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Viewing the 'Work' Category
July 29th, 2021 at 05:16 am
1 I can't believe it has been nine days since I blogged. I did fiddle around last night and revamp my blog's appearance. I like to freshen it up every year or two, so I changed the color scheme and the avatar. Well, the avatar is basically the same, I just updated the background, clothes, and hair. I tried to keep the hot pink to a minimum on the blog layout, because I know that can be very hard on the eyes for some people, but I like it as an accent, along with the black for the sidebar headings. That's why the blog title is in white. It attacked my eyes when I tried it out in hot pink. I think the electric blue goes very well with just that hint of the hot pink, though. I changed my avatar to reflect how I look now, which I generally do after a haircut, though this was not that. I still haven't gotten one of those. No, I just have my hair tied back all the time now because it is nearly to my waist, so the photo reflects a long pony-tail.
I'm still spending way to much right now and I have lots of excuses for it, but won't bore you with most of it. I am still saving heavily to the medical fund, just not the EF. I did have to buy my son some plain black shoes and some dark blue jeans for the uniform at his new job. They provide the shirts and aprons. Yes, my son has been hired for his first job! He has orientation on Friday. The position is full-time I've told him he is on his own for buying clothes from now on. I am not making him pay me back for this, but I am making him pay me back for the bento boxes and insulated lunch bag for packing his dinner to work out of his first full paycheck. He will also pay $100 a month towards the utilities since he is pretty much personally responsible for the high water bill, and he will contribute $50 a month towards food along with his 10% employee discount.
He's going to be working at the grocery store six blocks from our house which means he can walk to work, weather permitting, and then we'll drop off a vehicle for him in the parking lot or pick him up depending on how late he'll be. He's supposed to be working the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, but you know how that sort of thing goes. He'll be a courtesy clerk which is a fancy name for bagger and cart fetcher/cart sanitizer, and other sanitizing through out the store. I'm sure there will be other things he does during the slow times. As far as I know he won't be restocking for now. He wanted to be a cashier, it was what he interviewed for, but they hired some people with more experience. Still, he can work his way into it once he has proven himself to be a good employee.
It's union, which is good in some ways and bad in others. The job security is good. You can't opt out of the dues and not be in the union which is bad. The union doesn't have a 401K, it has a pension, which is nice. But you have to work there seven years to get it, whereas with a 401k you always have access to what you put in yourself and whatever has vested so far from employer match. I'm not sure how pensions work, if they are strictly company provided or you pay into them. If you pay into them, it would suck, because this is not a forever job for him.
He'll be opening a Roth IRA with his first full paycheck and will be contributing 15% of his income. He will be tithing 10%. We will have to determine what the pecentages are on the $150 he'll pay to us each month for his expenses. I think he said he wanted to save 40% for the car, maybe more, and then have the rest for his spending. He'd like $100 out of each paycheck. Of course we won't know what he'll even be making after taxes and benefits, so numbers may have to be adjusted accordingly, just not tithe and IRA contributions. Then we can set up a spreadsheet for his budget or get him on the Every Dollar app from Dave Ramsey. Personally, I prefer a spreadsheet, though.
15% to the IRA is non-negotiable while he lives at home. He needs to get into the habit of it from day one. We all see the position my mother was left in when they made her spend down Dad's IRA and 401k for nursing home care to $100,000. And we see what happens when there is enough money to take care of the left behind spouse and help your kids and grandkids as is the case with DH's mother. I want my son to have so much money in his 401k by the time he retires that he never has to worry about losing all his money to that if either he or his future wife end up in the same position.
I want there to be enough to have end of life care and still have so much money left over he doesn't know what to do with it all, besides charitable giving and world travel (if that is ever allowed again) and taking care of his sister if she lives that long (doubtful as her life expectancy might make her go before I do with all her disesases). And that any possible kids he might have can get an education outside the public school system and be able to put their own kids through a college that has hopefully corrected back to the center from the divisive and often communistic brainwashing that has taken over in many universities today. It all starts with 15% every paycheck and no debt.
I am thinking out of the $150 he gives me each month to put aside $100 a month to go towards his car, but use the $50 towards the utilities. I'm not sure yet, since we are paying his portion of our car insurance still. I planned on doing that, though, until he gets his own car. He's also considering moving to his own Ting plan, so he can get unlimited data on his phone. I won't let him do it on ours. Since he won't be getting an allowance anymore (but will still be paid for jobs DH and I loathe, like washing and detailing the van), but still expected to do his portion of jobs as part of his continuing to be mostly supported by us, that money will be mostly freed up i the budget now, too.
His plan is that he's saving up and emergency fund first, then for a car second, and then for school. He's decided he wants to become an electrician. It's a two year course so it'll take some time to save up. He won't get an expensive car, just maybe something in the 5K range. I'm hoping we'll be able to help him a little, but the cost of the orthodontia work I'm saving up for makes it kind of prohibitive. We won't be able to help him with school. My focus has to be on retirement as we are so far behind and I don't want to ever end up in the position my Mom is in or the one my eldest sister is in.
But it does have medical which he doesn't need yet, really as he is only 21 and can stay on our insurance for five more years (you can't opt out). But it does include dental and vision. I am hoping the dental includes orthodontia as most plans that have it cover half the cost. He'll get a big paperwork packet with all the info when he goes to orientation. Not sure what other benefits there are. Maybe life insurance or something.
The other thing I don't like is how they schedule. It is based on senority so basically the people who have been there longest get to pick their shifts first and the person hired last picks last. It's not done on any fair basis based on availability and a scheduler who makes sure everyone has to work some good and some bad. It is cherry-picked. That's why I said that while he was hired for 4 p.m. to midnight, he might not actually get those hours. Although the lady who interviewed him said that most people don't want those hours, but he does because it fits with his sleep schedule and still gives him the opportunity to go to the chiropractor and schedule doctor's appointments.
It's hard to believe it took until 21 for him to get a job. He tried before Covid, but first he was under 18 and no one was hiring teenagers here, it was employer's pick, and the picked over 18 every time. They said as much. All the kids complained they couldn't get jobs. Then after 18 unemployment was so incredibly low that no one was hiring so no interviews were even offered. Then Covid hit and I didn't want him out in the workforce, we didn't know what was going on yet, and he has asthma so wearing a mask for 8 hours a day was not doable.
Now that he doesn't have to wear a mask here (fully vaxed), he got hired the first place he applied. Employers are desperate because people can still make more on unemployment in most states due to those extended benefits being at $15 an hour. Most of these entry level jobs can't match that or they'd have to skyrocket their prices to raise wages to entice people, which always triggers inflation. The benefits are supposed to end soon, though and then people will have to start working again. I really hope they don't reinstate masks now, like some places are talking about. I'm not sure he could manage the job if it keeps interfering with his breathing. Maybe I could get him one of those helmeted electric respirators, although they probably wouldn't let him wear that! And they cost $1000. He'd have to pay that back, for sure.
I'm having a little bit of a "my baby is leaving the nest," going on. He's not planning on leaving any time soon, but this is his first step towards really being an adult. Other than working on the farm when we had animals, he hasn't had to be consistent about anything. Not even school, since we homeschooled. It's weird thinking about having a first job be your entry to adulthood. My first paid job, I was little. I only earned $35 that summer. It was before they changed the labor laws, so I could work in the strawberries and the blueberries as a wee one with my mother (she was a teacher so worked the farms in the summer) and sisters. There was no greater satisfaction than buying that powder blue Snoopy watch with my own hard earned money. I had worked 4 jobs by the time I got my first job as and adult at 18.
Times change, I guess. If you didn't know anyone, you couldn't help get your minor kid a job. If they don't hire, they can't get themselves a job. I bet a lot of kids will be able to work, though, with all the hiring going on now. The faces are getting younger and younger behind the cash register everywhere we go and it's not because I'm getting older. It's because they are sixteen. And not just because it is summer.
I also don't like that most places don't take applications in person. Everything is online now. The experience of handing an application personally to a manager is just gone. No first impression to leave with the manager, nothing that might help you get past the pre-interview barrier. It's a lot easier to ignore online applications than in person ones. Without that face to face there is no chance to get an edge by presenting yoursef as a neat, well-groomed, nicely dressed individual, or as a go-getter. Not at all like back in the day. The internet makes things faceless and impersonal.
As for me, I have been very busy writing. I set my goal for last week at 6500 words and I did 564, 1663, 1174, 0, 0, 1442, and 2094 which totalled out to be 6937 words. The two zero days were the really bad days of a five day stomach virus that kept me in bed those two days. My goal for this week is 7000 words. I know I almost met that last week, but I told myself I would go with 7000, than 7500, than 8000, etc. on up to 10,000 words a week. I don't want to overly pressure myself on it. If it is just 500 more words a week than the previous goal, it is attainable in my head. Now if I really fly by it one week I may adjust accordingly, but I don't want to push too hard. The goal here it to write every day or almost every day and I'm doing that, so it's all good.
I don't feel good about my payday report this last payday, so I'm not making it. Like I said I spent way, way too much this month and while we paid off the card during the billing period, so no interest, we will still have a lot that carries over into next month from this make for the stuff charged after we close. I really need to just put a halt to the spending on it.
