Catherine_g's Profile

I use a scale most of the time so my measuring cups don't get that much use (I am getting really good at converting cups to grams for flour, sugar and butter), but I do have 3 sets of measuring spoons which are handy because we make just about everything ourselves.

I found that buying things as I needed them and getting them secondhand was best for my budget and the environment. Lots of things that were on most people "must have" list I did not need such as a bouncer chair or a change table.

I must say I am really jealous of your 10$ tripp trapp chair, I searched for a used one for a year and never found one under 200$ (it retails for 300$ here).

I actually find most family picture tacky, so I would only include my kid on Christmas card's pictures. As for the Huffington Post article, it may be true for the autor but not for all new moms, I do not have issues with my post baby body, nor do most mom's I know, but I am usually the one taking the pictures, so I do not appear in them, as simple as that.

My doctor's office has that policy in the wintertime, they have a place to hang your coat and take off your shoes and they offer disposable booties, no shoes allowed in the office, not just the exam room. Most people are used to this and either bring their inside shoes or slippers with them.

I use natural peanut butter that is made from actual peanuts (and only peanuts) on demand at my local food store (les aliments merci! for those living in Montreal).

Glasses can be stored in a drawer, I actually have a frient who does this (and has upper cabinets) and I find it much easier to get a glass, there is a mat at the bottom of the drawer to precent glasses from sliding around. Unfortunately I don't have enough drawer space to do this.

Our splurge was a new car with 4 doors, instead of our sporty car.

In Quebec, the cut off date is October 1st, but you can ask for a "derogation" and get your kid in kindergaten if they hit five before december 1st. Here competitive sport is not important in our school system so being bigger will not give you anything more. I think it's more a question of maturity and the intellectual skills of the child, I was the youngest of my class and was always the best performer, I always felt as if school was not going fast enough, so for me it would certainly not have been a good idea to hold me back an other year, but it can be beneficial for other kids.

I think you are on the right track, babies don't need all that much, and you should be able to get stuff as you need it instead of buying all these must have in advance.
I also opted to skip the baby shower explaining that I already had what we needed at that we prefered having hand me downs and having actual help instead of new stuff we won't use, my mother in-law felt the need to throw me a mini shower so don't be suprised if someone throws you a suprise baby shower!

Lufa farms really rock, they do organic baskets that you can get all year round, and their veggies are really tasty.