Reducing Household Expenses

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I’m not sure why you can’t put the two seats in the middle row next to each other, leaving the end seat open to be flipped down. Do you have two captains seats in the middle? If so can one be moved to the center?

If that is the case, can you fit all three together in the back row? There are so many car seats that are designed for just this.

I used to have 5 car seats in a minivan, with one empty seat left over. That was a long time ago, too, before companies made narrower car seats for just this reason.
 
HouseArrest said:
I’m not sure why you can’t put the two seats in the middle row next to each other, leaving the end seat open to be flipped down. Do you have two captains seats in the middle? If so can one be moved to the center?

If that is the case, can you fit all three together in the back row? There are so many car seats that are designed for just this.

I used to have 5 car seats in a minivan, with one empty seat left over. That was a long time ago, too, before companies made narrower car seats for just this reason.
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Exactly. We have two captains seats in the 2nd row that are just there. Can’t go anywhere else. They can be flipped down and over to access the 3rd row which is great unless there’s a car seat in it and it can’t go anywhere.

Haven’t thought about putting all three in the 3rd row!
 
Here’s a consideration, and I should add that I didn’t come up with it on my own–a blogger I read had the same three-car-seat dilemma.

European carseats are slimmer and have a smaller footprint than most US carseats. Most of them meet the same safety standards as the US ones (generally, if a brand is available in both places, it’ll comply to US standards). They’re also rather pricier, though. However, you could, theoretically, spend around $500-$700 on a couple of smaller carseats that could be fit safely with one of your existing ones in the middle row of the car or SUV (I believe the blogger in question was fitting 3 across the back seat of a Ford Fusion), and then not have a car payment.

Oh, I just looked it up the blog post–here’s the link, if you’re interested: journeynarrative.blogspot.com/2015/07/three-car-seats-in-07-ford-fusion.html

Hope that helps! 🙂
 
You should be able to get three in the back. It gets tricky when one of the seats is a booster, then there is a lot of knuckle scraping trying to get in and out.

You can cross that bridge when you come to it.

There are tons of articles about it.

Here you go - 39 car seats that fit three in a row in the back, updated for 2015. There are some that aren’t even that expensive. The base should make the rear facing seat manageable.

I bet if you typed in three car seats in the back, your make and model of vehicle, someone has already figured it out. All you have to do is go to the store.

blogs.babycenter.com/products_and_prizes/02052015-13-car-seats-that-fit-3-across-in-most-vehicles/
 
Or two car seats in the back and remove one of the captain seats.
 
Here’s a hopefully happy thought.

I know you were thinking that in 20 (!) years things will be easier financially, but as a matter of fact, there should be some relief earlier than that if you are able to pay off your mortgage before then, or just thanks to the effect of inflation. (You know how the payments on old mortgages that are about to be paid off always sound ridiculously small?)
 
Xantippe said:
Here’s a hopefully happy thought.

I know you were thinking that in 20 (!) years things will be easier financially, but as a matter of fact, there should be some relief earlier than that if you are able to pay off your mortgage before then, or just thanks to the effect of inflation. (You know how the payments on old mortgages that are about to be paid off always sound ridiculously small?)
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True! It’s also likely that DH and/or I will be making more money as the years progress while many of our fixed expenses will stay…well, fixed.

Thanks all for the car seat ideas. I’m feeling better about this and even though we will inevitably need a new car in the future, maybe we can hold off for a few years and get on better financial footing.

DH reviewed our cc statements tonight and confirmed my suspicion. We are spending money on what we all Schtuff- things that we don’t need and conveniently arrive at the house with free shipping. We need to go on a Schtuff diet and things should be better soon.
 
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