I will be raising our grocery budget to $900 a month from $800 to feed four adults. Inflation is getting to be too much to maintain at the lower level and DS will be taking his dinners to work so really need to buy things that can be eaten cold, like deli meat, which is much more expensive. The costs of fruits and vegetables, in season, has doubled and tripled on some items. I'm glad we don't need to buy beef anymore. But chicken and pork have gone up a lot, too. I'm not finding .99/lb chicken anymore, the sale price is now $1.99/lb. Same on pork shoulder. Bacon is a little scary. It'll drop back down once we get some pork and chicken in the freezer.
Oh, and here's the kicker. Our new Frigidaire freezer that we bought in December? It sounds like an airplane taking off at times and the alarm keeps going off that it is losing temp. All the food was about 1/4 thawed except in the very back, so we had to distribute that food through the other freezers.
I unplugged it after it tried to go down the runway at 5:30 in the morning. We were trying to keep broth frozen in it to see if it would thaw or not, but with that kind of noise on the other side of the wall from the head of my bed, nope, nope, nope. DH is supposed to call and wait on hold with Frigidaire most of the day tomorrow (I'm assuming) while he works, as it is still under warranty. He can prop it up on speaker phone. It's no way near a year old. I will be out tomorrow with doctor's appointments, and grocery shopping, so I can't do it.
I don't know what the heck is wrong with the motor, but I have a theory. I don't think the door was hung right, because we've had the little light blinking a lot when it should have been solid green and the alarm would go off every few days despite no one opening the freezer during that time. There is a magnet that is supposed to line up with the bottom of the freezer, but it doesn't quite. And there was always frost on the bottom basket. I think the door was put on wrong which is keeping the seal from being quite right. I think the motor probably had to work too hard to constantly be freezing and having no rest cycles because it was always trying to get it to stay at temp.
I am hoping they will just replace the motor and fix the door at this point, or just replace the freezer. I think it is a lemon. If it wasn't when we bought it, it is now. If we can't get it working right, or get a new one in time, I will have to cancel my hog order. I did give her a heads up the day the melt down started to happen. She said to just keep her informed when we know something. It'll be a bummer if we have to cancel. She says that if no one buys them like I am, they just go to auction, so she'll not be out too much from it.
I know we haven't had the freezer long, but I was already relying on it heavily. Thank goodness we have the large chest and mini-chest and fridge freezers. Without them it would have been awful because we had just bought the side of beef. And I don't know if freezers of this size are back in the stores yet. Or any freezers. And they cost around $1000. Maybe more now due to inflation. But honestly, I should not have to pay for a new one anyway.
Oh, well, I'll do what I always do. Put my head down and cope with it. There, a long entry to make up for not posting for 9 days. asdf123
I can't believe it has been nine days since I blogged. I did fiddle around last night and revamp my blog's appearance. I like to freshen it up every year or two, so I changed the color scheme and the avatar. Well, the avatar is basically the same, I just updated the background, clothes, and hair. I tried to keep the hot pink to a minimum on the blog layout, because I know that can be very hard on the eyes for some people, but I like it as an accent, along with the black for the sidebar headings. That's why the blog title is in white. It attacked my eyes when I tried it out in hot pink. I think the electric blue goes very well with just that hint of the hot pink, though. I changed my avatar to reflect how I look now, which I generally do after a haircut, though this was not that. I still haven't gotten one of those. No, I just have my hair tied back all the time now because it is nearly to my waist, so the photo reflects a long pony-tail.
I'm still spending way to much right now and I have lots of excuses for it, but won't bore you with most of it. I am still saving heavily to the medical fund, just not the EF. I did have to buy my son some plain black shoes and some dark blue jeans for the uniform at his new job. They provide the shirts and aprons. Yes, my son has been hired for his first job! He has orientation on Friday. The position is full-time I've told him he is on his own for buying clothes from now on. I am not making him pay me back for this, but I am making him pay me back for the bento boxes and insulated lunch bag for packing his dinner to work out of his first full paycheck. He will also pay $100 a month towards the utilities since he is pretty much personally responsible for the high water bill, and he will contribute $50 a month towards food along with his 10% employee discount.
He's going to be working at the grocery store six blocks from our house which means he can walk to work, weather permitting, and then we'll drop off a vehicle for him in the parking lot or pick him up depending on how late he'll be. He's supposed to be working the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, but you know how that sort of thing goes. He'll be a courtesy clerk which is a fancy name for bagger and cart fetcher/cart sanitizer, and other sanitizing through out the store. I'm sure there will be other things he does during the slow times. As far as I know he won't be restocking for now. He wanted to be a cashier, it was what he interviewed for, but they hired some people with more experience. Still, he can work his way into it once he has proven himself to be a good employee.
It's union, which is good in some ways and bad in others. The job security is good. You can't opt out of the dues and not be in the union which is bad. The union doesn't have a 401K, it has a pension, which is nice. But you have to work there seven years to get it, whereas with a 401k you always have access to what you put in yourself and whatever has vested so far from employer match. I'm not sure how pensions work, if they are strictly company provided or you pay into them. If you pay into them, it would suck, because this is not a forever job for him.
He'll be opening a Roth IRA with his first full paycheck and will be contributing 15% of his income. He will be tithing 10%. We will have to determine what the pecentages are on the $150 he'll pay to us each month for his expenses. I think he said he wanted to save 40% for the car, maybe more, and then have the rest for his spending. He'd like $100 out of each paycheck. Of course we won't know what he'll even be making after taxes and benefits, so numbers may have to be adjusted accordingly, just not tithe and IRA contributions. Then we can set up a spreadsheet for his budget or get him on the Every Dollar app from Dave Ramsey. Personally, I prefer a spreadsheet, though.
15% to the IRA is non-negotiable while he lives at home. He needs to get into the habit of it from day one. We all see the position my mother was left in when they made her spend down Dad's IRA and 401k for nursing home care to $100,000. And we see what happens when there is enough money to take care of the left behind spouse and help your kids and grandkids as is the case with DH's mother. I want my son to have so much money in his 401k by the time he retires that he never has to worry about losing all his money to that if either he or his future wife end up in the same position.
I want there to be enough to have end of life care and still have so much money left over he doesn't know what to do with it all, besides charitable giving and world travel (if that is ever allowed again) and taking care of his sister if she lives that long (doubtful as her life expectancy might make her go before I do with all her disesases). And that any possible kids he might have can get an education outside the public school system and be able to put their own kids through a college that has hopefully corrected back to the center from the divisive and often communistic brainwashing that has taken over in many universities today. It all starts with 15% every paycheck and no debt.
I am thinking out of the $150 he gives me each month to put aside $100 a month to go towards his car, but use the $50 towards the utilities. I'm not sure yet, since we are paying his portion of our car insurance still. I planned on doing that, though, until he gets his own car. He's also considering moving to his own Ting plan, so he can get unlimited data on his phone. I won't let him do it on ours. Since he won't be getting an allowance anymore (but will still be paid for jobs DH and I loathe, like washing and detailing the van), but still expected to do his portion of jobs as part of his continuing to be mostly supported by us, that money will be mostly freed up i the budget now, too.
His plan is that he's saving up and emergency fund first, then for a car second, and then for school. He's decided he wants to become an electrician. It's a two year course so it'll take some time to save up. He won't get an expensive car, just maybe something in the 5K range. I'm hoping we'll be able to help him a little, but the cost of the orthodontia work I'm saving up for makes it kind of prohibitive. We won't be able to help him with school. My focus has to be on retirement as we are so far behind and I don't want to ever end up in the position my Mom is in or the one my eldest sister is in.
But it does have medical which he doesn't need yet, really as he is only 21 and can stay on our insurance for five more years (you can't opt out). But it does include dental and vision. I am hoping the dental includes orthodontia as most plans that have it cover half the cost. He'll get a big paperwork packet with all the info when he goes to orientation. Not sure what other benefits there are. Maybe life insurance or something.
The other thing I don't like is how they schedule. It is based on senority so basically the people who have been there longest get to pick their shifts first and the person hired last picks last. It's not done on any fair basis based on availability and a scheduler who makes sure everyone has to work some good and some bad. It is cherry-picked. That's why I said that while he was hired for 4 p.m. to midnight, he might not actually get those hours. Although the lady who interviewed him said that most people don't want those hours, but he does because it fits with his sleep schedule and still gives him the opportunity to go to the chiropractor and schedule doctor's appointments.
It's hard to believe it took until 21 for him to get a job. He tried before Covid, but first he was under 18 and no one was hiring teenagers here, it was employer's pick, and the picked over 18 every time. They said as much. All the kids complained they couldn't get jobs. Then after 18 unemployment was so incredibly low that no one was hiring so no interviews were even offered. Then Covid hit and I didn't want him out in the workforce, we didn't know what was going on yet, and he has asthma so wearing a mask for 8 hours a day was not doable.
