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Archive for June, 2012

Short-Term Disability updates & what I have been up to

June 28th, 2012 at 12:59 am

My work leave continues through next Friday and my foot is healing. My spirits have definitely been lifted and even with my limited mobility, I have been doing lots of organizing/decluttering. I have been able to do this by either people bringing me drawers or sitting in a chair in front of the thing that I am organizing

In the last week:

-I have made sure all of my leave paperwork is in order. It was confirmed approved as of today. So that is all done!

-I called Comcast to renegotiate my rates. They were unable to 'help' me, so I will be calling back tomorrow.

- I confirmed the overpayment from my insurance MRA account (my funds) will be returned from my Physical Therapy

- Call about doing refinance. (Waiting for call to be returned).

- Paid mom for food/groceries bought for me this week

- Organized jewelry - Set aside some costume jewelry for GoodWill and some broken gold chains to sell

- Organized sock & underwear drawers - cleared out 1/3 of the contents. Socks to go to Goodwill

- Organized startionary/desk drawer

-Cleared off nightstand & decluttered nightstand drawer

-Cleared out book closet. There were a few hundred books. I was able to clear out approximately 1/2. 3 large bags went to my mom to use for trade-in.

-In this same closet - made room for Christmas & Gift stuff.

- Cleaned out shirts in closet - 17 shirts & 4 tank tops to Goodwill, 1 shirt to trash. 1 pair of shorts to trash, 4 pairs of fleece/pajama pants, 5 long sleeve tees to Goodwill.

I slowly, but surely have gotten through a lot of stuff. Tomorrow, I hope to tackle:

1. Calling refi guy again
2. calling Comcast
3. Cleaning makeup drawer
4. Clearing out drawers under bathroom sink
5. Clearing out baskets in living room
6. Clearing out China cabinet (all but the actual china)
7. List items on craigslist
8. Purge from bookcase
9. Go through scrapbooking bin. Will be scanning pictures for Christmas gifts.
10. Rest the foot!

Soooo close to meeting my Mostly Free Christmas 2012 Goal!

June 23rd, 2012 at 08:28 pm

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal to have a mostly free Christmas this year. I have used Swagbucks, MyPoints, Cashcrate & InboxDollars, survey sites, and a few credit card rewards to meet this goal.

I cashflowed approx $66 as I found things I liked for future gifts.

I earned $147.07 in Amazon Gift cards (plus $79.99 that I used for a reel lawn mower).

I earned $437.67 in cash - through rewards, gift cards, ect that I turned into cash.

This totals $651.13.

My goal is 760.38 which includes budget for:
-gifts for family/friends
-my boyfriends end of November bday
-my 2 nephew's bdays (in December)
-my neices bday in the fall
-fudge for coworkers/neighbors
-homemade coasters
-mom's bday in Late october
-Christmas cards
-Uncles card/postage to england
-small decor additions
-work friends Happy HOur
-big New Year's Eve outting - funds for weekend

Once I reach the goal (and I will based on Mypoints cards about ready to cash in) - I will work to build a gift budget for the rest of birthdays in the year and eventually 2013's budget. My swagbucks earnings have taken a bit of a dive lately, so I will have to work to maintain this level. I find this fun Smile

Did anyone see the changes to ING?

June 12th, 2012 at 05:20 pm

Did anyone see the Saving Goal option on ING? I am having SO much fun playing with it!

Day 7 of couchrest

June 12th, 2012 at 04:53 am

Well - I had a fairly good weekend. Friday I stayed in & vegged with the roommate (since I can't really go anywhere anyway).

Saturday, my boyfriend drove me to a friend's for a bbq. I had my foot up the whole time and only stayed a few hours. But MAN, did it do wonders for my mental state.

Sunday, the boyfriend drove me to his place. I sat on the couch all day and then we had friends over to grill & watch True Blood. No extraneous activity, but a NICE change of scenery.

He dropped me back at my house on his way to work, where my mom dropped me off a fast food lunch & a homemade dinner to reheat. Thanks Mom!! I seriously am unable to much (at all) in the kitchen or cleaning. I have to just keep my foot up and hope it heals. Its my # 1 priority.

In the mean time - I found an insurance error, which was finally corrected today & I saved myself $116.38. Woohoo.

I am still working with the PT people - but I should be getting $389.31 refund. I plan on calling AGAIN tomorrow & insisting on talking to the case manager. Oh fun.

