I don't know what it is about pregnancy. I feel literally deep down compelled and driven to fix up the house.

My main project has been clearing out the last guest room to transform it into a guest room/ nursery/ play room for the beans.

It had turned into the room where we moved everything that we no longer had room for somewhere else in the house. It's been a lot to go through.

I freecycled the full-size bed ( I have a futon in there instead), the old dresser from our master suite, and a 1960s telephone chair that had been sitting in the closet. I emptied the closets of almost everything-- a few odds and ends left. Tomorrow, I need to go through the cedar chest I inherited from my grandparents and decide what to keep, and where to put it.

I've also been cleaning out the garage and most of the closets trying to get rid of clutter. My new goal is to give what we don't use to the organizations and people who can most benefit, but that is a lot of work!

After this weekend, I am hoping to have the flooring replaced in our upstairs powder room (it is water damaged, from improper seating of the toilet). And, after I paint the new play room in an ocean theme, call the electrician to get a quote for some ceiling fans.

I don't know what's gotten into me. I haven't really felt the desire to fix the house since my last big project binge in February. Hubby took Bean on a week-long trip, so I redid our master bedroom and completely remodeled the bathroom that week and I was home -improvemented out.

But, these last few weeks I feel agitated and bothered if I'm not making progress. I suppose this is normal!

I noticed the basil plants were large and happy, so I decided today was the day to process it. I figured I would get something done before the next round of zucchini take over my life. So, Bean and I trimmed the plants (he supervised...) and then turned them into 2 batches of walnut pesto. Mmmm. It should be enough for a couple of pasta meals this winter. I still have some leaves left, but not enough for another batch of pesto. My sister is loaning me her seal a meal tonight so I can pack the extras and freeze them.

It seems like forever since we've actually been able to put any money in the savings account. It seems like every month we had a big expense that just wiped out all of the extra.

I had ambitious savings goals for this year, but let's face it. Thanks to the economy, our income has dropped off. My freelance income has dropped by 75 percent. My husband's side income has almost completely dried up, leaving us one pay check and not a lot of side work pay to meet the goals. We are treading water as a result.

We have a second baby on the way. That isn't helping. The Bean was such a difficult infant that we have been taking a lot of short trips and going out to dinner a lot, in anticipation of having absolutely NO life once the second baby arrives. I know that's kind of terrible, but we also know how hard it's going to be to have two boys under 2.

Maybe when Bean Too is born, we will be able to save because we won't be doing ANYTHING for 6 months or more!

Anyway, it's time to be more careful and to prioritize again. I think we managed to sock way $450 this month because I was more deliberate. We also didn't go anywhere.

I'm hoping to keep that up. I am currently doing a lot of cleaning and decluttering around the house. I guess my maternal nesting instinct is kicking in. I feel compelled to get rid of extraneous belongings and to empty out closets to make room for another person. Luckily, cleaning and donating are free.

I do have some house projects that I would like to have finished before the new bean arrives, namely repairing our half bath in the kitchen. the toilet wasn't seated correctly, so the floor needs to be replaced and the toilet redone so it doesn't leak. And, I'd like to have ceiling fans installed in both of the kids' rooms and in the kitchen. More of a nice upgrade and a comfort thing than a necessity. I have no idea how much the fan electrical work will cost. They would be replacing recessed light fixtures. Is that a big deal? I really need to call the electrician!!

One ofy new year's goals was to grow 100 pounds of produce in my home garden. It's still early in the season for the things I'm growing, namely tomatoes, potatoes and butternut squash, but here are the numbers so far:

14.6 lbs zucchini-- all from 2 plants
1.35 lbs. beets
.18 lbs hot wax and banana peppers (8 peppers)

16.13 lbs. total A long way to go to hit 100!

The second part of the challenge is to not let anything go to waste. We have turned the zucchini into 6 loaves of bread plus 12-2 cup bags of frozen for later addition to bread or soup. (We also roasted and ate some and made casseroles).

One of my goals this year was to grow 100 lbs of food in my garden. So far, I am up to about 13 pounds. As you probably guessed, mot of it is zucchini so far, although I did pull 1.5 pounds of beets yesterday.

