Car insurance that is.  We pay pretty cheap for insurance now so unless we go with a “no name” company, one that may not be good on claims or whatever then we may stay with who we have.  I tried to do some searches the other day and got frustrated when my searches kept coming up with car insurance blogs.  I want quotes not to read blogs about car insurance. 

Are policy is up in a month, we paid in advance when we got our tax return so we have not had to pay monthly, it has been great.  I think we only pay about $330 for 6 months on 2 cars, that’s not bad compared to what we paid in Florida.   YIKES!

My weeks have been crazy busy and this last one is no exception.  It is already Sunday, where has the time gone.  Since Thursday I have been on the go.  Tony had off on Thursday and Friday and we ran a lot of errands getting all the car parts needed to fix his Subaru.  With life getting so busy we certainly need 2 cars.  Every week for the past 5 weeks or so we have had some sort of appt or errand that needed to get done.  With that, Tony has had to request specific days off and that is tough to have to keep doing every week.

So Tony worked on his car both Thursday and Friday.  He got a new tire, new caliper, new rotors and brakes.  He also got new windshield wipers, changed the oil and filters.  The car still drives a little rough so he decided to get all new tires so he ordered 3 more tires.  Overall it may cost us about $1k to get the car in good working order.  On a positive note, it will only cost us an extra $40 for 6 months in insurance and when he filled the car up last night it only cost $28.  We may end up saving a bunch of money a week in gas and also not having to put all the miles on the Explorer will be great.  He pays about $75 a week in gas for the Explorer.  I am super excited to save money and have a car to drive. 

It was kinda funny when I called the insurance company to add the Subaru to the policy.  I was totally expecting to pay a couple hundred dollars for the remaining time on the policy and when she told me the prorated amount was only $24 I LOL!  I always get insurance marketing mail for other insurance companies and with as low of a rate that we are getting with out company, we won’t be switching any time soon. 

I am so happy to have 2 cars again, we have all our bills paid current and money in savings.  2010 may really be a good year for us.

Whoever said that money can’t bring happiness must have been on crack, lol.  I certainly didn’t win the lotto but so far 2010 has been really good to us.  I posted about how we got a car for Tony which is just wonderful.  We think it is going to be really good on gas so that will hopefully save us some money.  Plus I get my truck back. 

I surprisingly got a child support check in the mail.  It has been at least 4 yrs since I have received anything.  It wasn’t much but still it was something. 

We also received one of Tony’s W-2′s in the mail today.  We are waiting for one more and that may be tricky to get, only because the people that work there SUCK! 

It is a good thing that we got a car because I have an appt every week for the next 5 weeks.  LOL!  I am excited for Nicki because on Tuesday we are going to the Ortho to see if she will be approved (through our insurance) for braces.  She has some pretty crooked teeth and she deserves straight teeth and a pretty smile.  I wonder if her teeth are too crooked to get invisalign braces.  When I did a search to get info about them, Orange NJ invisaligninfo came up.  I live somewhat close but I certainly won’t be driving to New Jersey every month for Nicki’s braces.  As it is I have to drive an hour to get to the closes Ortho.  Nicki is super excited about getting braces. 

Let’s just hope our luck continues in a positive direction.

So we are through with week one of nit having cable.  We decided to cancel it because it was just an expense not worth paying for since we hardly watch it.  Tony NEVER watched it and lately Nicki has mostly been on her computer.  I am home all day and still never watched it much.  It was mostly background noise.  I certainly don’t miss those mesothelioma commercials or commercials in general.  I hate them.  I hardly EVER watched a show real time.  I would record it on the DVR and then watch it just after the show ended so I could fast forward through the commercials.  The best part is since we are saving the money every month on cable, I can use that money to go to a gym.  No more pregnancies=time to get fit!

Tony and I have been discussing over the last couple weeks about whether we need to have cable.  When I think about what I really watch on TV, do we really need it?  I watch some talk shows and game shows, my kids don’t watch TV.  We get Netflix and that is what we watch most of the time.  We spend about $50 a month and don’t really use the service.  I mean the TV is on all the time but I don’t really watch it, nothing is ever on.  We have basic cable with HBO and I n ever seem to be able to find anything on. 

