The one where I reveal my deep dark secret

Today I got hosed when I bought diapers. Buying diapers is something we mostly avoided for Liam's first year, but he's wearing disposables to daycare now, and we're burning through them at a fine clip. We're coming into this at a bad time, right when the number of dipes per box is dropping but the price is holding steady. Liam graduated a size just a few weeks ago and has already started wetting through overnight, so today it was back out to the store to get the next size up again. Anyhoo, I've heard from several people now that Life brand diapers are the exact same and made at the same factory as Pampers, so thrifty me finally decided to try some. Unfortunately I didn't do the math until I got home from the store, and realized that the biggest size of Life brand diapers is still two cents per diaper more than the jumbo cartons of Pampers I buy at Walmart. Live and learn.

Two cents per diaper might not sound like much, but this whole baby thing is muy dineros, so every little bit of thriftiness helps. Today Chad was spouting off again about something he saw in the store that Liam. Just. Has. To. Have. I am no better; just a few days ago I came home from the store with a pair of navy and yellow plaid pants that make Liam look like Arnold Palmer; but they're so damn cute with his monkey sweater, I couldn't resist. Have I mentioned the photo finishing and scrapbook supply costs we've incurred over the past year and a bit? The Black's employees know Liam by name.

And now I have to let the cat out of the bag, because keeping this bottled up makes me such a hypocrite; not that I won't be one just by admitting it, but at least I can't be accused of witholding information. We have another expense on the ledger as of late. We have a cleaning lady. Though I prefer to call it "help with the cleaning", because it certainly doesn't let us entirely off the hook. Today she came while we were at work, and to walk in the door at the end of a long day to the smell of Murphy's Oil Soap and gleaming floors and windows... priceless. Don't get me wrong, it still feels weird, and I really did believe (once upon a time) that the day would never come. It also feels a little bit worse to mess things up again after you've paid to have them tidied, rather than doing it yourself. But I realized that if I was willing to take a pay cut to switch to working part time - which I would, to spend more time with Liam, but it's not an option - why wouldn't I spend $12 an hour to buy back some of my time as a full-time employee?

Yes, world, those are icicles hanging from Hell's eaves. Go about your business.