So, I don’t suppose this is on everyone’s bucket list, but submitting a book proposal (as well as having it accepted, lol) is definitely on mine–and I just checked it off! Yes. I wrote a book about saving money on baby gear, because when I was pregnant I got just a teeny bit obsessive about finding ways NOT to spend the $10,000 the average parent plunks down for baby gear, clothes, and food. I found so many ways to save (without sacrificing quality or safety) it became a game to me, motivated by my goal to put whatever money I saved into a college fund for baby girl.

So, after saving 70% off baby’s first year and finding myself the resident expert among my friends for all things FREE, I started a baby blog about cloth diapers (29Diapers.com) and started writing a Friday segment that went through my money-saving tips for buying baby gear, one at a time. It was actually my way of scheduling in writing time so I could compile these tips into a book to share with other parents. And. It’s. Done.

Today I finally found time to put together a book proposal and prepare the submissions to three publishers, and the envelopes are sitting on my dining room table ready to go out tomorrow. omg. Happy day. I’m considering self-publishing it, too, with Amazon, but their upload requirements were harder to figure out in my limited free time than a book proposal, so I started with the traditional route. I’m thinking by the time I get the self-published thing figured out, I may be starting to hear back from the first publishers. We’ll see. I don’t want to steal sales from a publisher, but I’m also not going to wait forever to get this book out there when I know lots of parents would be happy to pay $15 for a book that saves them $7000. Wish me luck! I’ll be posting pics of my first rejection slip–a milestone to treasure!–here as well.