Thank you.
This is one thing that I am noticing, some measure the seating area of the couch, others measure how much space it takes up.
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Thank you.
This is one thing that I am noticing, some measure the seating area of the couch, others measure how much space it takes up.
Well, you need both measurements. You need the actual arm to arm measurement to know if it will fit in your space and how it fits in your space.Quote:
Originally Posted by ToomuchStuff
If you expect someone to sleep on it, you have to see if there’s adequate space for people to stretch out in a reasonable way Between the arms. I am 64 inches so my new 74 inch sofa will fit me just fine.
Yes, I came home with it and immediately put part of it into trash.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tradd
but she gave me floral containers with a proviso that I offer them to one other person in our garden club, the things I didn’t want. So since I don’t want any of them, I have to offer them to this other person. The other person is not someone I will see until July. So I sent her photos of all the containers and she picked out two.
That is progress, I can dispose of the rest anytime I like. One of them is good, so I will see that our new flower show student has first dibs at it, the rest of it I don’t care.
i’ve been taking boat loads of flower crap for disposal almost a decade now. I remember soon after I retired I had to clean out the storage shed for our Lily society. It was so depressing because so many little voices in the society offer their opinion that the stuff is good, but guess what they don’t want it.
Oh, I have a story. This is ridiculous. Y’all won’t believe this – DH who is so accommodating and so nice, drove a whole carload of specialized Lily show containers from our defunct liky society up north to the Iowa Lily Society, or that was the intent. Since he was going up north to Iowa, anyway…
One person refused the shipment. The other person was always unavailable and so he didn’t make a connection. He drove those items, a carload, back home to St. Louis. After that little fruitless exercise I felt no compunction in just getting rid of them.
And this year, the Iowa Lily Society is disbanding so they will have their own problems in disposing of their crap. I was bemused to see in their newsletter where they were talking about how to get rid of their precious “properties “one person suggested melting down their trophies. This is hilarious because these trophies are silver plate and they are completely worthless.
TLDR: people are dumb about the value of their stuff. Hey, this is the rant thread, and I get to rant about it!
Yes, people are very dumb about the value of their stuff.
We just had our outdoor shed fixed up because it was starting to fall apart and the roof leaked like a sieve. So I had to take all my stuff out of it (it's "my" shed; DH has "his" shed.). I've been able to get rid of a lot of stuff--three contractor bags so far.
Some things I do hate just ditching, though, like the air mattress we bought for an occasion that never came to fruition. I say we put it on the curb with a "free" sign--DH says to just throw it away. The "throwing it away" isn't only irritating to me just because it's one more thing in the landfill--it's like throwing away $50 because no one got to use it We could have better spent that $50. So I'm going to put it up on the street. If SOMEONE gets use out of it, I don't feel as bad about wasting the money.
Catherine, I guess if you haven’t used that air mattress by now you won’t be using it, but it seems like a very practical thing for you all to have since you have so many people come and stay with you.
I agree with IL that - with all your family - there may be use in the future. That said, if you still want to get rid of it, I agree with putting it out with a FREE sign.
Yesterday was Day 1 of our town’s Garden Tour. It rained off and on all day. Only 35 people came through our garden. Today will be sunny, hopefully more people come through.
At these numbers it is hardly worth all of the work the committee does to put this thing on.
In the city when we were on garden tour we had a few hundred come through our garden and had a thousand in our house when our house was on the tour.
Don't you all have a Freecycle or Buy Nothing network in your area? I use Freecycle regularly. Someone usually needs or wants stuff I don't. I think I first heard of Freecycle here on this board!Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
ETA I meant this directed to Catherine,sorry Iris.
Spent 2 hours on the phone this morning with Vanguard dealing with CS reps that speak a mottled English. Had 2 issues..one they should have known how to fix easily and the other where I believe they lost previously submitted paperwork so it has to be redone. Will get notarized and mailed tomorrow. A wearing experience….
