Costco vs. Amazon Subscribe and Save

Johnny was recently looking into using Amazon's Subscribe and Save, which I understand saves you 15% and gives you free shipping as long as you order five things per month.  We wanted to see if big things like diapers and formula that I usually shlep out of Costco would be cheaper and more convenient this way.  Lucky for you, I crunched all the numbers.

Costco Size 5 Diapers vs. Amazon's Huggies Size 5

$0.24 per diaper vs. $0.25 per diaper

Costco Size 3 Diapers vs. Amazon's Huggies Size 3

$0.18 per diaper vs. $0.19 per diaper

Costco Size 1/2 Diapers vs. Amazon's Huggies Size 1

$0.14 per diaper vs. $0.19 per diaper

Costco Wipes (900 count) vs. Amazon's Huggies (864 count)

$0.03 per wipe vs. $0.02 per wipe

*I like the Costco wipes, so I think I'm willing to pay the extra penny for each one...anyone a big proponent of Huggies?

Now when Johnny was looking around the Costco website, he found something that I was not aware of, Costco will ship diapers and wipes for free!  This is huge because by the time I buy all of my diapers, there is no room left in the cart.  My twins take up a lot of room too.

I'm gunning for Costco here because the prices, for the most part, are better, and you don't have to commit to buying a certain amount each month; there's also random coupons that give you a pretty good discount on the diapers and wipes.  However, we have a free membership at Costco through Johnny's work, so if you had to factor in the $50 a year vs. a free membership at Amazon, that might make things different for you.  Costco also does not have it's formula available online.  It's definitely the cheapest around, but you have to go to the store to get it.

**Special thanks to Sarah Rose who went to Costco and took pictures of diaper prices for me!

Costco Crazies

I decided to make my last pre-baby trip to Costco today with our three kiddos.  I really didn't need anything from Costco specifically, but they have big carts and cheap milk, so that's where we decided to go.

Now, I'm going to illustrate this for you with words since the government does not allow me to post pictures of my foster kids.  Thanks Obama Care.  Picture this, Little Sister, a two and a half year old African American little girl with twists in her hair and purple leopard pants, is sitting in the basket portion of the cart, covered in Costco-sized groceries.  Her ten month old little brother and his four inch tall afro are sitting in the seat next to Lila, my white, runny-nosed, twenty-three month old daughter.  We have completed our shopping and are waiting in line for what ends up being nine huge pieces of pizza.  I'm still not really sure how that happened.  Anyway, as I am navigating the cart and the three plates of pizza to find a place to sit down, an older woman stops me and says, "They're so cute! Are they twins?"  I'm still not exactly sure which two she was talking about, but she seemed to be referring to my 32 pound vanilla daughter and my 15 pound chocolate foster son.  I kind of smiled at her and said, "No...they're not twins," and started cutting up pizza.

Now I have been asked all kinds of things by strangers about my motley crew, "Are they all yours?" "Is their father around?" but never before have I been asked if two of them are twins.  There's a first time for everything, I suppose.

So Beautiful

I have clearly missed my calling as a manicurist to two year olds.

Why yes that is the same tile that Lila spilled red nail polish all over a few months ago. How thoughtful of you to remember.

"Ride Crazy Cart Mama!"

I officially have no pride left.

Bulk Cooking

I've talked a little bit about my fun bulk cooking group, and I wanted to give a little bit more information for people who've shown interest in it.   The group is run by Hy-Vee and meets at one of their second floor kitchens.  Every month, the women in the group each pick a meal from a list of hundreds of recipes.  We post the meal that we each have chosen on a shared Google document, and then we get to order however many we want of each other's meals.  Hy-Vee then does all the shopping for us ahead of time and has everything organized when we get there each month.

That night, each woman is then responsible for the meal she ordered and makes as many of that meal as were ordered.  So if my meal was Teriyaki Hamburgers and a total of nine orders were placed (each order is about four servings...like a normal recipe), then I make nine orders of Teriyaki Hamburgers and hand them out when I'm done. Likewise, I get all of the meals that I ordered.

All of the meals are freezer friendly AND Hy-Vee does all the clean up.  The meals vary in price from month to month because it depends on meat prices and what meals were ordered.  This month each meal was around $12.  Not bad for four servings + no shopping + no clean-up.  So after about an hour and a half of cooking tonight, I came away with five different meals (Corn Chowder, Barbacoa, Beef Stroganoff, Pot Roast, and Korean Sesame Beef).  My family has really liked the majority of the meals we've tried, and it's gotten us out of our chicken/ground beef comfort zone. 

So if you're interested in bulk cooking, feel free to come join us or you can contact Hy-Vee to start your own group.  I've really enjoyed it so far.

37 Week Baby Bump

Tada! We've made it 37 weeks.



I kept making Johnny retake the picture because I thought I looked exhausted.  I finally decided that there's just something wrong with our camera, and we'll have to get a new one.  Now, even though my due date is February 4, my doctor is having me go in early to be induced since Lila had the whole "I'm a giant baby and I'm going to stay in an extra week and break my collar bone on the way out" thing going on, and they don't want that to happen to this baby.  So we're looking at two weeks from tomorrow for delivery.  I'm just looking forward to only having to take care of one child for the two days I'm in the hospital.  Piece of cake.

What To Do Before Having A Baby

Here is a list of things you absolutely need to do in the weeks before having a baby.

1. Start painting your family room.  Don't finish it; just start enough that it's in total disarray.

 

2. Organize your linen closet.  This will be very helpful when you are not showering for days at a time.

3. Organize the right side only of your children's medicine cabinet.

4. Buy snacks for the hospital four weeks in advance.

Optional things might include packing a bag for the hospital with important things like documents and clothing, actually having a plan for if you go into labor before you are induced, cooking a few freezer meals, reminding your husband how to get to the hospital, but these things are just optional.  I've chosen to just do the first four important ones.

Johnny's Back Porch Method

Johnny's home brew has been loving the cold weather.

The Hutsons Get Fancy

Johnny's mom surprised me with a super great gift in the mail last night: my first Le Creuset pot!  Once Johnny got home I told him that I need all the other colors too.  I'm sure he's right in the middle of making that happen.

Meanwhile, the girls get to play with the 35 foot long piece of paper the pot came wrapped in.  Win/win.

How to Keep Warm this Winter

Little Sister thought she'd help Lila ward off the bitter cold by putting her down for a nap with a warm blanket.

Once Upon A Potty

I have mentioned on here before that we are attempting potty training with our two girls.  My grand plan was to have them potty trained before the baby comes (which by the way is in like three weeks...who knew?), but after half a day of cleaning up pee from all over my house, I have resigned to the fact that I might have to buy a few more boxes of Costco diapers.

Do all you seasoned potty trainers have any suggestions for how to go about this?

The Last Five Years

As of today, Johnny and I have been married five years.  In honor of our anniversary, Johnny lost his wedding ring and I broke my engagement ring in half.  I'm assuming this is just as good of a sign as the unity candle not lighting at our wedding ceremony.



















 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Happy Anniversary Husband!

 

Little Guy's Gymnastics

I came into the living room yesterday to find 9 month old Little Guy inside of our toy box.  I'm not sure if he used the pictured stepping stool or the trampoline that sits to the right.  

The great thing was that he couldn't figure out how to get out for about twenty minutes.