How Good is Your Health Insurance?

Nowadays, people sometimes get a job just so that they can make sure to have health insurance.  I’m not going to go into the rising costs of healthcare due to the insurance industry today, so have no fear.  But really, how good is that insurance that your company is offering you?

Mr. Grump and I have been trying to figure out insurance for me for a while now.  I had been paying for my own insurance at my last job (one major reason why I left: I was paying $150/mo. because they wouldn’t offer insurance), and since working at the restaurant, I have been paying about $100/mo. for a rather crappy plan.  Basically the plan I have with the restaurant will cover a broken or sprained ankle, that’s about it.

We figured that when we got married, I would just get covered under his healthcare plan.

WRONG.

His healthcare plan is pretty good - but in order to add just one dependent, it costs between $70-90 per pay period.  Wait - did I mention that Mr. Grump is paid every week?  The total cost of adding a dependent is actually $280-360 PER MONTH.

Now, as a relatively healthy female of average height and weight, I was paying $150/mo. for individual insurance.  Seems pretty screwy right?

Well, in any case, since the insurance at the restaurant will obviously not a stop-gap measure make, because there is no stop once we’re married, I’m going back to just paying out of pocket for a much better plan.  One that I know will cover me in almost any instance (except maternity).  So until kids are a worry, I’m fine, and I guess I just have to pay more for a better service.

Slacker.

No excuses. Well, maybe just a few. Last week my mother came into town and wedding stuff took over - we went dress shopping. So after being stitched up so tight I could not breathe for four hours a day, I was a little tired and my brain was deprived of enough oxygen that posting was put on the back burner.

October wound up being a pretty good month. We stayed (more or less) within budget, and we managed to reduce our debt a little bit. I wish it was more, but we had spent $700 on auctions for the antique store and eBay in September. So basically, we finally paid that back, and are now getting ahead. 

Look at the progress bar to the right… 10% paid off!!!

We put a 50% off sale on the Antique store, and we’ve sold about $150 worth of stuff out of it. The way we have everything priced, that should probably help us at least break even; on some pieces, we’ll still have some profit at least.

Also, we finally had a big month from Squidoo.  Broke the $100 barrier!  So from Squidoo and CJ, we’ve probably earned about $300 this month so far, which is basically a full week of me working at the restaurant.

This week was pretty good, over $500 in income coming in from all the sources.  Things are finally seeming to get ahead.  Feels good.