The Misery of Money

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 17:52:00 +0000

Hello Everyone!

Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day :)

I know I have been absent (again). Just a lot going on. Still recovering with my achilles, lots of money stress, J thinking about going back to Afghanistan, my Mother-In-Law is currently visiting (more stress), work stress....so, lots of stress.

I hope to get back into it again here soon. Just so much going on, I just don't know when.

I still hang around your blogs and enjoy reading them all :)

Hope you all had a great day!

Happy Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Been a while again, but just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for all of you who continue to come here to push us on :)

Feeling Blah

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:30:00 +0000

I love my job. I really do.
But some days I really dislike the fact that no matter how I am feeling, I have to be there. I'm 'essential'.
Plus, with me having to go on Short Term Disability with my surgery, I have little to no sick time, and the time that I am accumulating will have to be used next week on my scheduled sick day.
I really don't feel well today. Tired, sneezing, stuffy, no appetite. Just BLAH.

I know a lot of you are probably thinking 'If you're sick don't go, you'll get everyone sick'. And I agree. But I probably got this from someone at work, because again, we're essential and are required to be there at all costs....even if it means getting everyone around you sick. It's the one thing that causes a lot of tension and contension at work.

Now, on the other hand, last week during "Sandy" we were put on Reduced Operations and because we ARE essential, I got paid double time and a half for being at work that day. It'll be a nice paycheck next week.

But right now....BLAH.

I just hope today is quiet.

Hello November!

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 17:38:00 +0000

Wow, where to begin, so much has been going on.

My achilles is doing really well. I go back for my 6 week post-cast follow up on November 15. I was put into a walking boot on October 1 and to be honest, once I realized that I could walk again and I felt comfortable, I started wearing the boot only when I was going out or at work.
At home I have been walking around like normal (or semi-normal). Walking down stairs was slow, but now I can bend my foot and actually go one step at a time.
I still have no strength in my foot, so no tippy-toes yet. I hope to start physio here soon and build up my calf muscle again.

When I last left off, Murphy had paid a visit with the furnace and thankfully it was an easy fix with only the news that we may want to start looking at replacing it in the near future.
Well, Murphy has decided that he's not done with us yet.
We have 2 Electrical outlets that don't work. One of them is located outside on the front of the house. I am going to need these soon for Christmas lights. So we will put in a trade call for that.
Our Fridge is leaking. We have a giant pool of water at the bottom of the fridge that if left, makes the fridge run warmer. The icemaker is also leaking and makes for a really cool ice sculpter, but not so good for the freezer. Another $100 trade call.

And finally, when we were looking at the furnace (when it wasn't working) one of the downstacks for the rough-in bathroom downstairs has evidence of leaking. How did I know? I grabbed the stack and it was nasty, sticky, and you can see 'dried' evidence of leaks. Gross? Yes. Not a huge deal, as it wasn't wet so we were waiting on that trade call. Well the waiting is over. We bought a nice new dining room set on Sunday and when I was setting up the Afghan rug J brought home from deployment I happened to look up. And saw this:

It is right below where our master bathroom toilet is. So most likely the wax ring needs replacement. But so will the ceiling that is damaged, because I do not want any mold or nastiness living there.
So, another $100 trade call. We'll knock this out here in the next few days.

This month will probably fly by just like the rest of the year has.
Next week will be a nice short week for me. Thursday my dr. appointment, Friday Saturday and Sunday J and I will be meeting my parents in Atlantic City for the weekend. J and I went up there in October for a night. We didn't win, but we didn't spend more than we had planned to 'lose'. I think we did ok though. Our rooms for this month at Caesar's are comped and we have RFB (Room, Food and Beverage). Essentially, our room, any food and drink are also comped.
Not only that, but we planned to go to Las Vegas next April for my birthday. Our room at Paris is also comped for 5 nights already. This is based on 1 night of play. We must have done something right....or wrong LOL
Wish us luck!

Who Invited This Murphy Guy????

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:44:00 +0000

Not our furnace/AC but looks very similar!

Why is it, when something happens to your home, as a homeowner, the first thing people say to you is "Welcome to Homeownership!" J must have heard it 15 times yesterday. I think he must have been initiated now into the 'homeownership club'.

On Sunday we returned from Gettysburg after having a nice day up there. It was cold, and rainy and when we came inside, it was 65deg. We decided to take a bit of the cold and dampness out, we would turn the heat on.
Heat turned on, and the furnace would not turn over or ignite. The motor would run, just no heat.
Great. We tried a couple of 'fixes' we found on the interwebs but nothing, nada, no heat.

Thank goodness when we bought the home, a Home Warrenty was included. It's $100 deductible per trade call. Put in the service request at 9pm and by 8am the next morning we had the company that would be providing service.
Instead of waiting for them to call us, I called them. I Was COLD. Sleeping was fun. It was a lot colder than 65deg upstairs and it did get into the 30s that night.
They put us on a urgent list, but the earliest they could get in was today.
The tech has come and gone. And I have heat. The Pressure Switch went on it.

