Diaper Wars Review 5: Pampers Baby Dry

Positives

Softness
Pampers Baby Dry diapers are pretty soft. They are not quite as soft as the Little Snugglers and Swaddlers, they are about the same as Luvs, and they are way softer than Parent's Choice. In any case they are soft enough that I would put them on My Little Guy.

Rewards Program
These are Pampers diapers so they have the same rewards program as Swaddlers. Here is the information about it:
Pampers has a great rewards program. You can get points by entering codes from diapers, wipes, and other Pampers products. They also release codes frequently for bonus points. And you can get 310 points for free just for entering these codes. The points can be redeemed for pampers diapers and wipes as well as Shutterfly books and prints, magazines, and items and toys for your child.

Deals
Like I said about Swaddlers: I have heard that Pampers coupons are harder to find and put out less than Huggies. I do not know about this since I just started looking for these coupons recently. Right now there are coupons for $1.50 off Pampers available on most major coupon sites, including on amazon coupons.com

Neutral 

Price
Prices are for size 1 diapers for equal comparison.
Walmart - Box of 276 diapers for $47.19 = $0.17/diaper
Amazon - Box of 276 diapers for $44.83 (with subscribe and save, free shipping) = $0.16/diaper
Target - Box of 276 diapers for $44.99 = $0.16/diaper

*Prices reflect the price at the time I checked, they will vary. I am not  responsible for difference between these prices and current prices.


Fit
This diaper is similar to the other Pampers in that it is not stretchy around the top edge. Only the part near the velcro tabs is stretchy. And like luvs these diapers are not as big as the Pampers Swaddlers so the baby may outgrow each size a little sooner than they would with the Swaddlers (again the only reason this is a problem is that the diapers get slightly more expensive per diaper the bigger they get, so it is better to stay in the smaller sizes longer). The legs are very stretchy, and there is plenty of room in the bottom for filling. In fit these are almost identical to Luvs.

Negatives

Absorbancy
Pampers Baby Dry are somewhat absorbent. They held the liquid in even all night. They did perfectly fine during the day, but after the first couple of nights I stopped using them at night and just finished using the package during the day. These also gave My Little Guy a rash when I used them at night.

Blowout Rate
My Little Guy had 1 small leak in these. He didn't have any other poops that would have come anywhere near a blowout so I don't know if it would be a regular problem or not.

Wetness Indicator
Pampers Baby Dry does not have a wetness indicator.



Conclusion

I would say that these diapers are ok. I don't think that I will ever buy them again. They are almost identical to Luvs except Luvs can be worn overnight. They skate by on the Pampers name, but they are no better than the cheaper diapers. There are definitely better diapers out there. If I was going to spend more than the price of Luvs I think I would go ahead and pay the higher price for the Little Snugglers or Swaddlers.


Linked up To:
Frugal Girls, A Pinch of Joy,



Other Posts to Check Out:
Diaper Wars
Diaper Wars: Huggies Little Snugglers Review
Diaper Wars: Pampers Swaddlers Review
Diaper Wars: Parent's Choice Review
Diaper Wars: Luvs Review
Diaper Wars: Up and Up Review

Distasteful ingredient

I hate onions. There I admited it. I can't stand them. I hate the smell, I hate the flavor, I hate the way they make your eyes water when you cut them, and I absolutely cannot stand the crunch (I have a texture issue with certain crunchy foods such as onions and water chestnuts). There are no fresh onions in my kitchen (that is why the picture is of minced onions, I didn't have an onion to take a picture of), like ever, unless someone brings them over, which wouldn't happen very often I don't think. I keep dried onions around in case I really feel like I need them in a certain recipe. But the only recipe I regularly feel like they are needed in is chili. You know what the worst part of hating onions is? They are in everything. I mean it, everything. And most people can not imagine cooking without onions (Yes, it is possible, and yes, the food can still taste good. My husband is a die hard onion fan and he loves my cooking. Trust me the onions are not necessary, everyone just thinks they are for some reason). In public I simply pick the onions out, or eat around them. In other people's home it depends on the dish and how prominent the onions are as to whether I eat around them or woman up and put up with the thing that I don't like. I really try not to be rude. I don't ask for individualized dishes, I don't mind picking them out if the cook doesn't mind. But I am never quite sure what the correct etiquette for this is. Imagine with me for a moment. Think about the food or ingredient that you don't like. Imagine if it was in a vast majority of dishes that are served to you and so prominent that people can't imagine ever cooking without it. What would you do? What is correct etiquette?

