Amazing Amazon: How to See How Much You Have Spent on Amazon.com

We love Amazon. It makes our lives so much easier. We joined officially in 2005, and, in 2008, we set up our Subscribe and Save account for diapers.

Can I tell you how easy and wonderful it is to have diapers delivered to your door monthly?  Life.Saver. Seriously.  No more dashes to the store, no more worries, no more unexpected expenses as you forgot to budget for it.

We use Subscribe and Save for more than just diapers and wipes. It is great for those routine things that you know you will need such as vitamins, air filters, toilet paper, fish food, dish detergent, rinse aid, bulk organic lollipops, and more.

We have these lollipops set for delivery every six months.

But Amazon is more than just Subscribe and Save. We use it for clothing.  Need a skirt to complete your daughter's American Heritage Girl uniform? Check! And I even ordered that while bathing our three year old!  Need a vacuum ASAP because you accidentally ripped the electrical cord out of yours? Check!  Need a really good reflective dog collar because your dog lost hers in the woods (again!)? Check!  Need some wall hanging guitar mounts, a magazine rack, something to organize your aprons, badminton birdies/shuttlecocks that are out of season, masa harina to make corn tortillas? ... You get the idea

We obviously use Amazon a lot.  We would prefer to buy local when possible, but our current phase of life with several small children is just not conducive to making lots of trips to the store.  Imagine comparing brands of a product you are new to like active charcoal and nutritional yeast while your baby becomes fussy and your three older children begin to run out of patience.  With Amazon, we can compare prices and reviews and buy with one-click.

When I heard there is a way to see how much you have spent with Amazon, I jumped right on it to see how much we have spent.  While the total number we have spent there seemed mind blowing, it broke down to about $136 per month since 2005.  When you buy a couple of cases of diapers and a case of baby wipes each month with a few other items, you reach that amount pretty quickly.

Here's how to download your report:

1. Sign in.
2. Go to "Your Account."
3. Select "Download Order Reports" under "Orders."
4. Enter a start date of January 1 for the earliest year in the drop down box.
5. Enter an end date of today's date.
6. Select "Request Report."

When your report is through generating, you can download it from the same page under "Your Reports."  The report will open in a spreadsheet. Sum column "AD" (Item Total) to see how much you have spent.  To add these numbers, click an empty cell, enter =SUM(, highlight all of the cells in column AD except the header cell of "Item Total", enter ), and press enter. That is how much you have spent.

We took it a step further and added the "List Price Per Unit" column in another cell. Then we subtracted the "Item Total" from the "List Price Per Unit."  We "saved" over $6,000 in the past 11 years, not to mention the gas, time, and stress we saved.

Shop Amazon - Give the Gift of Amazon Prime 

Paving a Path

We have been in our home for a little over two years now.  It has been an exciting time, and my parents are joining us in this exciting adventure.  Their home will be across the driveway from ours, and they will move in very soon.

With their big move looming, we decided to jump in and add some concrete to our driveway at their suggestion.  We even took it a few steps farther, adding a sidewalk to join the houses.

Concrete day was an exciting day, and, ultimately, three sidewalks were poured, two driveways, two patios, a carport, and a ramp. Whew!!  It sounds like a lot, and it was a lot.  BUT, through a lot of discussion and collaboration, we were able to create some beautiful winding sidewalks. Each front porch is now connected to its respective drive way, and the path between our homes is functional and very charming.

The kids watched the excitement all day from our back door as the existing rock and 4'x4' step were scraped away.

The kiddos enjoying the items misplaced by the concrete. On the left is one sidewalk, and there is another on the right edge.

After pouring the sidewalks, we realized that we have a long walking track that goes not only between houses but also to the shop that has been built. There is already heavy traffic as the kiddos burn up the walkway with bikes, trikes, scooters, and remote controlled cars.

Baby's First Foods

Baby V. may be our fourth born child, but she is still a baby, and we are particular with her first foods - never mind that we pull the dog toys out of her mouth on a regular basis...

Hide your dog toys from me.

What are good first foods to introduce? Bananas, applesauce, avocados, steamed and blended veggies to name a few. First baby foods are easy to make at home and easy to buy.  This is a great time to get into the kitchen and experiment with flavors, blends, and spices.  Get creative.

Baby food is also easy to buy with many varieties of organic available these days.  I like to make mine, because, in my current stage of life, it is just easier for me.   I can blend up the fresh and frozen foods we have on hand, dole out the amount she needs for the meal, and refrigerate the rest.  If I don't think she will eat a lot, I don't make a lot.  If the blend isn't to her liking, we're not stuck with five jars in the pantry.  I also don't have those dodgy jars in the fridge of unknown date.

My adventures in making baby food began with our second born when I found a Baby Bullet at a consignment sale, still in the box and unused. Score!  I wasn't familiar with the Baby Bullet when I bought it, but I quickly learned how easy it is to use. With two blade options, I keep it on hand in my pantry even when I am not making baby food because it is great for milling grains and pureeing food for other recipes.

For Christmas, I received a new generation pressure cooker, an Instant Pot . It makes cooking fun, and I am learning all sorts of new tricks, like how to cook applesauce in five minutes!

To make applesauce for Baby V., I started with four small, organic apples.

I diced the apples into chunks, placed them in the Instant Pot, and added 1/2 cup of water.

I checked the seal of the  Instant Pot lid to make sure it was in place, closed and locked the lid, set the valve to sealed, and set the time to Manual, High Pressure for 5 minutes.

When the apples were cooked, I took out the liner and let the apples cool.

Once the apples cooled sufficiently, I transferred the apples to the Baby Bullet.  I pureed the apples until smooth, adding filtered water as needed to reach the desired consistency.

I wasn't sure if leaving the apple skins on would leave the apples too chunky, but the Baby Bullet blended the apple chunks completely smooth.

Applesauce in Your Instant Pot

• 3 Medium Apples
• 1/2 cup water
• Cinnamon, optional

1. Wash, core, and dice apples. 
2. Place apples and water into Instant Pot. 
3. Press Manual, and select High Pressure. Set the time to five minutes. 
4. When the cycle is complete, remove the liner to let the apples cool. 
5. Blend the apples smooth after transferring to a Baby Bullet or blender.  You can also use an immersion blender if you have increased the recipe to a larger batch. 
6. Optional: Add cinnamon.

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