About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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December 22, 2009
We’re scant days away from CookFest 2009 … er, Christmas, and I’ve been compiling a whole mess of recipes to last through the weekend.
Wish I had pictures, but I’ll share those afterward if this all turns out well.
I’ve already got an idea about Shrimp Scampi, we’ll serve my now-perfected baked fish with roasted tomatoes and pesto, we’ll have to work a miracle with a pork loin of some sort, and then on to a frugal Almond Pecan Pie for dessert.
I know we’ll serve wine, but I’m hoping to make VH’s pineapple punch. Sounds delicious!
Clearly, there’s some fleshing out to do here, but we’ve got a good start.
December 19, 2009
Once upon a time, we celebrated holidays and birthdays with loads of family, food, and fun. Some years gifts were bountiful, other years scarce, but we kids rarely had any gift expectations. Except one: every other year, I hoped for a new digital watch or a strap replacement because that’s about how long it took for the wristband of my good old $5 Casio to break. Pretty simple, as those things go.
The wish list was unheard of. We wrote little letters to Santa, but understood that while other kids had jolly Old Saint Nick for a Santa, our family Santa was just our parents signing a different name on the gift tag. Dual personalities didn’t bother me, at any rate.
After age ten, though, Christmases changed substantially – my parents stopped celebrating entirely. I didn’t fully appreciate how busy and exhausted they were, working 7 days a week, at their small business, so for seven years, I advocated for a Christmas tree this year, in vain. (I must have been so annoying!)
It took another five years of trying to resurrect my fondly remembered holiday traditions before I developed a much healthier approach than a forced diet of gifts to disinterested people.
One of my favorite traditions is a very special one I share with a good friend. N and I exchange birthday and Christmas gifts each year, following the same rules: we buy a few volumes of a comic book series that we both want to read, read it first, and then trade gifts.
It doesn’t make sense to anyone else, but we love it.
This harkens back to our college days when I couldn’t really afford to splurge on a lot of books for myself, and A had more disposable income. I’m pretty sure the arrangement came about because one (or both) of us couldn’t wait ’til after the gifting occasion to borrow the books and read them – we both buy gifts weeks if not months in advance.
This also gave rise to the Buy Quests we go on each year at Comic Con: we provide each other with the titles of books we’d like to be collecting, and we then painstakingly search through each of the bargain bin booths to collect as many of those books for 50% off or $5/each as possible.
Do you have any holiday, birthday or gifting traditions? Care to share?
December 18, 2009
Is it cheating if I should get two more gifts, and can’t think of good ones? I think the answer to that is “yes.” But I’m pretending that it’s not right now to conform to my rules below.
Edit: We’re in the clear — I happened across a great Groupon deal, and though it meant that I had to ASK them if they’d be interested in the event, bought them rock climbing packages.
My official list was shorter than ever this year. I’m not going to reveal the gift recipients, but thus far I’ve stayed within my guesstimated budget from the November Snapshot of $150-200.
- 1 tauntaun sleeping bag from ThinkGeek.com — $116.98
Holy mackeral shipping was expensive! Ground shipping cost $26.99! But at least I know that’ll be delivered in time. And it’ll be totally worth it — half the fun of this gift is the surprise, the other half is that it’s been a running joke, one way or another, for years.
- 2 t-shirts from Threadless.com — $
28.99 22.99
When the prices dropped again, I canceled the first order and submitted another one. They still arrived in time to be wrapped and sent back out.
This is the most I’ve ever spent on shipping for a gifting season, but I’m also ordering from non-standard stores. I missed out on the Threadless tees I really wanted (Polar Farming or Cheesy Friends), but the two that I did find were funny enough and fit the personalities of the recipients.
Lastly ….
- 2 of the following: 1 hr lesson, full day of climbing and all equipment rental: $30
Total spent: $169
Over the years, I’ve developed the following gifting rules:
A) Gift must be something the recipient would love and not think to get for him or herself
B) Gift must be a reasonable price
C) Gift must be something the recipient could actually use: no knickknacks or future clutter
D) Always use coupons, sales or any possible combination thereof
E) Creativity trumps all
F) No obligation buying! No throwaway gifts for people I felt I should have bought for if they don’t also conform to the rules above. Scratch E, thoughtfulness trumps all. If I don’t know them well enough to find something they will love and use, then I shouldn’t get them a gift.
How are y’all doing with the gifting season?
December 17, 2009
My personal CD ladder is a work in progress. The ladder’s steps aren’t regular like most folks’s every three months, or every two months, or every month. To be honest, it’s rather haphazard: cash gets rolled into a CD when I spot a good “high” interest, short term (12 months or fewer) rate. It’s not conventional but the reasoning behind this strategy is sound for me, and I’ve always made financial choices that worked best for me and mine.
My priorities
– only the money in my emergency fund can be invested (~$36k)
– I always need to keep enough on hand to cover $2k/month until the next CD expires.
– I only want to invest the most money at the highest rate possible.
