The Fluff: Cloth Diapering part 2

This is the post in which I tell you what diapers we have and use.  Part 1 is here, where I talk about our washing routine.

Simon helping to fold and put away diapers

At home: at home we use pre-folds and covers. You can get Indian cotton or Chinese cotton. There are pros and cons to both, I can't really tell a difference except that the Chinese pre-folds shrink up more I bought all from Cotton Babies.  We have 18 infant-size Chinese (that we are about to size
 out of, 18 infant size Indian, 12 burp cloth size Chinese (that are great for this between size time), 18 premium size Indian (that we are growing into).

For covers we have (right to left) a wool soaker (from my friend at Brooker Hollow), Thirsties Duo Wrap (Size 2),Thirsties Duo Wrap, Hoot, (Size 2), Flip (OS), Econobum (OS), and a Flip (OS) cover. We have a second Econobum cover, which I assume he's wearing at the time of the picture.  The covers in the upper right are Bummies Whisper Wraps (S) that we have just out grown.  We also had a Thirsties Duo Wrap Snap (S) that was outgrown and put away.

At night we put him in double stuffed Bum Genius 4.0s  He's not a heavy wetter though and is fine with a doubled pre-fold for overnight, which we've done a few times when I'm behind on laundry.

The first diapers we used were a set of gDiapers (S) that I was given used, with disposable inserts then with Flip newborns. I found this a great intro with a new baby. I was gifted a set of Flip diapers and inserts.  We love the covers, the inserts not so much. Most people I know rave about these though.

Daycare: We are so lucky to have a daycare provider that is willing to use cloth diapers.  The daycare stash is different - all one piece diapers to make it easier. The stack on the right are gDiapers with cloth inserts.  I bought a set of 6 covers and 12 inserts and someone gave me another 5 covers. I don't love these, but they work, so we will continue to use them. If they aren't on exactly right they are prone to leak. However, at daycare he is checked and changed more often than at home so this hasn't been a problem.  And a single layer insert is super easy to spray off.

The stack on the left are various pocket diapers with snaps (top to bottom) 2 FancyPants, a Fuzzibunz One Size, FancyPants, Kawaii Green, Fancy Pants, Fuzzi Bunz Elite, and a Kawaii. I prefer these and find them much easier than the gDiapers but I think at daycare the velcro of the gDiaper is easier. I also recently realized they've been snapping them incorrectly, which is why we go through so many clothes... A second diaper tutorial has fixed this.

The accessories: And what would we be without our wet bags. We have a large Fuzzi Bunz bag hanging behind the bathroom door for at home use.  My sister got us the small guitar and giraffe bags at a boutique in Louisville. They are Wahmies wet bags and I love them.  The other small bag is bummies.  These are our out-and-about bags that live in the diaper bag and go back and forth to daycare.  The large guitar bag is a Wahmies - All Day bag full of clean daycare diapers and is what I use when we travel.  I bought it on Amazon through Thanks Mama.

For diaper cream we us Earth Mama Angel Baby Angel Baby Bottom Balm
(at home) and CJs Tub o'BUTTer (daycare)

The end: And that's it!  We have A LOT of diapers because I wash once a week.  If you have a washer and dryer you can really get by with 24-36. In all I think I spent around $650 on everything, plus some gifts and hand-me-downs. It sounds like a lot, but cheaper than 2+ years of disposables.If I had it to do over I would have bought only Indian pre-folds and Thirsties Duo covers. And 24 Fancy Pants diapers for daycare and overnight. But you live and learn.  Eventually I might sell some of what I have and replace, but we have a system that works for us.

*My blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, which means if you buy anything by clicking through the amazon links, I will get a small percentage.
**All links in this post are where I bought the products, non-Amazon links are not affiliate - it's just the vendors I like and use.
***I can't foresee another post with this many links in the future :)

I'm gonna go there...and talk about poo.

When I got pregnant, I noticed a trend. Lots of moms were using cloth diapers. We've been on this slow path of living more frugally and greener, and cloth diapering intrigued me. But I didn't think we'd really do it.  But one day I asked Rob, fully thinking he would shut me down immediately and I could stop thinking about it, and he said "Sure." Really, ok, wow. And the research began for real.  Because we do not have a washer or dryer.  What we do have is a laundry room in the building with coin operated machines.  We also have 3 laundromats within a block of our building.

Wearing a pre-fold with a Bummies Whipser Wrap in front of the fire at my cousins house.

