Money Matters
csuave
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Monday Accountability
1. How MM was your weekend?
2. Any progress toward goals?
3. Are you doing/not doing something for Lent or just working on a personal goal in general right now?
2. Any progress toward goals?
3. Are you doing/not doing something for Lent or just working on a personal goal in general right now?
Re: Monday Accountability
$42 for a mystery shop dinner on Friday that will get reimbursed next month.
Sunday we went to a chili, beer and a movie event at the old theater. Ticket total was $26. We had a great time at it. They had a chocolate beer...yum!
2. Yes! We took all our tax stuff to the accountant on Saturday. It feels like a load off of my shoulders. Now we wait to see how it turns out. I expect a federal refund and that we will have to pay state and local, but I really don't know.
3. I am looking for 40 things to donate. I am making progress and getting some cleaning out/reorganization done in the process. We don't have a ton of clutter so 40 things won't be that easy but will be achievable. I'm trying to get H to do it too. He has more clutter and stuff than I do.
1. Good! $55 Home depot, $50 party gift
2. We paid off vacation today! 2 months to go! $900 to e-fund
3. No, I don't really follow Lent...
2. Any progress toward goals? Have $1,500 of the $3K needed for Roth IRA transfer for 2016, DH's new 403b withdrawal is all set for next paycheck. Also down to just 3 more day care payments for DD#2!
3. Are you doing/not doing something for Lent or just working on a personal goal in general right now? Personal goal has been to keep up with weight loss- I have made good progress so far (down 9 lbs) just by changing a few eating habits (no eating after 7pm, drinking lots of water, eating breakfast every morning). Goal is to lose 5 more lbs over the next few months (would be at the weight when I got married!).. hopefully by summer.
2. Any progress toward goals? DH got his first paycheck with his new raise on it so I ran the numbers on Friday on the IRS withholding calculator. It looks as though my plan to withhold an extra $200 out of every paycheck will result in a small refund at the end of the year! I'll check again in June/July just to be sure we're still on track.
3. Are you doing/not doing something for Lent or just working on a personal goal in general right now?
Nothing really. I need to be more serious about starting to train for the Peachtree 10k though...
2. Yup! Financially I was able to put an extra $1,220 into the house fund due to my overtime pay. We also finally have the electrician coming this week to replace our box. And we killed it on the decluttering this weekend - still a lot to do but we made a huge dent. We also started our baby registry.
3. Not doing Lent this year. I'm generally nesting though so I've been on the declutter/clean train and it will continue for the next couple of months I'm sure.
1. How MM was your weekend?
Decent. I spent $158 at Sam's. We went out for dinner with friends on Saturday, but I'm not sure how much we spent, lol. It was one of the rare times my H handled the check. I'm guessing around $60. Then we all went for coffee. That was $12 for just me and H, because mine was an Irish coffee. Good value, though. It was really heavy on the "Irish", lol.
On Sunday, I spent $38 on brunch, but it was a mystery shop so $35 will be reimbursed next month.
2. Any progress toward goals?
Yes! I paid my credit cards down $2K. It would have been more, but I'm keeping extra cash in the accounts and on our persons for the Tahoe trip we're leaving for on Wednesday.
3. Are you doing/not doing something for Lent or just working on a personal goal in general right now?
The main personal goal I'm working on is paying down my credit card debt as fast as I can. I'm not Catholic, so I don't give anything up for Lent.
2. Nothing last week.
3. We don't do Lent. Though I think this colonoscopy is going to result in a come to Jesus about my diet. (No pun intended!) I won't ever give up coffee, but I think I may need to give up alcohol completely, depending on what they find.*
*As aside on this, I'd love opinions on how I should pay for this. I'm not sure how much it's going to cost, but I have big amounts in both my FSA and HRA that will definitely cover it, but I'm not sure which to use! I wish I could split the difference, but if I can't, which would you use?
2. $250 to the house account. We got our savings baseline before starting a new project, and we found a landscaper at the Home Show, so we're ready for Spring!
3. We're not religious, we're actually quite the opposite, so we do nothing for Lent or Easter.
I had been "saving" the HRA money since we were TTC, but we've decided after this procedure to stop and go back on hormonal birth control. Since we're not going to need it for any prenatal and L&D care, I'd really like to drain this account.
(Sorry about the high jack. If this thread bothers anyone, let me know and I'll start a separate one!)
@als1982 and @cupcait927, HRAs can also definitely be used for dental and vision.
I'm pretty sure the requirements on what can/can't be covered for HRAs and FSAs are the same, though I'm not 100% on that.
If it were me, I'd just use the FSA dollars since those are the ones that will expire in Sept.
I use to work for a TPA that administered FSA & HRA accounts and we always advised people to use their own funds first (the FSA) because so often we saw people forfeit dollars because they were afraid of the unknown and funded an FSA without having a purpose for the money (planning procedures, dental visits, eye care, etc).
2. My hospital charges processed, and it's the best case scenario-for me, we'll owe only the $500 hospital co-pay. This is supposed to cover the baby too, but I expect they'll come up with something to charge us for him. At least his $300 deductible. We'll see!
(FTR, my actual billed amount was over $13,000, of which my insurance negotiated down to $8,000. Vaginal birth, no epidural but some other assorted meds, 2-night stay. Ouch!)
3. I feel badly, but we've been awful about church lately. I would love to do better.
Oh shoot! Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking of an HSA. I always get HSAs and HRAs mixed up.
I even googled it to make sure I wasn't giving bad info, lol. I've had HSAs at a number of companies and have always been able to use them for vision/dental. I've never had an HSA at the same time with an HRA or FSA.
I found the bolded shocking.