Financial Hack

A trip to the emergency room… without insurance.

I was CERTAIN my husband would be healthy and accident free until he received healthcare from his employer. He started work in mid-January and was promised coverage by February 1st. I was finally starting to feel at ease about his healthcare issue. When my husband called me from work on Friday to let me know he had injured his eye and needed urgent care he mentioned…he had no healthcare cov

Two Things I Never Want to See Again…

1.) A car payment 2.) An elderly woman wearing pants with ‘Naughty’ crocheted across her hind quarters. While I can’t stop an octogenarian shopping at my local Target store from reliving her youth inappropriately, I can stop car payments. How? Our tax refund this year is just shy of $6,000. We will wipe out 60% of our car debt. SIXTY PERCENT!! YES!!

Working Toward a Cheaper Grocery Bill…

After nearly two months of our ‘eat from the pantry and freezer diet’, we’ve finally run out of food. Sure we have a few things I was willing to attempt to serve as a ‘meal’ but decided to call it quits after I asked my husband how he liked dinner and he said, ‘It’s edible’. ‘Edible’ isn’t the response a wife wants to hear. I’ve decided to cook the inexpensive meals

Saving Money With Elbow Grease…

My husband is still in the process of building our fence. It’s been slow going since he started school. He’s trying to juggle school, work, helping friends and co-workers with emergency plumbing problems, building a fence, and squeeze in somewhat of a life. He finally carved out Saturday to build a large portion on the fence. Since it’s not a task he can complete by himself, he called

A Surprising Change to our Debt…

I am nearly finished with our taxes. We are waiting on two more forms to arrive in the mail before we can finalize the forms. I spent about an hour compiling information and completing forms in the tax software. It was far easier than I expected and I am a bit perturbed at how difficult our accountant made us think it was and more importantly… how much he charged us to do it. It’s upse

Thankful for bills and weight gain?

This afternoon, a co-worker offered to take me to lunch since I had stayed late to complete a project with her. We walked to a local deli and were chatting about weight gain as we ate our giant ‘healthy’ sandwiches. I glanced at the TV hanging on the wall as she went to refill her soda while photos of Haiti popped on the screen. Police were spraying huge crowds with pepper spray because ri

Good Workout? No Gym Required…

I haven’t been released to exercise since I came down with pneumonia, but I figured I could exercise a little without doing too much damage. Never mind the fact that I haven’t exerted any sort of physical energy for the last 60 or so days. I was just so tired of feeling like a sick train wreck, I thought exercising might make me feel more like the old me. My husband bought me the Wii Acti

Continuing the Making Home Affordable Program…

As I’ve said before, I am in the process of applying for the Making Home Affordable program. I am not looking to reduce my principle balance - I’m trying to get my high interest rates reduced to within 1-2% of the market range. In October of last year, I was approved for the Making Home Affordable program through Bank of America. I was told I would receive the paperwork in 45 business da

Escalating Taxes…

In an effort to curtail the California state financial crisis, lawmakers have decided to ‘temporarily’ raise our income taxes. They promise to reduce the taxes mid-year but I have yet to meet someone who believes that to be true. How much is the hike for us? $50 a month. I stared at my already lean budget and tried to find a line item to reduce. I’m already dancing with danger in

Time to Purchase Tax Software at Sale Price…

For those of you who are using TurboTax software this year… the sale prices have begun. Amazon.com has reduced their price by 25% (to 44.99) Costco has a $10 off coupon until Jan. 24th (to $39.99) If you find a better deal (on any software), share! I think we could all use a break this year.

Unemployment Mistakes…

I read an interesting article in Time magazine by Nina Easton about the fifth extension of unemployment benefits. Unemployment benefits can now run up to 99 weeks. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1953704,00.html She believes the extra long extensions to unemployment benefits are detrimental to pulling the economy out of the gutter. My first reaction was to disagree. Th

It’s Raining in California…and it’s expensive.

We’ve been experiencing serious rainfall here in southern California. Parades of storms have been dancing across the area and they aren’t willing to move on. It’s like the ex-boyfriend you can’t seem to get rid of. Californians aren’t necessarily ‘prepared’ when it comes to rain stronger than a light mist. Our local fire station ran out of 700 sandbags in less than 4 hours on S

Choosing Permanent Over Temporary…

Our back fence bit the dust. The tie wire, plastic sheeting, and chicken wire mess we like to call a ‘fence’ finally gave out after fighting a treacherous battle with a glorious 5mph gust of wind. It creaked. It groaned. It fell. I cried. We have a couple options: a. We can leave the fence broken, give away our dogs, and hope nothing larger than a hippo wants in or out of our yar

Starting Over…

I met with my doctor for a follow-up appointment to check the progress of my pneumonia this morning. Unfortunately I’m still struggling with fluid in both lungs but I’m moving in the right direction toward recovering. She told me I’d lost a significant amount of lung function and instructed me to continue with my laundry list of medications and do lung exercises several times a day. The

The Least Expensive Way to Check Your Credit…

OK, so I’m about 5 days too late but I failed to clarify exactly WHERE to get your credit report. Your free credit report can only be obtained through www.annualcreditreport.com If you are interested in obtaining your credit score, use the www.annualcreditreport.com site as well. Credit scores on this site run about $6 - $9. If you use the direct website for the credit reporting agen

Recognizing Good Banks…

Based on my current experience with Bank of America, it’s been easy to rant about bad banks - especially when articles like this surface. Unfairly, I have failed to share the good with the bad and have not adequately praised those who deserve it. My sister and I were discussing our choices in mortgage lenders last night and were both surprised at how pleased we were with Wells Fargo (Her fir

Income Tax Preparation…

My husband and I have always had fairly complicated taxes. Between a home purchase, car taxes, and lifetime learning credits for school, we have been unable to prepare our own since we married. This year, our taxes have simplified a bit and I think we may be able to prepare them using tax software. I’ve never done this before and I’m a bit concerned about my abilities. Heck, I hardly tru

Good News for the Weekend…

I’ve been involved in a lawsuit for nearly two years. I was being sued for something I had absolutely no involvement in. It’s been a difficult time for us since the lawsuit has been a financial and emotional drain. I don’t talk about it much here since it’s an open suit and I’ve been asked to keep the status confidential, but it’s been a heavy burden on my everyday life. Since th

Time to check that credit report…

Every four months, I check my credit report from one of the three credit reporting agencies. Consumers are entitled to one free report from each agency per year - and I’m not one to let ‘free’ go to waste. This month: Experian I discovered the credit reporting agencies are getting a little sneaky. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to navigate these sites to find the free repo

Perhaps a trip to the doc is in order…

I’m a relatively patient person. When it comes to getting sick, I tend to wait things out or try my best to remedy problems myself with healthy foods, large amounts of water, and lots of sleep. It’s always worked in the past but… I’ve been coughing… for 41 days. I wanted to see a doctor about 3 weeks ago but our company was undergoing a major healthcare change and we were cover