Job/unjob update

I spent today at Baby-O's baptism. No job hunt, and I have to admit, I didn't resign either. To be fair, the bakery wasn't open today. And I want to pick up my W-2 before quitting. It's frustrating not to have it yet, but employers are legally required to have provided them by, well, yesterday, so one would expect that it will be waiting for me tomorrow. (Slightly related funfact: for the fourth week in a row I didn't receive a copy of my schedule by e-mail, so if I weren't afraid of being fired tomorrow I'd have to wake up at 3 in the morning tomorrow and call the baker to see if I was supposed to be there by 4).

A New Day

I'm quitting my job with the bakery :D

If this seems sudden, it's because I've done my best to avoid airing my dirty laundry on this blog. I haven't mentioned how my employers' have been acting in increasingly irrational, how my days at work are spent cleaning up the messes made on my off days, how my schedule was cut from four days a week to three days a week without warning or comment. I've worked hard to keep my chin up and my nose clean pretty much until yesterday when I went to pick up my paycheck and was informed of a number of wrongs I have apparently committed in the past several weeks. It seems that every mistake made in the past month or so at the bakery is somehow my fault, despite the fact that I only work 27 hours a week and have almost no influence on the hows, whens, and whys of what goes on. Orders I didn't take were prepared incorrectly on my days off. Accounts I don't manage weren't paying invoices I could not deliver.

Long story short: Mama didn't raise no fool. I took a pay and status cut for this job with the intention of learning valuable new skills. I don't need "scapegoat" on my resume. I'm picking up my W-2 tomorrow and turning in my letter of resignation.

Today was spent scoping out nearby restaurants and cafes, and it doesn't look like the recession has done much damage to the customer service industry. I've already been offered one job I don't really want and prospects look excellent for jobs I would like.

It's such a relief that this unfortunate employment experience is coming to such a clean - albeit sudden - end.

Increase in transport price

Yikes, Austin Metro passes have gone up to $2 for a day pass!

On the one hand this is an amazing price. On the other hand, I wasn't prepared for a 100% increase...Even though it's been mentioned more than once in the local media.

Might be worth investing in the monthly pass again. $28 is steep, but manageable, especially since Darling gets a "free" student pass.

How on Earth can people afford cars?!

Defining Family

I applied for the Careington 500 Family Plan yesterday. At the section requesting "family members and dependents," I couldn't help but noticed the bold explanation that all members of the household are applicable members. After checking the FAQ section and double checking the Terms of Use, I ended up calling the customer help line to get a clearer idea of what "household" meant. After all, my own house is less than traditional.

To my amazement, the customer care representative insisted that a "family member" could be anyone who is a permanent resident of the house. After consulting with Darling, I very tentatively signed up a few of my housemates (with their permission, of course). Adding names to the plan did not increase the cost, but everyone said that if they used it they would pay their share. I also got a coupon code online, which knocked down the price by nearly $20. The next step is making a dentist appointment for next week and making sure the plan works properly.

YumGums

I spent $584 to get a hardcore gum cleaning and four shots of antibiotics today. Take that, gingivitis!

My next step is to look at dental plans and choose the best one for my needs. My housemate showed me Dentalplans.com and I am in love. This website shows the cost of every plan, the price of every procedure offered by every plan, and which dentists accept the plans (narrowed down to an area code).

It appears that the Careington 500 Family Plan will be perfect. For the fee of $189 I can get all of my work done for less than $2,234. Castle Dental quoted me $4130 for the same amount of work and recommended I get a credit card to pay for it. If I end up needing two root canals, as was suggested, I'll be able to get both for less than the price Castle is charging for one.

I'm transferring the sign-up fee from my savings account right now :) Monday I'll do the actual signing up, and by this time next week I'll schedule a dental appointment to get my fillings and caps.

**Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I would totally go to a dental school if there was one in Austin. The nearest is in Dallas - over two hours away by car, much longer by bus or train - and requires the commitment of several visits a week.

Baby, Co-op, and Day off

Sorry posting suddenly got sporadic, my brother's baby girl was born earlier this month and I've been very busy with family every since.

Things are finally getting back to normal, or at least as normal as they have been for the past several weeks. Our co-op drama has taken another turn. The president of the board called last week claiming to have come to his senses and is "firing" M, the man who has been causing so much trouble. Supposedly that was scheduled for yesterday, so we'll know at tonight's house meeting how that turned out. I, for one, do not have my hopes up. M acts so irrationally I can imagine him refusing to be fired...in fact, it happened once before! We could sell this house to be knocked down and turned into condos, and he would be here banging on the door demanding rent receipts from the new owners.

