Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! Baby Campbell #2 is still "baking" and only has 2 more weeks until his or her due date! We are so excited, and are keeping very busy preparing for both Christmas and our new arrival. So in the coming days/weeks, if you notice an brief absence of posting, you'll know why! I hope all my readers have a wonderful Christmas- many blessings your way!

New Cloth Diapers!

In the past, we have simply used prefolds with covers for cloth diapering. It's worked out well for us, but we still found we preferred disposables, and we were reluctant to use them. With the cost of diapers quickly escalating, I knew we needed to invest in a few cloth diapers that functioned similar to disposables. But we didn't have a fortune to spend on them either.

Enter the pocket diaper! I was able to get 18 different one-size pocket diapers with inserts off e-bay for just under $60 total. I bought them all individually to save the most money. We got the Babyland diapers sold from China. True, they probably won't be as nice as a Bum Genius diaper, but they were so budget friendly I figured it didn't matter! I did some research before purchasing them, and most of the reviews of these diapers were satisfactory enough.

Now that we have had them for several weeks, I am kicking myself for not buying them sooner! They are so easy to use! I stuff all the diapers after washing and keep the snaps on the desired setting so it's as close as they come to using disposables! They are not the most absorbent at times, but we're dealing with cloth here, not chemical laden paper. Stuffing an extra insert in seems to help with that issue, but since cloth is typically changed more frequently than disposables, it's not that big of a deal.

We are also using flush-able liners in the diapers to help with poo clean up. I find it much easier to just shake it off into the toilet than wadding up a nasty disposable! These liners, if just used for a wet diaper and not a poopy one, can also be washed and reused a few times, which helps save even more money! This has been the biggest change in the way we cloth diaper. Since our daughter is prone to extremely messy diapers, the liners were like a miracle!

As soon as the new baby comes and is big enough, we will be using cloth on him/her as well! At that point I will probably buy more or just use the prefolds to tide us over.

If you are considering cloth diapering but don't want to pay an arm and a leg for a stash of the "nicer" diapers, I encourage you to look into these Babyland e-bay diapers! They get the job done nicely with the ease a pocket diaper provides.

Thanksgiving Family Photos

This was the first Thanksgiving in many years where Daddy C and I did not have to travel! It was so nice getting ready for the day and preparing food, without the rush of driving 1.5 or 3 hours! It's truly amazing how much Peanut has grown from last Thanksgiving!

Here is a picture of the Campbell clan- I am 35.5 weeks pregnant in this photo:

She loved "playing" the piano while we were there! She even climbed up there on that stool and started playing all by herself! It was too cute!

Just happy to be with family, and showing off her pearly whites:

17 Months!

My little peanut is growing everyday! It's truly amazing how fast the time has gone! She will be a big sister in just a few short weeks!

We took a little getaway to Amish Country here in Ohio a few weeks ago as a last hurrah before the new baby arrives. Peanut had lots of fun staying in our rental apartment!

We've also finished cleaning up the yard for winter. Luckily we didn't have too many leaves to rake, although we saved all the ones we did gather for use as organic material in our raised garden beds. Peanut had fun playing in the leaves!

Money-Saving Recipes

There are plenty of recipes for items that are more expensive to make than to buy pre-made. The trick is finding the ones that are cheaper to make at home. Pancake syrup is one of them. Pizza sauce and dough is another. Here are a few money-saving recipes our family enjoys:

Maple Syrup
Combine in saucepan:

• 1 ¾ cup white sugar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1 cup water

Bring to boil, cover, and cook 1 minute. Cool slightly. Add:

• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon maple flavoring

Cover saucepan for a few minutes as syrup cooks to melt down crystals

Store in the refrigerator.

I made this today and was surprised how easy and better tasting it was compared to the cheap store-brand syrup. I was able to whip it up while my pancakes were cooking and have it ready in a jiffy! (note: if you don't normally keep maple flavoring on hand in your pantry, I highly suggest you start. It is a relatively inexpensive ingredient that can add lots of flavor and zing to many recipes like this one.)

