Every time I've ever heard the phrase "We're going to have to cut back" I immediately start crying and flailing. Cutting back SUCKS. When has "cutting back" ever been a good thing? It smacks of  poverty and diets and all sorts of other unappealing scenarios.

Unfortch, over the next several months I'll be getting a nice little lesson in "cutting back". Obviously I'm not happy about it. I'll be making about 60% of my normal salary while on maternity leave, and while I appreciate getting to spend up to a year at home coddling my offspring, I'm a bit sooky about the financial implications.

Earning less = spending less. And as it is, I'm not a big extravagant spender. It's not like I've been throwing down $300 on jeans and shoes all willy-nilly each week - I'm already pretty frugal. So knowing that I should be spending even less makes me all kinds of cranky.

I don't know where to start when it comes to cutting back, so I started by making a list of some of my upcoming expenses and trying to figure out ways to save:

Car Insurance: I got my invoice for car insurance for the year: $1,033. I shopped it around and the lowest price I could find anywhere was $1,004. Yes, a savings of $29. Yes, I switched insurance providers. For $29.

Christmas Gifts: Peter and I have already agreed we're going to buy less for one another after last year's embarrassment. We kept picking up "one more gift" for each other and in the end our living room was FULL of presents...presents for us. People came over and were like "oh, where'd you get that?" and we were like..."we bought it for ourselves". Over and over. It was horrible. Or they'd be like, "Wow, is all that for you two?" and I'd try to use the dog as an excuse. "A lot of these presents are actually Rory's."

Ouch...Nevertheless, Christmas is going to be expensive, no two ways around it. Luckily I'll be getting free Christmas cards from my new BFFs at Shutterfly :)

Bills: Not much you can do about bills. We've already installed thermostats to regulate the temperatures in the house and canceled our movie channel package in favour of Netflix which is much cheaper. I'm sure our water and power bills will be higher since we'll be doing 927380 more loads of laundry per week.

Groceries: Again, you gotta eat, but I'm sure we could be eating for less. I'd like to start making bigger batches of things - soups, chilis, etc - in the slow cooker, and freezing portions to heat up. Much cheaper in the long run than buying packaged food. We'll also probably start taking advantage of our Costco membership for some bulk stuff too.

Clothing: I'll soon (hopefully!) be back to my normal-ish size and shape and I'm going to be wanting new clothes. After spending months in yoga pants and H&M empire waist dresses I can't wait to wear real clothes again. I'm signing up for all the email coupons I can find and will continue to troll sale racks like it's my job and hunt for pieces with lots of longevity that will work for many different occasions.

Books: I've been using my library card instead of buying new books every month which has already saved me some dough! Yay!

Entertainment: The baby shall be our entertainment. I'm sure we'll just plop him or her onto their little tummy time mat and command them to make us laugh, and they'll obey.

Obviously, having a newborn will cut down on our dinners out, date nights, and general gallavanting around so we'll have to resort to things like visiting friends and having friends over, board game nights, watching movies at home, cooking fancy dinners and enjoying them by the glow of the baby monitor, and so on. Which, honestly? Doesn't sound so bad.

I also plan on doing lots of crafty stuff while baby naps, with the help of the trusty weekly 40% off coupons from Michael's.

One good thing about going out less is that we'll be burning less gas, too.

Health and beauty: Our gym membership is a must-have so that's an expense that's not going anywhere. I don't go for haircuts often, but I could probably choose a less pricey place to get my hair done - currently I pay about $60 for a cut after tax and tip. In terms of personal care I am probably the slackest person ever. I don't colour my hair and rarely get my nails done, so there's not much more I can do to save in this area.

Baby stuff: In large part thanks to our generous friends and family, we're all ready for baby's arrival. Once they're here, I don't know what kind of money we'll be spending month to month. If breastfeeding works out, that'll be free...if it doesn't, it doesn't. I've heard Costco is the best place to buy diapers and wipes. And everything else we'll just have to learn as we go.

So, new moms and general thrifty people: what do you suggest? If you've been through your own mat leave, how did you cut back? Did you find it hard? Any other tips for saving money that you'd like to share? My bank account and I thank you in advance!