I didn't know what kind of diapers would work for us, but I wanted to give it a real go with pre-folds and covers, with some pocket diapers on hand for baby sitters.  And Flip diapers got great reviews as an easy system.  Through a great online moms forum in my neighborhood I got a full set of size small g-diapers with a couple of packs of disposable inserts.  I bought 6 BumGenius 4.0 diapers.  We got a set of Flip diapers (6 inserts, 2 covers). And I finished off with 18 Chinese pre-folds, 18 Indian pre-folds, 2 Econobum covers, 2 Bummies whisper wraps, and a Thirsties Duo cover. (All this around $250)

We started cloth diapering at 2 weeks old when we ran out of disposables from the hospital.  And now 6 months later I really can't imagine using anything else. I wash every 5 - 6 days.  The diapers we use have changed a bit, but our washing routine has stayed pretty much the same.

When I was researching I was getting really stressed out about washing, because all the sites are like oh, two washes and triple rinse.  Who has the money for that!?!  So I did a little more digging and what I found was generally this.  Cold wash, no detergent.  Hot wash with detergent.  Ok, I can pay for a double wash once a week.  Then I talked to a mom in my neighborhood and she said just do a Hot wash with detergent and be done with it.  Ok, even better.

Detergent, I got a few to try.  Charlie's Soap - this one seems to be hit or miss.  Some rave about it, others hate it. I don't love it, the diapers have to get really dry in the dryer or else they smell. I do use it on our clothes and have no problems. Rockin' Green is great, and it smells nice. And Trader Joe's brand. This one has optical brighteners, which is a no no for cloth diapers, but it works and I like it.  We've had no leaking or repelling issues.

And the poos.  Breastmilk or formula poo is completely water soluble, so I could just drop those in the wet bag and dump in the washer.  Now that we've started solids, but the poos are still not totally solid, they don't shake into the toilet yet, so we use the diaper sprayer.  Rinse off in the toilet and then wring and drop in the wet bag.

Our washing routine - one HOT wash with Trader Joe's powder every 5 days or so.  Dry inserts and pre-folds, Line dry covers and pocket shells.  Every 3-4 washes I use Rockin' Green.  If I'm doing a billion loads I'll use Charlie's so as to carry fewer things to the basement.  Every month or so, or if it's a particularly stinky load I will do the COLD wash, HOT wash routine.  Honestly, I don't notice that much of a difference. So I may stop double washing soon.

It's totally doable.  The one downside I've noticed is staining.  The diapers are clean and really I don't care all that much what they look like, but there is staining on most of our diapers.  If I cared (and it was warmer out) line drying on the balcony would let them bleach out in the sun.

So six months in I really can't imagine not using cloth.  It just seems natural now.  And about that poo.  There was one day a few days into solids, where I started to question if I could do this.  About that time, Rob had plugged the kitchen sink to let some dishes soak. Stick with me this is connected.  Rob is the primary dish washer, but I was going to wash and I saw the dirty dish water.  And I asked Rob to please come empty the sink.  He was all like "What?"  And my response. "Seriously, I would rather deal with all the poo than put my hand in that dirty dishwater."  And I figure if I'd take the poo over the dishes that surely I can stick it out until we get through this phase to true solid poo that shakes off.  So we are.  And a month later, the diaper sprayer and I get along fabulously.

Stay tuned and I'll share what works best for us how we use cloth at daycare.

Another insurance update

For those keeping track. Over the last two weeks we got back the overpaid insurance money (what we paid for insurance that we didn't have) The total $131.
I called two weeks ago and was told that my insurance claims check had been mailed. I didn't receive it, so I called and was told it had been mailed to BROOKLYN! OMG! I was beyond angry. I asked to speak to a supervisor about why this issue (with my address that I have changed on multiple occasions as has Viacom HR) was still unresolved. I was told there was no one at customer service who could help me. I asked again, and was hung up on. Viacom HR is now hopefully resolving this issue.

Insurace Woes Update

If you remember in an earlier post I talked about an outstanding insurance claim and what to do about insurance.

Well I still haven't claimed that check. But the very lovely HR Red from MTV is helping me now. I spoke with the insurance last week and was told they sent me a $970 check that had been cashed - I told them that they had the wrong person, because I would have remembered that. Then she found me, and said my address change was still pending. I submitted this address change August 25, 2008 - can you explain to me how it is still pending six months later? Then today I was told that since my address had recently changed it would be at least 15 days before a check could be sent. What @#$#%! Anyhow I think I am getting close to reclaiming this. That will make my grand total for reclaiming this year $605! But it sure is a lot more work than it should be to get money that is already rightfully yours.