Now that he doesn't have to wear a mask here (fully vaxed), he got hired the first place he applied. Employers are desperate because people can still make more on unemployment in most states due to those extended benefits being at $15 an hour. Most of these entry level jobs can't match that or they'd have to skyrocket their prices to raise wages to entice people, which always triggers inflation. The benefits are supposed to end soon, though and then people will have to start working again. I really hope they don't reinstate masks now, like some places are talking about. I'm not sure he could manage the job if it keeps interfering with his breathing. Maybe I could get him one of those helmeted electric respirators, although they probably wouldn't let him wear that! And they cost $1000. He'd have to pay that back, for sure.
I'm having a little bit of a "my baby is leaving the nest," going on. He's not planning on leaving any time soon, but this is his first step towards really being an adult. Other than working on the farm when we had animals, he hasn't had to be consistent about anything. Not even school, since we homeschooled. It's weird thinking about having a first job be your entry to adulthood. My first paid job, I was little. I only earned $35 that summer. It was before they changed the labor laws, so I could work in the strawberries and the blueberries as a wee one with my mother (she was a teacher so worked the farms in the summer) and sisters. There was no greater satisfaction than buying that powder blue Snoopy watch with my own hard earned money. I had worked 4 jobs by the time I got my first job as and adult at 18.
Times change, I guess. If you didn't know anyone, you couldn't help get your minor kid a job. If they don't hire, they can't get themselves a job. I bet a lot of kids will be able to work, though, with all the hiring going on now. The faces are getting younger and younger behind the cash register everywhere we go and it's not because I'm getting older. It's because they are sixteen. And not just because it is summer.
I also don't like that most places don't take applications in person. Everything is online now. The experience of handing an application personally to a manager is just gone. No first impression to leave with the manager, nothing that might help you get past the pre-interview barrier. It's a lot easier to ignore online applications than in person ones. Without that face to face there is no chance to get an edge by presenting yoursef as a neat, well-groomed, nicely dressed individual, or as a go-getter. Not at all like back in the day. The internet makes things faceless and impersonal.
As for me, I have been very busy writing. I set my goal for last week at 6500 words and I did 564, 1663, 1174, 0, 0, 1442, and 2094 which totalled out to be 6937 words. The two zero days were the really bad days of a five day stomach virus that kept me in bed those two days. My goal for this week is 7000 words. I know I almost met that last week, but I told myself I would go with 7000, than 7500, than 8000, etc. on up to 10,000 words a week. I don't want to overly pressure myself on it. If it is just 500 more words a week than the previous goal, it is attainable in my head. Now if I really fly by it one week I may adjust accordingly, but I don't want to push too hard. The goal here it to write every day or almost every day and I'm doing that, so it's all good.
I don't feel good about my payday report this last payday, so I'm not making it. Like I said I spent way, way too much this month and while we paid off the card during the billing period, so no interest, we will still have a lot that carries over into next month from this make for the stuff charged after we close. I really need to just put a halt to the spending on it.
I will be raising our grocery budget to $900 a month from $800 to feed four adults. Inflation is getting to be too much to maintain at the lower level and DS will be taking his dinners to work so really need to buy things that can be eaten cold, like deli meat, which is much more expensive. The costs of fruits and vegetables, in season, has doubled and tripled on some items. I'm glad we don't need to buy beef anymore. But chicken and pork have gone up a lot, too. I'm not finding .99/lb chicken anymore, the sale price is now $1.99/lb. Same on pork shoulder. Bacon is a little scary. It'll drop back down once we get some pork and chicken in the freezer.
Oh, and here's the kicker. Our new Frigidaire freezer that we bought in December? It sounds like an airplane taking off at times and the alarm keeps going off that it is losing temp. All the food was about 1/4 thawed except in the very back, so we had to distribute that food through the other freezers.
I unplugged it after it tried to go down the runway at 5:30 in the morning. We were trying to keep broth frozen in it to see if it would thaw or not, but with that kind of noise on the other side of the wall from the head of my bed, nope, nope, nope. DH is supposed to call and wait on hold with Frigidaire most of the day tomorrow (I'm assuming) while he works, as it is still under warranty. He can prop it up on speaker phone. It's no way near a year old. I will be out tomorrow with doctor's appointments, and grocery shopping, so I can't do it.
I don't know what the heck is wrong with the motor, but I have a theory. I don't think the door was hung right, because we've had the little light blinking a lot when it should have been solid green and the alarm would go off every few days despite no one opening the freezer during that time. There is a magnet that is supposed to line up with the bottom of the freezer, but it doesn't quite. And there was always frost on the bottom basket. I think the door was put on wrong which is keeping the seal from being quite right. I think the motor probably had to work too hard to constantly be freezing and having no rest cycles because it was always trying to get it to stay at temp.
I am hoping they will just replace the motor and fix the door at this point, or just replace the freezer. I think it is a lemon. If it wasn't when we bought it, it is now. If we can't get it working right, or get a new one in time, I will have to cancel my hog order. I did give her a heads up the day the melt down started to happen. She said to just keep her informed when we know something. It'll be a bummer if we have to cancel. She says that if no one buys them like I am, they just go to auction, so she'll not be out too much from it.
I know we haven't had the freezer long, but I was already relying on it heavily. Thank goodness we have the large chest and mini-chest and fridge freezers. Without them it would have been awful because we had just bought the side of beef. And I don't know if freezers of this size are back in the stores yet. Or any freezers. And they cost around $1000. Maybe more now due to inflation. But honestly, I should not have to pay for a new one anyway.
Oh, well, I'll do what I always do. Put my head down and cope with it. There, a long entry to make up for not posting for 9 days.
Posted in
Appliance Antics and Household Purchases,
Retirement,
Organize My Life,
Work
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1 Comments »
June 24th, 2021 at 05:39 pm
1 So DH totally screwed up in telling me how much an hour his raise was. It wasn't $11 an hour, it was $1.10 an hour. Way to move the decimal point. And no, he didn't give it to me in print, he literally told me $11 an hour. So basically none of the stuff I thought was going to happen with retirement or savings is going to happen. It's a bummer. Hopefully he will also get a merit raise. $1.10 an hour doesn't even keep up with how bad the cost of living has gone up in the last two years. Better than nothing, though.
I did notice that if we could save just $66 more a payday into retirement we would max out, though. I just don't think I can swing it, not with the forced long-term care insurance starting. Maybe after we max out our Emergency Fund that can be something we work toward.
Our steer has gone to butcher. It has a hanging weight of 665 pounds. I have sent the check off to the farmer for the remainder, $1892.20. With the deposit, that means the beef cost me $2292.20. There is still the cut and wrap fee of .78/lb. Well, they say .78/lb, but it tends to be more like .78 per package and a lot of packages have more than a pound of meat in them. So while I do have $600 I left in the beef fund to cover it, it'll be $521.04 max and I don't think it will come to that.
Above that amount I had $254 left in the beef fund that I went ahead and moved to the hog fund. That brings the total in the hog fund to $647. As soon as I pay the cut and wrap fee at pick up, I will move whatever is left over to the hog fund, which will be at least $78.96, making that amount be at least $725.96 and probably a little more. My goal is $1000, so I will be just shy of 3/4 of my goal.
We continue to eat down the chest freezer and move things into the house freezer as things from there are used up to make room for the steer. It is coming along nicely. He said I should be hearing from the processing facility sometime in the next 11 days for my cut orders. I want as much chuck roast as possible, but not so much the other types of roasts except pot roast. I want all the round ground, we don't like them as roasts or steaks. I want all the sirloin tip roasts cut into steaks. And I want my steaks 3/4 inch thick not 1 inch thick. I can genearally get two extra steaks out of it per type that way.
I want all the soup bones, the fat for making my own tallow, and the liver, heart, kidneys, and tongue. We've never tried the tongue or kidneys before, so that'll be interesting. Organ meats are quite healthy for you. I'm a little squeamish about the tongue, but it is supposed to be quite good. I guess we will find out.
The special standing walker we ordered for DD arrived yesterday and it is really going to be a game changer for her. And it has a seat she can actually sit down on. Standard walkers are pretty painful for people with her conditions. It folds up easily enough that she can do it herself, at last for the time being. That was $248, but money well spent.
I can make do with the walker we inherited from FIL after he died for quite a while yet. I only use it on severely bad days where I have to go out of the house. Most days I am fine with my cane or if I am doing really well, without it. But as things continue to worsen, I would definitely like to get one like that as it is easier on the L-4 and L-5 area of my back. It takes up a lot less space when folded, too.
My referral for a neurosurgery consult finally went through so calling them is on my to do list for the day. Along with finally getting the drip line put in the raised bed with the tomatoes in it added and the last set of hoops and deer netting up. There is a lot outside that needs to be done and I am finally starting to feel like I can do some of it again.
I think I'm finally getting my sleeping straightened out. I've been falling asleep between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. instead of 3 or 4 a.m. and I've been waking up in the morning instead of the afternoon, so hopefully this will last. I like actually having a whole day of sunlight in which to live my life.
If I am feeling particularly ambitious I might try to plant some seeds in the garden. I'd really like to have some kohlrabi this year.
asdf123
So DH totally screwed up in telling me how much an hour his raise was. It wasn't $11 an hour, it was $1.10 an hour. Way to move the decimal point. And no, he didn't give it to me in print, he literally told me $11 an hour. So basically none of the stuff I thought was going to happen with retirement or savings is going to happen. It's a bummer. Hopefully he will also get a merit raise. $1.10 an hour doesn't even keep up with how bad the cost of living has gone up in the last two years. Better than nothing, though.
