Crunchy Mom Problems

So my bloggy buddy and I were chatting on le facebook....and something magical happened...

I present to you "First World Problems of the Crunchy Mom."

=D Nitey nite everybody!

Poo-Free Post! Day 26

I have done a poor job of updating regularly. But my hair is awesome! I have started po-free on the crazy 3 year old's hair as well. Need to do another treatment on both of our hair tonight. Yay for happy hair and happy scalp!

If I am missing, it is because I have a crazy 3 year old. Also, my bestest interwebz friend and I are revamping our blog we started like 2 years ago. I have converted her to the crunchy side, so the bloggy blog is taking a new focus. =D I will probably cross-post a few things along the way. w00t!

Feed the Family for $40 - Week 1

Week 1 of the challenge is here!

I did my shopping today....no plans. I did have a 75 cent coupon, so there is that. Tax is charged on food in my state, but for my calculation purposes (left out a treat for my kiddo and paper towels), I will list everything without tax. Here is the breakdown:

Trix cereal
Chocolate bar w/ almonds on markdown
Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal
Chips Ahoy bogo
Bear River cereal bogo
Quaker popcorn bogo
Cookie mix on markdown
Pomegranate Craisins
Uncured Oscar Mayer hot dogs bogo
4 Yoplait yogurts
2 Nesquik 8 oz milks w/ a 75 cent coupon on 2
Meal Deal: 2 Red Baron pizzas, mozzerella sticks, Fat Boy ice cream sandwiches, 7-Up
$35.36 - Winn Dixie

3 pounds green grapes
$5.99 - Sam's Club

3 ears of corn
$0.00 - from my doula client

Pulled Pork and a can of green beans
$0.00 - from mom b/c it needs to be eaten today

$41.35 - Total

I have *tons* of food in the fridge, freezer, pantry, etc. already, so I should definitely be able to throw some good meals together. I also still need to get my WIC. But we have cereal, snacks, and pizza night good to go! lol. The Nesquiks are already gone. Oops. lol.

So yea, I'm a little over-budget....but I did survive an impromptu trip to Sam's with only 1 item. =D

Let's Talk Grocery Bills =/

Last night I got swept up into a blog (this one to be exact: http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/) for hours!

It made me realize some ways I can reign in our spending, use up what's in the pantry, and put money back for other things.

So here is my pledge: for the remainder of 2013, I will spend no more than $40 per week on groceries. Hopefully the savings will go to a deep freezer. =D And, of course, the new place we aim to buy in the spring (and garden and chicken startup money).

I have a LOT of food in the pantry that I really just forget is there. Same with the fridge and freezer. Really need to get back into cooking.

I do receive WIC for my wild child, so that will not count in to my weekly budget because yay free food! I am also making a pledge to eat out (be it fast food or restaurant) no more the 1 time per week for now...that goal will change to 1-2 times per month soon. The $40 is strictly for groceries, so household purchases won't be included.

Yay! I guess this means I have to go pack a lunch for work now. Lol.

<3 Aimee

PS-No poo is still going strong! And I have started it on my 3 year old with excellent results!

Poo Free Post! Day #11

So I've been a bit neglectful to le blog. But I am here! I am really digging this poo free thing. I feel like I have still not yet found my ideal balance, but that time will come soon enough. I keep some coconut oil in the bathroom to use on occasion when I get out of the shower Just a dab...just enough to barely feel it on my hands, then run through the hair and voila! I did a straight up water-wash tonight. I used the last little bit of ACV water to smooth it out a little bit, then let the water run over me for a long time after that. After the crazy stressful day I had, I NEEDED that. And of course my child was sitting on the potty dropping a deuce the whole time. lol.

And now I must return to watching the Amish.

Don't hate.

Poo-Free Post! Day #3

Today is just a quick check in.

So it has been about 48 hours since I did my first poo-free washing. I can feel the oils amping up now, making my scalp itchy like I haven't washed it in a week. Hello transition. Of course, I also did a LOT of sweating today. So once the littlest evil mastermind (who is currently naked) goes to bed, I will take a lovely shower. I have discovered I need to use more than 1.5 Tbsp ACV...so *note to self* lol.

My next goal to tackle is the Oil Cleansing Method. Instead of using facial cleansers, you use a clean, healthy oil mixture to remove the dirty oil from your face. Gonna try that maybe next week. =)

Time to play some candy crush and rest from a looong and hoooooot day (2 birthday parties). Toodaloo!

Poo-Free Post! Day #1

I'm gonna do it! No more chemical-laden, expensive, sometimes working commercials shampoos or conditioners for meeeeeee!!!!!!! Whoopee!!!!

So what do I plan to do? Well let me fill you in an awesome hair lifestyle.

In this modern day with all of our technological improvements, things have gotten a little...clinical. From birth to illness, it is a cultural belief that our bodies no longer know what is best for us. But then you witness your first breast crawl, and your life is changed! (If you haven't, stop reading for a moment and go watch! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9WtH4dq-cw) Anywho. I have learned that our hair and scalp is no different. Why is it that we strip our natural oils with shampoo, then wonder why we have to nourish hair with conditioner and a smorgasbord of products? So let's take a stage back toward the stone age and TRUST OUR BODIES. =D

Warning: There will be an adjustment period that typically shouldn't last more than a few weeks, so plan accordingly. Your hair will have some greasy time, so make sure updos are appropriate for any upcoming engagements. As a cashier, mama, and postpartum doula, this should be no problemo.