1. Eaten a brussels sprout
2. Ridden on a motorcycle
3. Changed a diaper
4. Successfully applied liquid eyeliner
5. Emptied a cat litter box
6. Played hockey
7. Skied down a mountain without wiping out
8. Been stung by a bee
9. Broken a bone
10. Had a tooth pulled
11. Flown first class
12. Had a pedicure
13. Gone to a tanning bed
14. Seen a turtle in real life (zoos, aquariums and pet stores don't count; I mean a turtle just out hanging around in the wild)
15. Been baptized/christened/confirmed etc.
16. Had a tattoo
17. Had anything pierced except my ears
18. Had braces
19. Been in a fistfight
20. Mowed the lawn
21. Taken out a loan
22. Eaten a Krispy Kreme

Thanks Mama Kat for the Writer's Workshop prompt!

Here's our 36-week photo. We're now at 36 weeks and 5 days - two days from the magical 37 week mark, when the baby is officially finished doing useful, important things in the ute and is just simply laaaaaid back with its mind on its money and its money on its mind sucking down amniotic fluid, kicking the bejesus out of my innards, and fattening up like a Christmas ham.

AKA, the date where we can safely go into labour ANY DAY NOW with no worries.

Don't go getting ideas, baby. You stay in there and get chubby and give mama time to get her act together before you make an appearance. There are a lot of things I need to do before you get here, namely find a diaper bag that doesn't suck and doesn't cost one million dollars. Really, if it doesn't have giraffes and monkeys marching up and down the straps, it's impossible to find a decent diaper bag for less than the cost of the bloody crib. Is it too much to ask for a diaper bag that doesn't LOOK LIKE A DIAPER BAG?

Fun things we've done with the baby this week:

• Used the bump as a shelf for a water glass. 
• Put remote controls on it and watched the baby kick them off. 
• Rubbed cocoa butter on it 239570 times a day because my skin is so. itchy.
• Played patty-cake when they stick their feet a good four inches out the side of my stomach. 

My bump is no longer round, by the way. It's all pointy and sharp corners and baby footies and bum and elbows. It's more like...a rhombus. 

So, we've finally selected names for the baby - a girl name and a boy name. I really can't wait for that moment when we hear "It's a ______!" and I can say "Hello, ________!"

We get asked about names all the time, and have gotten used to watching people's faces fall when we tell them the names are top secret. We've had our boy's name picked out since before we were pregnant, and we just switched our girl's name in the past week or so after I realized the first, middle, and last names don't sound great together and panicked.

Why so secretive with the names? There are a few reasons. We just don't want people to criticize the names, for one thing, to make a face, or say something stupid. Or to say "OHMYGAWWWWD I know a kid named __________ and he/she is the biggest brat". Or send us Google links to people with the same name as our unborn child who turned out to be, like, sadistic serial killers or complete freak shows. Because for some reason, people really enjoy raining on others' parades.

If we have a girl, we don't want people to snag our favourite boy name, in the event that we decide to reproduce again and have a boy, and vice versa. That being said, we realize there's a finite number of names available, and there are going to be other kids with these names. We tried to steer away from overly popular and trendy names. We also avoided family names since neither of us was blessed with awesome ones. We picked out names we like the sound of, that work well with Peter's last name, and will suit not just a baby but a teen, an adult and an old person as well. And hopefully, whether it's a boy or girl, it won't be one of 10 in its class at school with the same name.

Naming a baby is HARD. You have to look at a lot of factors. What do the initials spell? You can't have a kid going around with the initials ASS, for example. What does it rhyme with? How can cruel, clever children possibly manipulate this name and make my kid miserable for 12 years of his/her life? Are we naming our baby after any sordid soap opera characters, reality show trainwrecks, or famous pets?

Since Peter's last name begins with an F and is pretty Scottish sounding I tried to avoid overly-Gaelic names and anything that begins with F for a first name. This made me a little sad since there are some solid F-names kicking around.

It took a lot of research, debating, even muttering different name combinations out loud, but we've finally settled on two possible names for our little beast and I can't wait to share one of them in a few weeks.