I did notice that if we could save just $66 more a payday into retirement we would max out, though. I just don't think I can swing it, not with the forced long-term care insurance starting. Maybe after we max out our Emergency Fund that can be something we work toward.
Our steer has gone to butcher. It has a hanging weight of 665 pounds. I have sent the check off to the farmer for the remainder, $1892.20. With the deposit, that means the beef cost me $2292.20. There is still the cut and wrap fee of .78/lb. Well, they say .78/lb, but it tends to be more like .78 per package and a lot of packages have more than a pound of meat in them. So while I do have $600 I left in the beef fund to cover it, it'll be $521.04 max and I don't think it will come to that.
Above that amount I had $254 left in the beef fund that I went ahead and moved to the hog fund. That brings the total in the hog fund to $647. As soon as I pay the cut and wrap fee at pick up, I will move whatever is left over to the hog fund, which will be at least $78.96, making that amount be at least $725.96 and probably a little more. My goal is $1000, so I will be just shy of 3/4 of my goal.
We continue to eat down the chest freezer and move things into the house freezer as things from there are used up to make room for the steer. It is coming along nicely. He said I should be hearing from the processing facility sometime in the next 11 days for my cut orders. I want as much chuck roast as possible, but not so much the other types of roasts except pot roast. I want all the round ground, we don't like them as roasts or steaks. I want all the sirloin tip roasts cut into steaks. And I want my steaks 3/4 inch thick not 1 inch thick. I can genearally get two extra steaks out of it per type that way.
I want all the soup bones, the fat for making my own tallow, and the liver, heart, kidneys, and tongue. We've never tried the tongue or kidneys before, so that'll be interesting. Organ meats are quite healthy for you. I'm a little squeamish about the tongue, but it is supposed to be quite good. I guess we will find out.
The special standing walker we ordered for DD arrived yesterday and it is really going to be a game changer for her. And it has a seat she can actually sit down on. Standard walkers are pretty painful for people with her conditions. It folds up easily enough that she can do it herself, at last for the time being. That was $248, but money well spent.
I can make do with the walker we inherited from FIL after he died for quite a while yet. I only use it on severely bad days where I have to go out of the house. Most days I am fine with my cane or if I am doing really well, without it. But as things continue to worsen, I would definitely like to get one like that as it is easier on the L-4 and L-5 area of my back. It takes up a lot less space when folded, too.
My referral for a neurosurgery consult finally went through so calling them is on my to do list for the day. Along with finally getting the drip line put in the raised bed with the tomatoes in it added and the last set of hoops and deer netting up. There is a lot outside that needs to be done and I am finally starting to feel like I can do some of it again.
I think I'm finally getting my sleeping straightened out. I've been falling asleep between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. instead of 3 or 4 a.m. and I've been waking up in the morning instead of the afternoon, so hopefully this will last. I like actually having a whole day of sunlight in which to live my life.
If I am feeling particularly ambitious I might try to plant some seeds in the garden. I'd really like to have some kohlrabi this year.
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June 18th, 2021 at 01:53 am
1 I have to say I have needed some good news with one thing after another for the last two years. DH's work is giving a 2% raise across the board. It goes into effect starting next week, so it won't be on the next paycheck, but the one after that. And they are starting reviews for merit raises on top of that in July. DH's isn't scheduled for his until the end of July, but it means there is a chance of an additional raise, too. Since he never got one when he got promoted because Covid happened and they cut back on a lot of things, I am hoping we will see that now. Either way, the 2% raise is $11 an hour more, so nothing to sneeze at and I am very grateful for it. It's been 3 years without a raise.
One of the verses I look to a lot is Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to give you hope, and a future." I have it posted at eye level on the wall by my computer. I have kept that in the forefront of my mind as much as possible during the last year and a half, constantly reminding myself that there is a future with hope in it, even when I felt hopeless at times with all the medical issues and expense they brought.
I was starting to feel it worse when I found out that the state of Washington is going to force long-term care insurance on anyone who is working and they were going to enforce it by taking it out of paychecks. There was a one time chance to opt out if you could prove you had other long-term care insurance. DH opted out and we are getting some in place. While it would be more convenient to do it through the state, they only offer $36,000 lifetime coverage and for every $100 they pay you have to pay $100 if you use the insurance. And there is no provision to guarantee they won't raise how much they are taking out whenever they feel like it. And also you have to pay more in based on your income so you are subsidizing other people.
We are getting one that is $50,000 lifetime coverage and a slightly cheaper premium and we have control over it and can shop around if it goes up, unlike with the government. DH and I had been talking about getting long-term care for a while anyway, I just don't like being forced to. It's another monthly bill coming in of $48.71. I was able to pick the date it comes out of the checking account, though. And with the raise I won't have to cut back in another category. And I really ought to get some long-term care insurance for myself, but I can't get it through the same place as him as that is only offered to their employees, not spouses.
So if we both get the insurance that'll be around $100 in a new bill. Allowing for them taking out 15% for the 401k pre-tax, about a third of what is left to payroll taxes, and taking 10% off for tithe, we should end up with an additional $400 a payday unaccounted for, give or take. That's just a guestimate, of course, and I won't know for sure until we get the first paycheck without any overtime on it. That'll make it a lot easier to save for both medical expenses and the Emergency Fund. Assuming nothing else in our lives goes blooey.
If he gets an additional 1% merit raise, that would give us $1000 to save to medical and EF each month and that would be great. Merit raises are generally higher than 1%, usually 2 to 5%, but I'm not being greedy. I do wish, though, that they'd go back to contributing 5% to the 401K and not just the 2.5%. I'd rather have that than a merit raise, to be honest. The 2% of the regular raise is enough to help us out and ease the pressure tremendously.
On the bright side, just with the first 2% raise we are going to hit the $19,500 401k max for the year right at the first payday of December, assuming no more overtime at all this year, which is unlikely. That is a huge milestone I didn't think we'd make this year. Technically since he is over 50, we could put $26,000 into his 401k as a catch up amount, but I don't think we will have an additonal $6500 lying around to do it with and if we did, we'd more likely open a spousal IRA for me.
It is nice to have a little more hope for the future again, though part of me is still holding my breath waiting for Murphy to whack us again. Does that ever go away?
Oh, and I got my second Moderna Covid vax on Sunday. It took me until today to feel like a human being again. Hence the big post. asdf123
I have to say I have needed some good news with one thing after another for the last two years. DH's work is giving a 2% raise across the board. It goes into effect starting next week, so it won't be on the next paycheck, but the one after that. And they are starting reviews for merit raises on top of that in July. DH's isn't scheduled for his until the end of July, but it means there is a chance of an additional raise, too. Since he never got one when he got promoted because Covid happened and they cut back on a lot of things, I am hoping we will see that now. Either way, the 2% raise is $11 an hour more, so nothing to sneeze at and I am very grateful for it. It's been 3 years without a raise.
One of the verses I look to a lot is Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to give you hope, and a future." I have it posted at eye level on the wall by my computer. I have kept that in the forefront of my mind as much as possible during the last year and a half, constantly reminding myself that there is a future with hope in it, even when I felt hopeless at times with all the medical issues and expense they brought.
I was starting to feel it worse when I found out that the state of Washington is going to force long-term care insurance on anyone who is working and they were going to enforce it by taking it out of paychecks. There was a one time chance to opt out if you could prove you had other long-term care insurance. DH opted out and we are getting some in place. While it would be more convenient to do it through the state, they only offer $36,000 lifetime coverage and for every $100 they pay you have to pay $100 if you use the insurance. And there is no provision to guarantee they won't raise how much they are taking out whenever they feel like it. And also you have to pay more in based on your income so you are subsidizing other people.
We are getting one that is $50,000 lifetime coverage and a slightly cheaper premium and we have control over it and can shop around if it goes up, unlike with the government. DH and I had been talking about getting long-term care for a while anyway, I just don't like being forced to. It's another monthly bill coming in of $48.71. I was able to pick the date it comes out of the checking account, though. And with the raise I won't have to cut back in another category. And I really ought to get some long-term care insurance for myself, but I can't get it through the same place as him as that is only offered to their employees, not spouses.
So if we both get the insurance that'll be around $100 in a new bill. Allowing for them taking out 15% for the 401k pre-tax, about a third of what is left to payroll taxes, and taking 10% off for tithe, we should end up with an additional $400 a payday unaccounted for, give or take. That's just a guestimate, of course, and I won't know for sure until we get the first paycheck without any overtime on it. That'll make it a lot easier to save for both medical expenses and the Emergency Fund. Assuming nothing else in our lives goes blooey.
If he gets an additional 1% merit raise, that would give us $1000 to save to medical and EF each month and that would be great. Merit raises are generally higher than 1%, usually 2 to 5%, but I'm not being greedy. I do wish, though, that they'd go back to contributing 5% to the 401K and not just the 2.5%. I'd rather have that than a merit raise, to be honest. The 2% of the regular raise is enough to help us out and ease the pressure tremendously.
