to receive the great advice we have from many about what you will need but haven't thought of, and what you think you will use but actually won't.

It was pretty clear to Ed and I, the UPS guy, and the entire neighborhood when my nesting phase began and we came home to find this loot delivered to our doorstep.

Happy shopping!!

All About Hobbs...

And as we all know, it really is all about Hobbs here.  So Ed and I have often wondered how it will go when the baby arrives.  We followed all of the recommendations to assemble the baby gear and let the dog check it out.  Well ours has showed absolutely no interest in any of it, even the extreme snug-a-bunny baby swing we've had whirling, playing music, and buzzing around in the living room as a test drive.  No, Hobbs still prefers chasing the vacuum around over any baby contraption that is in this house.  If anything he looks at me with a "what the heck are you doing" expression when I insist on pushing the stroller around inside or shake rattles in his face to get a reaction.  Coincidentally, Ed is usually looking at me the same way :)

One thing is for sure though--this dog has figured out that something is definitely up.  He's naturally a herder so he would never hang out by himself and if Ed and I are in different rooms Hobbs strategically finds the best vantage point to lay down and keep an eye on it all.  But now he has left Ed to the wolves and is glued to my side. I love it.  When I take a bath, I come out to find him like this staring at the door from the bed.

When I can't sleep and get up in the night to hit the couch and watch TV, he forsakes his LL Bean memory foam doggie bed and follows me down to lay on the floor beside me.  When I head down the hall to the bathroom, he actually follows me in (with my sense of urgency these days, this just means that sometimes we're in there together) and if I shoo him out he's waiting outside the door for me. 

Sometimes he just sits and barks at me, and since I credit him as a doggie genius, I assume that this is some sort of Lassie moment and I'm about to go into labor.  Then he will walk away and plop a toy in front of me and I realize I've been duped and he was just trying to talk me into playing with him.

I can't wait to meet our daughter and to bring her home to this giant loveable fur ball.  We're convinced they will be BFF's.  Whatever the future holds, Ed and I know that long before marriage and babies, we became a family with Hobbs.