Apparently, our furnace is crap, and is only good for about 10 years. The house is 7 years old.
Yay.
We asked for a quote for a replacement, a TRANE. Right now, if we go with the same capacity that we have now, it would be $5700 which includes a $1500 rebate and all labor.
We may do this in the Spring....but knowing that the system sucks, and that we've only lived here for 7 months sucks too.

Oh well, Welcome to Homeownership!

Lump Sum Delegation

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 16:37:00 +0000

So the $8444 showed up yesterday morning along with my paycheck (which was more this payday than last....I think it was due to meeting my 'time off' requirement for short term disability and was actually close to what *I* thought it was going to be here) and a transfer of $3000 from ING to put into the certificate of 4%.

Of the $8444, I moved $1400 to the Custom Club for our Cruise and Disney vacation making that fully funded. I sent $500 to my parents and we paid off some of the little debts that we had accumulated.
May as well start somewhere again.

The rest has been put into savings for now until we make hard decisions on what to do with it.

The remainder that is left of the lump sum is $5869

I know I have been off work since August 21 and I go back to work on Tuesday, but I cannot wait for our vacation. Now that it is fully funded of over $5000 (and I may just add more for fun before we go in January...can never have too much!) and the Cruise has been 'paid for' since last February when I got my bonus for work. Just waiting until we get closer to the Final Payment Date to pay that with Norwegian Cruise Line. I'll post more on the vacation here soon on what we're doing and where we're staying :)
But right now.....
Sitting around all day has not been fun. Very much NOT a vacation.
I am slowly getting back on my feet. Still very painful though.

Hope you all have a great weekend, if you have Columbus Day off enjoy it, and if you're Canadian, HAPPY THANKSGIVING (HAPPY TURKEY DAY!) Normally I cook a Turkey down here, but it's just too much with my foot out of action.

Income Increase and Achilles Update

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 18:01:00 +0000

The cast is OFF! YAY! Except I can't put full weight on my leg yet. The surgeon was all gung-ho about me walking in a walking boot and not using my walker/crutches. I went to take a step and OUCH!!!!! Uh, no. Still need the crutches to support me walking. I am trying each day to put weight on it, but it's pretty frustrating.
I know it's going to take time, but to go one day walking (even with the chronic pain), to no weight at all for close to 6 weeks and then to 'walking' again and not being able to stinks.
Plus, my calf muscle has atrophied so much that I can't tell you how long it's been since I saw my leg that skinny! lol. It also means I have no strength.
Time will tell how I do.

On a happier note, J finally got his VA Benefits all squared away!
In May 2010 we filed for his benefits for disability (which he should have done when he got out of the Navy in 1997...c'est la vie). In June 2011 they said, yes, you have Tinnitus and we'll give you a 10% disability rating (which is $127/month as of right now), but since you didn't 'show up' for your appt at the VA hospital for your shoulder claim, it's DENIED.
Well, we never received an appointment for his shoulder. We sent the appeal back (which you have to do within a year or you have to start over) and told them that J would be in Afghanistan but would be back in Oct - Nov 2011 and to please reschedule the appointment.
Literally a week after J went back to Afghanistan they sent the appointment date. *le sigh*
So, me being his Power of Attorney, I called to cancel the appointment with the VA Hospital, who told me "when he gets back, just have the local office reschedule".
Sounds easy right? WRONG.
A couple of months later we got another letter stating it was DENIED because he didn't show up again. *LE SIGH*
Another appeal letter stating what had happened and that we 'respectfully requested another appointment when he returned after May 2012".
They FINALLY got it right.
He had his appointment in August, and the doctor agreed that J's shoulder was not right since his injury and surgery by the Navy in 1996.

We got the news yesterday that his disability rating has increased from 10% - 30% which means that he also gets a dependant rating for me (yay for being married! lol).
So instead of $127/month it will now be $435/month. We also have a pending deposit for the backpay all the way back to May 2010 (minus any pay he's already received) of $8,444.

J and I need to have a 'chat' tonight on what to allocate the funds to.
Since we have debt again, we need to discuss where it will go.
We have already decided a few things. J will get some 'fun money' since technically it is 'his' money (although I did all the work for it :P), we will finish out our 'vacation/cruise' money for January, and we will put some into the 4% certificate that we opened a couple of weeks ago.
We will also send some to my parents who loaned us some money when we first got married to help out. There's never been a written "you must pay us back or else" but today, my mom assumed that we are 'in a position to pay them back' now.....and we're not really, but they don't know that.

But that's another story for another time.

Is It Monday Yet?

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 17:15:00 +0000

Yes, I know, that SHOULD read, is it Friday yet? But Monday means I get this cast off of my leg and I get a walking boot.

I NEED TO WALK. This past month has been horrible! I feel like I gained 50lbs, I am looking at a disaster area of a home, and I haven't been able to get to work. I never thought I would be so happy to be closer to going to work and talking to people who may yell at me. Yes, I am looking forward to that!

