DIY Cereal Mix

Our little man is a foodie. He loves his food, there are not many things that he doesn’t like. We are not sure whether it is all in the genes (we’re really into our food), or it was because we started him on “adult food” pretty young. We also gave him the opportunity to choose what he would like to have as often as possible. Most of the times, he chooses good healthy food, though obviously, just like any other 2 year olds, he’d ask for pizzas and “chippies” for breakfast too 🙂

Img src: Woolworth’s Online

One of his favourite fun times is choosing his cereal at the grocery shop. His favourite of all cereals is the Uncle Toby’s Plus cereal “with blueberries!!!”. We have been getting these for a couple of months now, until I realised that we go through the box within a week or so (with Mr E’s help). At $4 a pop, weekly, it certainly does add up. We’re madly saving up for upcoming house renovations and holidays at the moment, so I am trying my best to get the best bang for our buck, without affecting our lifestyle too much 🙂

So here’s what I did recently:

I made my own “Uncle Toby’s Plus Cereal” as what they really are, are just pre-mixed bits of cereal and dried fruit. Super easy and does not take all that much time for me to do 🙂 I already had the dried fruit in the pantry, so our current “box” of cereal only cost us AUD1. If I had to buy the fruit, it would be about AUD2 max with lots and lots of fruit leftover. If I want to be even more cost-savvy, I could also buy Homebrand “Corn Flakes” and Homebrand dried fruit. However, I prefer Sunbeam dried fruit as they’re still nice and plump and juicy (and Australian grown too) 🙂 There are some things I’d rather “splurge” on but the options are there.

Mr E said that it isn’t the same as the Uncle Toby’s cereal, but still yummy nevertheless. We are already half-way through my premix, so I think the boys really do like it 🙂

What do you guys do to save up that is easy to do? Please share, I want new a bathroom pronto!

Personalise your own Le Pliage: Want.

I would be lying if I say I wasn’t nervous about my exam next week.

To make sure that I don’t think about it too much, and stressing my little brain out, I do what I do best: look at bags online 😛

As I go through my usual webpages, I saw the ad for personalising my own Le Pliage. I love Le Pliage bags, they’re so handy and hardy but so very light. Easy to store too as they can be folded into pretty much nothing.

Here are my top six colour combo with Miss V’s initials. Because, you know, all my bags purchases from now on are “for her to wear later” 😉 I do surprise myself sometimes, as I love the green colour combo even though I don’t “do green” normally. Knowing myself, I would probably end up with either the blue or pink with the yellow stripe. Or maybe even the red.

I do wish they do the personalisation for the backpacks though.

If you have a spare hour or so, go to the Longchamp website and go nuts! It is quite fun! 😉

FYI: only the Collins St, Melbourne shop does the personalisation in Australia.

Cloth Nappies

Ever since Little E was born, I had been going to/fro-ing between disposable and cloth nappies. I won’t go into the pros/cons as there are many pages and forums discussing them. We had a trial one that we liked from Hippybottomus but as he had eczema which was mostly triggered by washing detergents, we decided not to go ahead with it. Without proper washing detergent, I found that the nappy didn’t get clean properly. Even with the help from the sun.

Now that Miss V seemed to be free of eczema (thank God!), I am seriously looking into cloth nappies again. I tried using it again the other day and I actually liked it. It isn’t any harder to use, and because I do the washing almost everyday, cleaning and drying the nappy was not a problem.

Little E is on his way to daytime toilet trained now, and we use disposable overnight. A dear friend of mine suggested that when his night disposable nappies are dry almost everyday, I can use the cloth nappy on him too! How smart are my friends?! 🙂

Hippybottomus has a trial pack for AUD99 and you can actually email them to request which patterns you would like (most brands don’t allow this from my quick research online). I chosen unisex patterns/colours as I will put them on Little E at nap times as well.

I received my order within a week, couriered straight to me. I washed them as soon as I got them at around 4pm. Though it was a cloudy day, the nappies dried before I needed them the next day. Hooray!

I asked for cloth nappies recommendation on Facebook, and from my friends who did recommend a particular brand that they’re happy with, Hippybottomus was what they recommended. Another friend said that Hippybottomus nappies are made in China and not Australian made (recommended by hardcore cloth nappies lovers). For me, as I am only starting (whose husband isn’t all for it), I didn’t want to spend the money for Australian made ones (they’re a little more expensive unfortunately). So Hippybottomus nappies were the obvious choice for me 🙂

I am pretty excited about using them 🙂

Disclaimer: As mentioned, Hippybottomus kindly sent me one nappy to try and I am affiliated with them 🙂

Current Wishlist

What is it about needing to do my assignment that made me want to shop shop shop? Procrastinating? Perhaps. Emotional buying? Most likely.

Anyway, I have recently befriended a fellow bag lover and talking to her reignited my NEED for a new bag. Since returning the last “nappy bag” that didn’t work out, I have yet to find one I like enough to spend the money on*. I am considerably picky when it comes to bags, and I have not had the opportunity to actually go shopping for one yet. Mr E did spoilt me with a beautiful one last year for our 5th wedding anniversary, but like I said above, I NEED another new bag 😛

1. Le Pliage Bagpack | 2. Mini Pashli Satchel (I am also liking the backpack version of this) | 3. Petite Turnlock Zip Top | 4. The Small Banner | 5. Alma BB | 6. The Spy Bag | 7. Kira Quilted Clutch | 8. Marion Quilted Backpack

Looking at the list, you would agree with Mr E that, yes, they all kind of look the same. Small, crossbody bags, or a backpack. You would think that also, having 2 babies, I would need a suitcase to replace the nappy bag I have at the moment. Well, yes, you are correct, the backpacks I’ve picked will indeed replace the nappy bag. However, I will still need another cute bag to carry for my stuff. So really, I technically NEED two new bags 😛

Here you go, Mr E, I’ve made your Christmas shopping so much easier for you heh heh heh

* Lies. I bought a cute little one in Japan. But it doesn’t count as it was a silly fun one (ie. not build to last). Not a proper bag. Oh, another lie. I did buy one the day my Mat Leave started in June this year. But again, another silly fun. Not a proper one. >_< #awesomeatjustifying