Pizza Dough- No Rise, No Yeast

• 2 C Flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 C water
• 1/4 C + 2 TBSP olive Oil
• Optional- Garlic Powder, Italian Seasoning, etc to taste

Pre heat to 425

Combine everything except for the 2 TBSP olive Oil (You can stop at this point and wrap the crust and freeze for later use)

Stretch to pizza pan, brush on the 2 TBSP olive oil (you may need more or less depending on how thick/thin you made your crust)

Bake about 5 min or so just to get a good crust going. Take out and top with your pizza toppings and continue baking from there for another 15 minutes.

This is a great recipe to have on hand for those quick, last-minute pizza nights. I'm just about full-term with this pregnancy, and don't always remember to get my dough started an hour and a half beforehand, so this was perfect! It makes a biscuit-like crust and would be perfect for calzones or pizza pockets too! I did not add the extra seasonings since we have so many in our homemade sauce as it is.

Pizza Sauce

• 1 6oz. can tomato paste
• 1.5 cups water
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 Tb. dried oregano
• 1/2 Tb. dried basil
• 1/2 ts. dried rosemary

Mix together water, paste and oil. Add seasonings, and mix well. Let stand 2-24 hours to let flavors blend. Store in refrigerator up to 3 weeks.

This sauce blows the stuff from the store out of the water, and it is so simple and easy to make! It really adds that pizzeria taste to homemade pizza, and after using this sauce I now truly prefer homemade pizza over many delivery types. This batch makes enough for around 3 pizzas for us. It will thicken and intensify in flavor after being stored in the fridge.

Weekly Grocery Savings

Now that November has arrived, sales are in full swing for the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Stores typically do some of their deepest discounts and promotions on basic baking items and meats like turkey and ham. This is the best time to stock up for the year on those items! If you can fit it into your budget, buying ahead during this time will save you money throughout the year.

Below is a picture of a recent shopping trip to my Kroger. They were running a great sale on several items:

Here's what I bought and how much I paid for each item:

• 3 packages of Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa - $0.66 cents each after sale and coupon ($0.99 sale plus $1/3 coupon)
• 15 cans of Del Monte Veggies- $0.49 after sale
• 8 cans of Campbell's Cream of Chicken- $0.29 cents after sale and coupon ($0.49 sale plus 2 $0.40/1 coupons that doubled)
• 2 jars of Heintz Turkey gravy- $0.75 each after sale
• 2 4lb bags of Domino Sugar- $1.49 each after sale and coupon ($2.49 sale plus 2 $0.50/1 coupons that doubled)
• 4 Packages of Whole Wheat Barilla Pasta- $0.79 cents each after coupon ($1.29 regular price plus 2 $1/2 coupons).
• 1 Crest Kids toothpaste- FREE after sale and coupon ($1.00 sale plus a $0.50/1 coupon that doubled)
• 1 Oral-B Kids toothpaste- FREE after sale and coupon ($1.00 sale plus a $0.50/1 coupon that doubled)
• 1 package of Kandoo Flushable wipes- FREE after sale and coupon ($1.00 sale plus a $0.50/1 coupon that doubled)

Total before sales and coupons: $58.27

Total Spent after sales and coupons, including tax: $20.47

Total Saved: $37.80!

I was also able to snag two 21 pound turkeys at Giant Eagle while we were in Columbus visiting my sister and running some errands. I got each of them for just $0.59 a pound! I put both in the deep freezer for later.

November Meal Plan

This month, I am trying something a bit different with my meal planning. Instead of just planning out dinners (which has been working so well for us), I decided to go ahead and plan out lunches and breakfasts too! Although we rarely adhere strictly to the meal plan, having a plan of sorts really helps me on those days when I don't have any ideas! It also helps keep the grocery budget down since we don't buy more food than we need.

So far, this method has been working out great for us! I love that we are making old favorites we had forgotten about as well as trying new things, all without me having to brainstorm every single meal! The amount of stress this has taken off my shoulders is unbelievable.

Click here to view our November Meal plan, complete with breakfasts, lunches and dinners!