If you know how much I hate to clean, you would be surprised to know that I am DESPERATE to clean this house, just because I can't at the moment.
I can see the mess J has made on his side of the bed, but can I tidy it up? No, because 1) It takes an effort to get upstairs (I have been crawling up the stairs on my hands and knees since the surgery), 2) I have to use a walker up there and cannot bed over to pick up his stuff, and if I do pick it up, I cannot hold it and use the walker at the same time. *sigh*

I would kill to be able to take a bath right now. Seriously. I love baths, and I haven't had one since August 20th. I can barely take a shower because it is so difficult to bag my leg, actually get into the shower, shower, get out of the shower, dry, and dress. By the time I do all of that (upstairs by the way), I feel so sweaty that I would need to take another shower. So I shower when I am desperate enough, or I have to go out.

I have pretty much been dealing with this, and keeping to myself, but now that I am so close to getting the cast off, I am becoming impatient. I really just want to break it off lol.

Only a few more days, I can do it......maybe. lol

On the money front, we have really had to cut back this past week. My paycheck was only $675Net when normally it is $1200. Ouch. So extra payments to things did not get done.
That's another reason why I am looking forward to going back. Night differential :)

Hope you all have a great weekend!

4% Interest???? No Way!

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 15:14:00 +0000

In previous posts, I have praised some of the certificates from NFCU including their Special Easystart and custom clubs. I know this is a little late, but right now they have a Celebration Certificate that is a 12-month cert with only a $25 minimun to open and it is paying at 4%!!!! The max you can put in is $4000 but you can add to it over the year and no other requirements.

I opened one up this week and will be moving probably half of what is in our ING account since it is only paying 0.80% and we all know how I feel about that!

This is definitely a limited time certificate as is it ends on September 23 so if you are looking to earn more money for your money and are a member, I highly recommend opening it! All primary members are eligible to open this product so if you have one for you, spouse, kids, etc check,it out. They also have a few other offers for this week including $40 referals for one referral and $400 incentive for an auto refinace (outside Navy).

Again, even though I work for them, I in no way gain anything for telling you about this. I just like passing along some pretty awesome deals :)

Medical Expenses

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 16:32:00 +0000

The cast comes off on October 1 and into a walking boot I go!

A few comments I had received regarding my surgery were about our insurance and hoping that we didn't have to pay too much for the surgery.
I wasn't too worried, as the insurance we had before, Aetna, through J's work wasn't so good for us, so Blue Cross Blue Shield HAD to be better.

Basically, Aetna for us was a $600/year deductible per person and no one was In-Network with them around here, meaning that only 60% of the cost was ever paid. So we paid a lot in expenses whenever something happened to me or J....but usually me lol.

We swiched to my employer's insurance, BCBS last open enrollment and man has it saved us a ton! I will show you proof here in a moment.

While it may cost us over double a paycheck for coverage, in the long run, we are saving.
Our deductible is $250/year per person.
And EVERYONE around here is In-Network so they pay 100%.

For my surgery (does not include initial consultation with the surgeon which was a $30 Copay) the total cost came to $22,138.87.
My responsibility for it is........$21.83!

I had reached my deductible so everytime I would read "Patient Responsibility: $0" I would smile.
That total cost also does not include the 'discount' that BCBS gives because of being In-Network.
If we had stayed with Aetna, I would have been responsible for something like $8500.

So for those who may have been wondering about the money side of my surgery, there you go :)

Time For A Change

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 15:26:00 +0000

Fall is just around the corner, and I have been thinking about changing up this blog a bit.

I have been looking at wordpress, but I don't know if I like their layout so much. I'm sure I could figure it out, but for now, I think I will continue to 'play' with it.

I'm here to just document what's going on. I'm nowhere near what blogs like Andrea over at So Over This or Niki when she had Debt Free by 30 and now Hello Paper Moon. They are awesome. I'm just a small thing here.

I also feel like I slack here when things get crazy or busy and that's not fair to the blog or to anyone who actually reads it.

We also need to change how J and I are living. I think sometimes we both forget that he's not in Afghanistan any longer and not making the money he was when over there (and I just found out that J has been wanting to go back....that's another story that is still being played out, I'll update when at least *I* know more).
So we've spent a bit of money....on credit which we shouldn't have. And I am so ashamed by it all. But we got out of it once, we'll get out again.
The Canadian cards are going to be gone here very soon, which was the bulk of where my monthly payments were going because of the higher minimum payments, sometimes as high as $350-$500/month.

Once that is gone we can tackle what we have added. I'm still deciding what to put up on the sidebars, because we still have money from the tax return (which I am being stingy and holding on to).
Once I feel comfortable at what we are doing and where we are I will reveal what we have.

But for now, no more spending and more getting on track.

Happy Friday to you All! :)

Budget Friendly September

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:18:00 +0000

Well, since I will either A) Be off work for another week B) Be off until September 17 or C) Off all of September, I will not be making what I would normally if I were at work. What with the night differential, and weekend differential that will cut my 'normal' pay about $120 less every 2 weeks, plus being on Short Term Disability, I will only be making 75% of my regular pay (less the differential). I figure instead of the $1150 a paycheck it will be about $700 a paycheck.

The numbers are going to be tight this month. Thank goodness J pays the majority of our big bills and I handle mainly the utilities which have all been paid so far.