My current CD holdings
– $10,000 at 3.0% APY expiring 06-2010
– $3,000 at 2.75% APY expiring 08-2010
Available cash
– $8,000 at B&M bank (investable)
– $14,000 at ING (investable)
– $5,500 for expenses (not investable)
Given those priorities, there’s no point in my setting up a traditional ladder, convenient though ING makes it:
The immediate drawback of using the convenient ladder above is that my savings accounts are earning 1.3% APY. The 6 and 9 month CD terms are earning less than that, so there’s no point in using those. Then all the terms after 12 months earn less than 2% APY, only marginally more than the 1.3% APY.
I’d rather throw something like $15k into a 12 month CD now, leaving $12.5K to get me through the next 6 months.
I don’t expect to spend $2k per month from savings, it’s just a comfortable average amount I use for estimating monthly expenses. I might only spend $500 per month for a few months, but then an emergency could pop up costing a few thousand. If so, I still don’t have to worry because my total available cash covers it. Meanwhile the seed money earmarked to go out and earn “big” can continue to do so.
The risk here is committing the rest of my investable cash ($15k) to a 2.0% CD means that I won’t be able to open up another CD at a higher rate later on if one becomes available between now and June 2010.
Then again, had I just sent all that cash to the 3% APY CD six months ago, we wouldn’t be talking about committing to a lower interest rate now! 🙂 So it’s guesswork from here.
Option A: Invest all $15,000 now
Option B: Invest part now (how much?), invest the rest later
What would you do?
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My mac ‘n’ cheese post was featured in this week’s Make It From Scratch Carnival hosted by 11th Heaven’s Homemaking Haven.
December 16, 2009
I have a friend serving in military right now, and he’s stationed in the cold of Afghanistan for at least several more months this tour. Last week, my biggest worry was that I’d never get to sleep. A couple weeks ago, his base was rocket attacked and an entire side of the base was damaged.
So I did what I do best: offered him a care package with any food, candy or snacks he wanted. (He wants.)
Hint: I’m told that hot chocolate packages are care mail GOLD.
If you’re looking to send a care package to a member of the military, pick up a flat rate APO box and customs forms from your local post office, I was quoted a rate of under $15. The packages are taking about ten days to arrive when posted from the West Coast, though the holidays may slow that delivery time down a bit.
If you don’t have a special family member or friend and would like to send something anyway, check out Any Soldier for information on how to send care packages to the military. [Thanks to The Lost Goat for the link.]
December 14, 2009
I recently discussed the upcoming changes for my health care coverage in 2010.
My ex-benefits office sent an update for the coming year and I was wrong about my ARRA expiration: it’s actually good until the end of April, not the end of March. My rates, however, still increase to $142/month starting in January, and jump to $410/month post-ARRA expiration. A relief and a bummer rolled up into one.
Unless a job is secured by that time, the COBRA will take a serious bite out of my savings each month, but I’ll still have the money to pay it. I just have to reproject the budget to see what the drawdown looks like against my savings accounts.
This New York Times article, Steps to Take Before Cobra Subsidy Ends, notes that some people are expecting their unsubsidized COBRA to reach unsustainable amounts, costing more than half their monthly unemployment. According to the article, bills are pending in both the House and Senate to extend the subsidy for six months, but I’m skeptical that it would pass in time to affect my budget.
The Times suggests the following coping techniques:
BUY TIME Yes, the full-price Cobra payments are onerous. But if you pay the first month or two, you will be buying time to see if the subsidy is extended and time to shop around for health insurance alternatives that may be more affordable.
Check ehealthinsurance.com and healthplanone.com for general pricing information from carriers that provide individual policies in your area.
STAY ON TOP OF IT If you’re making the switch to full payments be sure to keep in touch with your Cobra administrator so you will know whether Congress grants an extension, and what you need to do, if anything, to get it.
Depending on your plan and situation, this person may be a staff member of your former employer’s benefits department. Or it may be someone at the insurance company providing your Cobra coverage, or a third-party administrator. Be sure to read through your paperwork and find the person you need to stay in contact with.
LOOK FOR REDUCTIONS With or without the subsidy, family Cobra coverage costs much more than individual coverage or coverage for just you and your spouse.
Without your regular income, your children may well be eligible for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP. It covers children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to afford private health insurance. If you can insure your kids through CHIP, Mr. Pollack said, you can significantly reduce your Cobra payment. For more information go to insurekidsnow.gov.
NEWLY LAID OFF? If you have been laid off this month and your employer has promised to cover your health care until the end of December, beware: that magnanimity could work against you.
The way the law is written, workers are eligible for the subsidy only if they are “eligible for Cobra” before Dec. 31, said Kathryn Bakich, national health care compliance director for the Segal Company, a benefits consultant. And simply being laid off in December does not necessarily make you eligible, particularly if your employer-provided coverage is extended through the end of the year.
As with most things to do with the economy and the government’s actions, I view it as a wait and see situation. With luck, none of you out there really need any of this information!
December 13, 2009
By way of helping with the astronomical work load, I’ve got a guest post over at Funny About Money. Just a little rumination about unemployment.
Hope everyone is safe, warm and dry today! It’s gloomy out there!
