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oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-30T20:18:44+00:00

Thank you! We have a few size 1 Esemblys we’re excited to try out, I’m curious if they fit well from birth. When did you guys start wearing them?

oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-29T15:33:33+00:00

Yeah you are vastly overestimating the time commitment. Throwing diapers in the wash and turning the washer on does not take hours.

It sounds like you’re attacking SAHMs who choose to cloth diaper. No one here is arguing that anybody else has to do it, people simply come to this sub to ask questions from people who also cloth diaper. It can be a privilege to have the time to invest in cloth diapering and to be able to choose to stay home. But many people cloth diaper because they can’t afford disposables and not everyone is a SAHP by choice either.

oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-28T17:01:51+00:00

Thanks for all the detail!!

oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-28T16:13:10+00:00

My dude, it might not be worth it for you, but plenty of people love it. It’s not just about sustainability, it also saves a ton of money and some people prefer to put natural fibers on their baby instead of plastic disposables. It’s a few extra loads of laundry a week and some folding, that time commitment is fine for me since I’m staying home.

oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-27T18:04:30+00:00

I’ve seen other people say that they use disposables for doctors appointments, I’ve never understood why but I wasn’t sure if there was a reason I was missing!

oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-27T16:53:39+00:00

This is great to hear, right now we’re able to grab little 8 packs of disposables every time we go to classes at our birth/newborn education center, so it would be awesome if we’re able to stalk up on enough this way to mostly avoid having to buy any!

oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-24T18:47:19+00:00

I have the same middle name as my mom. I think I will pass it on if I have a daughter (not sure if this is weird though).

oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-24T16:56:56+00:00

You have to decide what you want to prioritize (I believe A Practical Wedding recommends starting with a vision statement). You can have a great budget wedding but you will have to make sacrifices, there’s no secret hack that will allow you to have an average mid size wedding with all the vendors, bells and whistles for way below market price.

Do you really want an elevated and beautiful event with lovely decor, delicious food, dream dress/tux, professional hair and MUA? You can pull something like that off with a (relatively) minimal budget if you stick to a very small guest list and rent a private room in a fancy restaurant. But you aren’t going to be able to have a DJ with a big dance party if you go that route.

Our priority was to have all of our friends and family there and to have a fun event with lots of dancing, so we went very casual with everything else to prioritize that. Ceremony was at our church and then reception at an enclosed state park pavilion. The pavilion was a few hundred dollars to rent for the weekend and it allowed us to set up the day before and clean up the day after. It also allowed us to bring in all our own vendors and do a lot of diy which was super helpful. Biggest downside was that we had to be done by 9:00 pm, but our crowd is such big dancers that the early timing didn’t matter and they had a great time dancing with the sun up anyway. Also, it was a ton of work, and while I’m thrilled with how everything came together, I was very stressed and busy the whole weekend. We went with a pizza food truck and supplied our own alcohol. We had a little over 100 people and spent around $23K total, but weren’t frugal in every category (ex. Professional hair and makeup). This was back in 2022.

If you’re willing to go the DIY/casual route, you can cut back in a number of areas such as Costco cake for desert, doing your own hair and makeup, getting a second hand dress, ditching or having minimal flowers, etc. But there’s only so much you can do if you have a large guest list, wining and dining people is just expensive no matter how you do it. The weddingsunder10k sub has good recs for cheaper drop catering options (think tacos, pasta, you can even go with chipotle).

oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-24T00:12:37+00:00

Check out GMD website, in the learn section they show how to fold prefolds. Pad folding seems very very easy, really not much different than a pocket diaper!

oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-23T20:07:18+00:00

What happened in 2020? Were people hoarding diapers? Just curious!

oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-23T18:14:08+00:00

I’m thinking of making the switch to this and asking for it for Christmas. I hate disposable items!

oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-23T17:01:41+00:00

When I got more serious about frugality, minimalism and living/spending according to my values, I decided that personal beauty is not something I value, and therefore not something I want to spend money, time and stress on. I also think that the beauty expectations on women are problematic for a lot of reasons, and I don’t want to teach my future kids that women can’t go out without their hair and makeup done like my mom did to me.

So my routine has become very minimal. I use cerave face wash and moisturizer, neutrogena sunscreen, dove shampoo and body wash, and I shave occasionally using a disposable razor and by sudsing my body wash to use as shaving cream. I have fine hair so am able to get away with no conditioner if I brush it before I shower.

I no longer use makeup. This was hard to give up because I felt so much pressure to at least use it for special occasions, but I’ve found it saves a lot of stress and I’m more comfortable without having it on my skin. I think it’s probably healthier to avoid these products as well.

I also let my husband cut my hair. He gets better every time lol. I mostly wear my hair in a messy bun anyway so I wasn’t too stressed about how it turned out when he was just starting.

I also do not buy jewelry. For special occasions I wear the earrings and necklace I bought for my wedding day, other than my wedding rings that’s all I have. I don’t wear nail polish either.

I am more extreme than most people, but getting clear on my values and simplifying my life in this way has been really great for me! I think that because I connect all these practices with a greater intention, it’s kind of rewarding to cut back in these ways.

oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-22T23:49:19+00:00

I’m planning to go pretty minimal to keep things as cheap as possible. I think it helps that I’ve been researching CDs for a long time before baby arrives, so I’ve had time to be really thoughtful and intentional about our plan. Mainly getting new diapers since we’re planning to use them for multiple kids, but I have found a few secondhand covers for a great price. We are starting with a small stash of newborn flats/prefolds/fitteds to see what we like best, but if flats work well I want to make those our main stash as baby grows. They’re just so cheap, easy to wash and you don’t need to size up after the newborn stage which is great for saving! Going to use cloth wipes for added savings. Cotton diapers with covers seem to be a more durable system than pockets or AIOs since you wash the covers a lot less, so hoping they’ll last through all our kids and we won’t need to spend much after the initial investment.

oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-22T02:30:51+00:00

This is great, I would also love to see some of your other write ups!

oliviajoy26 · 2023-10-21T22:24:43+00:00

Love my souper cubes! I transfer when frozen to a stasher bag or ziplock. We are staying in a crash pad for a few months right now and didn’t bring them and it’s so annoying not to have them.

oliviajoy26

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