I’ve been watching a bit more Netflix recently, knowing that I won’t be watching nearly as much (or at all) once baby comes. I liked Russian Doll (but I’ve always loved Natasha Lyonne and I’m so happy to see her in the main role for once) and also The Breaker Uppers (it’s like a New Zealand Kristen Wiig and a half-Indian Tina Fey in a Bridesmaids type film. It made me lol a couple times, which is rare for me). If you have Amazon Prime, I liked Alex James documentary Slowing Down Fast Fashion (which really didn’t have too much new information for me, but is a great beginner’s guide about fast fashion). I also watched on Amazon Prime Inside the Billionaire’s Closet about the exotic skin and fur industry, and I did learn a lot from that one (it was quite hard to watch at times).

On the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) front, we have our first month (January) of expenses in and having never tracked my spending before I was surprised to learn I was spending a lot more than I thought (well duh, isn’t that always the story). But really, I thought I was being super good because I’m limiting my purchases to just one item a month for the blog (and that was the $130 spent on RTR— and I’ll be reviewing my experience with their service this week). So I was not expecting such a large sum under the shopping category (over $1000), and a lot of that was buying things on Amazon. Granted January was the month of the move ($1000 moving cost alone) and we did buy some supplies and 1 piece of furniture for the house, so I don’t categorize it as needless spending. But it’s still amazing (and a tad disheartening) how the money just flows out even when you’re trying to be thrifty (no fun shopping, zero meals out, and made my husband bring lunch from home most days). I kind of wish I had done a better job at tracking spending when I wasn’t being “good” just so I could see the improvement. Ah well, better late than never.

And this month will also probably be a big spending month since we are finishing up purchasing the rest of the items on our baby registry. Oh and shout out to Henny for being the sweetest and most thoughtful reader, who gifted me with a stroller bag/organizer from my registry! Thank you so much Henny!! Anyway, we’re trying to be super frugal about what to buy, but it’s so hard when there are so many lists, people, marketing materials telling you what you “need” for your baby. We’re trying to be uber conservative and using discounts as much as possible (a lot of places like Amazon and Buybuybaby have a 15% registry completion discount). But well, we knew having a kid was going to be expensive. Luckily we got a lot of hand-me-downs in the clothing department (and we got a stroller from a friend). This timely article about how to save money with kids had some pretty good basic pointers.

Well 2 more weeks til D-day (due date)!