Before the meeting I have plenty of positive tasks to focus on. Thanks to work drama I have the day off, which means finishing the baby quilt (9 days late), napping, catching up on chores, and maybe catching up on posting.

Big Plans

On Christmas Eve my husband looked at my Mom's house - the slanted floors, shrugging ceilings, gaping holes in the walls - and knew we had to build her a house.

We proceeded to plan and worry. After weeks of doing so independently, we decided to go ahead and inform Mom of our decision. She is, of course, extremely excited. So now I'm blogging about this next huge project, feeling scared witless.

Darling starts his Spring semester next week. We'll spend that time getting soil samples, drawing up plans and having them approved, and learning as much as we can about straw bale construction, flooring, solar water heating, and other eco-friendly building techniques. We'll also be volunteering at building sites, attending workshops, and arranging help.

We're going to do as much advance work as possible well before May, so the moment Darling finishes this semester we can break ground, host a workshop or two and have most of the house finished by Summer's end so we can get back to Austin and Darling can start his fall semester.

As though building a house isn't a big enough project for us, Darling and I have some prerequisite goals to accomplish in the coming months. We'll need transportation to survive my Mom's small town. After a lot of thought, we decided to obtain a diesel truck or car and process our own bio-diesel. To that truck or car we intend to attach a small trailer to live in.

Because trucks and trailers are not often found in the IHOP dumpsters, I'll probably be hunting for another job to start raking in some extra funds in the coming months. So the following months will involve a massive amount of working, studying, saving, vehicle shopping, planning, and resisting the paralyzing effect that stress has on me.

Here's to a productive 2010.

Dental Pricing

The appointment at Castle Dental went as well as I could have hoped. Paid $75 for their time and some X-rays, though copies of said X-rays will cost $30. The dentists have suggested and priced the following:

$464 Cleaning and gum therapy
$120 Antibiotics (voluntary)
$ 2150 Crowns
$1980 Fillings

He's not sure, it was also suggested that I might need two root canals totaling $1800, and recommended that I pay to have my wisdom teeth removed for another $1800. The total quote came to $8389!

Everyone in Austin gets paid to have their wisdom teeth taken out by a company that does medical studies, so I think I'll take that route and save $1800. As for the rest, I'm definitely going to sign up for Careington. Then Fillings will only cost me &75 instead of $195 each, I can probably get all my crowns for less than $1200, and the root canal will only cost me $540 each instead of $900. And then future cleanings will cost me only $43. I might go through Castle Dental for the hard core cleaning and antibiotics to get started, though.

D(ental)-day

I'm thinking of taking Serendipity's advice and picking out a dental discount provider. Unlike every other save-money-on-your-dental-needs option, Careington seems to have almost no negative reviews online. It costs a little over $100 a year, but would cover Darling and myself. And supposedly I can get a refund if we don't use/need it within a month.

I'm trying to collect quotes and information from individual offices, but the system does not accommodate shopping around. There seems to be a sense that bargain hunting in this area is inappropriate, which would be understandable if I lived in a city with fewer than 200 dentists. But I can't visit every single office, develop x amount of relationships, and form however many bonds of trust or distrust necessary to make the decisions patients seem expected to make based on a yellow pages ad. Prospective patients should be able to call an office and say, "how much will a consultation cost me, what dental discount plans do you expect, and what are my chances of setting up a payment plan directly with the care provider?"

I'm going to go ahead to Castle Dental and hope for the best, prepared for the worse. I'm going to practice saying "no", and I intend to ask hard questions such as "wouldn't it make more sense just to pull it and be done?" I'll ask for (and purchase) a copy of my X-rays and other information as well as a list of procedures and prices.

Dental Worries

My Mom said she would pay to have my teeth fixed. I poured over the documents from my last dental visit before finally deciding that $3000 would probably do the job. I'm worried, though, because who knows what else might have gone wrong in my mouth (my reconstructed molar broke), and who knows how not having insurance will affect the situation? I really, really liked this dentist...but can my Mom afford him?

My dentist has an advertisement for Care Credit on his website. I googled reviews of this credit card and its zero interest plan, and I am not impressed.

Yesterday I popped into Castle Dental. I've heard horrible things from friends about Castle Dental. But $75 for an exam, and then a conversation about payment plans? Music to my ears. I made an appointment for tomorrow at 3:30.

Then I googled reviews of that Castle Dental. Which were not encouraging at all. In fact, I'm scared of going to the dentist for the first time in years. I can't afford to have someone mess up my teeth.