What about you? What do you do if there is an ingredient in a dish that you don't like? What food or ingredient do you really dislike?

Wedding on a budget

Oh, my, goodness. I had almost 3000 pageviews yesterday. And so far almost 500 today. (I am not exactly sure when the day switches over, it seems to be somewhere in the middle of the evening for me?) I feel very humbled that so many people are interested in reading what I have to say. Thank you to my wonderful readers! And thank you very much to The Frugal Girls who featured me from their chic and crafty party! I love being able to share my random thoughts with all of you wonderful people!

Today I went out wedding stuff pricing with my sister. She is getting married this summer and I am so excited for her! I have so much fun helping her plan her wedding because it brings back wonderful memories of my own wedding planning time 4 years ago. I absolutely love wedding stuff. I am endlessly fascinated and I could browse the wedding aisle for hours (well maybe not just 1 wedding aisle but I don't seem to mind store hopping and looking at very similar but slightly different wedding supplies at several different stores for hours :) And of course girl time is also very fun! Guys just don't get it. If you take a guy to the wedding aisle his eyes will immediately glaze over, or he will go into hunting mode (Ok, we are here for party favors, and paper decorations, check and check, ok lets get out of here). So you have to take a girl friend so you can take your time and look :)

One challenge I think we all face when wedding planning is keeping it within the budget. No matter what your budget is it is always a balancing act to make sure that you get everything you want but don't spend too much. When I was planning my wedding I didn't have a strict budget but my husband and I were both in school and my parents are not super rich so I wanted to keep the costs very low. We managed to keep our wedding to right around $1000. (Yes I know that is super cheap and not 100% reproducible, We were expecting to spend $2000-3000, but there are definitely ways to keep wedding costs down. Do you know what my #1 wedding budget secret is? Family, Friends, Family! Think of all your family and friends, most of them are very willing to help make your special day special. We only signed 1 contract for our entire wedding. That was for the photographer, but she was my husband's cousin so she gave us an amazing deal! (And she was super amazing because she photographed our wedding while she was 8 months pregnant, I didn't realize just how hard that would have been for her until 6 months ago. She only did the wedding, we asked some crafty aunts and uncles to photograph the reception) Everything in our wedding was done by family or friends. We bought our flowers from a wholesale distributor (I have an aunt who had a craft license and we just paid her the tax and paid the wholesale price for the flowers) and my mom did the flower arranging and she did an amazing job! We had a dessert bar for the reception and we made all the desserts ourselves (we had a friend of the family who ran a catering business who let us use her industrial kitchen, which was totally easier than trying to cook them all in 1 small home kitchen, if you don't have a caterer friend maybe your church would let you use their kitchen?). For the cake we bought 6 small round cakes from Walmart (They were super cheap, I don't remember the exact price, but I think they were under $5 each) and 1 sheet cake for in the back. We used buckets and boxes under a nice piece of cloth to make a beautiful cake stand. And some friends from church helped us out by serving the food during and getting it all laid out and keeping an eye on it (I wouldn't have family do this, it has to be someone who doesn't mind missing out on a lot of the wedding) We did all of the decorating ourselves and friends and family came to help. We did a lot of stuff ourselves and had a lot of help from wonderful family and friends!

What are your tips for keeping wedding costs low?


Linked Up To:
Frugal Girls, A Pinch of Joy, Serendipity and Spice,

Ultimate Blog Party!! And my very first giveaway!

I found a link to this party when I was browsing through blogs. It looked like so much fun I knew that I had to join! The Ultimate Blog Party is hosted by 5 minutes for Mom. It is a great way for bloggers to connect and find new blogs to obsess over. (Click the banner above to find out more about the party and join)

By the way Welcome visitors from the Ultimate Blog Party! I am so glad that you are here! Please take a minute to look around!