So how do you get started? Buy a box of baking soda (BS) and some apple cider vinegar (ACV) with the "mother" aka unfiltered. Also procure some bottles to keep your mixtures in. I got those picnic condiment bottles from Dollar General for only 50 cents each...yellow for BS and red for ACV. For your new "shampoo" mix one cup water with one tablespoon BS. For the "conditioner" mix one cup water with one and a half tablespoons ACV. If you notice a few washes in your hair is too dry, reduce the amount of BS and/or up your amount of ACV. If you notice your hair  is too oily, add more BS. One blog I read while researching used one quarter cup ACV, so if your hair is craving moisture, go for it! I used warm water when mixing. No clue if it helped, but I figured it would dissolve the BS better.

In the shower, I wet my head and then let the BS mixture drizzle into my hair, much like using a hair dye bottle. The bottles I use have a very narrow opening. After I felt my hair was saturated, I let it sit for a moment, then rinsed. Do the same thing for the ACV. As suggested by one blog, towards the end of my shower I put a little ACV on the ends without rinsing. We were going straight to a movie, so I put it up in some Goody's spin pins that I found at Dollar Tree. (I have always wanted some but could never justify the 3 or 4 bucks they cost. lol. So I got two packs....and I'm thinking about getting more.) Now I have two buns up on my head like mouse ears with one spin pin in each. I can already feel a difference in my hair and scalp. May need to add some more ACV, but I will reevaluate when this supply runs out. =)

And for a price break down....
1 box baking soda, cheap store brand: $0.54
1 bottle Heinz ACV with the mother: around $3 to $4
2 condiment bottles: $0.50 a piece

I used very little of the BS and ACV so far....for at least a year's worth of hair cleansing for $5!? Hell to the yes!

I will update every few days on my poo-free journey.

Viva la cheapo!

Ten years ago, I never imagined I would be anything like I am today. I was 15, insanely shy, socially awkward, and didn't really care what I ate. Today though? Well...

I'm 25. I a a wife and mama. I am a customer service lead at the grocery store I have worked at since last summer. I have come out of my shell (but I still qualify as socially awkward to an extent...I choose some gross and/or off the wall things to talk about when bored). I even have *charisma* on a good day.

And then there is my newly developed crunchy side.....it began with a little mixed girl...

The first time I met my daughter, her fresh, bloody little hand slapped me in the mouth. =) Oh, if only I knew what I was getting myself into! I decided to breastfeed because I'm cheap and I have doing dishes with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. And then I saw something about babywearing...and since I'm cheap, I decided to make my own stretchy wrap. Then I got really big on extended rear facing of car seats. (My now 3 year old little mixed chick is still rear facing!) My journey to crunchiness plateaued for a while. In the meantime I picked up some uses for vinegar, made degreaser out of only orange peels and water, and dropped shampoo, only using conditioner for myself and the kiddo. I also learned to crochet somewhere along the way... I was now interested in unschooling, unmedicated birth, and, dare I say it, placenta encapsulation. And one day, a light bulb came on. After 2 years at a state college when I tried mechanical engineering, computer engineering, and interior design...after a brief stint at community college for something IT related...and after a flop of a try at cosmetology school....after all of that, I realized where my passion truly lies! I would become a postpartum doula! So I signed up through DONA, read the prereq books, attended the workshop. And here I am. In beach/podunk/snooty/ghetto Alabama.

And then reality hits.

In my state, midwifery is illegal. You can imagine what this does for our birth culture. Oh wait, there is none! -_- The hospital I birthed at has actually just recently decided they don't want birth doulas there. Anymore. Ever. Excuse me while I violently throw things and rip my hair out.

Luckily, there is an organization that I have joined trying to get this dumb law changed. And in the meantime I will explain what i do umpteen times a day and pass business cards (with a brief definition too!) out to everyone I know.

And that is pretty much where I am right now professionally. In my personal life, I am trying to cut out all the junk in our lives. too much money is spent on beauty and cleaning products. Why not make them myself? My newest ambition is a 30 day poo free challenge. I plan to begin tomorrow. Note to self: get some squirt bottles for the shower. I will write a detailed post after my first washing.

I have already made a few changes. When I clean my hair, I only use conditioner. I recently bought a paraben-free, sulfate-free conditioner that works well. There was a transition period with that, so I am hoping it eases the poo free transition a little. I have kicked deodorant to the curb and instead use a lime! Cheap and easy. Just keep it in a plastic baggy in the fridge....and warn your family which one is the armpit lime. =) I cut out antibacterial soaps (except when I had to wash with some before I had my gallbladder out in March). I am slowly phasing out our favorite GMOs and buying more organic. I'm also on the hefty side, so I'm combining the non-GMO and organic goals with packing my own lunch for work or buying nutritious lunches if I have to. Being a customer service lead (CSL) instead of a cashier leaves me with lots of time behind the scenes....a portion of which is spent snacking. So I found a bento box container at walmart with a built-in freeze pack. It's great for portion control and my lack of a fridge at work. =) And small enough I can keep it on the shelf by the one way mirror I spy on people through. lol.

Wow...that was a long introduction.

If you skipped over that...

Hi! I'm Aimee. I'm an over-committer looking to improve my family's quality of life while following my passion in a community where few people recognize that my passion even exists. Welcome to my chaos. =D