Living Within Your Means

Why does everyone think the military pays you awful or that you can't live on what they pay you.  We are reading Family Driven Faith right now and there is a story in it about this man who started having children when he was a captain in the military... and about how rough life was for them in the beginning because they had no money.  A captain makes about $2,000 more A MONTH than what Michael makes.  There is a commercial on tv for one of those Direct Buy showroom places with this woman who says "I know on military pay, I couldn't afford to buy top of the line..." and under her name it says "Colonel"... thats about $5,000 (probably more than that depending on how long she has been in) more A MONTH than what Michael makes.  I went to this "New Parent Support"  class (they give you a free gift bag, so I went.  lol) and they encouraged everyone that qualified to enroll in WIC (a government program for families if the woman is pregnant or if their are young children in the home, you get formula & some essential food for free because you are poor...).

Now, you're probably thinking... poor Michael and Beth... they must be so poor & she doesn't even work & they have a baby, the military is so stingy.  au contraire.  The "base pay" may not be a lot (for us that is... those people mentioned above are just being ridiculous!), but we have NO BILLS.... we get free health insurance, free housing (kind of... we just never see the money we would be getting if we didn't live on base), tax free groceries, free baby clothes (via airmans attic... LOVE IT).  This is what we spend our money on every month... groceries, car insurance, and internet.  How do we do this, you ask... well, let me tell you.  We don't use CREDIT cards, we don't take out loans for cars (and we didn't for school when we were going)... if we can't afford it with whats in the bank we don't need it (well, that would have to be something pretty expensive like a new car... which is ridiculous to buy anyways).  We hardly ever go out to eat or buy premade meals (ok, frozen pizzas I do... lol).  I can find PLENTY of great clothes at goodwill (for me at least, Michael not so much).  Maybe its because I love thriftiness so much... I think I should have lived during the depression.  

I just don't get it.... why can no one else "make it" in the military but we seem to be stockpiling money over here.   What are people spending money on?!  All the wives of Michael's superiors "have to work".  When we first got here Michael had to go to a "First Term Airman" seminar and they had a finance person come & talk to all the new airmen about saving money and went over the finances with each person... the woman told Michael she had never seen an airman with so much money saved.  SERIOUSLY?  And, that was a year ago and I don't even work!!!  

Even when I lived in Pennsylvania all alone and had to pay for my own apartment & electricity I still managed to save $2,000 by the time I came home (though I did have 2 jobs for the last few months and didn't have to pay for my health insurance).  I don't know, I guess no one is teaching good money management and is instead trying to get them to sign up for credit cards to pay off their other credit cards.  

K, thats my tangent about the military.  I imagine its much harder in the "real world".

Oh, and I would like to thank Michael for teaching me saving money with nothing in mind to spend it on is fun, because right before I met him I almost overdrew my bank account (and that wouldn't have been the first time).   Though, I think we are too stingy now and need to give some of it away. 

4 weeks old!

Well, 4 weeks tomorrow...

These are the birth announcements I made.  I'm pretty proud of myself, they cost us a grand total of $15 (plus $35 postage!!!).  We were looking at spending $100+ on the ready-made ones, but thanks to wal-mart and picnik, we didn't need to.  

I don't know why, but I am in love with this picture.  Cloth diapering is going swell.  No problems, except I have to wash everyday it seems... small price to pay.  Oh, and everything is really bulky on her (even just prefolds w/covers), so we can't button her onsies (see picture) and 98% of the time she doesn't wear pants because she only has 1 pair that look ok over her diaper, and I find it pointless having to take them off to change her anyways.  But we like the sleep sacks. 

Breastfeeding is going great too.  We never had any problems, thankfully!

ECing (I love her modesty! lol).  She has always peed as soon as we take her diaper off, so since day 1 we have made a "ssss" sound as she is going and the day she was 3 weeks I held her over the toilet like this and made the sound and she went.  I don't know what her signs of needing to go are, so right now its just timing and guessing and usually she goes.  but i have about 1-2 real "catches" (she still has clean diaper) a day.  Today has been particularly good.  I'm still not sure if she is just going because her diaper is off though.  lol

I look gigantic in this picture.   She was like 2 days old here.  We co-sleep.  Its a good time.  lol.  We had a pack n play given to us and it has a bassinet part in it, so we were going to use that as a solution to this because I wasn't sure how I would feel sleeping with her in the bed when she is so little.  But, she would wake up & cry as soon as we moved her into it (ok, we only tried it the first night she was home, but now it serves as a diaper holder).  Even in the hospital she wouldn't sleep in the plastic bassinet, so I held her all night, and then since the first night she was home she has slept in bed with us.  And, since her first night home, she has slept through the night.  Is that ridiculous?!  I have to set my cell phone alarm to go off 4x a night so I can change her & sometimes she will wake up enough to eat... sometimes not & then I'm sorry in the morning.  I wonder how long this sleeping will last.   I love being able to nurse without having to get out of bed/stay awake though.  

This thing lives up to its name.  Its called a "Sleepy Wrap", unless she is real angry she could be in it all day.  And within 10 minutes she is asleep.  The only problem is if she is awake she won't let me sit down with her in it, so I have to be walking around.  And, she likes her head to be hanging out of it, so I have to hold her head like that.  You should see the looks I get from people when I'm out with her in it... "is there a baby in there?!".  Usually her legs aren't hanging out the bottom though.

The first 2 weeks she slept like 20+ hours a day so that was so easy!  But, now she is starting to be more awake during the day.  When she is sleeping I just want to pick her up & play with her, but then when she is awake I just want her to go back to sleep.  lol  And, I always think of things I need to do when she is awake or fussy and when she is sleeping I just get on the computer.  lol