About Me

I am Randomly Fascinated. I chose that name because when thinking about a possible blog I knew that I would  never be able to choose just one topic to talk about. I am fascinated wide variety of subjects and I tend to randomly jump from one to another. I am a new blogger. I actually didn't start telling people that I started a blog until a few weeks ago because I was afraid of criticism and I wanted to see if I could do it before I told people. I have had a lot of hobbies that I have done for a while and then dropped. I am learning as I go and adding and changing things as I find new ideas. I am a wife. Mr. Random is the love of my life and no matter what we are going through I am always glad that I married him. I am a new mommy. My Little Guy is almost 5 months old and I am loving every minute of being his mom. I love to cook. I love to try new recipes and I am totally comfortable adapting recipes to my taste (Mr. Random is not a picky eater so I am allowed to adapt to my tastes, which are significantly pickier). I love to make crafts and art. I enjoy being creative and making things with my hands. My favorite artistic medium is ceramics and my dream is to one day own a kiln so I can make ceramics again. I love pinterest. I tend to spend more time pinning than repinning because I also love combing blogs. I also have a lot of other random thoughts that I post about.



My First Giveaway!

I am giving away $50 worth of makeup from Arbonne! The prize will include 3 fyi eyeQ cream eye shadows 1 sheer genius (olive green), 1 dramatic (aqua), and 1 prom queen (lavender).

To enter simply leave a comment below telling me which of my random fascinations is most fascinating to you. Make sure that in your comment you leave me some way to contact you if you win. I will randomly choose a winner. This contest will end at Midnight April 20th. I will contact the winner after that to get their address. If the winner is a blogger I will feature your blog next week so post your link!

Diaper Wars Review 4: Luvs

Positives

Softness
Luvs diapers are very soft. Both the inside and outside are made of a very soft material. I would be fine with putting these on My Little Guy.

Absorbancy
Luvs are very absorbent. I did not have any problems with these diapers at all. Even overnight they held everything in.

Price
Prices are for size 1 diapers for equal comparison.
Walmart - Box of 300 diapers for $39.97 = $0.13/diaper
Amazon - Box of 264 diapers for $34.19 (with subscribe and save, free shipping) = $0.12/diaper
Target - Box of 264 diapers for $34.99 = $0.13/diaper

*Prices reflect the price at the time I checked, they will vary. I am not  responsible for difference between these prices and current prices.



Neutral

Fit
This diaper is similar to Pampers in that it is not stretchy around the top edge. Only the part near the velcro tabs is stretchy. The only issue is that these diapers are not as big as the Pampers Swaddlers so the baby may outgrow each size a little sooner than they would with the Swaddlers (the only reason this is a problem is that the diapers get slightly more expensive per diaper the bigger they get, so it is better to stay in the smaller sizes longer). The legs are very stretchy, just like all the other diapers I have tried. And there is plenty of room in the bottom for filling

Deals
If you go to Luv's website you can sign up for coupons to be sent to you. I just signed up so I will let you know what I receive :)

edited to add: I did recieve a coupon for $1 off  a package of diapers that I took to target and bought a pack. It came out to $0.11 per diaper so good price. Definitely worth signing up for if you are going to use Luvs!

Blowout Rate
My Little Guy stopped having blowouts before we got to trying Luvs so I didn't get to rate this.


Negatives

Wetness Indicator
Luvs diapers do not have a wetness indicator.

Rewards Program
Luvs doesn't have a rewards program.


Conclusion

I would say that these are a winner. They are a good quality diaper. They are slightly lower quality than Huggies and Pampers but they are definitely a good diaper and worth buying.  The positives definitely outweigh the negatives. The few negatives are not really important features at all. The difference in price more than makes up for the slight difference in quality.



Linked Up To:
Frugal Girls, A Pinch of Joy, Serendipity and Spice, Uncommon,




Other Posts to Check Out:
Diaper Wars
Diaper Wars: Huggies Little Snugglers Review
Diaper Wars: Pampers Swaddlers Review
Diaper Wars: Parent's Choice Review
Diaper Wars: Pampers Baby Dry Review
Diaper Wars: Up and Up Review

Cream Cheese Biscuits

I had never heard of cream cheese biscuits before. I was browsing blogs looking for good recipes and I found this one. It looked so amazing that I had to try it. If you would like to see the original recipe click the link, I adapted it a little bit so I will post what I did.