We do have some other bills being paid right now too. I am a little ashamed to say that our credit card bills have been up there a little bit higher than I would like. We just need to get past this little hiccup in my health to get back on track again.

I hope everyone is enjoying their labour day!

August Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 21:22:00 +0000

Wow, this month has been interesting to say the least. It's probably easier to just bullet point everything and go from there!

- The beginning. Started off well, looking forward to vacation up in Muskoka with J and most of my family.

- Vacation was GREAT. Was so nice to just get away from everything and visit family and home. It's amazing at how much you really do miss things from home, even the small things and noticing how different stuff is from down here. And we're only talking about a 9hr drive between these differences. I can't tell you how much I miss Swiss Chalet, OLG Scratch Tickets, Advanced Green stoplights, and Cantonese Chinese Food from the little hole in the wall restaurants that taste AWESOME. And after a week we returned home.

- Returned to normalcy. Work is still the same, except with the added Mandatory Overtime which reduced the number of regular overtime shifts we had so a lot of us could not sign up for anything more than the mandatory overtime. The money I *was* going to make suddenly stopped.

- August 21. Day of my achilles surgery. Everything went good, even with the unexpected harvest of my big toe tendon to rebuild it. I was scheduled off from the 21st - 27th and was supposed to go back to work on the 28th. Now the fun begins.

- August 26th I bugged J to go back to Ikea to look and pick up some items to make our living room and office 'put together'. Well...I was riding on my knee walker and was going too fast, hit the wheels and it toppled from underneath me towards my left which made me put my left leg down (the one that had surgery). Not only did I just put it down, I put my FULL WEIGHT on it and felt a lot of pain. Needless to say I was VERY upset and in quite a bit of pain. The most worrisome part was that because I was in a splint, I couldn't see what 'damage' I may have done to the incision or if I detached the achilles. We got home and about 30minutes later my surgeon actually called to check up on me. He said everything should be ok and to try and take it easy.

- August 28th. My day to return to work. And I didn't. After my surgeon called, I started feeling a lot of pain in my calf. Think of the worst charlie horse you've ever had and multiply it. It hurt. A lot. I called the UVA outpatient office and when my surgeon's Physician's Assistant called she wanted me to come in to check for a blood clot. Great. Well bugger, UVA is 2 hours from where we live and J would have to come home from work (an hour away). Not going to happen that day. Go to the closest ER they say. So we went.....or started to. As I was waiting on J (ok I admit, I got impatient and I'm stubborn), I opened up the storm door to hop out to the front porch and the threshold grabbed my big toe on my left foot and I went flying out the door, over the porch and down the steps onto the pathway. I fell far and hard. Hey, if I am going to go to the ER I may as well make it worth my while.

- The ER. Final Results. Arrived at 2:30pmEDT, had an X-ray on wrist, exam by a Student, the ER doc, one nurse who saw me at 2:30 to take vitals and again at 6:30pm to take vitals because she was leaving (didn't see her once in between to check on me), an ultrasound (for the blood clot) and my new nurse, and the ER doc again. We left at 7:30pmEDT and I finally got my pain med at 7:00pm after asking for it at about 3:30pm.
I think that is all I will say about the ER trip, there is more I could include, but I think I will hold my tongue.
Sprained thumb, scraped, buised, and no bloodclot.

- August 30 an emergency follow-up with the surgeon to make sure I didn't damage his work. I am happy to report that I DID NOT. I was actually sweating bullets and apologized to the surgeon before he looked haha.
I got to see my stiches and incision site. It's pretty awesome. I will spare you the pictures (I made J take them lol).
It is still too early to remove the sutures so when I have my real follow up next week they will remove them and put me in a hard cast. They put me back into a splint for now.

- Today. I called and put in a claim for short term disability. As you may have read previously, my work had been giving me some issues dealing with FMLA for a couple of different claims. Including this one up and to just a couple of days ago. So, I went Short Term. Prudential Group Insurance is who we are through at work. I put in the claim at 9:30amEDT and received a call at 12:30pmEDT from my 'adjudicator', Chris, telling me that he's approved it starting at 4 weeks from the date of first absense. I think I nearly hit the floor. That was FAST! My surgeon's office had just received the paperwork and can't send it back until I give them a release! Chris basically said "you had surgery, we'll get the things we need. When do you expect to go back to work." My answer, I would like to go back as soon as I can, but seeing as I cannot do anything on my own without possibly falling and causing more injury....so you see my point.
Chris was awesome, he was like "no problem, I'll follow up with you after your next appointment. Feel better soon!"
So different than dealing with the nurses at work. Here was them today "So you're calling out? Ok I'll update your file" Me: "I am most likely going to be out for an extended period of time as I submitted a claim for short term." Them: "That doesn't matter, you still have to call in every day".
Yeaaaaaaah, we'll see about that.

So anyway. That's pretty much been my month. I have been home sitting doing nothing, and itching to do something! Laundry, cleaning, driving, or working! Anything, and I can't :(

Sorry for the long post....here's a picture of the flowers my grandmother sent me (my Nanny) :)

End of Month Update Coming

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:17:00 +0000

So lots to go over about this month since I didn't post much at all.

