Each New Experience Comes With a Price Tag!

This week is all about Owen. He had his 4-month checkup on Monday, so we finally got to find out how big he’s gotten over the past two months (14 lbs., 25 ½ inches). Everything is looking good. We asked the pediatrician about introducing some solid foods because it seems like Owen’s hungry all the time, and we got the OK to try rice cereal mixed with formula or breast milk. So, being the excited mom that I am, I had to go out and pick up a few goodies for this new experience—soft-bite spoons, a little kiddie bowl, cereal… Now we are just waiting on the highchair I ordered online because we hadn’t gotten one when he was born. I guess this is just one of many new experiences we’ll come across as Owen gets older—each one with its own price tag! At least we were able to buy everything through Walmart.com or in the store so Willie could use his employee discount. The high chair won’t arrive until sometime this week, and we have been waiting to try the cereal until we get it, but maybe we’ll have an update for you next time on how it goes!

Another expense we had for Owen this week was buying supplies for his new daycare. Unfortunately, his Grandma Jana has to go back to work, so he’ll be starting at another in-home daycare on the 31st. We bought diapers, wipes, formula, and some spare bottles. I did have $12.50 in coupons for those items, plus Willie’s discount, which helps a little, but things really add up quickly. Our first payment for daycare starts this coming Friday. It is $175 weekly, which is more than we were paying this summer with our family discount. We’ll have to be careful to make sure we have that extra $300 each month so we don’t come up short.

There was one other big first for Owen this month--his first haircut. We decided to try doing it ourselves at home. Lesson learned: there’s a reason you pay people to do this for you! I guess the good news is that we have an extra $10 or so to put towards debt or add to our savings, right?

Comments

[K. Evenson]

Just a quick thought. . .we were able to find a great high chair for our little one at garage sales this summer.

Daycare is an incredible expense every month, isn't it? That could easily be a car payment!

[Kari & Darek]

Hair cuts at home do work....with practice. If you can stand your own handy work for a few times it gets better. With 3 young kids a trip to the hair salon is close to $50.00. We invested in a clippers when Cree was 1year old and now they all go to "styles by mama" for a hair cut and the older 2 are even starting to sit still LOL We do take them to Next Generation for their very first hair cut.

Good luck with the new day care I am sure Owen will love it.