June 14, 2010
If I could carry a tune, I’d be singing the praises of this, the Corningware Simply Lite 3-quart dish and cover.
I alluded to my medical/physical condition in this post, but didn’t elaborate because I don’t want this to become a whine-fest. It might be helpful to know that fatigue, joint pain, muscle pain are all major players and are all chronic, now they’ve figured into my life for over a dozen years.
It’s become pretty severe. I can’t hold up a pot half filled with water with one hand, lift two five pound roasting birds out of the oven. Heck, some days, opening the beknighted refrigerator doors causes pain to spike into my shoulder. My cake and cupcake bake-a-thons are definitely a thing of the past. And this from the girl who once prided herself on doing anything her big brother could do, physically.
The biggest immediate effect it has on my financial life is aside from popping way more pain meds than I’m happy about, now that I’m cooking and cleaning every day, in other words, really running my own household, I need everything to be as light, durable and low maintenance as possible. It’s amazing how easily I forget my limits and cook too long, wash too many dishes during the course of cooking or clean-up and cause excruciating, emanating pain that doesn’t subside for hours. Days, even.
I refuse to let this prevent me from making my lasagna!
The hunt was on for the durable cookware, piece by piece, without breaking the bank or straining my joints. On that odd shopping trip to Target where I didn’t find much of anything else, we discovered Corningware’s Simply Lite line. Every other dish was already too heavy for me to handle, empty. By darn if the casserole dish in the size I wanted didn’t feel like holding a stack of paper plates. Perfect!
Unfortunately, Target wanted $27.99 for it. I couldn’t bring myself to shell out that much cash, so I thought: Macy’s sales+ coupons + gift card? Except a quick iPhone search listed the sale price as $36.95. Even worse. The lightbulb finally clicked on and I realized that if it was available on Amazon, I might find a better price, use my Swagbucks earned Amazon GCs, AND get the goods delivered within a couple days. Win, win, win, and WIN. The last win being getting what I want.
I’m sharing the link in case anyone might want to experience the wonder for themselves.
June 8, 2010
…if you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything…
The Princess Bride
It’s a sad fact of life that sometimes you make choices and compromises heretofore unthought of in pursuit of better health. Some of them aren’t a big deal: it’s just that you have to exercise in the mornings, instead of evenings lest you lie restless all night, or you have to mind this one stretch or that other warm-up because it makes your elbow go wonky.
Sometimes it’s a very big deal.
Sometimes, you choose between eating dinner or taking a hot bath because you’re in too much pain to eat and properly rest. You forgo a dream career path because it’s too highly physical for 4-6 years of professional schooling before you can choose to specialize in an area that’s less physically demanding. (You wouldn’t last a week.)
You’ll become limited to adopting small dogs because in an emergency, you wouldn’t be able to carry the bigger dog to the vet or away from harm’s way. You probably wouldn’t believe the number of people who call, frantic, about their sick dog they can’t carry to the vet’s and there’s nothing a vet can do over the phone for you. It’s a very real concern.
There are all kinds of compromises that are made when your good health can no longer be taken for granted, when the good days are so rare as to be cherished, defined as “only a few parts of me really hurt right now.”
Danielle knows what I’m talking about. Abby knows what I’m talking about. Nicole talked about the costs of health maintenance. Many others deal with health issues, minor to life-threatening. Many of them have noted that a significant part of the choices you make when a firm, fit and ready-to-go body isn’t what you see in the mirror, involves money.
What you spend your money on is highly influenced by your state of mind which is heavily informed by the state of your body.
These days, I haven’t eked out the time to find a new doctor, so I’m spending time and money (and feeling guilty to boot) in a nearly perpetual-drought state on hot baths in order to keep functioning. Next week, it’ll be therapeutic massages to keep me mobile, and maybe alternative medicine. Who knows what ten years down the road might bring?
All the more reason to become as financially stable as possible while I can make hay. You know, while the sun shines and all that.
I look forward to living pain-free someday but hope for the best and plan for the worst, guys. I’ll keep on saving and investing until I can do no more.
If nothing else, there are days where I can walk a straight line and I stop, breathe and think, I’m so grateful that I am walking without searing pain right this moment. I know it can and will change, but right here, right now, I’m grateful.
Take care of your health, friends, as best you can with what you’ve got.
March 25, 2010
I’ve had excellent dental care over the years courtesy of employer-sponsored benefits, and then thanks to COBRA, so my dental woes have been routinely resolved. My parents, however, have had some dental issues I wasn’t aware of until recently, and I feel guilty about not providing more thoroughly for them since I discovered all was not fine and dandy in their world of teeth. It’s nothing emergent, but I think my dad may need some fairly major work done and I wanted to budget for that ASAP.
My first thought was to get them insured. Naturally, right? It turns out that dental insurance isn’t such a great deal.
A quick review of ehealthinsurance.com showed that I might just be better off self-insuring them.
At an annual cost of $444 plus a yearly deductible of $25 for the cheaper of the only two plans available for this zip code, the policy yields a princely benefit of $500 per person. That’s not all! They’ll offer a grand coinsurance of 0-50% so at times that $500 won’t even be participating in payment of the bills. When it does, it covers no more than 50% of the bill. Essentially I’m paying for the privilege of a partial, sometimes, discount.