I have some things that need to get done here in the next little bit, but I will have it posted today.

So much to tell you all.....

Post Surgery And Doing Ok

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:57:00 +0000

*Warning there are some graphic details below about my surgery*

I had my achilles reconstruction surgery on Tuesday. I was the first one scheduled for the day, and had to be at the University of Virginia Medical Center at 6am. I finished work at 1:30am and got home at 2am. We had to leave by 4am to get there on time (we were late anyway due to fog and hubby getting a little lost).
So needless to say, I was exhausted before the surgery even started.

They did all the fun stuff before knocking me out. I was going to be only 'half' knocked out, not a full knock out since they put a block in my knee. Kind of like an epidural for my leg!
But, they found out I was going to be prone (on my stomach) for the surgery, so they had to change to a full knockout with breathing tube and all.

Last thing I remember after being wheeled into the OR was "you're going to feel a warm sensation in your IV......." and then waking up in recovery with something in my eye. Never did find out what it was, but that was a pain (literally!).

Surgery didn't go as planned. They were supposed to cut 3cm of my achilles tendon off to remove the calcification and do a Y incision reconstruction. In non medical terms, they were going to cut my remaining tendon in a Y and stretch it down and reattach it.
Turns out that because my condition was so bad, that when he cut my achilles off, it was so tight that he couldn't stretch it down to reattach because it left a 6cm gap so he had to harvest a tendon from my big toe. No big deal unless I was a sprinter!

After recovery we left for home. On the way I had to go to the bathroom so bad, so J stopped at a rest stop on I-81. We don't have my temporary handicap tag yet but J didn't care, in fact I think he parked in the "State Police Only" spot. The Handicap was right beside it too! lol

Here's my complaint. I may not have all been there yet, but Handicap parking should NOT be as far away from the building as it was! PLUS, the handicap bathroom was the furthest from the bathroom door, and when I was leaving the bathroom (as someone had held the door for me going in) I went to push the 'switch' to open the door...and it DID NOT WORK. Disgusting.

I was even more exhausted just from that.

The rest of the day was pretty much a write off. After eating something and taking my pain medication, I went up to bed and stayed there until yesterday around 3pm.
J stayed home for me again. He's been so good at taking care of me.

J also started school yesterday. This should be fun for him!

I came downstairs and stayed on the couch until he came home from class and then back upstairs to bed (getting upstairs is fun! Um, NO).

Tory obviously knew I was not myself. Me laying on the couch and Tory laying on me.

I have been down on the couch since J left for work this morning and I finally feel normal.
And I'm not in as much pain as I thought I would be, which is good. I hope that the healing goes well, and I can walk sooner rather than later.

Note, if you are going to have any kind of foot surgery, buy a Knee Walker. It has been awesome at getting around downstairs.

Back From Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:48:00 +0000

Sorry for the lack of updates here. We were up in Muskoka in Ontario, Canada for the past week or so.

I don't like to adverstise that we're on vacation just for safety sake (even though I have never really posted about ourselves, better be safe than sorry).

Vacation was good, although there is always the fun family drama, rainy weather, and forgetting to pack things.

Just woke up, already unpacked most of the truck as we didn't get home until 1am.

A little tired, and back to work today for a just over a week and then I'm off for another week for my surgery.

FUN TIMES AHEAD!

Long Week

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:41:00 +0000

And I'm exhausted.

So far this week I have worked 45.5 hours with another 11 to go today.

Next week I am only going to work my mandatory 4 hours, only because we are leaving for vacation on Friday and I have a lot to do to get ready. I need the extra 2 hours each day to prepare for it.

Other than working a lot not much has gone on. Today is payday! Yay! We also got both our Federal and State tax returns. We are deciding on how to divy up the payments.

Just a short posting today, as my brain really can't function properly for a good one!

Have a great weekend all! Tomorrow is going to be another long day with a lot of errands to run.

Making Extra Money

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 18:13:00 +0000

I think I may have found a way to enjoy our vacation a lot more. Working OverTime! *YAY*

If you can't already tell, I was being sarcasting in my excitement.

At work, we have plenty of opportunity to work overtime, and I could if I wanted to. Read that again. I could IF I wanted to.
I have worked OT before, and don't get me wrong, I love the extra money in the paycheck, but I quickly get burned out by working the extra time and dealing with some of the calls that come in.

Lately, we have been swamped by callers, most of them are newer members, and the queues have been high. Apparently the members are complaining that they are waiting too long for a representative.
So, starting on July 23, everyone who can be on the phones (ie: Me and everyone else who has phone skills) will be required to work a mandatory 4 hours of OT per week.
The equals out to 1 more full day on the phones and about $225 extra before taxes.
I was ticked...still am actually.
So, I thought about it and you know what? If they are going to make me work OT, I am going to milk it for all it's worth, which could be a lot. They have Uncapped OT...which means I can work as much as I like.
So I am going to. I am going to work (hopefully) an extra 3-4hours extra per day and 4 hours on my day off (excluding Saturday) equaling to approx 38 - 48 hours per pay period. Which means I could possibly make an extra $1060 - $1339 on top of my paycheck (essentially, a second paycheck for me).
You want to make me work, fine...I will work, and I will make money.