I have tried everything in the book to get rid of those zucchinis. I made bread, then shredded most of it and froze it in 2 cup bags (for more bread...). Last night, I made a casserole. It wasn't bad, but hubby was like "is this another clever way to hide zucchini?" Um... yes.

Well, there have been rumors of layoffs swirling around hubby's workplace for months. It looks like it starts this week. I am praying he is spared. My worst nightmare-- 5 months pregnant with no income and no health insurance. I can't even process it. Who knows how much the COBRA would cost. Probably so much that it would burn through our savings really quickly, despite not having any other huge monthly obligations.

I have always thought to myself that we could make it through this downturn we can just stay employed. If we can just keep that one income, we will be able to make it and stay on course. I guess keeping the job is the hard part.

Well, I had no idea how much work having a yard sale is.

After hours of prep, hanging signs, setting up tables and then sitting outside, I only made $100. After you deduct lunch and what I paid to put an ad in the local paper,(in addition to my free craigslist ads) I only made $40. How depressing.

The only positive is that I managed to get rid of some bulky items to clear room for the new Bean. The bad news is that I have a giant pile of stuff to still get rid of in the garage.

I am torn about what to do. Do I pull the stuff out again later in the summer and have another sale? Call the thrift store for pick up? start freecycling it one item at a time?

I'm feeling like a prisoner of stuff. I don't want clutter and I don't want stuff!!

Boy, I've been MIA on my blog for a long time! Things have been crazy!

I'm 18 weeks along. We find out next week if we are getting the baby girl we want. Beaner is, at 15 months, very charming and very curious, therefore a handful.

I have just recently emerged from my first trimester sleep-and-barf fest (ladies, you know what I'm talking about), and now I have a week to throw my very first yard sale.I have been putting things aside for weeks but still feel totally unprepared and overwhelmed!

I hope to make money, but my real goal is to just get rid of all this stuff that is living in our house. We have no time for cleaning and dusting with one kid, let alone when we have another to take care of, so if we don't love ir or use it, it has got to go!!

The guest room has become the yard sale staging ground. I have boxes filled to the brim practically everywhere. I have put prices on some of it, but have a feeling I will be out front at 8 a.m. saturday putting tags on a everything I forgot.

My worst fears: no one showing up and forgetting about a box of useless stuff and finding the day after the sale.

Am I crazy or what??

I'm having my very first yard sale this summer. We really need to clear away clutter now that we have another baby on the way. Plus, I really feel the need to minimize.

Do you have any tips on how to throw a successful yard sale?

Hi guys. I am thinking of doing away with paper towels, or at least trying to significantly reduce our usage. Do you have any suggestions for what type of washable towels might be the best replacements? I need something that is sturdy, all purpose and can clean up baby food messes.

Thanks!

Finally made some headway on one of my goals. I sent and extra payment of $800 to my student loan today. I guess after 8 years I am tired of paying those loans, especially when the journalism profession is falling apart.

I also transferred $3000 to savings, from our income tax refund. That is only a partial coup, as we had transferred small amounts out of the account this year to cover vacations and such. But, at least I am able to put something back in.

Well, the brakes went out on the car, almost killing my poor hubby in rush-hour traffic. He had to drive 10 mph the rest of the way home. after some investigation I determined that the brake line must have snapped, or fallen off or something.

That was true, but it also turned out we needed brake pads, etc. on all 4 wheels. It is a 1998, and I'm sure has never had any work done.

So that set us back $683. That we weren't planning to spend.

Last year it seemed so much easier to save, and this year, it's been an uphill battle.

Maybe the big difference is that last year, we had a newborn and because of that didn't go anywhere or do anything. That must have made easier to save money.

Well, there is a 90 percent chance hubby and I have another Bean on the way. I still have to go to my first doctor visit to make sure it's developing OK.

But, talk about motivation to meet those savings goals. I just hope we have enough money to save for two college educations, and all the other things that come along with childhood. Supporting two kids seems so adult. And scary.

