Re-allocation

So I am not going to pretend that moving into this new house of ours is going to save money, but I am pretty excited about how the profile of our money spending will change.

One of the big things? Laundry.

I estimate that I spend $700 a year on laundry at the coin-op machines in our building at the condo. That doesn't even count the cost of soap (which I make myself, so the cost may be negligible). That is just quarters in the machine. We won't be saving that money, but I would rather be spending it on a house that I like than dumping it down a washing machine. 

If we were to stay in the condo, the laundry numbers would only be going up; we are expecting a baby soon, and are in the long process of adoption for another. I don't expect that my current seven loads a week is anywhere near the maximum that I will reach.

Other benefits of house laundry include the ability to use a clothesline. We aren't allowed to use one in the condo (because our HOA has a false assumption of classiness? Because they hate the environment and the age-old glories of solar clothes drying? You choose.) and that forces a dryer load per washer load. I am hoping to get up a clothesline ASAP at the new place, use less electricity, and get more vitamin D and exercise while drying my clothes. I expect we will still have a dryer (it does rain sometimes here, and we are no strangers to the midnight emergency load), but I hope to use it a lot less.

Another perk of no coin-op is that it makes cloth diapers both easier to do (I can't control the cycles on our washing machine at the condo) and much more economical. We own enough cloth diapers (fuzzibunz) to diaper one, maybe two kids very comfortably, but at what it cost to wash them effectively, it was actually cheaper to use Costco diapers. With my own washing machine, I won't have to run three separate cycles for my cold/hot/cold wash, so I can get them done more efficiently, and with a clothesline I shouldn't have to run them through the dryer hardly ever.

I expect we will still use disposable diapers on occasion, but I am looking forward to cloth diapers being the economical choice. Especially since in a very short time we will have two kids in diapers.

Saving on laundry definitely doesn't balance the cost of the new house, but I would much rather be spending the money on the house that we like than continually dumping it down the laundry drain. It's a lifestyle choice that I am excited to make.