"Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion." B. Franklin

I was searching for some books about investment at my library and instead checked out this one.  Something about it rings true with me. The premise of the book is to get out of the "money step" cycle of earning money to spend money on something we think we want.  He encourages to reader to "embrace their inner miser!" 

A key point in this book is to decide what quality of life you want and say enough.    "Establish a permanent standard of living- one that is both comfortable and affordable."  He suggests that this should be an income that you are making in your 30's.   After deciding this is "enough" a person becomes free to stop chasing after more money.  Any money made above the level set goes to saving not to enlarging the standard of living. 

My family has chosen to do this.  Last year we drew the line in the sand and said, "this is enough."  Raises all go to retirement savings.  We will continue to save and not raise our standard of living above the comfortable level that we experience now.

A second key to the book and his philosophy, is to "never underestimate the power of not spending."  He argues that a penny saved is indeed a penny earned, but also a penny that doesn't have to be earned again!  This is the key to being a happy cheapskate.  They have more time for their own goals if their money is not being spent.  "By choosing to not spend the dollar, you know with 100% certainty you will still have the dollar and the luxury of not needing to earn that dollar again." 

I admit it, I am a cheapskate, but who cares.  I'm a happy cheapskate. I don't need to worry about saving a million for retirement, because I won't need to spend a million. :)

Storage

Our family of five lives in a 1400 square foot home.  We have no garage or storage shed.  We do have a storage room in the basement.

I had lots of stuff down there and have removed 3 bags to donate and 2 bags of junk!  I feel good about the space for the first time since we moved into our home.

 I have 5 bins for Christmas, a Christmas tree, 2 convertible toddler car seats and our camping stuff in that space.  Our summer screen doors are there as well.   I cleared out our nightstands and made little desk to accommodate my sewing machine and scrapbook stuff. 

In this space I have our stock groceries, gifts and art supplies. 

Cloth diapers Medium!!!

 Our little guy is already into medium sized diapers!!! He's growing fast! 
I like sewing and experimenting with sewing.  I like to reuse things that would be thrown out to make something useful. I like to sew them myself because I don't want to spend a lot on diapering, but do want it to be easy.
Sewing my own diapers has many benefits.  I can try different designs with no risk.  Since I spent $0 on the materials I can try a pocket liner, a snap in layer, a different shape or size with no worries.  If it doesn't work, I can throw it out with no guilt- it was trash to begin with anyway!

The new born diapers I've made work great, but I've learned that I want to change a few things.

I don't think flannel is the best material for making a diapers.  It's too rigid to get a good fit on baby.  This time I will use flannel for the absorbent part and upcycling T-shirts for the diaper.  The stretch makes it easier to get a good fit on the baby.  

My husband just got new undershirts- the old ones are being made into medium size diapers for baby! :)

Diaper construction:
Cut it out.  If you are a novice seamstress like me, I suggest squaring off the tabs in front and back so that the your sewing will look more consistant at the end.  Trying to make the curved tabs the same on both sides is difficult for beginners like myself.  
Inner:  2 layers of an ugly old T! Sew to that:  leg elastic and the soaker.  For the soaker, I used 6 layers of the T-shirt only in the front.
Outer: 1 layer nicer looking T. 
Put it together:  Put the pretty sides of the diaper together.  Sew around the edges.  Sew around the outside of the elastic. Leave an opening in the back.  Turn it right side out.  Sew around again the edges.  Leave an opening in the back where you turned it.  You've make a pocket where you can add extra absorbancy if needed.  This time sew around the inside of the elastic so that the first seam is outside of elastic and one seam is to the inside and it makes a casing for it.

I'm testing absorbency of this diaper today.  It fits great.  It's trim and soft.  If I need more absorbency, I'll add some in the pocket.

Resources:
Fitted diaper discussion.  
sized patterns
 Spreadsheet from diaper sewing 101 Baby Center page. Everything you need in one place!