I finally thought to just google "affordable Austin, TX dentist." Yelp suggests Premier Family Dental.

Then it occurs to me that if I want quality, human care, I should avoid a chain and stick with a private practice.

But I already have that scary appointment for tomorrow.

Think I'll go in for that $75 cleaning and at least get my x-rays. Maybe that will save me money if I end up getting care from another source.

Sad co-op News

I've mentioned before how absolutely ecstatic I am about living in the co-op. Our housemates are priceless, our privacy is respected, and there are endless benefits to having nine people juggling household chores.

Sadly, there's a cloud to the silver lining. Remember my slightly mad ex-landlord, whose wacky antics included repeatedly breaking our toilet (to make it more "efficient"), delivering incomprehensible bills three months late, intruding without notice, and attempting to coerce tenants into signing leases before telling us how much he would be raising rent? Well, by some twist of fate he's financially involved in our co-op. And he's spent the past three months acting a total and absolute fool, pulling the sort of tricks one might expect to see in an early nineties sitcom.

For instance, when we needed to get a new fire insurance policy (the old policy expired and the company informed us they no longer carried that option), he offered to collect quotes. When we were only able to find one quote, we asked him to share the ones he claimed to have. He declined, so we requested and received permission from the board president to go with the policy available. The madman responded by canceling our fire insurance at a $200 loss, without informing anyone, and requesting that the refund check and all information be sent to his address.

That is one of his more sane, less devastating actions.

Instead of reacting logically to curb his power and activity, however, the board of directors has made a series of choices - each more audacious than the last - that is resulting in the technical dissolution of the co-op as an institution. Why? These people (none of whom, by some wacky turn of questionably legal events, have lived in the house for the past 30 years) are completely loony. After quite a bit of thought and analysis, that's honestly all I can come up with.

After months of fighting, everyone in the house pretty much gave up and surrendered to the fact that we are effectively renters. Fairly powerful renters who set, collect, and spend our own rent, but renters all the same. And I suspect there will be some big changes on how rent is managed in the next few months.

I've talked to a lawyer or two, but ultimately it doesn't look like the house members have the drive to fight this. The situation is so bizarre, twisted, and incoherent that it's hard to even begin to explain to a third party. Although we still reap the benefits of co-op living, the principles have been eradicated: we are no longer independent individuals who democratically manage our affairs as a household.

Darling and I intend to sit tight for a while and do everything we can to help re-create what is being destroyed. We love our home and we're happy here, but I think we might be preparing to bail if evil ex-and-practically-current landlord gets any more heavy-handed.

Burned Out

Today was spent working on a letter from my house to ex-residents. It's sensitive material that required a lot of thought, input, and editing. It took 6 hours and 45 minutes without a break...and it still needs cleaning up. My fingers are numb.

But I'm happy. Somehow, someday, I'll be doing this (writing) for a living.

83 Money Moves

I love those "100 Places to go/Things to Do/People to Meet/etc." books, so I couldn't help but check out this link Jackie posted on her blog, Money Crush. (At this point I have to take a moment to customize my blog so that links actually show up in text, something I should have gotten to ages ago...The Challenge could probably do with a total revamp, come to think of it. The picture would make a lot more sense if I'd had more than one violin lesson).

Anyway, Hank wrote a post titled "83 Money Moves To Make Before You Are 30 Years Old." I thought it would be interesting to see my progress meme style. I left a comment on this post asking if I could do this, and maybe Hank will be okay if other bloggers play along, or share their own progress in the comments.

I'll bold the one's I've accomplished and make notes in italics. Suggestions I disagree with - or are for some reason not possible for me - are in red. Suggestions I should be heeding right now are in green.

1. Stop using credit cards Finished before I started
2. Pay off your credit cards and other consumer debt I think normal people don't consider college debt or family loans consumer debt, but I do. And I'm working on it.
   
3. Pay off your credit cards on time and avoid the high late fees
   
4. Never have a revolving balance on your credit cards again
5. Ask for a lower interest rate on your credit cards This is really easy so far
   
6. Use a charge card you pay off every month and earn rewards points I'm better off saving.
   
7. Start investing in a mutual fund with a Roth IRA I have a Roth IRA Through Ing I intend to transfer when I have the minimum balance
   
8. Invest enough in a 401-k to get your company’s matching contribution There is no company
   
9. Invest in index funds
10. Invest in no load mutual funds with low fees
11. Spread your investments around with diversification
12. Invest using dollar cost averaging
13. Don’t invest in crazy, exotic investments
    
14. If you are going to use a CFP, find one you trust
15. Bounce ideas off of your CFP
16. Hire an accountant for your taxes if you get overwhelmed
17. Have a written monthly budget
18. Track what you spend ruthlessly every month in order to find places to save
19. Set financial goals and revisit them often
20. Double check your W-2 Tax Statements for needed changes These usually aren't very complicated
    
21. Spend any income tax refund wisely
22. Change your W-2’s to ensure that you do not get back much in the way of a tax refund I know this is correct, I really do...but we love getting that check every year...
    
