Ohhh, wordpress is all new and pretty. I have my glass of warm almond milk, small bowl of 60% cacao chocolate chips, and a sleeping baby. This is my first glass of non-homogenized milk. I bought it the other day at Sundance, on a whim. I’ve been wanting to try raw milk, but you have to be sneaky to get that kind of dank since it can’t be sold legally for human consumption. But non-homogenized is a step in that direction. It’s kinda weird. Cold, it has white chunks floating in it. Warmed, the chunks melt into a yellowish buttery oil slick on the top. It tastes different, not better or worse to me, just different. Less convenient, but, more real.
Last year we got a fatty tax return. It was caused by us having a lower income and an added dependent. The $7000 or so was directly deposited into our joint checking account, where, it slowly disappeared. I had been feeling bad that we had wasted this entire chuck over the course of the year. Well, last night we finally entered all our budget numbers for the last year. Turns out, best case (no eating out or fun stuff) our household runs a $460 /month deficit. We sat there for a while trying to figure out how we can skim a little of our mortgage, electricity, car insurance, phone bill or food. Really there is no wiggle room unless we switch to eating only rice and beans (which we do just about every day anyway) but since I don’t buy meat and refuse to give up my organic veggies, there’s not much hope of saving there either. It was pretty depressing and reminded me why we had stopped looking at our household finances about the time Sam was born. But on the up side, that means we didn’t really “blow” the $7000, we probably used it to pay our bills.
In the midst of all this, I got my first quarterly bill for my health insurance. It’s going up to $311 /month because I turned 30. Apparently, since I get my insurance through OMIP, I pay about half of the premium and the state pays the other half. So, that’s $622 a month. But, just considering the portion I pay, I had to put things into perspective. At my job I work about 10 hours a week and earn $12/hour. It’s nothing like the $30+/hour I once made, but, it’s well above minimum wage and more then some of my hard working friends in Eugene get paid for a hour of their time. I figured out that it would take 83% of my income to pay for my health insurance. Then, when I get sick, I go to the doctor, but because I have a $1000 deductible I still have to pay for the doctor’s visit. If I paid for all my health care needs out of pocket, instead of buying the insurance, I would have about $275 /month left over. Hummm, that’s a lot of massages. Think how healthy I’d be if I got a full body massage every week!
Seriously though, something is way out of whack. Some people are getting rich and I think I’m about ready to stop supporting them. When I had a weird skin condition I went to the dermatologist ($185) and she told me I have dry skin and gave me another prescription for steroids. Is this health care? Is this what I’m working my ass off for? Why do I have to work 15 hours for some lady to spend 10 minutes with me and tell me I have dry skin?
So of course it all comes back to the dreaded catastrophic situation. What if I am in a horrible car wreck? What if I develop breast cancer? And yes, in those situations, I would like to go to the hospital. But so far the only time in my life I have been hospitalized was when I had a baby at 24 weeks. And I’m sure the situation could have been handled just fine at home if I’d just had a good midwife. So I dunno. Ben thinks we should keep paying for health insurance, but, I’m thinking I’m tired of living in fear and giving all my money to a system that isn’t making us healthier. I think I’ll take that $311 and instead buy healthy organic food and an occasional healing massage.
Well, I better actually do some work or there will be no tasty food or health insurance. The job is… uh, going. Let’s save that one for another post. 
Awww, Jess, I’m sorry about your money woes… I wish I had a magic wand to whisk all the bad stuff away and make everything better. :-/ The health care system is messed up. All I can suggest is in the future to request (even from the dermatologist, if it’s not too late) the physician to waive the fees. I know Ryan and his colleagues do that if the patient requests it/can’t pay. Maybe you’ll get a raise at your job because you will kick so much booty at it. Or we could start a stay-a-home business that has something to do with new moms?
Meg thanks for your concern, but really we are doing just fine.
I am way happier now with less money and less job, than I was when I had more of both. Having just enough is actually kinda fun… makes you be more creative. I had a great time at goodwill today, and I found a push lawn mower for $20 when I had planned to spend $80 for a new one. I’m sure there are people who could use a free doctor’s visit far more than we need it. But I am totally into starting a business, got any ideas? 
How about a lawn care company? You’ve already got some equipment, but I guess this is the wrong time of year to get that kind of company going. Just kidding..! I do understand the more creative part, and the more appreciative part that goes along with having less. We’ve been planning on the more creative part of things when it comes to our situation starting next spring. I think we’ll both try to work less, which means less money, but more time with our new baby… We’ll see how it works out.
Sounds like you’ve already gone over everything with a fine-tooth comb but just in case this idea didn’t come up…. Could you change your federal & state income tax withholding so you have more take-home each month instead of a giant tax refund once a year? Unless that massive refund was just a one-year anomaly….
The health insurance thing is beyond aggravating. There’s no “level playing field.” Getting health insurance or not is so hit-or-miss. For example, if one of you could get a job at UO (Sam, time to get your resume fired up!), all three of you would have health insurance — including dental and vision — covered. Too good to be true? The trade-off is maybe working for less money than in industry, so this might not be feasible as a way to close that pesky $460/month gap. But it’s a nice environment to work in.
Yep, mebbe time to activate that business plan….
P.S. I must know: The photo of birches (or something) that’s your current banner, did you take that?