Henry received a Toys R Us gift card for his birthday from a family friend. One morning after reading his current favorite book (Big Machines), I asked Henry if he would like to use his birthday money to buy a truck. He is currently very interested in machines and animals. He received an ant farm for his birthday, so I figured a truck would make sense to complement his interests.

First we went to How We Montessori to figure out which brand of trucks Otis and Caspar have. We were elated to find out that the trucks they have–Bruder–are available on Amazon. Henry and I scrolled through all

Image courtesy of Wexman Trading on Etsy

As I’ve discussed before, we’ve been living on a very tight budget since the middle of August. We try to live within Matt’s salary, so we can save my entire part-time salary every month. Right now, our savings are going toward 1) the downpayment + closing costs on our permanent loan on the house we’re building 2) midwife expenses 3) appliances/fence/furniture for our new home 4) Henry’s tuition for one more year of private Montessori school before Austin’s first public Montessori school opens (fingers crossed!) and 5) my three months of unpaid maternity leave before I hopefully start working part-time again (for

As many of you know, Matt and I had to kick our saving into high gear in order to move forward with building a house. We revised our monthly budget and have had to work really hard to live within it each month, so that we can bank my entire part-time salary. 

At first, the adjustment was really stressful. I was very bought into the plan. While Matt supported the plan, he had a lot more difficulty implementing the plan (primarily because it meant eating out less). Once we adjusted to the differences, however, it’s really been a lot easier. We eat out twice a week (spending less than $20