If you think babies are expensive . . .

She may look petrified, but she LOVES this slide . . . there's a little bump and she goes airborne and flies down this slide.

Daddy and Jax take a slower side slide than little miss daredevil.

When I look back to when Zac joined the family, I really don't see how he added that big of an expense to our way of living.  Yes, I became a SAHM and lost my income, but our lifestyle changed immensely.   We would eat out 5 times a week, and that didn't include the 5 or 6 buck lunches we'd buy at the work cafeterias every day.  We bowled in a couple leagues, we went to movies regularly, we went out dancing/drinking at least once if not twice a week.   Now I never was into clothes or fashion, but I did need to maintain a work wardrobe, etc.   So most of those activities diminished. And even tho I formula fed (not my choice, but it is what it is . . . or was) and used disposables, I guess I didn't see it as a huge monthly expense.

Now, these with these two little peanuts I realize that babies are INEXPENSIVE!!  I can feed Jaxon for less than $3 a day and it costs about a $1 a day to diaper both kids.  Jax eats about $1.50 of formula a day and I'd guess about a $1.50 in yogurt, cereal and baby food.   Cassidy probably costs about $5 a day to feed.  Most of their toys are presents or I found at yard sales or Craigslist.  Not so easy to find an almost new iPod touch at a bargain basement price at a yard sale ;)

I don't get past NOON to feed Zac for $3 . . . every morning starts with a huge bowl of cereal and or a couple poptarts and a glass of milk . . . his school lunch is $2 and then there's the 10 a.m. break he gets from class and he goes to the store and gets a bag of Jalapeno kettle chips every day  . . . I however, do not fund his snack, that comes from his money he earns by doing various chores.   We are extremely lucky because he probably eats more like $5 in lunch, but my SIL is a cashier in the lunch line and no matter how much stuff my kid piles on his tray she charges him for the basic lunch.  I'm sure we'll have huge sticker shock next year and he'll have to reel in his eating habits next year when he will have lunch at his home school (he eats lunch at the Tech school this year).

He comes home from school and heads straight to the pantry for a snack.  Now, I remember why my parents always hid goodies, if you want to actually eat some of those chocolate covered pretzels you bought or hershey kisses or trail mix or cookies, you better hide them because they will vanish!  You will open the pantry 4 days later and find ONE item left in whatever container you look in, because, Zac will never eat the LAST goodie.  Dinner he eats as much as me or Chuck and of course there's that evening snack finished off with a HUGE glass of milk.  

I can find second hand clothes for 25 cents for the peanuts, consignment shops, yard sales, and handme downs outfit the peanuts 90% of the time.  One pair of jeans for Zac is easily $20 and sneaks are about $25, and I can be thankful that he doesn't care that his clothes doesn't come from Hollister (SERIOUSLY a joke, IMO) or Kmart.  I do get his jeans at Old Navy when they have a sale and Aerospastle has wonderful sales.  Even tho we don't buy expensive items for him, his wardrobe, which is considerably smaller, than the peanuts probably costs twice as much as their wardrobes put together.

Then there are the miscellaneous activities that pop up:  $25 for a field trip, plus money for lunch, $100 to sign up for baseball, $35-40 for baseball cleets, $12 for baseball socks, $10 to repair a catcher's glove because a new one would cost $90.  You try and convince him he doesn't need a new baseball bat (easily at least $100) and to use the one he has and use team bats, going to the movies with friends; hanging out at the hockey rink/baseball games (can I have money for a drink/snack?).

I won't go into how much hockey costs, because that is a very expensive sport that many do not participate in, so that wouldn't be fair to compare that to the peanuts . . . but all those extracurricular activities cost money, there are dues for girl scouts/boy scouts; there are fees for karate/dance/gymnastics . . . and some have quite the price tag.

So if you think babies are expensive . . . JUST WAIT!!