Aliza Libman writes on ...

Diaper prices, going up?

When Rena was born, I came up with a three-point financial plan: beg, borrow and steal.

My revulsion for larceny led me to interpret point #3 as "get everything you absolutely must buy for a steal."

Especially diapers. Really. The baby wears it for 5 minutes (if we're not lucky) or 10 hours (if we are) and then we just toss it in the trash. I'm not paying full price!

At first, a great Groupon made me think, diapers.com is the place to be. Then that great Groupon disqualified us from any discount ever again, and we said sayonara. For a while, we were using the Amazon Mom discounts on Amazon to score super-cheap diapers, discounted 30% and paid for with gift cards I got for free with Swagbucks and credit card points.

Have I mentioned I'm nuts?

All the while, my obsession with finding the best coupon codes was fueled by my favorite frugal mommy bloggers, Kosher on a Budget and Chief Family Officer. Unfortunately, a lot of the good couponing principles (like "stock up when there is a good price" and "wait for sales") don't work when there is only 1 diaper between the baby being adorable and the baby peeing on the bed on Shabbat morning.

I'm a bit annoyed because Amazon Mom is now only offering discounts of 20% on new subscriptions, meaning that I need to find a new "cheapest place to get wipes". I had lately been cheating on Amazon with CVS for diapers, since I can get the same gift cards with credit card points, and the Extra Bucks and stacked coupons often make a lackluster sale really cheap. However, the wipes deals have not been as easy to find. I expect that Ari will mutiny if I announce that we'll resume wiping the baby's adorable derriere with paper towels, like the doctor made us do for the first 12 weeks of her life.

We all have our own points of view, the things we don't care about and the things we can't let go. The thrill I get from a good deal combined with my feeling that I should not pay good money for anything I use to wipe my baby's butt keeps me reading circulars and pining for specials. Until the day I'm the lunatic driving a tractor trailer away from a store with $1000 worth of goods I paid $12 for in an episode of Extreme Couponing (which I'm convinced cannot be real), I'll be reading my circulars, searching for the best price and running to two CVS stores at 10pm on a Saturday night to get the best deal before it expires. In my own bizarre way, I'll consider it worth it.

Seriously, have you seen what they are charging for diapers these days?

Labels: couponing, family, finance

posted by Aliza @ 8:23 p.m. 0 comments

The blog is dead, long live the blog

Over a Sabbath meal this week, one of my friends commented that everyone had a blog five years ago - and no one has one now. Hard-core writers maintain them, but who ever has the time to update frequently unless it's a core part of their business strategy? For everyone else, there are Twitter and the Facebook status update. Since most of you who are reading this post are reading it syndicated to my Facebook page, I think the point is true.

I've been too busy to maintain this blog properly lately, leaving my grad speech unposted for an entire month and my comments unmoderated. (All those Chinese spammers must have been biting their nails, waiting for me to publish their comments. Rejected!)

Of course, it's a truism that if you want to get something done, ask a busy person to do it. Christina Katz wrote about that this week. As a teacher, I cannot believe that my summer is half over and I don't have a free minute to blog. (Question - you ask, "Why are you blogging now, Aliza? Does this not prove you have free time?" Answer: It just proves that I procrastinate as well as I snark.)

However, I agree with Christina. I am blessed to be so busy. I am blessed to have projects to work on for school that excite me. I am blessed to be expecting my first child. I am, thus, blessed to spend all my free time on hold with realtors, movers, daycares, pediatricians and utilities. The big move is in two weeks exactly and I have until Friday to get my office at work ready for the cleaners to take out all the furniture and clean it. This would all be nothing, except Fetus has given me a curfew - one hour doing anything, and my feet hurt.

Before bed, I expect to pack 4 more boxes, hand wash two more shirts, practice piano, and catch up on emails and phone calls. I would not have it any other way.

Labels: family

posted by Aliza @ 8:37 p.m. 2 comments

It's not my holiday

I can't handle people who wish me "happy Valentine's day." If Saint Valentine were here, he'd try to convert me or convince me to be Christian or whatever. This is not to say that I don't like Christians, but I'm happy being me, and that means not being one of them.

My husband and I don't need a patron saint, especially a Catholic one (not that there are any other kinds). We don't even need a dead Roman to remind us of our love for each other.

But we still have to call Grandma and thank her for Valentine's Day card. (Hence the rant.)

Labels: family, religion

posted by Aliza @ 12:49 a.m. 0 comments