The math is only marginally better for the “Enhanced” Plan carrying an annual bill of $1032 with a $150 family deductible. Same lousy excuse for a “coinsurance” and I find myself utterly disgusted. I’d probably be better off saving the cash and sending them to my old (current) dentist with a request for a cash and senior discount.
There’s also a reputable School of Dentistry within 50 miles. An old friend may be able to fill me in on their services or direct me to someone in the know. It’s not a convenient drive, but I’ve heard that they do good work so perhaps on one of the days that he’s free of mom, my dad could get his teeth examined. Their online quote ranges from $50-$88 for an initial exam, all necessary x-rays, study models and a treatment plan. That’s a heck of a lot better than my dentist’s quote of $60 for an exam and additional $35 per x-ray (usually about 4-6 films taken) for a total of $250 for them to tell us what they’re going to do and how much that’ll cost.
Lastly, I should check with my dentist friend about a personal referral. He’s got relatives in the field, they might be more affordable than the local dentist and worth adding to the list of errands they run out in that area.
February 9, 2010
When you’re in pain, the world needs to know. Sorry loves, I’m updating you on the weird developments in my dental world.
All last week, as my
Tweeple might have heard, I was in
excruciating pain. Purportedly stress-related, it was agonizing and frustrating that the pain kept coherent thought at bay and kept me at that high level of stress. Almost as upsetting was the foggy realization that I was spending money on things I a) would normally avoid, or b) had to buy for convenience’s sake. Adding up the numbers is fairly well horrifying.
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Category A:
Repeat or unnecessary medications: My dad offered to make what would have been my third trip out to the hospital to pick up medications. The pharmacy filled one too many and sent him home with Naproxen, the OTC version of which I already had.
Processed foods: At best I was gumming my meals and even that hurt. I couldn’t take one more day of liquids-only or scrambled eggs so I bought packaged mashed potatoes (just add water!) and Top Ramen. I could just microwave the one, and overcook the other into mush. [Yeech!]
Category B:
Ordered in food: I paid a premium for high-calorie, high-sodium soup because I desperately needed extra calories and my dad can’t handle non-Asian cooking. He means well but he’s only cooks Asian-style and recipes make no sense to them. *sigh* OTOH, French onion soup. Oh yes….
Category C – luxuries, unbudgeted:
One of my close friends, a massage therapist, called me on Saturday at noon with instructions to nap, drink plenty of water and drive 50 miles to see her. She took me to an acquaintance whose background includes physical therapy among other homeopathic disciplines, and we spent an hour and a half working on postural analysis and some exercises. My good ole narcotic had worn off before we crossed his threshold, and the pain level didn’t spike during our session. For five days, pain has exploded as soon as a med wore off… this was nothing short of breathtaking.
She bundled me off and gave me a good long massage (she insists it was only an hour, but I suspect she fudged the time a bit.) I insisted on paying her because her partner is on disability right now and money is tight, but she also insists that the next massage is free. Who am I to argue?
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I can think again.
I could drive, I could talk on the phone for short bursts, I can remember things. (Not everything, but it wasn’t a certified miracle.) Pain management is incredible.
The eagle-eyed might notice that, above, my dentist, for the pleasure of making me cry when he thwacked my already smarting teeth with his instrument, gave me a 10% discount on the nightguard. Actually, he noted the discount when he found out that I was paying cash. But still. They both discounted the total price and didn’t charge to expedite the order. (I’d told them there was a chance I had to be out of town the following week for an interview.) Good folks.
We’re not all the way there yet, but lots of deep breathing and judicious use of the painkillers makes an enormous difference. There really seems to be something to this alignment business. If I can, I’d like to see him one more time to help winnow the pain down to less than a daily occurrence and work on my own from there.
February 4, 2010
Thank goodness for COBRA with the attached dental insurance. The score isn’t really zero, of course, I don’t count my premiums when I’m looking at these out of pocket expenses. But to stay really honest, I’m paying around $20/month for coverage right now, and haven’t paid a deductible.
I’ve been experiencing severe generalized dental pain since Monday, and it’s only getting worse. I’ve seen the dentist ($100, covered by insurance), the oral surgeon ($301, covered by insurance), have an appointment with my physician tomorrow which WILL cost me a great deal (at least $45 to start), and will have to shell out a cool $350 on top of that for a nightguard.
[Side Note: Examining my receipt, I noticed that insurance still hasn’t paid the balance for my cleaning from more than 6 weeks ago. No wonder offices hate dealing with insurance.]
All this because there’s nothing to be done dentally or surgically as far as my dental care providers are concerned. They are advising that I find a way to relax because apparently, being stressed is what’s causing my body to react in ways that are ultimately self-destructive, painful and stressful. *sigh* Doing it to yourself, self.
MoneyFunk suggested a *fun* solution of drinking applying whisky to the affected area but sadly, that just made the teeth even more sensitive. Darn, we were really hoping that’d be the answer. ($15 for whisky and ice cream bars. Shoulda told the cashier it’d been a rough day, hee.)