BUT, don't expect me to be all happy about it....until I'm on vacation :P

Vacation Planning

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 13:48:00 +0000

So first, an update with Swagbucks...I emailed them back to respectfully ask that they reactivate my account, since I never had multiple accounts. I was told, no we are not going to do that. I emailed them back again, asking to know what they used as a basis to show that I had multiple accounts, and surprise surprise I didn't receive a response back.
So. I went to the Better Business Bureau and filed a complaint. I am waiting to hear what their response is there. Apparently there are quite a few complaints that are exactly the same as mine. If they reinstate after this complaint, I will cash out any SBs there, and never use it again.

Now, on to the fun stuff. I started to plan for the vacation in January. We have already booked the cruise and our flights. We are flying into Tampa but we will fly back from Orlando.
We know that we need hotels for Tampa and Orlando, that I have started to 'think' about, but we haven't decided on anything yet. We know we need to rent a car for Tampa and for Orlando, but we can't decide on which rental agency to use. About the only thing money-wise that I have actually looked at and nearly fainted from were the tickets to Disney World and Universal. I looked at Disney through AAA since we are members, but they only have discounted tickets for 3 days. I think J's work may get discounted tickets for it, so I will have him look. If we do have to buy directly from Disney, it's $89/day so $178 for both of us.
Universal does have 1 day tickets through AAA and they are $123/day but that gets you both parks. Total for both of us $246.

Total for both days for both of us....$424. And that doesn't include taxes!
I had started a budget of $3000 for spending money and fun for the cruise and extra days. I'm thinking I'm going to have to UP that budget significantly.

Here I thought I was doing good with the budget I had started, and here I was most likely WRONG. But, I'm glad I'm doing this 6 months from when we are supposed to leave, so it is NOT a surprise and we don't have to put out the credit cards to cover something we weren't expecting. If we have money remaining after the vacation, great! Goes into a vacation surplus or into savings.
Better to be over prepared than under prepared methinks :)

Have you ever had a vacation where you either under or over budgeted for?

Swagbucks.....

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:36:00 +0000

So like a lot of people I use Swagbucks to search, do surveys, daily polls, etc. Today I went to log in to my account (which is unusual because I never log out) only to find they deactivated my account!

I have no idea why, I am still waiting for a response, but the best part? I have never actually 'cashed' in on the SBs that I have which is about 8500 of them. I was saving them for something big.

This has definitely left a sour feeling on SwagBucks. Even if they reactivate my account (and I have no idea if they will or if they will reinstate the SBs I had) I will cash out what I can and cancel the account. Why should I feel like I need to use them if they just go ahead an deactivate my account without any notification.

Edited To Add: So I received my response from them, apparently I am 'using and sharing multiple accounts'. Uh...no I'm not. I only have one! Sent them an email back telling them so and that I respectfully ask that they re-instate my account. So that I may cash out and stop using Swagbucks.
Anyway, the week has been pretty good. Today is payday for J and tomorrow for me.

We did our taxes via TurboTax. We took the 'chance'. If anything happens, we'll deal with it then, but there really wasn't much to them.
Both the Federal and State have been accepted. In fact the Federal was accepted about 30minutes after e-filing. The State was accepted yesterday and has already been processed. States that DDNP will be on 07/16 (give or take).

I made a deal with J that he can have about 30% of the refund to do what he wishes with it, and the rest I get to put towards debt, house, other necessities for us. I hope this will appease J so that I don't have to feel guilty if he asks to buy something that we don't really need.

So that's pretty much this week. The weekend will involve a WWII event in Chantilly, VA at Sully Plantation. Weather should be nice, and we usually have a good crowd.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Post Weekend and Post Holiday

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 17:29:00 +0000

Well, 4th of July was 'ok'. We took the jeep to the fairgrounds to watch the fairgrounds, and as we were waiting for them to start, we could see lightning on it's way to where we were. We decided that since we were pretty much in an open vehicle, it would be best to beat the crowds to get home, and well....lightning (lots of cloud to ground lightning to be exact) and an open field are really not ideal so better be safe than sorry.

We got home and we could hear the fireworks going off. Apparently they set them off early. If it had been me, I would have cancelled the show. I don't think it was smart to have a lot of people in that field with the lightning so close.
Even though we missed the real fireworks, the lightning was so spectactular that I stood outside the garage just to watch it. It was amazing!

On Saturday, we invited my supervisor, his wife and son to come over for a cookout and to have a bonfire.
The cookout was great, the gas cooktop flame going out and gas spewing into the house for about 5 minues, not so great, the 'smores were awesome, the fire in 100+degree heat not so good lol.

All in all it was a good time :)

I've updated the numbers for the Canadian Credit Card. I am about $1700 left from saying hello to being Canadian Credit Card debt free. Which for me is a huge accomplishment.
And another big thing for this, even though the majority of our debt was paid with the money J made in Afghanistan, the Canadian cards were mostly paid by me.

