Saturday, What a Day!

Big milestone today, Robert and M went on their first big unsupervised outing together! I know it might seem kind of weird that it's taken so long, but M has been very busy, and we were gone on our trip for awhile, and Robert is still not quite twelve weeks old. My nerves about the idea were a part of it, especially when Robert was a newborn, but far more than that was the fact that if there is an outing to be gone on, I generally want to get out! I like our apartment, but it's not very big, and it is quite cluttered, and I love to get out of it. Today, though, the guys went out and left me to relax and do the laundry while they hit up White Castle (coupon!) and the comic book store, and also did things like looking at grass and trees and such. They had a very good time, and there were no disasters. Oh, and I found my phone, which was very good for my peace of mind while they were gone. Still no camera cord, though!

Anyway, here it is, Saturday, the end of the couponing week. It's been very busy! At the end of the first full week of April, there is good news and bad news and good news. The good news is that my saving rate for the month so far is very high! My current saving rate is 74.48%, which means that every dollar I've spent this much has been worth almost 4. That's great, and I'm very happy with it. I've gotten some great groceries and other stuff, and have a bag for the food pantry. The bad news is that with two-thirds of the month left, I have used up two-thirds of my budget already. After rebates this month, I have spent $94.73 to buy $371.26 worth of items. (I love my trusty OpenOffice spreadsheet, can you tell?) That gives me 55.27 to take us through the end of the month, which is... not exactly ideal.

That brings us to the other good news, though! April is my birthday month! For my birthday, I received 30 dollars from my family, as well as a gift card to Target. I'm going to try and stay under budget and on the gift card, and save the money for something nice just for me. But hey, if it doesn't work out, it's really nice to know I've got that little bit of extra wiggle room. I've also got a survey check coming sometime fairly soon, so that might help. Not digging in the sofa cushions yet! :D

As for today's picture, one thing I'm starting to notice is that the more Robert sleeps during the day, the easier he is to put down at night. This seems counterintuitive, but it's true. Today was another very-awake-or-very-sleeping day, where Robert was extremely engaged when he was awake, had very brief fussy periods, and slept like a stone when allowed to nap. He went down at 8:30 with hardly a peep. Happy mommy! I guess it's true that being overtired makes babies harder to calm down. I've also been pumping once at night and feeding him the bottle in the afternoon, which seems to get us over the late-afternoon fussiness hump pretty well. We're learning!