23. Spend less money than you earn every month I'm giving myself a yes on this one because, although technically we don't always do this, a good deal goes to pay debt, which is technically more cost effective than saving.
    
24. Make all your monthly bills automatic to pay We get three bills a month: our rent needs to be paid by check for the co-op's purposes, my student loan payment is automatic, and I prefer having to think about paying my Mom's phone bill because that company messes it up fairly often.
    
25. Check your credit report every year
26. Protect yourself against identity theft I think I am...
    
27. Safeguard your personal information (on paper & on the internet) But I probably don't
    
28. Check all three credit reports when making a large purchase My credit does not effect my ability to make a large purchase
    
29. Understand how your FICO credit score is calculated Learning this is one of the things that turned me against credit.
    
30. Protect your FICO credit score FICO can bite me
    
31. Stop bouncing checks
    
32. Pay yourself first with investments I invest in debt freedom, education, and peace of mind.
    
33. Start tracking your net worth
34. Have three to six months of expenses in an emergency fund
35. Nickname your savings accounts for your goals
36. Write your goals down
37. Write notes on those little credit card sleeves to keep you from spending
    
38. Save for major purchases How else would I make a major purchase?
    
39. Start saving in January for Christmas
40. Consider earning a greater rate of return on savings with Peer-to-Peer Lending companies such as Lending Club or Prosper.
    
41. Consider investing in Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRIPS)
42. Don’t give up on renting an apartment in favor of buying a home
43. Consider a 15 year mortgage instead of a 30 year one if you can afford it
44. Negotiate your mortgage interest rate for a huge savings
45. Check out your neighborhood before moving to a new home
46. Try to marry the right spouse (divorce is expensive!)
47. If you are going to buy a new car, buy one, don’t lease
48. Buy a car with a 48 month note
49. Don’t buy an automobile extended warranty
50. Don’t go out to eat every night
51. Shop at the grocery store with a list and not while you are hungry
52. Shop around for disability insurance if it is not offered by your employer
53. Make sure that you have enough life insurance
54. Consider buying additional term life insurance
55. Avoid whole life insurance like the plague
56. Keep your resume polished at all times I have several at all times
    
57. Continue to network with peers, coworkers, professors, etc.
58. Join networking websites like LinkedIn
59. Learn etiquette for business dinners and interviews
60. Pick a career as soon as you can wandering, underemployed writer is a career, right?
    
61. Learn as much as you can about your career and become an expert I'm definitely getting better at being underemployed
    
62. Work as hard as you can and don’t shirk at your job I should be writing more...
    
63. Don’t borrow money from a payday lender
64. Bundle up your internet, phone, and cable People still have cable? Who on Earth has time for tv?!
    
65. Use your cell phone and skip the landline How do you bundle Internet, phone, and cable if you have no cable (seriously? cable? financial bloggers have cable?) or landline?
    
66. Do not use ATMs that are not your bank’s Do not use ATMs
    
67. Buy generic medication This is decent advice for anyone who could afford to go to a doctor and get a prescription.
    
68. Practice being frugal wherever you can
69. Be cautious when making home improvements in order to ensure you will earn your money back when you sell
70. Don’t beat yourself up about your financial mistakes that you make. Learn from them.
71. Don’t buy gold from late night television This television thing is a joke, right?
    
72. Take a brown bag lunch to work
    
73. Continue learning and earning education, credentials, certifications, etc.
74. Don’t cash out a Roth IRA before you are 59 ½ years old
    
75. Try not to take out a 401-k loan unless absolutely necessary
76. Teach personal finance skills to your children as soon as you can
77. Open a 529 college savings plan for your children when they are born
78. Buy used books, movies, CDs, and video games from websites like Half.com We rarely buy those items, but when we do it is used
    
79. Earn points for everyday purchases you make through websites like Upromise
    
80. Use coupons where you can
81. Read as many books and educational materials as you can
82. Follow great people on Twitter
    
83. Read as many blogs as you can

Too Much Free Time

In 2009 I learned to greatly reduce my "conventional" workload. After six months of juggling two jobs I dropped the waitress gig and learned to live with a part-time schedule at the bakery. I eventually upped that to a 35 hour work week, but that's still less than half what I was working this time last year.