We have another one! The one I'm getting rid of is difficult to pump up and very cheap. We "upgraded" to one that pumps itself and is higher off the ground and more comfortable. And, we never use air mattresses. I anticipate only using it if I get around to really deep cleaning the mudroom, which usually winds up being a way-station for recycling, extra serving stuff, liquor, etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
oh heavens for sure get rid of the back up second thing that doesn’t work well.Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
You never know when life can turn on a dime - my spouse, out of the blue with no warning, was let go (ie. fired) from his job on Friday six months before his full retirement age. It was a very difficult, technical job which required extreme attention to detail (Application Support Analysist) and even he said as he's gotten older that it's been harder for him to multi-task all the different technical things he had to do during the day. But no one (his boss, his bosses boss) pulled him aside to say anything specific about his performance. It came as such a shock to us and one could twist themselves into a pretzel and drive oneself crazy about the reasons.
So what to do now? We are going to have to buy at least one month of COBRA health insurance. I have an appointment on Monday to talk to someone about getting signed up for Medicaid (BeWell New Mexico) and K. can apply for full Medicare (he is already signed up for Part A). I can't help but be extremely worried about the stoopid Big, Beautiful Bill and even getting on Medicaid; thank GOD I live in a very blue, but very poor state (we do get a lot of oil & tax revenues, so I now the state budget has a surplus for now). I am 15 months from being able to sign up for Medicare.
I made him sit down with me to go over our bare minimum monthly expenses and even I was a little shocked to see it all add up. His salary was so good (six figures) for the past 2.5 years that I lost a little bit of my frugal bone and he never had one. I think we will be all right due to our savings and the fact that I was approved for SSDI. I won't get that much but when I add in my little monthly IRA distribution and the job I manage to work at one day a week it is more than a little chunk of money. He already has a job interview tomorrow and has put out his resume to several recruiters anyway because he was so stressed in that job. I know the job market is getting bad though and who is going to hire a 66 year old when there are all these kids with computer science degrees looking for jobs...
He will be filing for unemployment today so there's that. And he is committed to severely pulling back our spending to just the bare essentials. Now I am really glad we stocked up on a lot of food and other essentials at the start of the trade war two months ago. I guess the thing that worries me the most is the health insurance stuff. I still have ongoing issues with my shoulder and arm. On the day he got fired I was getting an EMG and ultrasound of the brachial plexus. I don't know yet how serious this is but she found a lot of fluid in that area, which shouldn't be there a year after surgery. So more doctor visits for a followup locally and there is a possibility that I have to go back to St. Louis at some point too, but I'll cross that bridge when/if it comes to that.
Ughhhhhh, just ugggghhhh.
Wow, what a shock SiouzQ. So sorry to hear.
Oh, wow, SiouzQ! I'm so sorry! "Man plans and God laughs..." But it's really not funny at all.
It looks like you have a good plan in place for next steps.. I hope the both the health issue and the job search go well. And it's great that you have savings.
I have to say, I'm in "bare bones" mode, too, since I haven't worked in 3 months now--which hasn't happened since the mid-90s. DH's boat tour business has potential for keeping us afloat (pun intended) for the summer, and in the meantime, ChatGBT and I are working on possibilities for a spin-off for my business that might give me more control and comparable income.
I'm also in a similar situation as you because I am way more frugal than DH. He laughs at me for some my frugal ways--I think his attitude towards money is a backlash from his frugal mother and grandparents and he associates frugality with lack, not security or future abundance. When I bring up facts about our situation, he tells me not to be Debbie Downer. It's a very hard barrier to overcome.
Anyway, these are new times, for sure. My DD checked out COBRA because she has realized, throughout her sickness that she really hates working at her current position. She just returned from Family Medical Leave and she's re-evaluating her life, and working at her present job does not fit into the picture for her. But COBRA is 2800/month!! Talk about the golden handcuffs that keep you tied to your boss! We need universal healthcare.
I'm so sorry for both the health issues and the job issue. I hope both get resolved in a positive way soon.
COBRA IS EXPENSIVE!!! I don't understand how anyone can afford it.
Catherine, my dh used to be like yours when I bought up our situation. I finally told him- in no uncertain terms - that all I was doing was keeping him updated and that if he didn't want to know, then he would have to leave everything up to me! He still leaves everything to me, but he doesn't grumble or say "you're always depressing", when I tell him what's going on.