Now, I did tell you all that we had used the cards recently here for the house purchases. Well, we have gone a little overboard and we do have credit card debt again. But, while I am disappointed that we are back in Credit Card debt, I am confident that we will be out of it soon enough.
Most of the purchases were done knowing what our taxes would be and were going to be paid off with that.
Other purchases were things that we 'needed' but not necessarily right away. I haven't put any updated numbers for that yet, because we are waiting for the tax return to come in and pay a lot of it down. Once we have done that I will consider that our true debt.

Hope you all had a great 4th, and stayed cool during the weekend!

Happy 4th of July!

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:36:00 +0000

Happy 4th of July to everyone!

J and I will have a quiet day around here, maybe take the jeep for a spin around town, have steaks on the grill for dinner and then take the jeep to the fairgrounds for the fireworks display.

Stay safe and have fun today! :)

Beginning Of A Short Week

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 18:58:00 +0000

Well, June has come and gone.

Yesterday, was Canada Day. Totally forgot to post that here....so Happy Canada Day! :)
I also had to work yesterday. It Was Crazy. We had a large storm come through on Friday night which took out power all over VA, MD and DC including our house.
Half of the town was dark and the other half was not.
We got power back at about 7:00am Saturday morning, but Comcast went out and we had no cable or internet all day Saturday and half of Sunday. I will definitely be asking for a credit for that day. Apparently Comcast didn't go out until AFTER the power had been restored.

The queues at work were well over 100 ppl waiting for a representative in my department for pretty much the entire day. It sucked.

I made a $475 payment to the MBNA Mastercard, which will bring the balance below $2000. It feels good considering that card started at over $20,000 just last year around this time!

I also made another principal payment of $50 to the mortgage, and we are 1 month ahead on the mortgage with our next payment not due until September 1.

Our vacation up to the cottage in Muskoka has also been sent to my dad's bank account so they can write the check for the rental. I'm really looking forward to going back again this year. This will be J's first time up there, and I hope he enjoys it as much as I have all my life.
I think the first time he casts his fishing rod in the lake all will be good :)

Jand I have still not filed the taxes. I have done it over and over and over in TurboTax and the numbers always stay the same. We are going to just file through it, since we can get audit protection through TurboTax. It's the only 'unusual' thing we have in the filing, so we will go ahead with it.

Hope you all have a good start to the week! I have tomorrow and July 4 off. Looking very much forward to it :)

End Of The Week Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 18:31:00 +0000

This week has been a good one both at home and at work for once.

At first I thought it was going to be horrible. At work our team and another have had to hot seat during the day. Basically, sharing a desk between two people. I have been doubled up with a person who is notorious for being difficult, accusing, and frankly a little nuts.

Last Wednesday was the first day of our great adventure. I arrived at 3:45pm to start my shift at 4:00pm only to find the person still at my desk. Turns out that she was scheduled to end her day at 4:00 and I was to start at 4:00. Ok, no problem, not her fault. I admit I was a little flustered because I don't like to be late.
The assistant manager was there, and had made future arrangements for the other person to have a fixed daily schedule from 7:00am-3:30pm (before she could start any time from 7-7:30). She and I have access to all schedules and she knew what days we were working the rest of this week, and then she would be on vacation (which she told the assist. manager).
Friday, I show up, and she's sitting at the desk again. Turns out she signed up for OT and it ended at 4:00. We were TOLD, you do OT and it interfers with the other person, you find another empty desk to work.
She took offense to the fact that I was upset that she caused me to log in at 4:15 (she had a call go long) and went on a tirade at me. I remained calm and very civil throughout the 'conversation'.

Sunday. I had checked her schedule and she was to finish at 3:30 and I started at 4:00. I showed up at 3:50 and guess what. She was again, sitting at the desk. I waited for her to leave, standing near, but not right beside the desk. She slowly got her things together, doing other things, all the while I am looking at the clock watching 4:00 slowly creep up. I finally go over to the desk and I get "oh! I didn't know you worked today!" BULL. You even told the assist manager that you knew I did!

Again, I remained calm, and civil. Even giving her the benefit of the doubt. She left, and I started to log in. But she came back. I again said, you're fine, no problem. She left. I continued to log in and get ready to take calls. But, she came back AGAIN. And once again, went on a tirade, about how she's the victim, and I am horrible, and that my supervisor was her supervisor once and that he's probably saying things about her, and yadda yadda yadda.
I was still calm and civil all throughout this. Which for me is hard to do sometimes, especially when dealing with an obviously crazy situation.
I finally sent a text to my supervisor advising him what happened again (he had been aware of everything else). He went and called the assist. manager at home at 9pm on a Sunday to tell them what was going on.
GREAT. Now I'm going to get dragged into this with the manager.
NOPE!!!! The assist. manager (who is an ex-Army Sgt) pulled in the other person and basically reamed her out for what she was doing and that her butt better be out of that desk by 3:30pm every day she is scheduled to work. The other person's supervisor tried to give her side of the story, and was immediately cut off, they didn't want to hear it. Hehehehe

I was off that day. But apparently they watched her, and she didn't leave until 3:54pm. It was like she was waiting for me again, and it didn't go unnoticed by management.

