Generous Uncle

[judecorp]

When I took Calculus in high school, my nerdy math teacher REALLY liked to toss around word problems about compounding interest. I don't know what it was about compounding interest that held his, umm, interest, but it was a bit of an obsession. You always knew it was coming when you saw a "Generous Uncle" word problem. As in, "Your generous uncle sets up a trust when you are born with $X..."

Well, if I had a REAL generous uncle, I would want him to buy us THIS. Please.

Comments

[thatpatti.livejournal.com]

i think i'm going to get those when tate grows out of his fuzzi bunz.

in the long run, they're less than disposables, but the upfront cost is a killer.

[cfred.livejournal.com]

Isn't washing them the other issue? I heard tell of my mother dunking my soiled ones in the toilet—after she'd taken them off me, of course :) —to get the worst of the soil off before they went in the diaper pail.

So you've either got to wash them yourself or pay a service to do them (and then need lots of spares for between service calls).

[(Anonymous)]

i wash every 2-3 days. i use a dry pail, so there's no dunking. of course, tate's still only nursing, so his poop isn't very solid. but i run a cold rinse/spin to get them washed out, then wash them on a regular hot/cold cycle and dry on low.

it's really not that big a deal, and it's still way cheaper (and environmentally/butt friendly) than disposables.

i'm not hardcore, though. it's harder to stay on top of the laundry with 2 kids, particularly with a very spit-uppy baby who creates not only a ton of baby laundry, but mommy laundry as well.

[thatpatti.livejournal.com]

oops, that was me.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Nah, washing them isn't an issue - you just need to do it. Every couple of days should do the trick provided you have enough supply.

[kathrynt.livejournal.com]

We have 18 Fuzzi Bunz. In the beginning, I washed every day -- now I wash every other day. It is so not a big deal.

The average cost of a year's disposeables is just a hair over $1200, just for comparison.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's pretty obscene. It's just tough to come up with the ch-ching all at once. Argh!

[lorac.livejournal.com]

We bought both when Katie was little and I'm really liking the convenience of only needing to buy one size. I wish they had more colors like the fuzzi bunz though!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I know - that's the sad part. I think I would need to invest in a couple of really fun AIOs somewhere else for when I needed a really cute baby butt.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Yeah. For real.

I guess we can always dip into some of the "house money" that we'd put away to finish the basement. Especially since I doubt we'll be finishing ANYTHING the way that all of the other house maintenance projects are eating into that pool!

But hey - one size will defray SOME of the cost, provided they hold together well throughout the years.

[cfred.livejournal.com]

If your uncle makes weekly deposits of $22.55 into an ING saving account earning 4.5%, he'll have enough to buy it, excluding taxes and shipping, in 20 weeks.

(I need a suitably geeky I <3 Math icon for when I have moments like these. :) )

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Dang, I wish I had an uncle who could do that. 20 weeks would be great timing. :)

[amyura.livejournal.com]

That's funny......compounding interest doesn't require calculus. It requires exponents and logarithms. (says the nerdy calculus teacher)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I know. But he REALLY liked the idea, I guess. I believe he first started bringing it up in the previous pre-calc class and he just kept it going. Since he was also of the "show all work" sort, I think he liked them because showing full work generated a lot of paper.

[cfred.livejournal.com]

From a theoretical standpoint, continuously compounding interest is an integral, or it at least brings e to the party.

From a practical standpoint, it's a step function, usually once a month.

[anitsirk.livejournal.com]

check out the trading posts at mothering.com for used diapers (if that doesn't squick you out). i got a bunch of diapers for waaaaay less than i would have if i bought them brand-new.

poor mr. morin....

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

But to get to the trading post, I would actually have to JOIN mothering. And I'm way scared of them. I'm not squicked at all by used diapers but I'm skeeved by some of those crazy moms!

Mr. Morin was an interesting man. He really seemed to like me, though I don't know why.

[lorac.livejournal.com]

I just sold most of Katie's smalls here on the cloth diapering community on lj and I've seen BG! there too if you want something not quite so extreme as MDC.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Oh good idea, thanks so much. :)

[rainbow-slinky.livejournal.com]

That's the exact set I'm planning on getting. I figured I'd tell anyone who asked what we need to make a donation to the cloth diaper fund rather than a normal registry...

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Good idea!

[(Anonymous)]

JUDE! are you seriously using those? ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Sarah Aubry :)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

What's "ewwwwwwwwwwww" is putting petroleum-y plasticy things near your baby's soft little bottom and then rolling them up and tossing them in the trash to fill the earth and leach poop out forever and ever amen.

Yuck!

[lunamoonwmn01.livejournal.com]

I agree to try the trading post at MDC. Really good deals. Put it on your registry and tell people to go in together dude!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I am starting to make a list of things that can't be put on a regular registry (at like a major store) and then I can tell people that I'd also like those things. Maybe I can get a bunch of people to all pitch in on diapers.

I haven't joined MDC. I'm scared!

[lunamoonwmn01.livejournal.com]

Don't be scared. I'm on there and I'm normal.

We used www.thethingsiwant.com for our registry, and it has worked out really well! It's just an online list basically, and people can buy the items anywhere.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're normal - but are you in the minority? I always thought most of the people on MDC were people who had nothing to do but post online all day. Maybe I'll give it another look-see now that I have this lame desk job. :)

Thanks for the tip!