We did originally plan to have two kids. This one is just coming along sooner than expected. I guess it's good, because I still have all of the Bean's old clothes, swings, toys, etc. so I won't have to spend money on supplies!

But, I have no idea how I will manage two tiny, needy people at home. I hope that at some point the beans will be able to play with and entertain each other, so I can have some peace, but that might just be another lie grandparents tell you to get you to have more!

This is my favorite personal finance article I have ever written. A year ago, I could have never gotten a story like this past any financial editors, but now that the crisis is in full swing and savings is finally hip, well, you know the rest of the story. I think the people on this site will appreciate the topic as well.

It's about No Spend Month. Here is a link:

I just became a dedicated Aldi shopped in November. I am still amazed at how little I spend even when the cart is filled to the brim.

I drive to Aldi today only to discover than it had closed: the signs were down , the shelves were empty and there was only a sign on the door telling you to go to another location. NNOOOOOOOO!!!!

I am so sad. This Aldi was a mile from my house and on my regular shopping area. The next closest is 8 miles away and near nothing I normally go to. Now what do I do? Just go every once in a while to stock up? Or is it even worth the time and gas?

I am totally bummed.

I think April will be THE month that I knock a huge resolution off of my list-- to write a novel in a month (even if it's terrible!) I think I could use that kind of self-esteem and accomplishment boost. I've wanted to write a book for, well, ever, so I think April will be the month I will dedicate to it. If it goes well, I may try it again later in the year.

I am going to turn down all freelance assignments for the month (they haven't been that great or lucrative, so I don't feel like I'm missing much). Plus, all of the articles I have to write at the moment are due on or before April 1, so it will work out nicely.

As far as other resolutions, as you can tell by my sidebar, the financial ones aren't moving along too quickly. I talked about our trouble saving in an earlier post.

I have met my goal of hosting a stitch n bitch twice a month at my house, so I have some non-baby social interaction. I've also joined the gym and so far have been reasonably consistent in going, even though I find gyms incredibly boring. Hopefully, this will get me close to losing 10 pounds by the end of the year.

So, it appears the stage has been set and the foundation laid for the goals, so hopefully they will come to fruition by the end of the year.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to reduce our home electricity use by 10 to 20 percent by the end of the year. In a house already filled with compact fluorescent bulbs, this will be no easy task.

My most recent electricity bill arrived in the mail this week, so I now have my benchmark kilowatt numbers. It's enough to make me queasy.

We used a total of 19,405 KwH in the past 12 months. The average U.S. family uses 10,656 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, or about 888 kwh per month. Our electricity usage has skyrocketed in the past year. I know what the culprit is.

We were well below average before we installed our new furnace.

In September 2007, we replaced our 1957 gas furnace with a geothermal electric heat pump.

Electricity is not my first choice for home heating and cooling. But, we really wanted a geothermal system, which is supposed to be earth-friendly. Even our lowest use month is still twice what it was before we installed the new furnace.

What we didn't know is that our furnace was not operating correctly for the first year. It ran constantly, due to some miscommunication with the thermostat. We had this fixed in mid-January. I am hopeful this will help, as I already notice that even in cold weather the furnace no longer runs constantly.

So, numbers in hand, our goal is to reduce our usage by 1,940 to 3,881 kilowatt hours a year. Our monthly average use is 1,617 kilowatt hours. Our monthly goal is to reduce usage by 161 to 323 kilowatt hours a month.

These are big numbers. We are planning to tackle this with a combination of upgrades large and small.

This month, We have already managed to implement part of our plan to reduce our kilowatt addiction.

* We installed the final three Energy Star windows in our house. We began this project last year, but because we are old fashioned, we only do what we can pay for out of pocket. We couldn't afford to do all of the windows at once, so we put off the last three (which we deemed to have less impact on our home's leakiness). Now, all of the windows are finished.This was our most expensive project, at $1,633.