When I came back the next day, the assist. manager came over and told me everything she said to the other person and even told me to come to her if the other person has not left the desk. Totally have the assist manager on my side, which is kinda cool.
I just hope that come July 1, I don't have to deal with this person much. But now that management knows what she is doing, I don't think I will have a problem....unless she really is crazy and tries to push the buttons of those in charge.

So, the week that I thought would start off horrible, has actually been pretty good!
The team I am coaching is having a great month, including myself, and it feels good to have folks doing well because you're helping them.

Now, onto the money: J got his completion bonus for his last 6 months in Afghanistan. Something that he wasn't expecting because they were told they weren't going to get it. So, yay!
We have been going back and forth on the taxes. We have used TurboTax in the past and it's been good. But with J's Foreign Earned Income credit I want to make sure it's done right.
I'm pretty sure it's correct in the program, but do we pay a CPA a lot of money to do it, or trust my gut and submit it through TurboTax?
We're looking at roughly $11,000 in federal and state refund combined.

What we'll do with it, we haven't decided, but I'm sure there will be a post here soon :)

Sorry for the long post, hope you all have a great weekend!

The Gift Of Life

noreply@blogger.com (Krystin) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:50:00 +0000

The topic I'm going to talk about may not be something that everyone agrees with and I respect their decision as I hope they respect mine and this story.

The gift of life of Organ Donation.

When I was younger, I didn't sign my organ donation card. I had a hard enough time thinking about my death let alone them taking a part of me.
Eventually I came around and realized what good I would be doing for someone and have been listed as an organ donor ever since on my driver's licence and my husband and family know of my wishes.

I also have a very personal belief in becoming an organ donor. My mom is a recipient of organ donation which saved and has prolonged her life.

My mom was a 2pack a day smoker for 35 years. Combine that with Asthma and you get a young person with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) also known as Emphysema.
In 2001 my mom was admitted to hospital twice when her body finally told her enough is enough and a doctor told her she was going to die now if she didn't stop smoking. She quit to us, but still smoked at work. I understand how hard it is to quit an addiction, and while my mom thinks that we didn't know about her still smoking, we knew. No amount of guilt, fighting, or 'intervention' would stop her. Until it got so bad that one day driving home from work (she worked in downtown Toronto and drove 1.5hrs to get home) she had an asthma attack so bad by the time she got home all she could do it lean on the horn until my dad and I came running. She once again was admitted to the hospital, this time with pneumonia.

My mom finally realized that things were never going to be the same. She never returned to work after this episode because she couldn't chance having another attack. It was also at this time she learned how bad things really were. Her Respirologist was very surprised when my mom first walked into his office. He was expecting a woman in her 70s to walk in, not a 48yr old woman. She had 18% lung function. They tried everything with medications, inhalers, therapy, to try and improve the function of her lungs. Nothing worked. In fact, it was going to get worse. By July 2006 my mom was put on oxygen. She couldn't shower standing up, she couldn't go downstairs to laundry, cook family meals, enjoy a hot summers day, or a cold winter's night and she was permanently attached to a hose pumping oxygen from a concentrator or canister when out.

I always knew that a transplant was the only solution if I were ever going to get my mom back, but it scared me. I can't even imagine what my mom had to go through to make the decision to go forward. In fact, talk of a transplant was brought up in 2002. In 2009, my mom decided to go forward with it.

She had to first qualify to be on the 'list'. At Toronto General Hospital, they did many tests, interviews, weight loss and continuous work outs at the hospital 3 times a week. In October 2009 she officially was on the 'list'. My mom has Type O+ blood which means she can only receive donor lungs from a Type O+ donor. Making her chances lower of receiving a donor quickly or at all.

A miracle did happen though. On April 19, she got the call. She was told "We have lungs for you!" I don't know what my mom thought. I know what I thought when I heard. Oh My God. I am 10 hours away, and I can't get home and all I know is that my mom is going into surgery and I am not there.

That was probably the longest night of mine, my brother's and my dad's life. I got the call at about 10:30am the next morning. She was out of surgery and doing well.

My mom had successfully had a Double Lung Transplant and was on her way to recovery and a new life.

My mom had a pretty easy recovery compared to others who have had this procedure (other than a bowel issue....mom liked to push the pain button lol).

It has been over 2 years since my mom had her transplant and other than some other complications due to the medications she has to take, she is doing amazing and I have my mom around to do things that she hasn't been able to do for years.

This procedure was done all at Toronto General Hospital and some of you who watch Ellen may be familiar with Hélène Campbell, a young woman from Ottawa, Ontario who underwent this surgery not too long ago. The team that did Hélène's surgery is the same team who did my mom.

I am grateful to the person who took the time to become a donor, and to their family for honouring their wish.

This is why I am a registered organ donor and I urge you to become one as well. If you live in Ontario you can do it by simply going to beadonor.ca or at your local DMV.