Money Matters
formerlyjessica490
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.
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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 towards goals?
3. Did you survive the hurricane if you were affected? Did you have any family to worry about?
Re: Monday Accountability
1. $24 Movie tickets OOF!-Saw Sully, $4 Candy for movie at dollar store (we smuggle in our own food/drinks), $32 Chinese food, $20 Gas. It was a pretty lazy weekend
2. We still have $ we haven't transferred to savings...we paid off the landscaper and we have a plumber coming this week so we need the cash. We also get paid this week, so we will transfer a large amount this weekend.
3. So the hurricane was supposed to turn back to the south but that didn't end up happening, so we had a cloudy day on Saturday here in CT and then it came up the coast and rained 1/2" and was windy on Sunday but we were just fine. Our family friends in South Carolina had to evacuate but they were back home Sunday and just fine as well. I feel horrible for everyone that was affected, the pictures I have seen so far were just devastating....
1. How MM was your weekend? Withdrew $80 on Friday for our weekend entertainment. We ended up having the use the credit card on Sunday to cover one small purchase but otherwise the money got us through dinner, fair tickets, and apple picking.
2. Any progress towards goals? Nope.
3. Did you survive the hurricane if you were affected? Did you have any family to worry about? We weren't affected in Atlanta. On Friday night we got a tiny amount of rain from the storm and Saturday we got some wind but that was it. My great aunt and uncle live near Ft. Lauderdale but as far as I know they didn't have any damage, and they didn't have to evacuate. Another friend lives near Melbourne and they voluntarily chose to leave to stay with family on the other side of the state. I haven't heard from her yet to see how her house fared.
2. Nothing last week. My next paycheck goes toward the mortgage.
3. FIL lives in Orlando. Even though the parks were all closed, he said it wasn't that bad.
1. How MM was your weekend? Not too bad- groceries ($140), new boxwood, mums, soil, mulch ($72), new toilet for the upstairs! ($128), dinner date with DH ($65).
2. Any progress towards goals? Nothing financial this week. Bathroom fixtures are being installed tomorrow!
3. Did you survive the hurricane if you were affected? Did you have any family to worry about? We were not affected at all- we're all the way up in the western part of NY. DH's brother and family are in Cape Coral FL, but that's the gulf side, so they said it was just rain and wind.
2) Yes! I finally finished my LLM degree! I've been working on this for two years and took my last exam yesterday. So excited to be done!
3) No issues with the hurricane here. We haven't had rain in nearly a month.
2. $250 to the house account. My desk is going to be delivered within the next two hours, so welll make the final payment for that. I'm excited for it!!
3. N/A. We're all in the Midwest.
1. How MM was your weekend?
Not great, but it was expected.
Friday: $155 on routine labwork. Such maroons. I really like this doctor, but my appointments regularly run two hours late. I mean, I know...doctor...but two hours every time is extreme. This wasn't an appointment. They do labwork between 8:30AM (when they open)-9:00AM (when appointments start). I was there at 8:30. I was the only patient there the entire time. They called me in 20 minutes later at 8:50. Really?!?
It was fasting bloodwork, so $5 for breakfast at Taco Bell after. Starving! Since I was out and about on a weekday, made it to Trader Joe's without it being a line out the door. Spent $62.
Saturday: Major grocery shopping. $120 at Costco and $93 at Winn Dixie.
Sunday: I didn't go anywhere, but my H and our plumber went to the new duplex. They were also out there Saturday. Paid our plumber $650 for the weekend work. But he's pretty much done! Woo-hoo. Probably just a couple hundred more bucks to finish and install two water heaters.
2. Any progress towards goals?
Not really, other than the usual. Cash flowed my plumbing work (from above). Paid at least all the minimums on my credit cards for the month, but couldn't pay them all off like I usually do
. Paid my mortgage.
3. Did you survive the hurricane if you were affected? Did you have any family to worry about?
I wasn't affected by this hurricane. In fact, we had spectacular sunny weather all weekend. October is one of the driest months and has the best temps for NOLA. Come to think of it, I do have two cousins who live on different parts of the FL east coast. Good reminder to call my mom tonight and make sure they are okay.
Most of CT is in a severe drought as well. We have to do even/odd watering days for any outdoor use. Luckily we were able to get our new grass to grow. Our town reservoir has to be well below 55% now
1. How MM was your weekend?
$140 on groceries, $35 on books for a baptism gift
2. Any progress towards goals?
Well...I don't know. We had a weird electrical thing happen and don't know what is going to happen with that so we may have had an efund hit.
3. Did you survive the hurricane if you were affected? Did you have any family to worry about?
So I don't think that the rain we got yesterday was from the hurricane (live near Boston), I think it was a separate storm, but we got a solid 24 hours of rain 11p Sat-11p Sun. I was at a baptism yesterday and got an emergency call from H that there was water in our fuse box. I thought he was exaggerating (I thought maybe water on a nearby wall) but called the electrician anyway. When I got home my dad was there, and they were turning the electrical off. the electrician showed up about an hour later, then we got the power company out (they said it wasn't on their end). finally after about 4-5 hours of being at my house the electrician sealed off the problem area (once it was finally found). we got power back last night, but there are components that now need to be replaced, including the meter where the problem was. we had upgraded to 200amp service in May, and this is the first significant rain we have had since then. I don't want to put in a claim on my insurance since this seems to be a defect of the system, but we also don't want to pay the 2-3000 for the work. The electrician is looking into if the company or his insurance can cover it. So so frustrating since we literally spent 3000 on this less than 6 months ago and now we are facing a repeat of it.
