a thrifty birthday gift and more

So we (K and I for a bit and then just me later) went to a get together for Carrie. I knew about the get together about a week ago and I knew just what to get Carrie. We found a cute Easter basket and put some items from our stockpile in it. Things we figured Carrie could use. When we were putting together the basket, K wanted to know where the toys were and the candy. I told her that when you get older you don't get toys and candy for birthdays, you get things you need. She did not thing that was very fun at all. I gave Carrie the gift and she loved it. I put some Bodywash, Renuzit fabric spray, Toothpaste and Oust cleaner in the basket. Handy things. I don't know about everyone else but I LOVE getting practical gifts. Forget rings, necklaces and flowers if R does something like this or this, I am so ecstatically happy. Yep, I love to get and give practical gifts.

Made my first batch of homemade laundry soap Friday night. Yep, that is how I will be spending my evenings now that R is working 2nd shift. I am not very pleased with the results so I am going to play around some more before I post my "official" results. Overall, it did a good job cleaning but it was not nearly as sudsy or nice smelling as I had hoped for. I will still use it in conjunction with my stockpile of purex but I will play around more with it later. I figure I will do a 1/2 to 1/2 mixture of homemade and purex until the homemade is used up and then will try again. It smelled ok but I am thinking I need to add something, a dash of fabric spray, some essential oils, something not sure what yet though.

The girls and I did an Aldi run today. We spent $36 and came home with a box and 4 bags of groceries and 2 boxes of Ramen noodles. Since R is not eating dinner with us, the girls and I are eating more lunch type (read:fast) dinners. Both kids adore the chicken Ramen noodles. I cut down on the sodium by using only half a packet of seasoning. I will add some caulibrocliflower (K can say cauliflower and broccoli seperately just fine but in the same sentence they become caulibrocliflower) on the side with some cheese. The kids and I are going to be trying some meatless dinners a couple nights a week as well. A ramen noodle night, a soup and grilled cheese night, pancakes and eggs, etc. The kids don't seem to mind not eating meat as much as R would but I want to make sure they get their protein so we will have beans, eggs, peanut butter, etc.

I am excited to start my new position with my current employer on Monday. I have yet to hear anything more from the job I interviewed for so I am calling that a loss (on their side-I would have been great at that job, I am pretty sure) and sticking with my current employer. I do like working for my current employer. They are good to me and I love the flexibility that they offer. It is very nice to be able to take a day off without having to worry about having vacation time or unpaid time to cover it. Oh, you need a day off, let us know before the schedule for that week comes out and you can have it off (provided there are not a lot of other people taking that same day off but that has not been an issue yet). It is really great for someone with 2 young children. So after much debate and running numbers and countless hours of just thinking, R and I decided that even if I am offered the other position I should stick with my current employer. When he was still laid off, it was a no brainer, I needed to take that job but now with him working and me able to pick up a job in another department (thus giving me more hours) it is no longer a necessity.

~~Money stuff~~
$1900 until the car is officially paid in full. YIPPEE!!!

Out of R's last check I was able to put away over $200! That is so nice. We need to save $1800 by August at the very latest. August is when our car insurance is due again and Propane prebuy can be done anytime from now until October but the sooner the better. I have been monitoring the pricing on that so when it hits bottom we can prebuy. Some reports say June usually, others say late spring. Then of course in October and November are what we refer to as the "big 3", My life insurance, O's life insurance and R's life insurance. K's premium is due in March. the "big 3" runs us close to $750 a year, add in K's for a total of just over $900 a year. OUCH! Is the kids life insurance really necessary? That is debatable but I do think that it is considering what we went through just before O was born and the aftermath of all that, the peace of mind is worth it. For R and I, the life insurance is a necessity. We are covered enough so that if something were to happen, the house and any other bills are paid in full and there is some left over, not a lot but enough to get by for awhile. R is more heavily covered than I am. R has a policy that his parents took out when he was a baby and a policy through work (that they pay for). I only have the one policy. If something were to happen to both of us, we have wills in place specifying who gets the kids, who gets control of our assets, and a contingency plan should something in the plan of choice fall through. We also both have advanced medical directives set up as well. For those that do not know, R's brother was tragically killed at work just one week before O was born. After that happened, we decided that we needed to get this stuff taken care of. For easy will (and other legal documents) writing, check out Deluxe willwriter. This program is AMAZING. Besides wills and advanced medical directives, it contains any kind of form you might EVER need a lawyer for. All we did was completed the simple questionnaire included with the software. It put everything together for us and we printed them off and took them to our bank to sign and notarize. 2 hours total time and the cost was very minimal. If you have a large amount of assets or more complicated situations, a lawyer might be a better choice but for us this was the best!