That, right there to the left, is the bane of my existence: unused baby formula. Babies never drink every bottle in its entirety and over the course of the day this leftover formula adds up.

It might be complete corporate bullshit, but every company that makes formula says: if your baby has not finished the bottle, do not reuse the formula, throw it out. That’s because they say bacteria from the child’s mouth can go back into the bottle through the nipple, contaminating the formula. And keeping this formula around only gives the bacteria time to multiply and become DEADLY!

I have twins, so that only makes this problem exponentially worse. So I did a little math on the value of the formula that’s being wasted.

On average, my kids are currently wasting about 12 ounces of mixed formula daily.

That’s 6 scoops of formula a day.

Even getting the big tubs at Sam’s Club, the cost per scoop is $0.233.

So let’s do a little math here: (6 scoops x $0.233) x 365 days per year = $510 over the course of the year.

Holy. Shit. I pay $500 a year for formula I pour down the drain. That makes me want to spit-up. Now that’s with twins, but still $250 for one child is nothing to scoff at.

So I ask, can corporate America please make some smarter bottles? Maybe put a little anti-siphon valve in there right below the nipple so that no “contaminated” formula can make it’s way back into the reservoir?

Surely someone with some engineering knowledge could solve this problem. It can’t be that complicated, can it? It’s 2011.  We’ve put a damn robot on Mars, we’ve elected the first Black-Irish President, we’ve even got Snuggies for dogs, this is within our reach!

And for whomever solves this problem: You could print money! You could sell these bottles for $100 a set and show people that they’re actually getting a great deal in the long run.

It’s probably too late for me, I know technology can only move so fast, but for the other parents out there, please, someone, solve this problem.

Fun Tidbit: If you search Google for “Can you reuse formula”, one of the top suggested results is “can you reuse a condom”. Which is funny because if you’re dumb enough to be searching Google for “can you reuse a condom” there’s a good chance you’ll be bitching about wasted formula soon.

If you’re not familiar with RSS feeds, imagine getting customized news feeds sent right to you. You’ll need an RSS feed reader to act as the centralized delivery location, I’d suggest Google Reader for this. It’s very good and it’s free.

Most websites will have a orange icon that looks like that one up there. All you need to do is click on it and say that you want to subscribe with Google Reader or the reader of your choice. Just about every website now has rss for news, weather, blogs and even sales.

RSS Feeds to Save You Money

Craigslist – Ever wish you could know when a new item was posted to Craigslist? Now you can. With Craigslist, you can save any search as an RSS feed which is great because you can specify what you want to get results for. Here are some that I like to keep an eye on: Baby & Kids, Toys & Games, and Farm and & Garden. We’ve gotten some great deals for our son by following these, a great example was the huge box of clothes we got for $50. It was about $300 worth of clothes. And the farm and garden one is great during the summer when people have excess garden bounty.

Bens Bargins – I rarely buy any electronics without watching the prices for a few weeks on Ben’s Bargins. I like that you can get RSS feeds for a specific category of products.

Deal News – This site tracks deals all over the internet for just about every kind of product. They too let you drill down to specific items, Babies and Kids, for example. My favorite part about Deal News is that they’ll tell you how the current deal relates to previous deals on that item, so you’ll know right away if this is the cheapest they’ve ever seen an item.

What is a 529 college savings plan?

A 529 plan is an investment vehicle that allows you to deposit funds for college education expenses for specified beneficiaries.

The great part about these plans is that they offer significant tax breaks, the most important of which being that the money grows tax free so long as it is eventually spent on college expenses.  Additionally, some states will even let you deduct contributions on your income tax.  You can see if your state is one by checking this list: tax deductable 529 plans.

Contributing to a 529 is easy because most plans can perform automatic paycheck deductions or automatic funds transfers from any bank account. Setting it up to take $25 per paycheck is a quick process even an Internet newbie can handle.

How to Pick a 529 college savings plan

As of this writing there are over 100 different 529 plans to choose from, but there are two basic types you should be aware of:

• Savings Plan – These plans let you contribute as much as you’d like, whenever you’d like.  You choose how your contributions are invested based on the offerings of the program. These plans are a lot like the 401k plans you may have at work.
• Prepaid Plan – These plans let you lock in today’s rate for the state’s tuition costs, so even if the cost of a college education increases (which it will) you will pay the lower price that it costs today.  Usually these plans have you purchase as certain number of credits or years of tuition in either a lump sum or with a set payment plan.

Which way should you go?  Well it depends on how you think you’ll benefit the most.  While a savings plan does have some risk involved (mutual funds are the major investment choice in these plans) you could have some huge gains it the stock market rises.  Even then, considering this: the average increase in tuition fees at public colleges from 1990 – 2000 rose 85%.  85%!!!  I don’t care what mutual fund you pick, it isn’t going up 85% in 10 years.

Consumer Reports actually just released their picks for the 5 top and bottom 529 plans in the country.

The biggest mistake people make with a 529 savings plan

You can pick the best plan in the country, but if you make this one mistake, you’ll still be the idiot your mother-in-law thinks you are:

Not starting early.

The earlier you start a 529 plan, the better of you and your child will be when it comes time for them to head off to college.  And you can’t start early enough, so long as your kid has a name, you can open a 529 savings plan.  I actually started the one for my son the night he was born while he and my wife were sleeping after the delivery. Yeah, I’m that kind loser.