DIY: Nursing Pads

I have been a mother for almost three years now, and have had "working girls" for about half that time. I prefer to wear nursing pads, since I don't like showing the world what's going on underneath my shirt. I went through a lot of pads and was starting to get frustrated with having to run the to store so often to get more.

Then one day I had the idea to make my own. I did a little research, looked up some patterns, and then made up my own version to fit my tastes. So here I will share the pattern for anyone who might want to make some for themselves or a mother they might know.

You will need:

Fleece (the real stuff, not polyester) - Fleece naturally wicks moisture so it will suck it away from your body

Cotton flannel - the cotton will catch all the moisture and hold it on the outside of the pad

Scissors

Paper

Sewing machine or needle and thread

Step one: Wash your fabric! This is not only to clean it but to pre-shrink it as well. Remember that you are working with fleece which has the potential to shrink and felt. Wash accordingly.

Step two: Find a bowl or mug or something of the sort to use as a size guide. I used a small bowl which came out to 4 inches in diameter. Then trace that shape onto a piece of paper. Cut out the circle and then use that as your pattern for cutting out fabric.

 

Step three: Cut out your circles. I used one circle of fleece and two circles of cotton for each pad (2 and 4, respectively, for a pair). I tried 3 pieces of cotton, but it was a little too bulky. Cut out however many you will need for the amount you want to make.

Step four: Stack them on top of each other. The fleece will be the layer against your skin.

If you want a basic, flat nursing pad you can stop here and just sew the layers together around the edge. But I like a little shaping to mine so they are more discreet, so I have a few more steps.

Step five: Cut a slit from one side to the center. You know, so it looks like Pac-Man. Wacca Wacca. This is going to help with shaping.

Step six: Now it gets a little tricky. Bring one side of the cut over the other so that the pad starts to make a cone. You can make this as pointed or subtle as you like. I prefer subtle so I only over lap it about 3/4" to 1". Sew from the edge to the center, down the middle of the overlap, to hold the shape. Back stitch at the edge and center ends for reinforcement.  Trim off the excess fabric.

Step seven: Last one! Using a zig-zag or other type of edge stitch, go around the outer edge of the pad, being sure to go a little bit over the edge in order to secure the fuzzies. Ta-da! Nursing pad.

Care & Washing: You should probably wash these by hand. I have been throwing mine in the wash but they are fraying and shrinking every so slightly. All you need to do is put them in a tub or sink with a little detergent, swish them around a bit, maybe let them soak if you need to, then lay them out or hang them to dry.

I love these things. They're so much more comfortable than the store bought ones and my favorite part is they don't crinkle! Every now and then they might leak through, but if you can find some PUL or diaper soaker type fabric then you can put that as an outer layer.

I don't know the initial cost of making them, I'd have to find my receipts. But let's do a little math.  I used at least 4 a day (2 for day, 2 for night) at $0.13 each (7.99 for a pack of 60). That's about $16 a month, which if I nurse for 9 months to a year I'm saving $144 - $192 bucks a kid. Works for me!

What's Cookin': Chicken & Spinach Alfredo Casserole

**August 2010 Update: I've started to exclusively use chicken (instead of ham) and have now changed the broccoli to spinach when one night I had no broccoli, used the substitute and was promptly told "You're making it with spinach from now on" around mouthful of food. ;) I've changed the recipe to reflect these changes. **

I've made this a few times, with chicken, and it always gets gobbled up. Tonight I decided to try it with ham because I had it in the freezer. It was gobbled just as quickly.

Chicken & Spinach Alfredo Casserole - about 8 servings

1 lb. pasta (shells, farfale, penne, rotelle, etc.) - .89
2 C cooked chicken, cubed - 2.73
1 (4 oz) package chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained well - .25
1 jar Alfredo sauce (I use Ragu) - 1.73
1 C mozzarella, shredded - 1.44
1/4 C grated Parmesan - .14

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cook your pasta according to the packaging. And PLEASE salt your water. A lot. I try to go for a around 1/4 C. It will make everything taste better. Trust me.

Drain the pasta and put it back into the pot. Dump in everything but the Parmesan and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour into a greased casserole dish, then sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is deliciously golden.