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese (I pulled out, thawed, and softened one of my frozen cream cheese blocks)
3/4 c butter (also frozen, thawed, and softened)
1 1/3 c flour
1 3/4 t baking powder
1/3 t salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cream together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Slowly add flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until it forms a ball. Turn out onto plastic wrap. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour (more time is ok too). Pull out and roll out or pat to about 1/2 - 1 inch thick. Cut dough into squares (you can  cut with a biscuit cutter if you want but that produces scraps you have do deal with and trust me they taste just as yummy in squares, and I think that they are just as cute). Put on baking sheet. Bake 10 - 12 minutes. You can brush butter on top if you want. I didn't feel that it was necessary. These are best served warm.

Verdict:
Pure Yumminess! These were very good. They were small so 4-6 looked like a side serving to me. I ate them with homemade strawberry jam and they were very good. My husband is slightly lactose intolerant so he couldn't eat very many but he thought that they were ok (he is not the cream cheese fanatic that I am :), I think that he said that they tasted like biscuits :)

Pictures:

Linked up to:
Frugal Girls, Everyday Mom, Addicted to Recipes, Cups by Kim, Jam Hands, A Pinch of Joy, Make Ahead Meals, Our Delightful Home, Skip to My Lou, Serendipity and Spice, The Winthrop Cronicles, Simply Klassic Home, Cornerstone Confessions,

How to Save Money and Food: By Freezing Spaghetti Sauce

Another food that I was having issues with going bad before I could use it was Spaghetti Sauce. Unless I am making spaghetti I rarely use a whole jar of spaghetti sauce for one meal. And quite often the extra spaghetti sauce goes bad before we have another meal that needs it. I recently found a great solution for this problem. I have started freezing spaghetti sauce in small manageable portions.


I used silicone muffin cups (these made it very easy to pop the spaghetti sauce out after it was frozen, if you don't have these you could line muffin tins with aluminum foil or wax paper. Line your muffin tins however you are doing it.

 Fill the muffin tins with spaghetti sauce. Place in freezer and freeze over night or for several hours.

After the spaghetti sauce is frozen through pop out of liner and put in freezer bag.

When you are ready to use the spaghetti pull out however many you want to use put in a microwave safe container and microwave until thawed. Check every once in a while and stir. For the picture below I put it in a ramekin for a dipping sauce.

You can also freeze sauce in ice cube trays, I just wanted larger portion sizes.


Linked Up To:
Frugal Girls, A Pinch of Joy,

How to Save Money and Food: By Freezing Butter and Cream Cheese

This happens to me a lot. I see a super great deal at the grocery store and I want to stock up on it so I buy a bunch. However I don't always use everything that I buy before it goes bad. So what do you do? Do you buy less when it is on sale and have to pay more for the same thing later? The answer for many foods is No! Many foods can be frozen for up to several months if you just know what you are doing. And if you don't know what you are doing a simple "Can you freeze ______ (insert chosen food here)" Google search will tell you exactly whether that item is freezable, how to freeze it, what to do with it when it comes out, how long it can be frozen and much more. You do have to do a little combing sometimes because there are sometimes differing opinions on things, but if you just look a little you should be able to find the information you are looking for. If you are thinking of freezing something chances are that someone else has tried freezing it. And in our very verbal share everything culture (not knocking it, obviously I am a part of it to :) chances are someone else has shared their experiences with it online. Below are my experiences with freezing two baking staples: butter and cream cheese.

Butter

I personally love to stock up at Christmas time because it seems most stores run really good sales for baking supplies around Christmas trying to draw in all those Christmas cookie bakers. This past year I stocked up like I normally do but because I was a little bit down and out (My little guy was born the week before Thanksgiving) I didn't get to making all the cookies that I usually make. So I had a ton of butter just sitting in my fridge. Now butter does actually last a really long time in the fridge, I have used it after several months in there and it was fine. But that just wasn't good enough for me. I had so much that I might not even use it all this year, so I wanted to freeze it. I did a quick Google search and turns out that butter is one of the easiest things ever to freeze. Just stick it in the freezer. It is that simple. The site did recommend wrapping butter in aluminum foil so it won't absorb the flavors of the other things in the freezer. I haven't done this and I haven't had any problems yet, but if you are worried about it or store a lot of foods with strong flavors then that would be a good idea for you.

