$ Saving and other ideas for making life easier.

• Shave your legs with conditioner instead of shaving cream. I buy it at a regular store and not the dollar store because you can sometimes get it for as low as .67! If you are saving by not buying shaving cream try this, your legs are just about as smooth as using the cream, and it lasts longer too!
• Wanna a cheap family night? We love to eat pizza but who can afford it every week?! Instead we make homemade pizza, it takes about 30 minutes to make and most kids will love to help! We use the Jiffy Pizza crust, about .30-.90 a box (usually found by the pizza/spaghetti sauces) we use two boxes for one pizza. Its just add water too, oh and we don't pre-cook it like it says in the directions. When we don't want to spend more than $2 on sauce we buy a can of already seasoned spaghetti sauce, a big can costs about .88 and you will have leftovers for something else. We usually add Italian seasoning once its on the pizza dough. The big spender on the pizza is usually the cheese. Then add the toppings! Bradach loves helping to do every step of this pizza making, and then he usually out eats us no matter what the toppings are. We usually cook ours on a cookie tray which will leave you room to make any size or shape pizza...try a heart for V-Day!
  
• Make your own baby food. Most people have already gone on to the next bullet...lol. But I did this and I have a strong opinion that my son has a better love for his "real" food because of it. When you feed or fed your baby peas did you taste it? Would you eat that? And when I made peas they were bright green, not that dull green. Also I tell you bananas do not stay that white not even when all measures are taken naturally to keep them that color. So what do they do to the food? Who knows, but when you make your own you know exactly! For example I would go out and spend a few dollars on some apples and sweet potatoes (maybe a bit of cinnamon), steam them, use that steamed water when I blended the food and poured it into ice cube trays, covered with plastic wrap, then when frozen put into baggies dated and labeled...just under $5 and I had enough for a few weeks, and I knew exactly what the food looked like before it was prepared. That's compared to $35 at .88 cents a jar. Bradach now loves his fruits and veggies and is willing to try just about everything, and a bag of apples costs about the same as a bag of Cheetos. Feel a little shaky about doing this? Go to www.wholesomebabyfood.com this site tells you how to prepare food, when your baby is ready for the food, the nutritional value, what goes good together and some tricks on storing and traveling with....plus loads more info. Still not going to be that mom? The web site can still guide you as to when to introduce foods.
• Saving Gas. Do a test drive if you commute to work on the interstate do the math. Find out your time difference when you drive 65 mph compared to 75mph. I drive about 45 minutes to my work and the 10 mph difference makes just a few minutes difference in time. But I do see a huge difference in my pocket book for gas. Try it, I hate driving slow but until gas is cheap I think I will slow down.
  
• Coughing at night? Tis the season! I can't say this works for adults since I haven't had a cough lately, but it works like a charm for my son. Get the vapor rub and put it on the soles and heels of their feet then cover with socks. Phil thought I was nuts one night until the coughing stopped instantly. No drugs to take, no measuring and trying to force nasty medicine. Plus I hate hate hate giving my son meds if not necessary.
  
• Diaper rash? Bradach has gotten some nasty rashes when he was first teething, nothing completely cleared it up only helped a little bit. This is one of the few products that you spend the money for it to work. Its Triple Paste and its about $8 for 2 oz. But even on the worst rashes it cleared them up within a few days. On mild everyday stuff within a diaper change or two. Try this before you go to the doc and spend a ton of money on a quick fix.
  
• Allergies? If you know me then you know I hate putting unnecessary medication into my body, and especially my sons body(is that repetitive?). Last summer we found Bradach has bad allergies outside. We tried a few different "non" drowsy medications for children but all of them had the same effect...falling down, sleepy, glazed eyes and not a huge difference in allergy symptoms. We spent the money and will continue to pay the price for Little Noses, its just a gel that you put around the nose and somehow it keeps those allergy symptoms at bay. And the best part, its not a medication! No drowsy side effect or measuring. But be prepared for the cost compared to the little tiny tube it comes in.
• Signing early. I'm not claiming this one to keep all tantrums at bay but it sure kept me sane. At about 10 months or so I started showing some signs to him for words that he would use regularly if he could talk. This helped him to not be so frustrated when he needed to communicate with me. The signs that I have found most useful and easy to learn are eat, more, up, milk, and please. You can look these up online, babies will pick these up if you use them every time you say the word. Instead of a guessing game you will know what they want. Bradach has continued his signing and now has over 20 signs that he does.
  
• Itchy dry spots or eczema? I think those are the same thing, but Bradach was blessed with this too. The doc suggested a cream with a steroid. I know its harmless, but how do I know for sure? We found that applying Disney's Eczema cream to the dry spots after baths and at least once a day cleared it up within a week. Just keep checking for those troublesome spots daily. You don't want to use that cream on their whole bodies though...its greasy, so I use it for spots then normal lotion. But it works and there is no steroid.

Well, I hope you may have gotten some new idea from this post. Please give me feedback, and I will keep turning my little wheel and thinking of things that have made my life easier.