* We hope to replace our washer with a front-loading energy star model. Our current washer is not energy star. I guess I was more concerned with price, as I had to buy a dryer, washer and fridge all at one time when I bought this house. We are still shopping around. Once we find a really efficient model, we'll start combing the scratch and dent stores for one.I think this will really reduce our KWH, as we do a lot of laundry now that we have a little one, and we use cloth diapers.

* I bought a Smart Strip for the computer, playstation, and entertainment center in the basement. I have a feeling this area is a huge user of vampire electricity. The strip cost about $35 with shipping. It turns off appliances and computer peripherals automatically when they have been idle more than 30 minutes. For other areas, I may just buy a plain old strip, plug everything in and then just flip off the strip when we aren't using what's plugged into it.

It's really hard to figure out where to cut when you've already plucked most of the low-hanging fruit. But, I'm determined.

I am trying to concentrate on the small triumphs lately, as things have been difficult at casa de thriftorama.

The good stuff: I am so far meeting my new year's goal to have stitch n bitch at my house. Everyone has been coming over twice a month since January, so that is nice.

Almost all of the seeds have sprouted, so my garden is off to a good start. I am pretty excited about that.

On to the other stuff:

I had no idea how profoundly having Beaner would change my life. I love him so much. But he is so exhausting. And, hubby and I have almost zero time together anymore. It's really changed our relationship, and frankly, we both liked the way it was before Beaner was around a lot more. Quality time is out the window, and I see no end in sight.

I'm still pretty sad and miss my dad, who died in July. The Bean just makes the pain more intense, because I wish so badly that dad could have held on longer to see how cool of a person his only grandbaby is turning in to. He ever looks likes my dad. (besides being bald and toothless).

I've made no headway on the Tiki fund goal. I am having trouble getting motivated. But, I mentioned before that I am having trouble being motivated and staying on track for all of my savings goal. The malaise has just spread to the tiki fund.

For some reason, this year I am seriously annoyed by my remaining student loan balance and am considering making getting rid of that the No.1 priority. I have yet to shift any money around or rearrange any automatic deposits, but I am still mulling it over.

34. Not too exciting a birthday. I can already legally drink, vote,and rent a car. Now I'm just waiting for my golden buckeye discount card, but I don't get that for another 21 years!

Hubby woke me up this morning with him and the Bean trying to sing me happy birthday. Neear-one year olds really just say "bwaaaaa!" and "dadadadadada" But it was a nice thought.

We might go out to dinner later. Other than that, no big plans.

I "splurged" and bought a cheapo $5 pedometer. I figure it might help me lose the bay weight and give me some insight into my daily habits.

Just chasing the bean all day takes between 3500 and 4500 steps. Interesting. our usual walk adds about 1500-200 steps.

Today, I walked to the gym/ community center in my neighborhood to get added to my hubby's membership. That walk alone was 5200 steps.

To put this in perspective, most fitness people say to lose weight you need a minimum of 10,000 and ideally 12,000 or more steps each day.

So I guess this little thing is telling me I need to get off my butt. I paid an extra $150 to be added toy hubby's gym membership for the year.

I admit procrastinating. I didn't really want to spend the money, and I hate gyms. I also hate the fact that I am four days away from 34, and now I have to work out. My metabolism and my lifestyle are not as effective at keeping me slim as they were even five years ago.

After some thought I decided to do it, because I may be getting a better value than the dues imply. The center has free babysitting while you are anywhere in the building. They have wireless internet. Ergo, I can go there, drop off the bean and actually do some of my freelance work without having to pay a sitter. I want to try this. It could be the solution to work-bean balance I have been looking for.

I often stay up until midnight working, because I usually can't do anything until he's asleep at night. This may give me some much needed, highly productive work time, as well as a place to work out. We'll see.

The first of my seedlings sprouted today. Maybe I am a geek, but it is so exciting and satisfying when those little green shoots push through the soil. It's like "come on little guys, you can make it!"

Little do they know we still have a long journey before they (hopefully) make it to the garden and then to our table as food, but it all starts with those two tiny leaves.

I am starting two kinds of green beans, luffa (for sponges, as gifts next Christmas), butternut squash, four kinds of exotic hot peppers, beets, butterfly bush, oregano, basil, dill, cilantro, cosmo flowers and a few other things, I think.