On the bright side, just with the first 2% raise we are going to hit the $19,500 401k max for the year right at the first payday of December, assuming no more overtime at all this year, which is unlikely. That is a huge milestone I didn't think we'd make this year. Technically since he is over 50, we could put $26,000 into his 401k as a catch up amount, but I don't think we will have an additonal $6500 lying around to do it with and if we did, we'd more likely open a spousal IRA for me.
It is nice to have a little more hope for the future again, though part of me is still holding my breath waiting for Murphy to whack us again. Does that ever go away?
Oh, and I got my second Moderna Covid vax on Sunday. It took me until today to feel like a human being again. Hence the big post.
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January 10th, 2021 at 02:38 am
1 What is that old expression about making plans and then God laughing at them? Well, my plans for 2021 just got thrown for a loop. Not completely, and it is something we can cash flow through March for, but it means only putting $195 a month into the Emergency Fund. For the first time ever we will be owing taxes.
It isn't an exact amount just yet, and won't be until DH gets his W-2, but with the numbers we do have, he estimated we will need to pay $2304 in taxes. It might vary. That means saving $768 a month for the next three months. The only place to take that money from was what we planned to put into the Emergency Fund.
If I want to hit our goal of six month's expenses by the end of the year, that means I will need to save $1018.55 a month from April through December. What I had budgeted for was $950 a month before all this. So that is a shortfall of $68.55 a month or $616.95 total. We might be able to make up for that on 3 paycheck months where medical would not be taken out so the checks are bigger. There is one in April and one in October this year. I would know how much it would be by April to know if it was enough in October to make up that difference. If not, I'll just have to find the money somewhere.
I'm not sure what our tax situation will be for 2021. We will be almost maxing out our 401K which one would think would lower our taxes by quite a lot. We only did 5% in 2020 and are doing 15% this year, which is $17,160. The max is $17,500 for 2021, although since we are over 50 we could do the catch up rate of $19,500. But we're not, at least not this year. Once we have our six month's expenses saved, the plan for 2022 is to max out to the catch up rate if we can.
I don't know if they will eliminate that tax cut Trump put in or not, but if they do that will affect everything, too, so until we see what they will do in Congress, it is kind of tilting at windmills to even try to think about taxes for 2021. Of course, that drives my planner's mind crazy. I am going forward assuming it will be eliminated, though.
I guess if we do have to pay taxes in 2021, we will probably be fine just doing what we are doing this time, altering the budget to cashflow the taxes.
You know what? I am so grateful we have no debt. So, so grateful. This would have made me so upset a year ago, but now we can just absorb it. Yes, it makes me annoyed, I don't like change, but not "Oh, my gosh, what are we going to do?" freaked out. I knew exactly what we could do and how to manage it without even blinking. That peace of mind, after so many years under the burden of debt, is priceless.
I don't know if I mentioned here about my little grand niece, but she was in the ICU at Children's for a couple of days, then one day out of the ICU and today she got to go home, but she's still not great, just not life-threatening anymore. There is something wrong with her blood sugar, like she's not absorbing enough sugar or something and it just got so bad because she stopped drinking for a day and got dehydrated. They had genetic testing done, but won't get that back for a week or so. Meanwhile they gave my nephew and his wife some sugar paste that absorbs directly into her gums if she won't drink enough juice to keep it up. They haven't mentioned diabetes at all, so I don't think that is the issue. Hopefully they will get it figured out soon. asdf123
What is that old expression about making plans and then God laughing at them? Well, my plans for 2021 just got thrown for a loop. Not completely, and it is something we can cash flow through March for, but it means only putting $195 a month into the Emergency Fund. For the first time ever we will be owing taxes.
It isn't an exact amount just yet, and won't be until DH gets his W-2, but with the numbers we do have, he estimated we will need to pay $2304 in taxes. It might vary. That means saving $768 a month for the next three months. The only place to take that money from was what we planned to put into the Emergency Fund.
If I want to hit our goal of six month's expenses by the end of the year, that means I will need to save $1018.55 a month from April through December. What I had budgeted for was $950 a month before all this. So that is a shortfall of $68.55 a month or $616.95 total. We might be able to make up for that on 3 paycheck months where medical would not be taken out so the checks are bigger. There is one in April and one in October this year. I would know how much it would be by April to know if it was enough in October to make up that difference. If not, I'll just have to find the money somewhere.
I'm not sure what our tax situation will be for 2021. We will be almost maxing out our 401K which one would think would lower our taxes by quite a lot. We only did 5% in 2020 and are doing 15% this year, which is $17,160. The max is $17,500 for 2021, although since we are over 50 we could do the catch up rate of $19,500. But we're not, at least not this year. Once we have our six month's expenses saved, the plan for 2022 is to max out to the catch up rate if we can.
I don't know if they will eliminate that tax cut Trump put in or not, but if they do that will affect everything, too, so until we see what they will do in Congress, it is kind of tilting at windmills to even try to think about taxes for 2021. Of course, that drives my planner's mind crazy. I am going forward assuming it will be eliminated, though.
I guess if we do have to pay taxes in 2021, we will probably be fine just doing what we are doing this time, altering the budget to cashflow the taxes.
You know what? I am so grateful we have no debt. So, so grateful. This would have made me so upset a year ago, but now we can just absorb it. Yes, it makes me annoyed, I don't like change, but not "Oh, my gosh, what are we going to do?" freaked out. I knew exactly what we could do and how to manage it without even blinking. That peace of mind, after so many years under the burden of debt, is priceless.
I don't know if I mentioned here about my little grand niece, but she was in the ICU at Children's for a couple of days, then one day out of the ICU and today she got to go home, but she's still not great, just not life-threatening anymore. There is something wrong with her blood sugar, like she's not absorbing enough sugar or something and it just got so bad because she stopped drinking for a day and got dehydrated. They had genetic testing done, but won't get that back for a week or so. Meanwhile they gave my nephew and his wife some sugar paste that absorbs directly into her gums if she won't drink enough juice to keep it up. They haven't mentioned diabetes at all, so I don't think that is the issue. Hopefully they will get it figured out soon.
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January 3rd, 2021 at 12:11 am
1 I checked my bank account this morning and to what should my wondering eyes appear, but a pending stimulus payment. DH and I got $1200 together. I'm a little disappointed that they couldn't get their act together and do the $2000, but free money is free money. That will go into the EF, minus the tithe, and that will put us at a little over three month's expenses. I plan to continue to save for six month's expenses, which will take to the end of the year or thereabouts. Eventually I'd like six month's income and not just six month's expenses, but once expenses are met, I'll probably cut the contribution in half so we can save for other things, but still push forward.
We also made sure our retirement account was set to15% for 2021. DH had done it once but it didn't take. So we did it again and this time got to an end screen he didn't get to the first time. I will make sure I check it again before payroll hits.
I did the numbers and between what we will contribute and what work will contribute (2.5%) it'll be a little over $20K this year. And that doesn't include company stock. If DH works until 72 and we get the same average rate of return as has been going for the last 20 years with the funds we are in, we should have 5.5 million. If we max out it'll be a little higher. If he can only work until 65, we still max out a little over 2 million. That's assuming no raises that will allow us to max out our 401K. Gives me hope that our disabled daughter will be well taken care of and that there will be an inheritance for my son, too.
And that's only if we don't put anything into the IRA. If we can contriubte to it this year that would be amazing, even if it is only a little bit. But I think if possible we would max out the 401K first, which would be an additional $2000 to what we are putting in. That might be a big enough stretch on its own.
DH's work is considering doing something where if you work overtime, instead of getting paid overtime, the hours worked can bank for extra paid vacation time or can bank for a quarterly payout, or do half vacation time/half quarterly payout. Since the project he is working on does not authorize overtime, this would be a way to actually work it, but get a different way of paying out. Normally it is only offered to salaried employees, not hourly, but he is doing the work of a salaried employee. I think they are putting it to a vote when everyone comes back from the holidays.
I am all for it. I'd like extra paid vacation and an extra payout, so we would do 50/50 for the first quarter and see what that looks like. And of course extra hours worked already means extra sick leave banked, since it is based on that at his work. While straight OT is better than anything, that just won't be an option this year. I guess we just have to wait and see how things play out.
asdf123
I checked my bank account this morning and to what should my wondering eyes appear, but a pending stimulus payment. DH and I got $1200 together. I'm a little disappointed that they couldn't get their act together and do the $2000, but free money is free money. That will go into the EF, minus the tithe, and that will put us at a little over three month's expenses. I plan to continue to save for six month's expenses, which will take to the end of the year or thereabouts. Eventually I'd like six month's income and not just six month's expenses, but once expenses are met, I'll probably cut the contribution in half so we can save for other things, but still push forward.
We also made sure our retirement account was set to15% for 2021. DH had done it once but it didn't take. So we did it again and this time got to an end screen he didn't get to the first time. I will make sure I check it again before payroll hits.