As for our actual insurance - We got our COBRA information packet last week. Unfortunately it only lists Rob as an individual, so now I have to find out if I ever actually got added to his plan, which I should have as we have been paying for it. If I did, the COBRA monthly pay for employee and spouse comes to $1029.00 per month. That's A LOT of money when you don't have full time jobs (it's a lot of money when you do, but at least then you have a steady income)

The new stimulus bill that covers 65% of COBRA went into effect on March 1. But they are still writing the language for eligibility. If we are eligible for this break then we will owe $360 a month - this is kind of a lot, but totally doable. If we aren't eligible then we are going the no insurance route and will pray for no sickness or injuries.

Why are we not getting the major medical coverage? Well the cheapest I can find is $320 for a not so great plan with crazy rules and super-high deductible. I'm ok with paying that for good insurance, but not catastrophic. And the amount we pay for annual check-ups and teeth cleaning is nowhere near hitting that deductible.

Maybe we'll take our chances anyway. We have until April 20 or so to decide.

The Importance of Checking and Double Checking Checks

So I learned a thing or two last week about watching out for my pay. I did some freelance for Nick Jr. a couple of weeks ago, and got my pay check. I was examining it for the number of hours worked because I filled out the invoice by hand, and didn't have a copy to compare to. As I was doing this I noticed that I paid medical and dental insurance. Now, my insurance was stopped November 21 of last year - but you know how HR is. But I had a feeling, and checked the two freelance checks from December and sure enough - insurance was deducted.

So I got on the phone and let the Production Manager know. He shook his head (I couldn't see this obviously as we were on the phone, but I imagine he did) and said he would contact the payroll company to change my statue (which should have already been changed) and get me a refund. Unfortunately since tax info has already been sent out, he couldn't do anything about last year. Oh well.

But then to satisfy my curiosity that HR is a winding labrynth of taking forever to make changes I took a look at one of Rob's recent checks. In his severance package he got half with continued insurance coverage and half without. And sure enough in the checks after our coverage was discontinued insurance was still being deducted.

So I called our very helpful HR rep, who has to be tired of hearing from me. I guess this because she recognized me instantly - this is not a good sign in a company as big as MTV Networks. Anyhow she said she would contact the payroll and have them correct this - and also look into getting me a refund for my pay last December.

All in all - if we recover all of the over pay it is just over $200 - that's quite a chunk of change to loose out on all because I'm usually not so vigilant about checking my pay stubs.

The other thing I learned is that you should always calculate hours by hand in addition to your excel formula on an invoice. Due to a minor formula error I was billing and getting approved for my Monday hours, but they weren't showing up in the total pay. This I caught by complete chance, as I only worked two days last week for the job I invoice on, so it was glaringly obvious half the pay wasn't calculated - but when it's 20% or less of the total, it's much easier to say my mental math was off than the formula. Luckily this only happened for two weeks, so it won't be too much extra work for them to cross reference my last invoice amounts with what I was owed. From now on I ALWAYS add with a calculator in addition to the formula.

The moral is that due to careless mistakes and not checking stubs - I could have lost out on $475, that I will be reclaiming.

Know what your deductions are - and make sure that is all that is being taken out.
Double check your invoices.
Make sure your checks and invoices add up - if there are unapproved hours find out why (this one hasn't happened to me yet)

Insurance Woes

The saga continues. (If you don't want to read all of this - mom - skip to the last two paragraphs, I am asking for advice there.)

Last summer - July and August - I had a couple of doctors visits that were not covered due to my doctor leaving my insurance and me not wanting to deal with finding a new doctor for two visits,I have out-of-network claims. And as you know, I got married in August. Upon return from our honeymoon I processed my name and address change with HR and filed the out-of-network claim.

Now my insurance says they will cover 70% of reasonable and customary charges. What they actually cover is 37% of what I paid. I really want to know where they are finding this reasonable and customary - because my doctor actually charges a little less than several others that I looked at in Manhattan. This kind of stinks, but I still want my $130 back. It's not a ton, but when you are unemployed, it's a godsend. Why then is the insurance making it so hard to claim this smallish amount.