It’s not that I can’t live without it, it’s that it has been the norm to have TV.  For as long as I can remember I have always had TV.  We have talked about cancelling the cable service and I think I am going to do that within the next couple weeks. 

The other thing we want to do is get a new plasma TV’s with  plasma mounts.  I want one for the living room and one for the bedroom.  I want them on the wall so Lil Tony won’t touch them and for the bedroom especially because we really don’t have room for it anywhere else. Tony wants to get a TV that he can also use as a computer monitor.  That way with the Netflix we can also use the “watch instantly” option. 

We will have to wait until we get our tax return because we just don’t have the extra money to get anything now.  LOL!

My friend and I were talking about a week ago about how we can’t wait until our children are a little older and we can take the well needed vacation.  She wants to go to Hawaii or go on a cruise.  I don’t care where I go as long as I am kid free.  LOL!  I love my kids and right now I wouldn’t be able to leave them.  I am already getting emotional when I think of leaving them for the few nights while I am in the hospital.  However, in 4 yrs or so when Lil Max is 4, Isabel is 5 1/2, Lil Tony is 6 1/2 and Nicki is 16 I am sure I will be ready for a well needed adult vacation. 

If it were just Tony and I going I wouldn’t mind looking into some las vegas resorts. We went to Vegas a couple years ago prior to living there for a year and before any kids.  Well I had Nicki but she was spending the summer in Illinois with family.  We had a great time and I think I would enjoy it again.  Since we are trying to plan a vacation with friends we may just go to Hawaii.  Don’t get me wrong, I am sure I will have a great time, I think it was just a little more expensive than we originally planned on spending on a vacation. 

We are planning the trip for 4 yrs from now so we have time to save.  My friend is really excited about it and has been doing some research over the last week.  Trying to find good deals and deciding on whether we should get hotel rooms or a condo.  We will be there for a week so we thought the best way to go is a condo.  Turns out that is the cheaper way to go. 

I am really looking forward to a vacation, I just hope we can save the money up to go.  If we start now and save a little something monthly maybe it won’t be so difficult.  It feels a bit weird to plan something for 4 yrs from now with friends.  Tony and I don’t have the best track record of staying anywhere for any length of time.  We PLAN on staying here for a long time but who can tell what may be in our future or our friends future for that matter.  Hopefully all will work out and in 4 yrs from now I will be sipping an alcoholic beverage chilling on the beach!

I always wanted a big family, lots of kids.  We now have 3 kids with one on the way, so a family of 5.  We have become very money conscious when it comes to shopping and the foods we buy.  The local grocery store here in Winchester VA has some great deals sometimes on meat.  When it gets close to the expiration date they mark it down, if we get it at the right time it is half off.  We get a pound of ground turkey for $1.36.  The other week we got whole chickens for $1.87 each.  We would get ribs for $6 or $7.  We went out and bought a deep freezer so we can stock up on all the sale foods when they are cheap. 

We also started shopping at Aldi.  We get macaroni and cheese for $0.35.  Most of our dinner meals are well under $5 to feed a family of 5.  The other day I made a batch of stuffed shells which made enough for two days of dinner, the total was about $10.  That was probably the most expensive meal we’ve had. 

We make a lot of meals from scratch.  The other great thing is Tony works for a grocery store, on average they are a little more expensive for food but they have AMAZING sales.  They have buy 2 get 3 free deals a lot.  We eat a lot of bacon, eggs and pancakes for breakfast.  The other week they had buy 2 get 3 free packs of bacon.  So for $7.50 we got 5 packs of bacon.  They also had it on strawberries and ice cream. 

It has kind of turned in to a game when we eat dinner.  We will figure out how much it cost us to make each meal we are eating.  Not really a game just get excited when we are eating such a delicious meal for $2.50.  We went out to dinner for Isabel’s birthday and it cost us $50.  It’s just crazy.