I called the foot specialist as he had told me 2.5 weeks off my feet, but then the office scheduled my appt 3.5 weeks. So now I go back next Thurs instead of in 2 weeks. I am HOPING for good news.

I received my leave paperwork, which I will fill out today & have my mom drop off at the drs office tomorrow. Its time sensative to have filled out.

Financially - I am spending a lot of money - my mom gets me food/drinks/groceries and she's not much of a bargain shopper. I am not spending on gas as I am unable to drive. So gas budget has been helping there.

I have a regular drs appt tomorrow (approx $10 coinsurance) and my mom is driving me to/from. I also have my nephew coming over to do some cleaning for me. I need refills on some medications or I would skip the doctors appt Smile

Boredom has definitely kicked in, but I have a bunch of new (mostly free) books on kindle, both Netflix & Amazon Prime Video, my computer, puzzles & soduku. I can do this Smile

And nicely, my boyfriend is bringing me dinner & hanging in tomorrow night. He's such a sweetie, taking such good care of me.

I have been looking into refinancing my house...but I seriously have to put it off until this foot thing is settled. Worst case scenario - the foot isnt healing right & we need to do surgery & put a pin in (NOT WHAT I WANT) then I have 10 weeks of paid leave at 100%, then it goes to 60%. Recovery time can go all the way to 8 weeks for that kind of surgery, so I want to be careful with all budgeting items. I will know next Thursday whether I should go into emergency stock-pile money mode Smile

Lots to Do, Lots of Spending, Lots of sitting on my butt!

June 6th, 2012 at 07:04 pm

Yesterday, I did what I was told: RESTED.

I also accomplished many other things:

1. Called into work to start my Short-term disability procedings. At this point it should only be 2-3 weeks. I get paid 100% up to 10 weeks, so there will be no income loss. Just annoying paperwork & a fee of $25 for the dcotors paperwork fee (also annoying!)

2. Made 2 pitchers of lemonade (used a chair to rest my leg while doing anything in the kitchen), passed through a cup & one of the pitchers through the kitchen passthrough to the living room. Saves on trips all day long. Additionally made individual refillable water bottles of lemonade to put into the fridge (used later to carry drinks upstairs for the night). Also made a quick pasta salad & ran the dishwasher. All with the crutches or foot on a chair Smile

3. Called & negotiated car insurance and set up payment for the upcoming year.

4. Renewed my AAA membership

5. Started free 30 day trial to Amazon Prime (can view through Roku) - will help entertaining my couch-bound butt Smile Will be cancelling the acct prior to any charge.

6. Paid medical bills. Followed up on claims through insurance.

7. Turned a/c off & opened up windows Smile Free fresh air!

8. Added codes into Mycokerewards

9. Watched a lot of roku (netflix & amazon prime)

TODAY, I went to breakfast with my parents, gave my mom a grocery list & am back home eating leftover salad from the other day.

My goals for today are:

1. Keep foot up
2. Make lunch at home (check)
3. Make dinner at home (check)
4. Work on Mypoints, cashcrate, bing rewards, inboxdollars, ect
5. Make budget for next pay period
6. Find free things to do while couch bound. I have jigsaw puzzles, tv, netflix/amazon prime, free magazines, soduku books, kindle free books, cell phone games.

I also am fighting to get my refund from physical therapy asap. They are dragging & I could use the funds.

Still with the broken foot - Now put on leave from work

June 5th, 2012 at 02:31 am

Well - I have been struggling with the crutches & my foot is not feeling that great. Its been a month from the break and I went to the follow up with the doc. He took one look at it, with no Xray & told me to go on leave from work. Keep the foot up 100% and absolutely NO cheating. So I get to deal with short-term disability paperwork via work tomorrow. Fun, fun.

I have a nice big financial and non-financial to-do list...from the COUCH tomorrow.

1. Call work & start process for STD
2. Call insurance & ask about processing of fixed claim #1
3. Call physical therapy office about reimbursement of overpaid amount
4. Call foot doc & pay bill - with cc for 0%, but will help while waiting for PT reimbursement, will pay off in full & will earn points
5. Plan strict budget for next month
6. Call comcast about fees
7. Shop car insurance
8. Make meal plan & grocery list to limit movement at home, but not get food out/delivered by friends all the time.
9. Utilize netflix, cable, kindle & internet for entertainment, as well as puzzles and game books.
10. REST FOOT Smile