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Archive for November, 2016

Lots of catching up & Holiday updates

November 28th, 2016 at 01:02 am

Its been a while since a good post from me, I plan on doing more soon. Lots to catch up on!

We had a good holiday weekend. I cooked Thanksgiving dinner at our house for myself, my husband and daughter, my mother-in-law, 3 sisters-in-law, 1 brother in law, 1 boyfriend of my SIL, 1 13 year old nephew & 1 1.5 year old niece. It was a lot of fun and a LOT of food.

My folks were invited, but my mom wanted to do Thanksgiving at her house. This is the 1st year in my life that I did not see my parents/sister/nephew on Thanksgiving. It was weird, but luckily drama-free (my mom is not a fan of 'sharing' me at the holidays).

Since the dinner was last minute, I did well at shopping, but still spent about $119 for groceries. Everything turned out well, the guests brought food too and we had a really nice time.

Friday, the baby's daycare was closed. My husband was off, but I was working from home, so he got to sleep in & I did pretty well with watching a 15 month old and still actually getting work done! lol.

Saturday, we had to drop off my husband's car to be repaired and we ended up at a local nursery/store that does a big Christmas business. My daughter got to ooh and ahhh over decorated trees inside & out of the cold. It wasn't very crowded and we bought an ornament and a new tree topper. It was a nice time.

Today, we vegged at home, I had a slight migraine, so I spent a good part of the day on the couch. We ate leftovers for lunch and I made Italian wedding soup for dinner. Very nice & relaxing.

All throughout the weekend, I did a little online deals Christmas shopping. Got a few really good deals, so that was nice!

Steam Cleaner Referral?

November 2nd, 2016 at 07:36 pm

I know a few of you guys were recently talking about/recommending a steam cleaner. Could someone point me to the post(s) that reference that topic? Guess who is in the market for one? haha

2017 Benefits Costs/Changes

November 1st, 2016 at 05:39 pm

The most cost-effective way for our family to do our Medical Benefits is for my daughter & I to go through my employer's insurance and for my husband to solely go through his employer's.

His benefits remained stable within $2-3 per paycheck more being taken out.

For my benefits, I had more significant changes:

Medical increased $134.40 per year.
Dental icreased $22.80 per year.

Vision Stayed the same.
My Family FSA deduction stayed the same. I put in 2/3 ($3666.67) and my employer contributes 1/3 ($1333.33).
Employee Death & Dismemberment Stayed the same.

The most significant changes were to the Employer contribution to my HSA. In 2016, it was $1500 for the Employee + 1 plan, in 2017, it decreased to $1000.

I also added Group Legal, which we will use to get our wills, medical directives, etc completed. For the year, several hours of legal work will cost $254.88. Since we have the little one now, our wills would be more complicated and we want them to be clear.

So overall, the change in costs between 2016 & 2017 is a $912.08 increase for the year. Without the added legal benefit, the cost increases $657.20 per year.

That $500 loss of HSA money from the employer really hurt. People were not happy.

Retirement & HSA Account Updates

November 1st, 2016 at 05:24 pm

New Retirement Account Balances (without my husband's, which is about $60k at the moment)

$112,132.23



HSA Balance: $$1,375.16