I did the numbers and between what we will contribute and what work will contribute (2.5%) it'll be a little over $20K this year. And that doesn't include company stock. If DH works until 72 and we get the same average rate of return as has been going for the last 20 years with the funds we are in, we should have 5.5 million. If we max out it'll be a little higher. If he can only work until 65, we still max out a little over 2 million. That's assuming no raises that will allow us to max out our 401K. Gives me hope that our disabled daughter will be well taken care of and that there will be an inheritance for my son, too.
And that's only if we don't put anything into the IRA. If we can contriubte to it this year that would be amazing, even if it is only a little bit. But I think if possible we would max out the 401K first, which would be an additional $2000 to what we are putting in. That might be a big enough stretch on its own.
DH's work is considering doing something where if you work overtime, instead of getting paid overtime, the hours worked can bank for extra paid vacation time or can bank for a quarterly payout, or do half vacation time/half quarterly payout. Since the project he is working on does not authorize overtime, this would be a way to actually work it, but get a different way of paying out. Normally it is only offered to salaried employees, not hourly, but he is doing the work of a salaried employee. I think they are putting it to a vote when everyone comes back from the holidays.
I am all for it. I'd like extra paid vacation and an extra payout, so we would do 50/50 for the first quarter and see what that looks like. And of course extra hours worked already means extra sick leave banked, since it is based on that at his work. While straight OT is better than anything, that just won't be an option this year. I guess we just have to wait and see how things play out.
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December 10th, 2020 at 10:59 pm
1 I do have a bit of good news in all the upheaval of 2020. There will be a Christmas contribution to the 401K and a small bonus at DH's work. And I do mean small in comparison to past years. $500 after taxes is nothing to sneeze at and will go directly to the Emergency Fund. Unless DH works overtime between now and the end of the year the 401K contribution will be $813.17 because it is based on a percentage of hours worked during the year.
Starting next year they are going to start matching 401K contributions again, but not at 5%. At 2.5%. It's a lot better than the 0% they had to do for the last half of 2020.
I saw the doctor yesterday so I could get migraine medication and pain medication and do a blood pressure check. I got the flu shot for the first time in a couple of decades. I had a gut level intuition that this was going to be a bad flu year and they had the right strains this time. I don't know where that came from, but I have always found that I should follow that voice when it happens. I'll probably feel cruddy the next couple of weeks because of it, I always do, but that's the choice I made.
We also talked about my hip and low back pain and how it radiates he is suspecting a bulging disc, so once I am done with this entry I am going to go get an x-ray taken and see if there is anything obvious. I might have to do physical therapy again. I don't see how that will help as I am still doing all the exercises from last time. And 45 minute sessions to an hour with a mask on when I have asthma is going to be torture even if I use my inhaler first. I'll probably have to do albuterol treatments afterwards.
Then after I've put in my PT time for the insurance company I can get an MRI on my low back and hip area. It's a lot of hoops for this type of MRI. I hope they find something they can fix when all is said and done. asdf123
I do have a bit of good news in all the upheaval of 2020. There will be a Christmas contribution to the 401K and a small bonus at DH's work. And I do mean small in comparison to past years. $500 after taxes is nothing to sneeze at and will go directly to the Emergency Fund. Unless DH works overtime between now and the end of the year the 401K contribution will be $813.17 because it is based on a percentage of hours worked during the year.
Starting next year they are going to start matching 401K contributions again, but not at 5%. At 2.5%. It's a lot better than the 0% they had to do for the last half of 2020.
I saw the doctor yesterday so I could get migraine medication and pain medication and do a blood pressure check. I got the flu shot for the first time in a couple of decades. I had a gut level intuition that this was going to be a bad flu year and they had the right strains this time. I don't know where that came from, but I have always found that I should follow that voice when it happens. I'll probably feel cruddy the next couple of weeks because of it, I always do, but that's the choice I made.
We also talked about my hip and low back pain and how it radiates he is suspecting a bulging disc, so once I am done with this entry I am going to go get an x-ray taken and see if there is anything obvious. I might have to do physical therapy again. I don't see how that will help as I am still doing all the exercises from last time. And 45 minute sessions to an hour with a mask on when I have asthma is going to be torture even if I use my inhaler first. I'll probably have to do albuterol treatments afterwards.
Then after I've put in my PT time for the insurance company I can get an MRI on my low back and hip area. It's a lot of hoops for this type of MRI. I hope they find something they can fix when all is said and done.
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November 8th, 2020 at 01:22 am
1 Our retirement has gone up from $36,810.93 on 10/10/20 to $37,826.36, a difference of $1012.43. Only $440 of that was contributions, so we've made a profit of $572.43 in 4 weeks, during one of the most unsettled periods of our nation's history. I wish his work was contributing the to the 401K. I hate that they had to quit in July due to Covid in order to stay afloat. We would be further ahead. I will be glad when this awful year is over and I hope and pray with all I am that next year will be better and the promised vaccine will be successful and actually here.
Once I know how next year is going to play out in the paycheck department, I can decide whether or not to increase our contributions. Our portion of medical will be going up around $250 a month pre-tax. I don't know what that will shake out to until we get our first full January paycheck. The plan was to bump it up to 7% in January and then if that seemed doable, work our way up to 10% by adding 1% at a time and seeing how that shakes out. Of course, if the tax cuts are revoked, then that will be moot as well, because we will lose another $250 a paycheck due to that.
If things get better next year at DH's work, and I'm not sure they will with Biden's vendetta against the oil industry, but if they do and DH gets the raise that should have gone with his promotion and we get their contributions back, we should be able to handle 10% no problem. But if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, this would not be a worry. At least they have the biodiseal conversion contract at one of the oil refineries.
I know we have to step up our game somehow or other with retirement. It helps that mom has told us we are going to inherit the $650,000 house since we are the only ones who have helped her all these years (as long as we give my sisters $100,000 each that we can pay them interest free over time for their smaller portions of the inheritance), we will never have to worry about a place to live.
Although we would probably eventually sell this place and move away from the city, possibly the state, we would easily be able to buy a house outright with the profits elsewhere. We are looking at Montana because DH's work has a branch there that he works with now, and they have asked in the past about moving there. We just can't currently afford it. I would like to retire in a lower cost of living area that is less politically rabid to one side. Somewhere a little more centrist to slightly conservative, so more pro gun, has better water rights, and is anti-big gov. Montana is my favorite other state that I have ever visited and even though the winters are colder, the summers are amazing.
All this limbo makes me feel crazy. asdf123
Our retirement has gone up from $36,810.93 on 10/10/20 to $37,826.36, a difference of $1012.43. Only $440 of that was contributions, so we've made a profit of $572.43 in 4 weeks, during one of the most unsettled periods of our nation's history. I wish his work was contributing the to the 401K. I hate that they had to quit in July due to Covid in order to stay afloat. We would be further ahead. I will be glad when this awful year is over and I hope and pray with all I am that next year will be better and the promised vaccine will be successful and actually here.
Once I know how next year is going to play out in the paycheck department, I can decide whether or not to increase our contributions. Our portion of medical will be going up around $250 a month pre-tax. I don't know what that will shake out to until we get our first full January paycheck. The plan was to bump it up to 7% in January and then if that seemed doable, work our way up to 10% by adding 1% at a time and seeing how that shakes out. Of course, if the tax cuts are revoked, then that will be moot as well, because we will lose another $250 a paycheck due to that.
If things get better next year at DH's work, and I'm not sure they will with Biden's vendetta against the oil industry, but if they do and DH gets the raise that should have gone with his promotion and we get their contributions back, we should be able to handle 10% no problem. But if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, this would not be a worry. At least they have the biodiseal conversion contract at one of the oil refineries.
I know we have to step up our game somehow or other with retirement. It helps that mom has told us we are going to inherit the $650,000 house since we are the only ones who have helped her all these years (as long as we give my sisters $100,000 each that we can pay them interest free over time for their smaller portions of the inheritance), we will never have to worry about a place to live.
Although we would probably eventually sell this place and move away from the city, possibly the state, we would easily be able to buy a house outright with the profits elsewhere. We are looking at Montana because DH's work has a branch there that he works with now, and they have asked in the past about moving there. We just can't currently afford it. I would like to retire in a lower cost of living area that is less politically rabid to one side. Somewhere a little more centrist to slightly conservative, so more pro gun, has better water rights, and is anti-big gov. Montana is my favorite other state that I have ever visited and even though the winters are colder, the summers are amazing.
All this limbo makes me feel crazy.
Posted in
Retirement,
Work
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1 Comments »
April 16th, 2020 at 03:16 am
0I moved our stimulus payment to the Emergency Fund and also one of the accounts finally posted interest so I am adding that as well.
$4405.64 Balance Forward
+2400.65 Amount Added
---------------
$6806.29 New Balance
I am now over the one month of income mark in the EF by $257.05. To reach my mid-term goal of two month's income, I need to save an additional $6292.19. My short term goal is $7500 and I have to save $693.71 to reach that. The next short term goal will be $10K.
Of course, those are all goals, which we can only maintain if DH continues to work. So far he seems pretty safe, but that doesn't mean it will remain so. We are saving as much as we can starting with Friday's paycheck. If DH ends up getting furloughed at some point his employer will continue to pay their portion of medical for two months. But he is pretty vital to keep the company going, so as long as the company doesn't fail I think we will be okay. It really depends on how long this quarantine business lasts.