OMG, $2800 a month????!!!! Lord have mercy...it might be cheaper for me to just pay for the test I had done (instead of paying a claim on the day the service was performed, BCBS uses the day they RECEIVE the claim, which could be a week to two weeks from the date of service). He'll still get the last paycheck next Friday which will have the deduction for healthcare taken out, so I'm not sure when our healthcare will actually end.
For you it might be way different... her COBRA is based on a family of three, and she had signed up for the Cadillac plan at work. But, in my experience, COBRA is never a good deal, even though they make it sound like it might be.Quote:
Originally Posted by SiouzQ.
From my HR days, insurance coverage typically ends on the last day of employment. COBRA is so expensive because it's the full-price, non-employer-subsidized amount with an administrative fee tacked on (at my former employer it was a 2% fee).
I'm sorry for your situation, SiouzQ, and I'm sorry for both you and your DD's situations, Catherine. I think you are a creative problem solver and look forward to hearing what you come up with. After DH's kidney cancer, we can look back and see that we at least used it to pull out some silver lining stuff and make life changes that left us better off, so I hope something similar happens with your DD.
I am confused why everyone is talking as though COBRA coverage is the only choice.That or “Universal health care.”
Do you all remember that thing called The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare?)
Sure, if you changed to an ACA policy you may have to change providers and for those in the midst of sophisticated treatments that is not optimal, but there ARE options. We took COBRA coverage when I quit work for the maximum time allowed and sure it was expensive, but I wanted out. DH was resistent to hearing anything about an ACA policy and I didnt want to fight with him about it so I just sucked it up and paid the COBRA costs for 18 months. We could afford it.
Then when COBRA coverage ran out, we HAD to switch to an ACA policy and due to our low income I think it was practically free. That was a great year! We went to Europe on money we would have been paying into COBRA coverage.
catherine, your daughter can use an ACA policy and the ACA made sure people like her are not denied coverage.
Give me a break with the talk about handcuffs and “only solution is Universal health care.”
Keep in touch with folks at that employer. If they replace him with a younger person, he could possibly file a claim of age discrimination. Worth watching.Quote:
Originally Posted by SiouzQ.
My sister is retiring next week at age 62, and she has purchased a policy through Aetna. I don't know all the details, but I think it was reasonably affordable.
Depending on what happens with Medicaid, also talk with an independent insurance agent about a policy for you. When I was laid off during covid, I got a catastrophic plan for 6 months because COBRA was too expensive. Independent agents are a good resource and a place to start.Quote:
Originally Posted by SiouzQ.
The lady I made the appointment with called me to confirm for tomorrow and it turns out the BeWell New Mexico is the ACA exchange for the state and Medicaid is separate from that. She is going to go over the plans with me tomorrow and I can also go to the Human Services Dept of New Mexico to see if I qualify for Medicaid.
K. was a contractor and our insurance was not covered by the company he worked for; rather he got the insurance through the contract company. He had to pay the total of the monthly premiums out of his paycheck each time. We'll find out a lot more on Monday. At any rate since tomorrow is the 30th whatever happens I probably won't get new coverage until August 1st.
I'm mad that I had just hit the out-of-pocket max for the year in mid-May when everything then got covered 100% and I had paid off all my old medical bills that had piled up. I don't want to start all over with that in the middle part of the year!
So sorry to hear about his job. But he can go and get on full Medicare, part B, and that is only 185 a month, if he does not yet collect SS. If he collects SS they take it out of there. And I thought since you won your disability case that you should be eligible for Medicaid?Quote:
Originally Posted by SiouzQ.
Okay, so this is just a little "back of my mind" thought. You said they didn't tell him why they were letting him go? I'm wondering if he might have some legal recourse, especially seeing as how they are letting him go so close to his retirement. Are there things they will avoid paying by letting him go versus him reaching retirement? It just sounds a bit fishy to me.
Regardless, good luck to you both!