Some of these aren't traditionally started indoors, but I had enough seeds that I though what the heck, I'll give myself a homegrown insurance policy and see if I can grow them inside.

These little guys are going to help me meet my goal of growing 100 pounds of veggies in my own yard this year. Considering I have few spots of full sun, this homegrown food challenge is forcing me to be really creative in a new way. I highly recommend it.

I wish I had 10 acres or more, but I figure I need to use what I've got. Why wait for the acres when I have a lawn?

I have decided to get a new rewards credit card. We currently have an Amazon card, and yes, all the free DVDs and stuff we get off of the site is great. But, change of plans. We have applied for the new Schwab rewards card, because it puts 2 percent of whatever your spending total is for the month in an investment account. No minimum purchase amount, not limits. We carry no debt and want to save more for Beaner's college, so we are going to use the rewards to supplement our additional college savings.
I figure we may as well get a reward that has a longer-term value than what we are getting from Amazon.

I will be the first to admit we have spent money like water since December. Christmas, then in January we bought two new sofas. We had been shopping for a while, and finally found a great deal. We also have taken several expensive weekend trips and a week long ski trip.

I have a spending hangover, and the fear has finally set in. Given the tanking stock market, the insecure job market, and that I haven't done very well making headway on my savings goals this year. It is really easy to see we need to get serious. We need to seriously start socking the money away.

So, no more indulgence. At least not the big ones we have been partaking in. Back to shopping at Aldi and making do on a $40 a week fun allowance. Back to trying to make more money and save as much as possible.

We did so well on our savings goals last year it was easy to take for granted that it would happen again this year. It took work to make them in 2008, and it will take work to make them in 2009.

We got complacent. No more.

My last full-time newspaper just laid off 45 people, many of them my friends. I am particularly miffed because it appears that the people cut were not chosen by talent or by output. A lot of useless people got to keep their jobs. A lot of the people who were outspoken toward management lost theirs, including one of my friends, who just had a baby a month ago.

What good does a layoff do if you just keep the people who don't pull their weight and cut people who do?

It's aggravating. It also means there will be more local competition for the few freelancing jobs that remain. That affects my bottom line, so I am a bit concerned.

Tonight is the last night of an entire week of ME time. Hubby took Beaner to Vermont last week to see the in-laws. Since they were JUST here for a week, I opted out.

It was sad dropping them at the airport, and I felt a little lonely for the first couple of days.

But, a week alone presented a golden opportunity to work on the house, and do projects that I can't do with a baby around.

So, on my week off I not only caught up on some videos, I also "renovated" my bedroom and bathroom. It's in quotes because I didn't rip much out of the bathroom, I just gussied up what was there.

I painted and polyeurathaned the ugly 1970s vinyl floors so they are fabulous, fresh, and glossy now. I also repainted the walls and ceiling, replaced the grimy sliding shower doors with a rod and curtain, scraped out all of the old caulk and redid it, and scrubbed the grout. I also replaced our old-- I mean OLD- toilet with a super water saver one that is so much better. Fun fun. The bathroom actually took about 5 days to redo. I can't believe how much work it was!

I also redid our bedroom. It was a mess before. Dying of neglect. I primed, repainted the walls and ceiling in a much more soothing color, I painted an accent wall behind the bed, with a stripe in the middle. AND, as a surprise to hubby, I brushed off my paintbrushes and did a 36 x 36 painting to hang above the bed. I love it, and I think he will too. Of course it's tiki theme, but he's used to that by now. The room is so much more relaxing now. Really, we need that at the end of the day.

I also put up new sheers, rods and curtains in the living room, and cleaned the garage.

I can say-- and this is something I never thought I would say-- I am home-improvement-ed out for a while. Geesh. I never thought two rooms could take so much work. I guess it was all the prepping and all the coats of paint.

I did spend some dough doing all of this. I think my total bill was just under $500. About $200 of that was the toilet alone, so I guess that isn't too terrible. It's not like on HGTV where they redo everything and then say it "only" cost $30,000.

