Excuse me, but...

...I just need to take a minute to toot my own horn. Maybe it's because I didn't find sleep last night until sometime after 12:40am due to all the lists I was making in my head of things that need to be accomplished before Elle arrives. Therefore, I need to talk about how thrifty of a mama-to-be I am. [Listen to Halim's sermon on how our approval is found only in the redeeming love of Jesus here. Maybe I need to listen again...]

Either way, I just have to say that I love a good deal. Especially when it's a good deal that's going to end up saving me money in the long run. Stay with me here. Cloth diapering definitely saves a LOT of money. [See? The benefits are endless...] However, it's a pretty hefty investment upfront if you're buying everything yourself. Fortunately, with Elle being our first, friends and family were really generous in buying some cloth diapering essentials for us to get us started. But with babies dirtying up to 12 diapers a day (yikes.) you really need to shoot for 24ish cloth diapers to have a good base if you're going for solely cloth diapering. All-In-One cloth diapers run about $17-20 a piece. You do the math. Remember? I said "hefty investment."

HOWEVER, and here's where the "tooting" comes in, (no pun intended) as baby showers finished up and I realized how many more diapers we needed... I began thinking that used cloth diapers wouldn't be such a bad idea. I mean, reasonably used cloth diapers. Ones that have been taken care of with appropriate detergents, have minimal staining, and are a brand that I've researched in the "durability" department. I was a little skeptical when I first started searching... but so far I've purchased 16 quality, hardly used cloth diapers for just at $120. Now, do the math. **Super tip, I hear that newborns are just too tiny for the One-Size (just think tons of snaps and closures to adjust to your growing bambino). There are LOTS of barely used XS and S diapers on craigslist from mamas whose babies were either just too big or grew out of them quickly that are desperate for some space in their changing table. I would shoot for buying these on craigslist, for sure.

Also, in the thrifty-mom-horn-tooting category, I found my dream jogging stroller on craigslist, barely used, for half the price. (Good jogging strollers are VERY expensive. And we're talking the kind of expensive that doesn't really make you feel like you're saving money on disposable jogging strollers down the road.) And since they're built to really last through years of trail running, buying one that has only been walked with for a year is completely worth it. Also, my co-mama-to-be friend, Lindsey can list out a number of situations that make a jogging stroller way better than a normal one. Ask her about that one.

The reason for making such an investment (half of what I could have invested, mind you...) is that my sweet 1/2 marathon running partner and I are going to tackle #2 together, with babies in tow. :) That's right. She's having a sweet baby in September and we will be hitting the trails as soon as she's up and running again. Bring it on, Town Lake. We'll have our BOBs with our sweet babies safely strapped in and a strong motivation to shed the baby weight (and lots of conversations about poop and spit up and the best cleaning detergent, I'm sure. Because that's all SAHM's talk about, right? I'm totally kidding, mamas.)

Ok. This is the end of the first baby post that's officially made me feel like a mom: Bragging about bargain hunting. Oh, Lord, here we go...