Total: 7.18

Variations: Like I said earlier, I usually use chicken which would probably be cheaper. (Whoops, this dish is more expensive than I thought.) You could cut out the mozzarella too, since it's so expensive. It won't hurt the taste too much. I would have put peas instead of broccoli but as I've said before, Ben doesn't do peas. So I had to find another veggie. You could make Alfredo sauce from scratch if you wanted and just use about 2 cups worth, but I'm not sure that would cut the cost much with the cream and everything.

And now introducing Ben Ratings! I told Ben that I needed him to start rating dishes for the blog. Heh. Dishes will be rated on a scale from 1 - 5. Just for perspective, meatloaf and mashed potatoes (his favorite dish) is a 5.

Ben Rating: 4

What's Cookin': Spicy Beans & Spicy Bean Soup

Tonight, you get two recipes because they go together. The Spicy Beans started out as a recipe from Hillybilly Housewife where she said to mix some salsa with some cooked beans for a frugal meal. And then I changed it. Because I can't leave anything alone. I don't have a picture of the Spicy Beans themselves because I wasn't planning on posting the recipe. But I do have the three pictures of the soup.

Spicy Beans (Or, Crazy Hot Beans of Death)
5 strips bacon, chopped - .90
2 hot links, chopped - .90 (Ben likes the Louisiana hot sausage which are insanely hot)
1 can white beans - .75
1 can black beans - .75
1 1/2 C salsa - 1.20
2 C uncooked rice - .64

Cook rice using whatever method you like to use. I do mine in the microwave.

In a skillet cook the bacon to whatever type of done you prefer. I like mine mostly crunchy with just a little bit of chewy left. Then add the hot links and let them heat up if they are pre-cooked (ours are), or until they are cooked if you have some that aren't. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Let heat through then salt and pepper to taste, if you need it. Serve over cooked rice.


Total: 5.14

Variations: This made about 6 (ish) servings. If you are a sane person, you can use regular sausage, or even hot dogs if you wanted. Ben likes spicy (a lot), thus the hot links. Although it was very tasty, I couldn't eat very much because I don't do overly spicy very well. It did however, go very well into soup.

I called this spicy tortilla soup because the recipes I found had pretty much the same ingredients minus the hot links and bacon and usually calling for shredded chicken instead. I wanted to use the leftovers. So I figured it was the same with just some... personalization. However, Ben said it was totally not even close to tortilla soup. I wouldn't know, but I'll go along with what he said and so I have dubbed this Spicy Bean soup since it used the leftovers.

Spicy Bean Soup
2 C Crazy Hot Beans of Death - 1.70
3 C chicken broth - .20 (I honestly have no idea because mine was homemade that I had in the freezer. So I guessed)
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes - 1.20
1 tsp garlic powder - .03
1 tsp cumin - .18

Throw everything in a pot and simmer on low for about an hour, or until your husband gets home. I know, really hard huh? Serve with shredded cheese and tortilla chips crumbled on top.


Total: 3.31

Variations: I think next time I might bypass the Spicy Beans part since I don't think I could eat them by themselves again without dieing. So in the future I will just make this soup with one can of beans, maybe one hot link, 2-3 strips of bacon and a 1/2 cup salsa (if I feel like it). Just like the beans, you could use regular sausage. Or add chicken like those recipes I found. You could also add all kinds of veggies. Onions, bell peppers, corn, etc. This made AWESOME soup. The spicy-ness (like my word?) was really tuned down in a soup and was even more mellow with cheese added in. This made 4 servings. You could double everything for a larger family or for lots of leftovers. Ben said it was really good and approved it for future eating. Maybe I will start adding "Ben Ratings".

My Version of "Keep The Change"

Have you seen the Bank of America commercials for the "Keep the Change" program? The ones where the narrator tells you that for every purchase you make, B of A will round up to the next dollar and transfer the amount of change into your savings account?

I'm trying something like that. We don't bank with B of A, but I don't see why that should stop us. Each Sunday I sit down and figure out what the change would have been on all of the purchases we make with our credit/debit card. I count everything but loan repayments. So this includes things like the auto insurance payments and PG&E bills, as well as everyday purchases. I add up the change and make a transfer in that amount from our checking to our savings.