Yes, I wondered the same thing--if there is a pension he is being cut out of. This is common and it would be good to talk to an attorney if this might be the case.Quote:
Originally Posted by happystuff
Second,here is an article about disability and health insurance:
Do You Get Medicare or Medicaid if You're Disabled?
He’s a contract worker. I doubt there is a pension.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tybee
Siouz, when you said full retirement age, I misread it and thought there was a pension. Sorry to get that wrong. Were you meaning FRA for SS? If so, will he take SS at FRA, and would it pay for you to collect spousal benefit at that time?Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
SouizQ, I am so sorry. Hoping you get some good news today re: health care coverage!
Me as well - contract part didn't click in my head. Again, hope things work out for you both.
K. found out yesterday that he was let go because his contract was not extended. It would have been nice to get a little head's up. There is no pension as he was a contract gig worker, or as he says, he works for pimps, lol!
It turns out I am eligible for Medicaid. The Medicaid office called yesterday when they recived my application and needed some more information to clear things up. Right now we are waiting for his contract company to send an official letter of release so that they know that he is not working there anymore and I can then tell the Medicaid office. I should have a plan number very soon and will have been eligible to start care on July 1 (today), since I got the application in yesterday. Whew!
I think the plan is that he is going to buy a month's worth of COBRA to cover himself (he is a Type 1 diabetic) or he can get on the ACA Exchange. There is so much going on in our household right now we are scrambling to get things done.
Wow that is fantastic news about your coverage starting July!! Hooray.
How fast can he get on the ACA exchange?
Probably pretty quickly if he gets to it. Today he is applying for unemployment and that's a big PITA in itself. Probably what he should really do is sign up for the rest of Medicare that he is qualified for but until I get squared away with my own healthcare I think his best bet is to pay for one month of COBRA and that should pay for the diagnostic testing I had last Friday. Then he really needs to sit down with one of those insurance agents that specialize in helping people get set up on Medicare. Just so much in flux right now and my lower back is KILLING me but I don't want to complain because he has enough stress going on, so I'm doing my complaining here.
I think you are right to have him cover one month of COBRA for you in case you need it.
But in the long run it sounds as though it will all work out.
Kudos to you both for jumping on all this a getting it worked out.
You cannot make this up, I promise you...after buying a NEW WALLET on Saturday after we'd been to the bank to get him a new bank card, and then him spending today getting a temporary driver's license and some other stuff, he MISPLACED THAT WALLET AS WELL!
We have just spent over an hour retracing his steps where he'd gone to our local store to get something to drink. He came home and I was about to start dinner and he's just swearing and stomping all around because he LOST his new wallet. I went back to the store (separate from him) and the girl who works the counter pulled up the security video where he was buying his stuff, taking his wallet out to pay, puttting it back in, going back to the truck. We both looked EVERYWHERE to no avail. By this time I am kind of pissed because this cannot keep happening, it's ridiculous...and we're both scouting around the truck, the yard, the garbage cans with flashlights, the laundry basket, etc etc.
It was so very weird, like the earth had just opened up and swallowed it. Finally, I was admitting defeat and about to stop looking for the evening and he suddeny shouted out that he had found it - it was wedged between the armrest and seat of his office chair (of which he probably looked at FIVE times) and totally blended in with the pleather so it looked like part of his chair.
Gawd, I just can't deal with him losing shit all the time like a child. I am still kind of pissed but very relieved. And getting nowhere with the health insurance stuff yet.
He needs to put a tracker in it. AirTag for iPhone and Tile for Android. I swear by AirTags. They’re in my purse and keys. Link up to the Find My app on phone.
We spend a fair bit of time looking for DH's wallet, keys, Fitbit and/or reading glasses. Fortunately, they've always turned up, at least so far.
When I worked in NYC in my 20s I had three wallets and one whole pocketbook stolen. Except for one wallet, all were retrieved, minus the cash. The considerate thieves took that and then put the wallet/pocketbook in a mailbox.
Glad he found it... and I agree with Tradd. Get an AirTag!
Ugh! I can't even imagine losing a wallet... or two!!! Glad he found it!