Zatera Ul

There has been so much spiritual warfare stuff going on here this fall, impeding the completion of my book, and other projects that we are trying to get going. One thing after another; interruptions, illnesses, and we just now found out that some witless minion smashed out a window of our car TO STEAL THE DIAPER BAG. (So witless that he left the diaper bag sitting in a puddle and didn’t even take the Band-Aids from it. There’s another loser for me to pray toward heaven.)

All I want to do, really, is live in peace with my family and my happy little projects, but there is no peace, because Satan rules this world.

I have a lot of minor edits that I would like to make to my book, but really it is good enough as it is. I’ve let the book, The Naturally Frugal Baby: Financial Survival Strategies and Tactics for Having a Baby without Going Broke, loose on Lulu.com: here. There’s a free preview, of rather poor quality, a free download of the whole thing, and the paperback is available at the Lulu minimum price (currently $10.03 plus shipping). I am not taking a profit on it while I am on a personal sabbatical for the next year.

The main topics that it covers are: the details of how the USDA determines that it costs about $200,000 to raise a child (really you can do it for much, much less); tax implications of parenthood; how to get your life in order before you start trying to conceive; childbirth care providers and how to pick one; when to leave work; options for working after the baby is born; navigating insurance benefits; feeding; diapering, demystifying cloth diapers and comparing costs against disposables; what baby stuff is most useful, and lower-cost alternatives for finding it; how to weed out bad baby advice; getting your financial life back in order after the baby is born; and a host of other things that arise later in the baby’s first year.

Since I’m self-publishing, there was no editor to restrain me from throwing in allusions to other subjects, such as architecture and economics and computer science and theology and decorating, or from illustrating the book with cartoons of Martians, or from referencing a lot of “out-of-date” books by authors that I happen to like. I also put in a list of online resources that I’ve found helpful. The book is 181 pages, altogether, and there’s a decent amount of meat in it.

This book is for anyone who would like to have a baby in the next few years, but is holding back because of the state of the economy. By all the indicators I’ve been following, the economy is going to be at best limping along for the next few years, if not actually in Great Depression 2.0, and extreme frugality will be almost the only way to start a family while keeping off the dole. If you’re not planning on having a baby yourself, maybe you know of some younger people who are almost ready to start a family. Remember that downloads of the book are free.