DH only had to work one week at 32 hours. They are allowing 40 hours this week. So this paycheck will have the hit on it, but that is okay. I've planned for that loss of income. asdf123
I moved our stimulus payment to the Emergency Fund and also one of the accounts finally posted interest so I am adding that as well.
$4405.64 Balance Forward
+2400.65 Amount Added
---------------
$6806.29 New Balance
I am now over the one month of income mark in the EF by $257.05. To reach my mid-term goal of two month's income, I need to save an additional $6292.19. My short term goal is $7500 and I have to save $693.71 to reach that. The next short term goal will be $10K.
Of course, those are all goals, which we can only maintain if DH continues to work. So far he seems pretty safe, but that doesn't mean it will remain so. We are saving as much as we can starting with Friday's paycheck. If DH ends up getting furloughed at some point his employer will continue to pay their portion of medical for two months. But he is pretty vital to keep the company going, so as long as the company doesn't fail I think we will be okay. It really depends on how long this quarantine business lasts.
DH only had to work one week at 32 hours. They are allowing 40 hours this week. So this paycheck will have the hit on it, but that is okay. I've planned for that loss of income.
Posted in
Goals,
Extra Income Sources,
Emergency Living and Preperations,
Emergency Fund/Coin Jar,
Work
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1 Comments »
January 17th, 2020 at 04:11 am
0It has been snowing for the past 4 days and it has been bitter cold. Today is a little warmer, but we got down to 17 degrees F, which is darn cold for here. We've had the furnace at 75 just to feel like it is 68 at the far end of the house from the furnace. We are all wearing layers inside. I have on a long-sleeved shirt with a short sleeved shirt on over it and then a long sweater over that, heavy sweats and heavy socks. I just think about how much it would be if we hadn't had the insulation replaced under our part of the house last month. I wish we'd put plastic on the windows when I wanted to, but it got put off.
The gas bill will be high this month. Electric will be a little higher, too, because we are using the space heater in the rabbit shed to keep the water bottles from freezing. And I know my mom has been using her space heater, too. And we did have Christmas lights on for 3 weeks.
DH has been able to get out and go to work. We had about 8 to 10 inches of snow and they haven't done a great job about plowing the roads. But he is used to driving in the snow due to all the years of working in Alaska. DH has been authorized to do 10 hours of overtime a week for next week and the week after that. He could have some this week, but he has a cold and isn't sure he is up for it. He's barely managing to get in his 8 hours a day at the moment. Hopefully next week he will be better and he can take full advantage of it.
The extra money would come in handy because I would like to get an electric grain mill and the one I am looking at costs $263 if I want the attachment for small grains like millet, and I do. It's a big upfront investment, but it is a whole lot cheaper to buy rice and grind it into flour than to continue to buy rice flour at high prices. Even with a bulk source it still isn't anywhere as cheap as just buying the different rices to make sweet rice flour, white rice flour, and brown rice flour, so it will eventually pay for itself. Pretty quickly, too, within the year. And as far as I can tell millet only comes in grain form, not flour form so if I want millet flour I have to grind it myself. Sorghum flour I will still have to buy in bulk unless I can find a source of the grain itself, but I can deal with that.
Also both the husband the son need new belts and the son needs new farm boots. There should be some overtime money after that to throw at the mom loan or at the EF. I haven't decided quite yet. Of course, I won't count on it until he's worked it, but tentatively that's the plan.
On my weight loss goal I have lost 5.4 pounds since starting to eat right again. Today is day 4. I am tracking my calories and food with my fitbit. I am doing about 20 minutes of exercise a day. I will be working up to 30. I lost all of my stamina when I was in bed for 3 weeks and have been working at getting it back for the last week. They are careful exercises from my physical therapy time, ones that work with my rheumatoid arthritis and not against it.
DH said the IRA went over $10K today, so that was a nice milestone that happened. I have been anxiously awaiting that moment so I am glad it finally got here.
I've been kind of lazy about planning my meals out this week. Mostly I've just been taking meat out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge and then deciding what I am going to cook based on what has thawed out and then figuring out what is going to go with it. I usually like to plan better than that, but I'm still not up to snuff after being so sick for so long. I guess whatever gets homemade food on the table instead of takeout works, right?
Tonight I made meatloaf for dinner and roasted potatoes, bell peppers, and onions, with a bag of steamed broccoli on the side. It was my first time using gluten free bread crumbs. I didn't notice any difference in flavor at all, so that is nice. It didn't quite hold together as well as usual, but that might be down to the fact I only used 3 eggs instead of 4 and had an extra pound of meat in the mix, so I probably should have actually used five eggs for a five pound meatloaf (leftovers for lunches). Everything tasted great, though, even if it was a little messy to eat.
Well, I think that about wraps it up for today. If you all could pray for me that I start sleeping better, I'd appreciate it. Too many restless nights are running me down. asdf123
It has been snowing for the past 4 days and it has been bitter cold. Today is a little warmer, but we got down to 17 degrees F, which is darn cold for here. We've had the furnace at 75 just to feel like it is 68 at the far end of the house from the furnace. We are all wearing layers inside. I have on a long-sleeved shirt with a short sleeved shirt on over it and then a long sweater over that, heavy sweats and heavy socks. I just think about how much it would be if we hadn't had the insulation replaced under our part of the house last month. I wish we'd put plastic on the windows when I wanted to, but it got put off.
The gas bill will be high this month. Electric will be a little higher, too, because we are using the space heater in the rabbit shed to keep the water bottles from freezing. And I know my mom has been using her space heater, too. And we did have Christmas lights on for 3 weeks.
DH has been able to get out and go to work. We had about 8 to 10 inches of snow and they haven't done a great job about plowing the roads. But he is used to driving in the snow due to all the years of working in Alaska. DH has been authorized to do 10 hours of overtime a week for next week and the week after that. He could have some this week, but he has a cold and isn't sure he is up for it. He's barely managing to get in his 8 hours a day at the moment. Hopefully next week he will be better and he can take full advantage of it.
The extra money would come in handy because I would like to get an electric grain mill and the one I am looking at costs $263 if I want the attachment for small grains like millet, and I do. It's a big upfront investment, but it is a whole lot cheaper to buy rice and grind it into flour than to continue to buy rice flour at high prices. Even with a bulk source it still isn't anywhere as cheap as just buying the different rices to make sweet rice flour, white rice flour, and brown rice flour, so it will eventually pay for itself. Pretty quickly, too, within the year. And as far as I can tell millet only comes in grain form, not flour form so if I want millet flour I have to grind it myself. Sorghum flour I will still have to buy in bulk unless I can find a source of the grain itself, but I can deal with that.
Also both the husband the son need new belts and the son needs new farm boots. There should be some overtime money after that to throw at the mom loan or at the EF. I haven't decided quite yet. Of course, I won't count on it until he's worked it, but tentatively that's the plan.
On my weight loss goal I have lost 5.4 pounds since starting to eat right again. Today is day 4. I am tracking my calories and food with my fitbit. I am doing about 20 minutes of exercise a day. I will be working up to 30. I lost all of my stamina when I was in bed for 3 weeks and have been working at getting it back for the last week. They are careful exercises from my physical therapy time, ones that work with my rheumatoid arthritis and not against it.
DH said the IRA went over $10K today, so that was a nice milestone that happened. I have been anxiously awaiting that moment so I am glad it finally got here.
I've been kind of lazy about planning my meals out this week. Mostly I've just been taking meat out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge and then deciding what I am going to cook based on what has thawed out and then figuring out what is going to go with it. I usually like to plan better than that, but I'm still not up to snuff after being so sick for so long. I guess whatever gets homemade food on the table instead of takeout works, right?
Tonight I made meatloaf for dinner and roasted potatoes, bell peppers, and onions, with a bag of steamed broccoli on the side. It was my first time using gluten free bread crumbs. I didn't notice any difference in flavor at all, so that is nice. It didn't quite hold together as well as usual, but that might be down to the fact I only used 3 eggs instead of 4 and had an extra pound of meat in the mix, so I probably should have actually used five eggs for a five pound meatloaf (leftovers for lunches). Everything tasted great, though, even if it was a little messy to eat.
Well, I think that about wraps it up for today. If you all could pray for me that I start sleeping better, I'd appreciate it. Too many restless nights are running me down.
Posted in
Appliance Antics and Household Purchases,
Meal Planning,
Beat the Heat or the Cold,
Work
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2 Comments »
November 4th, 2019 at 11:34 pm
0So I started the month at 44,270 words on my novel. The goal this month is to write 50,000 words and hopefully finish or come close to finishing this book. I got off to a slow start but am picking up speed. I did do some plotting and figuring out that I needed to insert a scene to make something make more sense and add a few sentences here and there for an additional character who hadn't been in an early scene. So that took a lot of skimming around the first day and I wrote it the second. The second day was a bad rheumatoid day, but after that I am doing mostly fine.
Word counts so far:
11/1 = 0
11/2 = 266
11/3 = 2037
11/4 = 1624
I am behind schedule by 2745 words, but I think I will be able to catch up, maybe even tonight, but definitely between now and the 7nth, while staying on track daily. I did a one hour writing sprint today already, I think I probably have another one in me. If so I will update the list.