Cream Cheese

Another thing that I stocked up on and had way too much of to use before it went bad was Cream Cheese. I love cream cheese in baked goods. Cheesecake, Cream Cheese Biscuits, Cream Cheese frosting, Cream Cheese fruit dip. Cream Cheese is yummy! Cream Cheese also freezes well. From my research I did discover that frozen cream cheese does change consistency a little bit so it needs some work to get back to smooth for spreading (you can microwave it and stir until smooth). This is not a problem for me because I don't care for cream cheese plain, I always mix it with something, but if you like to use cream cheese on toast or bagels or anything like that then you may want to try freezing 1 block and thawing it too see if the consistency is ok for you before you do several. I also read that full fat cream cheese tends to fare better after frozen than lower fat types. I like to bake with half real cream cheese and half Neufchatel (33% less fat) cream cheese, so I had stocked up on both. For the cream cheese, I took each package out of its box (to save room in the freezer) and labeled each Real or Fake with a permanent marker (because the packages look identical when out of the box), and then put four of them together in a quart size freezer bag and put them in the freezer like this. I have used these frozen cream cheeses (after thawing them) in cheese cake and cream cheese biscuits and they came out great! No problems! I haven't tried cream cheese frosting or fruit dip with them yet, but I am sure they would be fine for that too.

Sources:
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/freezingfoods/f/Freeze_Butter.htm
http://www.stockpilingmoms.com/2011/02/can-you-freeze-cream-cheese/




Linked Up To:
Frugal Girls, A Pinch of Joy, Cornerstone Confessions,

Diaper Wars Review 3: Parent's Choice

Positives

Price
Prices are for size 1 diapers for equal comparison.
Walmart - Box of 200 diapers for $23.88 = $0.12/diaper
Amazon - Not sold on Amazon
Target -Not sold at Target

*Prices reflect the price at the time I checked, they will vary. I am not  responsible for difference between these prices and current prices.


Neutral

Wetness Indicator
This wetness indicator is fine. It is a little different than Huggies and Pampers. It starts out as little blue pictures in a line around the diaper and then the pictures disappear when they get wet. It is actually a little freaky to see, and if you forget that you are watching for disappearing instead of changing color you may see a white diaper and think it is clean. This is not a problem when the baby is older and filling the diaper well, and you can tell by the feel that it is full, but it may pose a problem in the early weeks when you are still figuring things out. One good thing about it is that the indicator extends all the way to the top on the front and back of the diaper.

Deals
I don't think I have ever seen coupons for these, but according to this site there are coupons out there. If you are interested I guess you could sign up for their emails. Anyone else know where to get coupons?


Rewards Program
As far as I can tell is that there is no rewards program. If anyone knows about a rewards program for them please comment.

Blowout Rate
My Little Guy is not doing blowout right now so I did not get to test this.


Fit
The fit on these is ok. They are a little smaller than the other diapers. The back is stretchy like Huggies Little Snugglers, but it is not quite as stretchy. The front has absolutely no give to it. The sides are stretchy. The bottom has some extra room for filling, but not a lot.

 

Negatives

Softness
Parent's Choice is not very soft at all. I have to admit my first instinct when I opened the package was to return them. They are very stiff and I wouldn't want them anywhere near my skin. I felt kinda bad putting them on My Little Guy but I wanted to give it a fair trial for this review. Turns out I should have listened to my first instinct.

Absorbancy
Well, Parent's Choice does hold the moisture in , it did not leak out of the diaper, even over night. However they don't hold the moisture in the diaper away from the baby's skin. I only used these one night. When I got him up in the morning his skin was very wet from all the pee in the diaper. The other diapers we have tried did not have this problem so I know that there are better diapers out there. These diapers actually gave My Little Guy a rash (his first diaper rash in his whole 4 months of life) so I really don't like these diapers, obviously he does not have super sensitive skin or he would have gotten a rash before now. I guess if you don't mind changing diapers every 3 hours all night or using a different brand over night then you could use these, but I am going to pass.