In the meantime I've picked up more time-consuming hobbies, like negotiating with my sourdough starter, quilting, and, as of yesterday, making cheese. I started running a weekly role-playing game a couple of months ago, my workout is extremely time-consuming, and I'm starting a very big project with Darling (the details of which will be revealed at a later date). I'm often overwhelmed by everything I want to do, especially when it comes to writing. I can't tell you how many hours are spent staring at the computer wanting to blog, and coming up with nothing. In fact, most of today was spent wanting to do something productive, and not knowing where to start. Even hanging out with friends is a chore.

Sometimes I forget that these pursuits that get me so stressed out aren't work. This is stuff I do for fun!

How sad will it be to invest in a day planner just to manage my free time so I don't get overwhelmed juggling hobbies and fun activities?

Happy New Year!

In 2009 I:

Learned to can (apples, grapefruit, and pears)
Tried (and failed) to make cough-drops
Experimented with both employer-provided and private health insurance
Learned to live without shampoo
Learned to insulate windows with bubble wrap
Dropped out of college for the second time :(
Volunteered at the animal shelter
Got a job at a bakery
Decided to move into a co-op (possibly the best decision of the year)
Became a blond (and started using shampoo again)
Traveled to Virginia
Found a source of local organic raw milk
Learned not to flush
Learned to sprout seeds in my bedroom
Learned to save seeds (cucumber, bell peppers, pumpkin, and squash)
GM'd in a Nationals role-playing tournament in Manchester
Went through the entire immigration process with my husband - again.
Learned to make yogurt
Downsized from a cabin-sized home to a room in a house
Gained 15 pounds
Got totally ripped off by my ex-landlord
Developed a weight training routine
Jogged regularly - for a bit
Quit my waitress job of 2 1/2 years
Bought the cheapest cell phone imaginable, and didn't replace it when it broke a few weeks later
Learned to row
Applied and interviewed for an office job I mysteriously wasn't offered
Experimented with sourdough bread
Started my first quilt
Celebrated my 5th wedding anniversary
Finished knitting my first sock (which was started in 2008!)
Made my own hard cider

I have big plans for 2010. I definitely want to start posting more often, hopefully every single day. Not only does this likely help my readership, but it helps me keep track of my own accomplishments (and tribulations).

Last year I was all about acquiring new skills. I love learning! Every new ability is a step towards a more sustainable future. This year I want to focus my passion a little. Instead of dabbling in countless areas, I want to focus my energy in a specific area. In 2010, that area will be food. I want to learn as much as possible about growing, harvesting, preserving, and preparing food. I want to contribute to the local food economy while abstaining from packaging, GMO's, and petroleum dependency. I'd like to learn to build and use a solar oven, pickle and ferment, and grow my own medicinal herbs.

I started today by making cheese for the first time. Well, trying at least. My mozzarella did not turn out. I guess in three or four months I'll be able to tell you if the Monterey Jack was a success. I hope to have at least one noteable food-sustainability-related accomplishment a month.

I hope everyone else is feeling as joyful about 2010 as myself.

January 2010 Net Worth

So last month I claimed to have paid back my brother and sister-in-law. I scheduled a meeting with Ob's wife in order to pass on the check, but she canceled for reasons to do with pregnancy. I scheduled another meeting and received another rain check. Then I got an e-mail from Darling with his Christmas request. Then I did some more Christmas shopping. And that's how $200 out of debt became $200 under the tree. I could have put the check in the mail, of course. But I didn't. So that's back on the debt calculation. That increases our debt by $130.07, to a total of $13,233.58.

I decided to continue paying only $30 a week to our student loan company. I'd really like to increase that to $35, or even $40, but technically we didn't break even this month. This is a technicality for two reasons: we would have met our monthly expenses if my employers had paid me a day early instead of a day late due to holiday, and we are able to meet our expenses because my Mom gave us a check for $3,000. Of course that check is to visit a dentist, and the money borrowed from it to pay rent will be replaced with money from my belated paycheck before the rent check even clears, but the technicality remains. If that makes any sense at all.

The check from my Mom increases our assets to $4,763.01 ($2,835.95 more than last month). This is something of an artificial increase since that check is meant to go from my Mom to a dentist. But the fact remains that it's there, and will hopefully earn me at least a little interest before being siphoned away.

That gives us a net worth of -$9,400. Temporary as this net worth may be, it's nice to see something above the -10,000 mark.