Total word count so far is 3923 and I need to be at 6668. I can catch up now that I am in the flow again, although I will probably have to ice my hands tonight.
asdf123
So I started the month at 44,270 words on my novel. The goal this month is to write 50,000 words and hopefully finish or come close to finishing this book. I got off to a slow start but am picking up speed. I did do some plotting and figuring out that I needed to insert a scene to make something make more sense and add a few sentences here and there for an additional character who hadn't been in an early scene. So that took a lot of skimming around the first day and I wrote it the second. The second day was a bad rheumatoid day, but after that I am doing mostly fine.
Word counts so far:
11/1 = 0
11/2 = 266
11/3 = 2037
11/4 = 1624
I am behind schedule by 2745 words, but I think I will be able to catch up, maybe even tonight, but definitely between now and the 7nth, while staying on track daily. I did a one hour writing sprint today already, I think I probably have another one in me. If so I will update the list.
Total word count so far is 3923 and I need to be at 6668. I can catch up now that I am in the flow again, although I will probably have to ice my hands tonight.
Posted in
Organize My Life,
Work
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2 Comments »
October 27th, 2019 at 12:20 am
0Yesterday and today were rough days physically. I had my last physical therapy session yesterday and they really put me through the ringer. They had me fill out a form at the end which was the same form and I filled out in the beginning and then compared them and the changes have been dramatic.
Things I didn't even realize had changed, like being able to pick up a grocery bag from the floor instead of having to have it put on the counter for me or standing at the sink for fifteen minutes, that kind of thing. A lot of other things have gotten easier, too. My core strength, my leg strength, my range of motion. I am walking further distances unaided. Not to say that I don't use my cane at all, I do on a particularly bad day, but for the majority of the time, I haven't had to in weeks.
I'm pretty sore today, but I also took my shot yesterday which tends to exhaust me, so I just stayed in bed for most of the day and spent some time writing.
I have set a goal to try to finish the first draft of my novel in November. I've never done NaNoWriMo before because for the last several Novembers things went to heck in a handbasket. This is the first time I don't think it is going to. I don't know if I will do it officially or unofficially. I mean, there is all the stuff with my daughter's liver, but the appointments for that will be limited and then if we have to stay a few days after surgery that is a ton of writing time for me that will be pretty much uninterrupted. But mostly I am just back in the mood to work on it again.
I am halfway through seventeen chapters and 44,270 words in and I am aiming for 100,000 to 115,000, so under halfway. The goal in NaNo is 50,000 in 30 days or 1666.67 words per day. I tend to write 4000 to 5000 every other day when I am motivated. I usually need a day off in between due to my hands not being able to handle that kind of typing daily. Maybe I won't finish, but I will get a lot closer to the end and if I finish in December I will be happy.
Then I will edit the second half (the first half has been edited a lot already) and then set it aside for a few months before reading through it again, editing again, and then have a couple of beta readers go over it before figuring out the next step. I don't know if I will try the traditional publishing route or just get an editor to go through it and help me improve it and then self-publish. I am investigating both ways.
Then there is the issue of I think what I have written might really be the second book in a trilogy and not the first, so I might have to figure out if that is true or not and write the first one before deciding on publishing.
I also have to decide if this is a YA novel or not. I don't want it to be, but many of the characters are under 18. More of the characters are adults and have as big of a role as the children, though, but it does revolve around the teens and kids and their power as they grow up. But in the sequel most of them will be adults. Ah, it's a boggle. I'll just have to finish it first, and go from there. asdf123
Yesterday and today were rough days physically. I had my last physical therapy session yesterday and they really put me through the ringer. They had me fill out a form at the end which was the same form and I filled out in the beginning and then compared them and the changes have been dramatic.
Things I didn't even realize had changed, like being able to pick up a grocery bag from the floor instead of having to have it put on the counter for me or standing at the sink for fifteen minutes, that kind of thing. A lot of other things have gotten easier, too. My core strength, my leg strength, my range of motion. I am walking further distances unaided. Not to say that I don't use my cane at all, I do on a particularly bad day, but for the majority of the time, I haven't had to in weeks.
I'm pretty sore today, but I also took my shot yesterday which tends to exhaust me, so I just stayed in bed for most of the day and spent some time writing.
I have set a goal to try to finish the first draft of my novel in November. I've never done NaNoWriMo before because for the last several Novembers things went to heck in a handbasket. This is the first time I don't think it is going to. I don't know if I will do it officially or unofficially. I mean, there is all the stuff with my daughter's liver, but the appointments for that will be limited and then if we have to stay a few days after surgery that is a ton of writing time for me that will be pretty much uninterrupted. But mostly I am just back in the mood to work on it again.
I am halfway through seventeen chapters and 44,270 words in and I am aiming for 100,000 to 115,000, so under halfway. The goal in NaNo is 50,000 in 30 days or 1666.67 words per day. I tend to write 4000 to 5000 every other day when I am motivated. I usually need a day off in between due to my hands not being able to handle that kind of typing daily. Maybe I won't finish, but I will get a lot closer to the end and if I finish in December I will be happy.
Then I will edit the second half (the first half has been edited a lot already) and then set it aside for a few months before reading through it again, editing again, and then have a couple of beta readers go over it before figuring out the next step. I don't know if I will try the traditional publishing route or just get an editor to go through it and help me improve it and then self-publish. I am investigating both ways.
Then there is the issue of I think what I have written might really be the second book in a trilogy and not the first, so I might have to figure out if that is true or not and write the first one before deciding on publishing.
I also have to decide if this is a YA novel or not. I don't want it to be, but many of the characters are under 18. More of the characters are adults and have as big of a role as the children, though, but it does revolve around the teens and kids and their power as they grow up. But in the sequel most of them will be adults. Ah, it's a boggle. I'll just have to finish it first, and go from there.
Posted in
Medical Issues and Spending,
Work
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4 Comments »
February 28th, 2019 at 04:39 am
0I should have posted this the other day, but I have been dragging and the extent of my online activity has been on the level of watching videos of a cat singing the Game of Thrones theme song on youtube or the like. Yeah, that's where my intellectual capacity has been at. So not a lot of brain power going on.
Anyway, the raise for DH is official and all of the paperwork has now been signed. It won't be on the next paycheck, but will be on the last one of March. He's officially told the other place he won't be working for them.
On the bad side, the alternator is going out in the truck so we are going to have to get that fixed to the tune of around $600. I have $250 in the car maintenance fund. They had said it was going at the oil change DH had last week and today when DH pulled in the driveway it was really straining. Hopefully we can get it to the dealership without having to call a tow truck.
They made it sound like it would probably last six months, but we don't think so after today. It also needs the air filter, the cabin filter, the spark plugs, and the brake fluid replaced and we have decided to do all of that. So we will dip into the EF for this for the rest of the money. I had been planning to use the tax refund when it came, but I don't think it will be here in time now. But we will reimburse the EF when the tax refund comes. Sadly, it will probably use up the entire tax refund. But at least we will break even.
I will start saving $100 a month instead of $50 a month to the car maintenance fund for the next two months, just to build that back up again. Or maybe keep it at that level. The truck is a 2007 and there may be some other issues coming up. A belt or a fuel pump or something, though as of now those things are fine according to the mechanic.
I worry less about the van. It is a 2011 and we haven't hit 45,000 miles on it yet, but it will be needing an oil change shortly and I would like to eventually get the dent pulled out that DH put in it a couple years ago.
asdf123
I should have posted this the other day, but I have been dragging and the extent of my online activity has been on the level of watching videos of a cat singing the Game of Thrones theme song on youtube or the like. Yeah, that's where my intellectual capacity has been at. So not a lot of brain power going on.
Anyway, the raise for DH is official and all of the paperwork has now been signed. It won't be on the next paycheck, but will be on the last one of March. He's officially told the other place he won't be working for them.
On the bad side, the alternator is going out in the truck so we are going to have to get that fixed to the tune of around $600. I have $250 in the car maintenance fund. They had said it was going at the oil change DH had last week and today when DH pulled in the driveway it was really straining. Hopefully we can get it to the dealership without having to call a tow truck.
They made it sound like it would probably last six months, but we don't think so after today. It also needs the air filter, the cabin filter, the spark plugs, and the brake fluid replaced and we have decided to do all of that. So we will dip into the EF for this for the rest of the money. I had been planning to use the tax refund when it came, but I don't think it will be here in time now. But we will reimburse the EF when the tax refund comes. Sadly, it will probably use up the entire tax refund. But at least we will break even.
I will start saving $100 a month instead of $50 a month to the car maintenance fund for the next two months, just to build that back up again. Or maybe keep it at that level. The truck is a 2007 and there may be some other issues coming up. A belt or a fuel pump or something, though as of now those things are fine according to the mechanic.
I worry less about the van. It is a 2011 and we haven't hit 45,000 miles on it yet, but it will be needing an oil change shortly and I would like to eventually get the dent pulled out that DH put in it a couple years ago.
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I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 26 years, disabled daughter, college-aged son, and my 82-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!