To that end, SHU and I produced an episode of Best of Both Worlds this week on interesting money questions. We ask each other what we’d do with a windfall (my boring answer is that changing day to day life is a really high bar! I suspect we’d be living very similar lives…while sitting on a nicer sofa). We talk about money mistakes we have made. We talk about our earliest money memories.

Please give the episode a listen and we’d love to hear your answers for any of these questions as well!

For any Frugal Girl readers, I was today’s Meet the Reader post. I talk about the “why” behind saving money (freedom + security) and the wisdom of keeping base expenses low if possible. I take issue with how frugality literature often doesn’t question the decision to be a one-income family and why women need to protect their earning capacity.

Anyway, please check out the interview! In the meantime, I took my 2-year-old to the Please Touch Museum this morning. We have a membership, and they open only to members on Mondays, so it wasn’t too crowded. We had a good time but he definitely wanted to stop at the cafe, which is always a flash point for (frugal) me. My default answer on buying food out is no. I don’t want to start the habit, we bring snacks, we also have food at home…

But he was really excited about it and pointed at a popsicle in the cafe which turned out to be 90 cents. Really! Is anything under a dollar anymore? He ate every little bite and loved it and was so happy about it.

So, I guess it’s good to spend 90 cents for fun. Now let’s hope he stays asleep until camp pick up…

I’m starting to get some feedback from people who’ve already downloaded the intro, which is very exciting. I welcome your thoughts on that, or anything else I write.

If you’re not a Just a Minute reader, please subscribe! This once-a-month newsletter has a new essay, tips, a book review and links to popular posts here and elsewhere. If you sign up, you’ll be sent a link to the download automatically.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging…

1. Sign up for my newsletter, “Just a Minute” (at any point)

2. Pre-order a copy of the book (in the two weeks prior to publication, roughly)

3. “Like” the book on Facebook, or otherwise share news of it via social media (at any point)

So, in a crowded book market, what kind of incentives should I offer to get people to do these things? I have a few ideas but I’m really curious if you all have ideas as well. Feel free to leave them in the comments or email me.

It’s been a fascinating month, from a time perspective, adjusting to being a mother of three children under the age of five. I haven’t been keeping time logs, but I’ve  made a few observations:

• Help is good. It is physically impossible to, say, carry 3 kids around simultaneously. I won’t need this much assistance from family and sitters forever, but right now I do.
• There are few long periods of time available for focused work. So to-do lists are very important. Otherwise, I will completely forget what I’m supposed to be doing. Waking up every 3 hours will do this to a person.
• Even if the day is crazy, getting out of the house for a little bit (for, say, a 30 minute jog) makes everything better
• I’ve written about the declining marginal costs of children from a financial perspective, but they also become easier from an energy perspective as you know better what you’re doing. My delivery nurse got quite a laugh when she came into my recovery room and saw me nursing Ruth on one side, eating a soft pretzel with the other hand, and carrying on a conversation with my husband. She’s like “first time mothers don’t do that.”
• Autumn leaves are fleeting. I always like hiking in October, when the leaves are at their peak. I figured we wouldn’t get to do much of that this year with a newborn. But we’ve loaded her in the Baby Bjorn and gone for long walks in various wooded areas for three weekends in a row. My 2-year-old and 4-year-old are getting to be good hikers!
• Babyhood is fleeting too. It’s hard to imagine, looking at my 2-year-old, that he was the size of Ruth exactly two years ago. In two years, babies turn into children with their own personalities and ability to observe many things about the world. So I’m taking time for lots of snuggles and big hugs now, knowing that my kids probably won’t be much interested in such things ten years from now. While I wish I had more time for a few things at the moment, I also know that there will be times in my life in the future when I’ll have plenty of time and a lot more freedom. Heck, I may even be able to get a 2-seater sports car by my late 40s!