We also save all our real pocket change. We put all of the pennies we get into a large antique glass water bottle that we found at an antique shop in Cayucous. This is for the kids. We will break into it when they go to college (or when it fills up and we need to start over). Our "silver" change gets put into a jar and usually about once a year we will take it to the bank for either extra cash or to put in savings. There have been a few years that we've used it for Christmas.

I also had the idea the other day to start taking each one dollar bill we get an put it into a jar or envelope. I bet we could come up with a lot of cash after just a month if we started doing that.

A Little Financial Organization

The New Year is upon us and for me that means cleaning out and starting a new financial filing system. I have been reading a lot of sites and blogs that are saying to think about ways of saving money in the new year, or living more frugally. I thought that today I would take a slightly different route and share with you what I feel are good things to be done to keep a decent record of all your financial doings over a year. I don't think any of these will actually save you any money. They might, since you could use it to easily see what you have been spending and change your habits accordingly. But if nothing else it will seriously save you a headache if you get into a jam - such as (heaven forbid) an audit, or you need proof of paying a bill - and you have your documents readily available.


Note: I am NOT a professional. While I have spent the last 5 years as an unofficial bookkeeper this should by no means be taken as legal financial advice. This is just my own personal system that I use and want to share. Please use as you see fit.


Start by picking one place to keep all your current documents. "Current" meaning everything for the current year (2010 in this case) from January to December. For us, it is a file drawer in our desk in the office. Keep a separate location that you can store past years in. We have a small rolling file cabinet in our bedroom closet. Or you can just box up previous years in well labeled bankers boxes and store them somewhere. If you're paranoid, you can find storage facilities for such files. Up to you.

Go buy a package of file folders. Whether you store your files in a file drawer or a box or anywhere else, this will help keep things separated and easy to find. On each tab write the name of one payee or category. For example "Progressive Insurance" or "Car insurance", "PG&E", "Cell Phones", etc. Be sure to make a file for everything that you will have paperwork for on a regular basis such as doctors and house repairs and credit cards. If you will wind up having a few random receipts or bills for different places make a "Misc." file. Put all these files together as a "Payables" section. I use a hanging file holder for each section.

Next make a section for "Banking". Write "Bank Statements" at the top of a folder (or if you have a few different accounts use bank names, account names, or account numbers), with the year, and place that in this section. I also keep separately labeled envelopes for deposits, withdrawals, car loan payment receipts, and paycheck stubs. I think the paycheck stubs is the most important because if you want to get a loan for anything or rent an apartment or have anything else you need financial proof for, then you can find them easily.

When you pay a bill write on the first page the date you paid it, the amount, and either the check number or online/phone confirmation number. This way, if you ever get harassed about not paying a bill you can say "No, I payed it on such and such with check #blah" and go from there. Once that's done, place it in the appropriate file.

Find one place to keep all your bills. Anything that has paperwork, whether it be mail or a print out, gets pinned to the bulletin board above our desk for easy finding. You could use a file folder, a tray, or even a certain spot on a shelf. Just keep them all together so you don't have to worry about a missed bill.

Pick a time to pay bills. This can be once a week, or once a month. Just make sure it is consistent so that you don't forget and wind up missing a due date. I have a large year-view calendar that I write all our due dates on (1st is house, 9th is car, 15th is PG&E, etc). Then on the weekend Ben and I sit down to see what is due in the next week or two and what/when/how much to pay.

Keep a check register. You can either do this with the register that comes with your checkbook, a purchased book from just about any office supply store, a spreadsheet, or even a piece of paper with lines drawn on it. I use Quicken financial software that does all the work for me as long as I put in the information it wants. I like using it for the ease of getting reports about how much we're spending on what. Keeping a current register will help you avoid spending more than you have and keep you from being charged overdraft fees (which saves you money - hey I did find something!).

Do your bank reconciliations as you get your statements. This will allow you to find out if you have any discrepancies that need to be dealt with. Usually statements come with a little reconciliation slip you can use, or you can do them by hand. If you have software like mentioned above, you can use that. If you've never done this before, now is a good time learn.

There! Easy as pie. Now all you have to do is make sure you file things in the correct folders/places through out the year and you're good to go. Once the year is done, just take your files out of the "current" keeping space and put them away elsewhere. Start the process over again with fresh folders!