I promise I’m not faking it so I can hide in bed for hours in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. I really want to get out and about, but this pain is excruciating. In comparison to the pain I’ve had over the years with my medical condition that was way high on the pain scale, this pain is much worse; it keeps me up at night and fogs my brain. I hate the feeling of fogged brain. I hate starving even more – my teeth can only tolerate liquids (of varying temperatures) and soft foods like mashed potatoes which isn’t enough. *dreams of Lemony Luna Bars and steak dinners dance in my head* *Oh, and craving sushi. Again.*
In any case, it’s rather ironic that when I need to be at my best and fulfilling earning potential, I’m only barely making it to medical appointments and emerging with no real answers.
Time to count my blessings of current health insurance coverage and … yeah. That’s all I’ve got right now. That and a bushel of OWWWW.
January 28, 2010
It’s official: I’ve been sick for over a week. Dear friends, I’m a terrible invalid. I whine. A lot. Between racking coughs, I whine and mentally grumble about how much money’s been wasted on those elephant pills that haven’t done a lick of good. The really gross, wild-cherry flavored Robitussin has finally alleviated the cough enough for me to cook again.
But this morning? The sun literally and figuratively came out: it’s gorgeous outside, and half my coughs don’t sound like a dying warthog. Glory be!
I’m getting back on the exercise horse ASAP. Every time I moved faster than a slow shuffle these past several days, I’ve keeled over with the cough so I’ve neglected the Daily Exercise Regimen sadly.
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Dogfood Provider linked to this beyond-awesome pasta sauce recipe posted at Smitten Kitchen.
I modified the recipe like so:
28 ounces canned diced tomatoes with peppers and onions
5 tablespoons butter
1/2 yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste
Combine the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 50 minutes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste.
I actually didn’t add any salt as both the sauce and the butter contained salt. The rich, melty melding of flavors was absolutely perfect with the modified Garlic Lemon Chicken recipe. (Besswess, I used the juice of ONE lemon, ditched the herbs and rind, and baked with plenty of garlic. It turned out sans bitterness. Might be worth another go if that was your only objection.)
Sauce: $4, 6 generous servings
Chicken: $4, 6 servings
Asparagus: $2, 2 servings
Surprisingly my love affair with asparagus is suspended – I’ve got to find another veggie to round out the meals for a while.
January 21, 2010
I’m taking one today, sort of, because I’ve got the worst sore throat and set of aches and I still can’t help but feel like I’ve got to get some work done today. Even in the freelancing life, I feel guilty not working.
This suck-it-up attitude isn’t rare, unfortunately, and rarely serves us well except in an environment where taking sick days is institutionally frowned upon. No joke, I’ve worked in offices where the rule was: “You can go home if you feel sick, but I don’t and the big boss doesn’t, we’re always here no matter what, so I don’t know why you’d feel the need to.” Even then, it’s not good to bow to that unreasonable culture.
I’ll tell you why you should use those sick days!
Full time employees with benefits have sick and vacation days, and a defined set of ways they can use them. ie: You should take a sick day when you feel ill, or have a doctor’s appointment. Part-timers and freelancers do have to worry about not getting paid for taking a day or three off, but that’s another argument for saving your pennies against a rainy day.
1. INFECTION Caring is not sharing. When you’re feeling sick, especially when you’re at the beginning of the illness, you’re likely to be contagious. This means you’re very likely to pass along the germs to your colleagues and keep the sick cycle going. Even if you’re conscientious about washing your hands, there are usually communal eating/gathering areas and you’ll leave them teeming with germs. Gross. It’s even worse if you don’t have a desk job and have contact with lots of moving parts that are subsequently handled by others.
2. PERFORMANCE (short term) Who does their best work when coughing, sneezing, sniffling, and feeling run down? Show of hands, anyone? Don’t kid yourself, people, if you can’t even sleep in that state, you can’t do your work effectively.
3. PERFORMANCE (long term) It’s a set-up. What’s worse than sucking it up and trudging to your desk through your day of misery? Having it come back to bite you. You may make mistakes, poor judgment calls or just plain forget to follow through on the commitments you made. And two weeks later, what people remember isn’t that you were sicker’n’ a dog and showed up anyway, they’ll just see the aftermath of your Sickie performance. And be ticked off because they’re sick now too.
4. HEALTH “If you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything.” The Princess Bride was right about many things, and this is no exception. Even if you don’t have a compromised immune system, routinely neglecting your health repeatedly takes a toll on your body and triggers untold stress long-term. If nothing else, the habit of ignoring your minor health issues can lead to missing important changes that may indicate greater problem than chronic colds or flus. My junior high math teacher ignored a persistent cough for months, and it was months before she went to the doctor and was diagnosed with end stage lung cancer. They might have been able to treat if she’d come in for the cough almost a year earlier.
If you have sick days, use them. If you’re saving them for a payout (Funny about Money did), use other days if you have to, but don’t save your days and sacrifice your well-being.
So how many sick days do you get? And how many have you used?