Hurricane wise - luckily all my family is in this area and we had nothing to worry about. I also am thinking about how this electrical stuff sucks but nothing bad happened (electricity and water could have ended poorly) and we have no where near the problems of people in the hurricane are facing. Perspective!
2 - $75 in home improvement fund and the inside of DH's studio is 90% done. I'm going in all day tomorrow with him to finish up the cleaning and unpacking. Horray!! He is able to show it now to possible renters and gave a tour to someone on Saturday.
3 - We are in the midwest so we aren't affected by it.
1. How MM was your weekend?
I haven't been on here as much. Our weekend was good. $150 for groceries and health/personal items at our regular store. Then we made a trip to Sam's Club to stock up on things $100. We recently renewed our membership (the cheap one) and were able to use some great coupons because of it! Deals included a 40pk case of water for 98 cents, rotisserie chicken for 98 cents, 15 pk of paper towels for $4, and a 4pk of disinfectant wipes for 98 cents! $25 savings right there.
Other than that we had school pictures costs for two ($50ish) and sports pictures for one ($20ish). We've been running with soccer so I feel like we've been relying on having more snacks on hand for the younger kiddo.
2. Any progress towards goals?
We are tossing as much as we can into savings for a house down payment (we don't want to rely on the sale of our house for that), emergency funds, and a vacation fund. We are really starting to consider Disney (kids are 4 and 6) so I'll probably be posting a thread soon asking for recs. A few friends have gone several times and have given some tips but I love MM thoughts.
3. Did you survive the hurricane if you were affected? Did you have any family to worry about?
I'm in the Great Lakes area so no worry of the hurricane however we have family and friends along the coast. Everyone is safe.
2. This isn't a pay week, but I did a rough draft of the budget for the next few months and we made a few responsible decisions-skipping our winter meat CSA and cancelling a weekend away that really wouldn't be the best idea right now. We really just need to be hoarding cash like squirrels until the medical bills have all shaken out. We have an unusual plan with a relatively low family deductible ($900) but an extremely high family OOP max ($10,000) so it's hard for me to predict exactly where we'll land come February. The minimum will be $1,900 (the deductible plus two $500 hospital admissions) but I think the ceiling will really depend on how things go.
3. We just had some rain yesterday (probably not related, like @formerlyjessica490 said). Our family in Florida all rode out the storm just fine without any damage to their homes, which was happy news for us! We were worried about them.
Anyways, since they had already ran my insurance benefits, I knew exactly what those amounts would be for me. Then I figured in the deductible for the baby and looked at the family OOP Max (all on the same insurance plan). So we knew what the most we'd pay would be. I knew I'd get bills later for the hospital charge and the anesthesiologist but I wanted at least my OB's charges for prenatal care and L&D figured out. She's in private practice and bills everything the day of the mother's hospital discharge. The hospital and other charges trickled in over the next 1-3 months.
Overall I think it's reasonable that with a vaginal delivery we might not hit $10,000, but I know that one out of network doctor wandering in during an emergency CS could put us there easily. For OON, we're responsible for 20%.
Our plan just seems so different from any others that I have read about that it's tough to know what to expect. I don't know of anyone with such a large difference between the deductible and OOP max. Asking my practice's billing department is an awesome idea, @blondie42107! I think I'll make that call tomorrow. The insurance hotline was little help, but that seems like a great way to go.
I'm a little late to the party... Sorry
1. How MM was your weekend? Pretty terrible... I went shopping with my sister and spent way too much money. Friday - $0, Saturday - $28.00 on Lularoe Leggings (crazy I know), $30 at Ross, $14 at IHOP for brunch, Victoria's Secret $38 had a return and got the 7/$27 underwear x 2, DSW $62 on 2 pairs of shoes, and Petsmart $30. Sunday - $10 at the grocery store and $18 for pizza. YIKES!
2. Any progress towards goals? Not a pay week so no. I get paid Thursday and I'll be putting money towards my 0% credit card and paying off another very small credit card.
3. Did you survive the hurricane if you were affected? Did you have any family to worry about? We did not feel any affects in MD. It was a windy weekend but that was from a front in the North so not hurricane related, thankfully. We have no family that was affected either.
2. Same old same old.
3. No hurricanes up in Boston although we did get some rain.
1. How MM was your weekend?
We were pretty good. Everything was planned and we ended up having left overs from a party that we are now eating.
2. Any progress towards goals?
Same money as always going into savings. We are starting to put aside extra clutter in our house for a yard sale in a few weeks. Hopefully we will have less stuff in the house and more money in the bank account.
3. Did you survive the hurricane if you were affected? Did you have any family to worry about?
We had friends in Florida who were dealing with the hurricane. Luckily they were all safe and minimal damage. My brother's family was flying out of Atlanta on friday and we weren't sure if their flight would be cancelled, but they were luckily far enough away from the hurricane to take off.