In October I got a call from my doctor saying that the insurance had reimbursed her, not me. Which is wrong. So she sent that check back with a letter explaining to send to me. I heard and waited. Finally November 30 I called about the claim. I felt it should have been issued by now. And I was told the check had been mailed four days earlier to Kasey Powers at MY OLD Brooklyn address. Unfortunately because Kasey Powers never lived in Brooklyn, Kasey Frazier did, the check will not be forwarded. And until 30 days have passed the insurance won't send a new check. Also they tell me that they can't correct my address. I have to do that through HR - which I did when I changed my name. I confirm with HR that the name and address were both submitted.

I called on January 13 and was told a new check would be sent to the right address and I should expect it in 7 - 10 days. Because the address has now been fixed.

This brings me to today. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with a very nice customer service agent at the insurance company. Who can find no record of the check that was authorized on the 13th. And says that it looks like the check was cut under a different claim number than originally submitted. I told her I didn't care how it was submitted as long as I get my check that was authorized for me nearly six months ago. We found that the problem finally. The name change went through on my old address, and my maiden name was attached to the new address. You would think this is an easy fix. But no, I have to fix it through either my company (where I don't work anymore) or the overall insurance - there are all these sub-divisions in the insurance we have (where I am no longer insured because I don't work there anymore) So the very nice customer service agent tells me that she will put through the authorization (why couldn't she do that without all the explanation and my HR department (where I don't work) already submitted all the information TWICE, because I made them re-do it in December. Anyway, it will take up to 30 days for the name / address issue to be resolved but I should call back in 10. And then, only then will I be allowed to receive my check. Ridiculous I say.

And as the eve of losing all insurance coverage through Rob is upon us, I am trying to weigh the options. I know we can't afford good insurance, or COBRA, a downfall of the no-job thing. I have been looking into catastrophic coverage, also known as major-medical. But I can't find anything for under $320 a month. And I'm not sure I can justify spending $4000 a year on the chance that something might happen and we'd still have to pay $10,000 before insurance would start covering most costs, where there would still be co-pays, and most likely physicians fees (which surprisingly are not covered under many of the catastrophic plans)

So what do we do. Insurance companies are a nightmare and expensive. Any advice on how to go when stuck in the place of having to buy your own insurance.

We're Back and Ready for 2009

We're back from New Mexico and starting to settle back into a routine. We are coming up with this theory that time moves faster on the east coast. Sunday was spent lounging around after the nearly 12 hours of travel on Saturday. Then yesterday and today, so much to do on the "To Do" list, and as I am looking at it now a lot has been crossed off, but there is still so much to do. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

I am spending this week cleaning and organizing for the 2009 plan. I'm going to visit my mom this weekend, hence the jump-start. We are starting off this year in very different circumstances. Last year we were working at Nick Jr. and talking about getting engaged, this January we are married and jobless. It's a scary place to start the new year, looking for work, but we have a plan.

We have been trying to simplify our lives and minimize our possessions since Rob and I combined households. I've found a few good blogs that give lots of ideas on living simply, and on a budget. One idea implemented this week is that of meal planning. I've been doing this somewhat for awhile, because it is much easier to go to the grocery with an idea of what you're going to make with the food bought. What we are doing now, is putting a budget to the plan. $50 a week. I sat down on Sunday night and made a list of 25 meals (some are repeats) for January. No 31, because there will be leftovers, and the occasional meal at a friends home. I planned the first week, and loosely laid out the other four. This way we can move things around and try not to have beef four days in a row for example. And since I have more time, we can watch the sales and cook around that.

This week's menu:
Monday - stuffed salmon with grilled aspargus (we had salmon in the freezer)
Tuesday - Chicken Broccoli Casserole
Wednesday - Skyline Chili
Thursday - French Bread Pizza
Friday - Indian chicken from Natascha

We came in at just under $60 for the week. That is $10 over budget, but food for lunches and some of the ingredients will be used next week. Hopefully we can make up the difference later in the month.

We are also cutting all unnecessary spending with the exception of a $10 fun budget for each of us each week. Yesterday we each spent $2.50 at Alpha Donut. There is so much mindless spending that goes on in our lives. I'm going to keep on the blog searching for more ways to simplify and budget our lives.

We are keeping hope that by mid-year those awesome jobs will once again have come to us, and we can have the occasional dinner out.

I just remembered one more thing. We FINALLY dropped off two bags of clothes, kitchen supplies, and a CD player to the Salvation Army thrift store. The unexpected upside is that we got a tax write off form from them, and since it is December 30 I don't have to keep it on file for a whole year - just until tax season is over.

Here's to living simply in 2009.