Conclusion
These diapers are horrible. I will never use these diapers again. Actually I will be returning the package that I bought. My first instinct on opening this package was to return them but I fought down the urge so I could give a fair trial. The fair trial ended when they gave My Little Guy a rash. It took almost a week to get rid of that rash even using a very good diaper rash cream. I only used 3-5 of these diapers and I refuse to use any more. The only good thing about them is the price. These cost a litttle more than half the cost of Huggies and Pampers but I would pay the extra if I had to. I think the other off brands will be better too.



Other Posts to Check Out:
Diaper Wars
Diaper Wars: Huggies Little Snugglers Review
Diaper Wars: Pampers Swaddlers Review
Diaper Wars: Luvs Review
Diaper Wars: Pampers Baby Dry Review
Diaper Wars: Up and Up Review

Diaper Wars Review 2: Pampers Swaddlers

Positives

Softness
Pampers Swaddlers are very soft. The outside is a soft quilted looking material. The inside has a soft underneath layer and a soft holey over layer. All in all definitely something I wouldn't mind on my skin, so therefore something I don't mind putting on My Little Guy.

Absorbancy
Pampers Swaddlers are very absorbent. I have never had any problems with these diapers leaking pee. Even when My Little Guy sleeps 10- 12 hours and fills up his diaper with pee it is all caught in these super absorbent diapers.

Wetness Indicator
This wetness indicator is perfectly decent. It works the same as Huggies Little Snugglers. It starts as a yellow line down the front and back of the diaper, which turns blue when wet. This line extends further up on the front than the back. I have not noticed this recently because My Little Guy is pretty good at filling his diapers these days, but in those first couple weeks when he was having troubles with this I thought that Pampers Swaddlers wetness indicator was not quite as sensitive as Huggies Little Snugglers indicator.

Deals
I have heard that Pampers coupons are harder to find and put out less than Huggies. I do not know about this since I just started looking for these coupons recently. Right now there are coupons for $1.50 off Pampers available on most major coupon sites, including on amazon coupons.com

Rewards Program
Pampers has a great rewards program. You can get points by entering codes from diapers, wipes, and other Pampers products. They also release codes frequently for bonus points. And you can get 310 points for free just for entering these codes. The points can be redeemed for pampers diapers and wipes as well as Shutterfly books and prints, magazines, and items and toys for your child.

Neutral

Blowout Rate
I started using these diapers about the middle of My Little Guy's blowout phase. He had been having a blowout every day and when I switched to Pampers he had a blowout every couple of days. I am not completely certain if this is because the phase was slowing down, or if these diapers are actually better at holding it in.

Fit
I am going to call fit a neutral on this one. These diapers are not very stretchy. The diapers themselves are a little bit bigger than the other diapers so they still fit growing babies, but it lacks the stretchy waist band that is sported by some other diaper brands. The tabs that hold the adhesive strip are a little stretchy but that is all the stretchiness around the waist. The legs are still stretchy, and fit very well. There is plenty of room at the bottom to fill.

Negatives

Price
Prices are for size 1 diapers for equal comparison.
Walmart - Box of 234 diapers for $47.19 = $0.20/diaper
Amazon - Box of 234 diapers for $44.83 (with subscribe and save, free shipping) = $0.19/diaper
Target - Box of 234 diapers for $44.99 = $0.19/diaper

*Prices reflect the price at the time I checked, they will vary. I am not  responsible for difference between these prices and current prices.

Conclusion
Once again a very good diaper. The only true downfall is the price, I will be reviewing the off brands soon and we will see if the price is worth it or not.



Other Posts to Check Out:
Diaper Wars
Diaper Wars: Huggies Little Snugglers Review
Diaper Wars: Parent's Choice Review
Diaper Wars: Luvs Review
Diaper Wars: Pampers Baby Dry Review
Diaper Wars: Up and Up Review