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Frugal Girl is 1 Year Old!

March 19, 2018 by Andrew Leave a Comment

Frugal Girl turned 1 and we have had a couple of little celebrations to mark the occasion.  Grandma made an adorable unicorn cake for her.  It tasted as good as it looked!

I made this delicious roasted chicken.  You can throw the entire carcass into a stock pot, and boil the remaining meat off to make an easy chicken noodle soup.  Just add a quart of chicken broth or water and carrots or other veggies.

Shae made some tasty cupcakes.  Frugal Girl looked to big brother for some guidance on the candle.  He knew what to do.

She didn’t need any help eating the cupcake though!

We opened some presents, including this big one.

She had her 12 month vaccinations and checkup.  29.5″ tall (63 percentile), 20 lbs 2 oz (56 percentile), and a head circumference of 18.5″ (94 percentile).

She isn’t walking yet on her own (probably because of the high center of gravity), but she does enjoy cruising along furniture.  She really enjoyed the trip to the zoo.  Anything that she could see up close she liked including the primates, turtles, and fish.

All in all, she is a happy healthy girl.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to making the first year as easy as possible for us parents!

Posted in: Frugal Girl, Parenting Tagged: baby

A Winter Hike

January 28, 2018 by Andrew Leave a Comment

Cabin Fever is at 200% at our house, so when the mercury rose to a balmy 44° on a sunny Saturday we did not hesitate to bundle up and go for an adventure picnic!

You cannot hike on an empty stomach, so the first priority was to make sure everyone was fueled up.  We utilized one of the local school fundraiser coupon cards that we purchased last year from a neighbor to get a 16″ sub sandwich for free.  Yay!  Half of the card cost has been recouped so far.

With our bellies full, we set off in search of adventure and education.

Frugal Boy had fun crossing this little stream and then gave tips to his parents on how they could cross it.

Later on, he made a stream of his own.

And then he made two more streams later in the hike.  He’s a regular Niagara Falls!

The hike was interspersed with teaching moments.

Frugal Boy learned that some plants have thorns to keep animals away from them.  Thorns hurt.  I thought that might be obvious, but sometimes you just have to learn from experience.

We also examined different footprints.  Dogs, people, and deer were very common and easy to spot in the muddy conditions.  An osage orange provided a nice distraction from tired legs as we kicked it, smelled it, and broke it in half to look at the inside.  There were several mole tunnels.  I learned today that the surface tunnels that you commonly see where the sod is lifted up is called a runway tunnel and are used for foraging/feeding.

The days are already getting longer and it won’t be long until flowers start blooming in our yard!

Posted in: Frugal Boy, Frugal Girl, Parenting Tagged: baby, Hiking, winter

Frugal Girl 9 Month Checkup

January 5, 2018 by Andrew Leave a Comment

9 in, 9 out

Frugal Girl turned nine months old and had another round of vaccinations.

She received her final Hep B vaccination, along with a flu booster shot.  She also had a toe prick for lead/iron levels.  Everything seems to be on course and she is now 28.5″ tall (70% the nurse didn’t stretch her out so I think the measurement is a bit under), 19 pounds even (88%), and has a big head measuring 18″ (88%).  She is up to 6 teeth and has a couple of new ones ready to come in on the bottom.  The separation, stranger/danger phase has come home to roost and there is a clear pecking order of who she prefers.  Here is a hint, Dada is not at the top.

In other news, we opened up Frugal Girl’s first savings account.  Thank you to everyone who has gifted money to the little saver.  We are that much closer to a dowry!  😛

Also she will likely be getting her first passport as soon as those lazy parents get their act together.

Posted in: Frugal Girl, Parenting Tagged: baby

Frugal Girl 6 Month Checkup

September 25, 2017 by Andrew Leave a Comment

Frugal Girl had her six month checkup today and another round of life saving vaccinations.

She is daintier than her brother, but she has it were it counts!  27″ tall (83%), 17lbs 5oz (67%), 17.5″ head circumference (93%).  In a few weeks she will likely be crawling.

Posted in: Frugal Girl Tagged: baby

Introducing Frugal Girl

March 16, 2017 by Andrew Leave a Comment

There is a new addition in our house, Frugal Girl!

Her favorite activities include eating, sleeping, and pooping.  Big brother Frugal Boy is still adjusting to the new family member.

It is still a little too early to tell how much it cost to bring little Frugal Girl into the world.  Our preliminary estimate is about $5000 (insurance deductible of $2500 x 2 patients).  Of that, Shae’s employer, will cover about $4300, and we will be on the hook for the remaining $700 of the deductible.  We can use pre-tax dollars to cover our portion by using a Health Savings Account.  Anytime that you have a life changing event, you can change your benefits enrollment through your employer.  Having a baby counts as such.

Shae and I did not get Frugal Girl a special birthday gift.  Instead, she gets to start life with a jump started college savings account.  As soon as we learned that we had conceived, we opened a new 529 plan and started contributing to it every month just like we do for Frugal Boy.  Thanks to the bull market and those early contributions, Frugal Girl is already at $3,000.  If you figure that investments will naturally double every ten years, we’ve already managed to spare her from roughly $12k worth of student loans.

Relatives are already calling her a princess.  A princess would have to marry other royalty, so we might have to start saving up for a dowry.  ;-P

Posted in: Frugal Girl, Parenting Tagged: baby
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