Tomorrow, I pick up my two main men from the airport. I hope they like what I did to the place while they were gone.

This could go horribly wrong, but I am going to try to trade some of the things around the house that need to go, for things we need or want. I'm hoping at least one of the items will get traded successfully.

Last week I gave away a vintage 1950s sofa (for free, yes) and even then it took 5 people to actually get someone to pick it up. I say why bother writing if you aren't going to come get it?

I plan to post a 1953 OKeefe and Merrit stove. I love this thing. We used it in our house in New Orleans and lugged it all the way up here, but then ended up in a house where it won't work.

A 1950s telephone chair with storage in the seat, a pair of 1950s ballerina lamps, and maybe some other odds and ends.

Wish me luck.

Ugh. Hubby and I are planning a tacky road trip weekend. We have always wanted to visit the Aku Tiki restaurant, which was an original 1950s tiki restaurant and bar, that was built in a bar in the middle of a farm/cornfield in Kewanee,IL. I just called tonight to find out when they are open and it turns out they are closed forever. Sniff. It was such a great place.

Now I am looking for another authentic Illinois or Indiana tiki bar to visit this weekend. It won't be the same.

Hubby said we should open a bar in a barn in the middle of nowhere. It just so happens there is a barn on his parent's land in Vermont.... got the wheels turning!

I found this in a book and it really struck me:

"Look at everything you own and imagine who among your friends might be best served by each item. If you yourself are truly best served by the item, keep it. But if you can think of someone you know who could put it to better use, offer it to him or her."

I am going through drawers and closets right now, repeating this.

Well, it's pretty snowy here. We had six inches over the weekend, 3 more yesterday, 4 more last night, and we're supposed to get 6 more today. Geesh! I went to the grocery store yesterday, so as long as we have electricity (for the furnace), we should be OK. I made hubby work from home today so I didn't have to worry.

It's his b-day. He is 36 today. We probably won't be able to go out to dinner due to weather, so I made him some choco chip cookies.

In other news, January was a very expensive month. In addition to the biggies like property tax, homeowners insurance, car registrations, we also paid for three new energy star windows, a trip to New Orleans, season tickets for MLS soccer, a 2-year zoo membership, and some other odds and ends.

The good news is we managed to do all of this without going completely broke or dipping too much into the savings. I'm pretty happy about that.

We also stayed under our grocery and gas budget, amazingly.

I have had a steady stream of freelance work, which is refreshing. Freelancing is feast or famine. Either you are in the weeds with too much or don't have anything for months, so the slow and steady has made me pretty happy.

I managed to miraculously muster the energy to work on my home office last night as well. Hubby and I each have our own "rooms" in the basement, so we have someplace that is totally ours to escape to. His is a manspace with video games, wall to wall bookcases, TV, etc.

I have an office in the basement with a walk in closet. I have all of my graphic design needs-- computer, scanner, printer, racks of books and vintage magaines, a sewing table and machine, piles of fabrics, etc. My office has become an abandoned dumping ground since the bean was born and I am finally getting around to cleaning it. I decided to repaint and redecorate to make it more of a lounge, where I can get work done or escape and have some peace from children and from in-laws (mostly in-laws!)

So, I have decided on a Polynesian theme (surprise!). I painted three walls a neutral beige. These are going to house my postcards and strange souvenirs from my world travels (in yet to be determined displays). I am painting the 4th wall in a bold accent color and installing floor to ceiling adjustable bookcases. The bookcases will be hidden behind a beaded curtain printed with Hawaii motifs. (These are very cool). With clever arrangement of furniture, I will also be able to fit in a lounge chair and maybe a corner for painting. My basement office is about the same size as our bedroom, although a different shape. It's really a bonus, because the basement is as big as the upstairs of our house (Go 1950s!), and this room lends itself really well to a workspace for me. It's tucked away in a hidden part of the house that no one even realizes is there when they visit.

Sorry for rambling! I have a lot on my mind.

I'm back from my last-minute frivolous 24-hour trip to New Orleans. It was worth every penny.