How did it come to this?

erniethecat

Next time mum fills the bath, I'll try and swim from side to side. If I can do that I'll be able to swim the atlantic, right?!

Mum was working hard today, but was starving at lunchtime so had a cheeky starbucks. But, the drink was free (from rewards collected) and the sandwich was paid for from swagbucks earnings, so practically free. Apart from that, some milk and chocolate, so a low spend day at $5.59 if not a no spend day.

She was supposed to go out tonight but decided she was too tired. Ruined my plans for a night on the town, so I'm not happy. Saved a little more money though :-)

Weirdly the transaction for the flight she booked has disappeared. She called and the booking is still there, and the bank can't explain it, so who knows what's going on? Got to remember that the balance of that account is $286 lower.

Oh, and good news! Mum found an account she'd forgotten with $300 in it! So the flight is paid for, when the transaction finally clears.

Oh, and bad news, the leccy bill is $80 this month! Tomorrow we have to concentrate and work out how the thermostat works. The usage has this massive spike after we've gone to bed which makes no sense.

So a mixed day moneywise, and no night on the town for me. Definitely a net negative. Grrrrr.

erniethecat

We'll we've learnt something over the last few days: just how out of touch we are with the money we have and what we spend. Apparently, on Saturday we spend $2.98 on "Highlights". She says, she doesn't remember what that is. No idea. Literally, she's must have been spending money whilst sleep walking.

We spend 20 minutes trying to work out when we'd spent $300 on clothes, before we noticed that the transaction was in 2014!

On the good news front, a bunch of clothes arrived, got tried on and got sent back. The spending graph on Mint shows January as a teeny tiny blip compared with months before. We still haven't gone food shopping although we're starting to get low - in human food at least! The larder is still full of cat food :-) We have money to cash out on Swagbucks for treats. She signed up for an improv class and found out she gets free entry to shows for the duration of the course!

I think the good news outweighs the bad around here. Although, I think I missed a bit last time I cleaned my face. Sluuuuurrrrrrrrppppp.

erniethecat

Awesome News!!! (Or, it pays to be confused sometimes).

So, health insurance. A little kitty education. There's two important numbers - the deductible (like an excess) which you have to pay before the plan kicks in, and the out of pocket maximum which is the most you can pay in a year on top of your monthly payments.

This year our deductible is $350. So I thought that we'd have to pay that before getting drugs at the plan prices which are $10 and $20 per drug. Turns out that for the drugs she's taking, we get the $10 and $20 pricing immediately!! (I still don't understand why!)

So cost of health insurance monthly just dropped from $1237 to to $700!! Woohoooooooooo!

Oh, and that out of pocket maximum, that is the total we might have to pay depending on what happens? It's $7750 and... we already had it saved because that was the deductible last year and so that's what we thought it was this year. Assuming we don't switch drugs or add any this year, there's no health emergency we can't handle.

Stress. Gone. Yawn. Oh, I need a nap after all this excitement!

beanielou

Well thats good news.
Enjoy your snooze

redofromstart

I think I'd need a nap too, but hurrah for the numbers.

ZTD

erniethecat wrote: »

Awesome News!!! (Or, it pays to be confused sometimes).

So, health insurance. A little kitty education. There's two important numbers - the deductible (like an excess) which you have to pay before the plan kicks in, and the out of pocket maximum which is the most you can pay in a year on top of your monthly payments.

This year our deductible is $350. So I thought that we'd have to pay that before getting drugs at the plan prices which are $10 and $20 per drug. Turns out that for the drugs she's taking, we get the $10 and $20 pricing immediately!! (I still don't understand why!)

Perhaps it's that once the plan actually kicks in, you never pay the deductible again? (it doesn't reset yearly?)

UncannyScot

Hi Ernie (and Mum )

Hope things are going ok... been very quiet.

Not trying to swim over here I hope :eek: