much cheerfuller
Aug. 18th, 2009 11:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7My sisters have banded together and intend to purchase me a sewing machine for my birthday, which is the Best Thing Ever. I just have to figure out what the hell I need the thing to be able to do. Fi has even volunteered to do the Shopping to figure out which One is Best, which is her specialty. Hurrah! So I get glasses from Mom and Dad.
They were going to visit, but Gram is in hospital again-- moved to rehab facility, but what they're rehabbing her to do, no one is sure-- she's having osteoporosis-related compression fractures, or possibly severe arthritis, and in order to dull the pain, she's got to be on so much pain medication she doesn't know how to dress herself. Which really puts a damper on her living alone. So they're sort of puzzling over that, and Mom and Dad don't feel like they can scram out of town for any amount of time, so they're sitting around at home. (Well, frantically busy as ever-- they're never not busy-- but restricted in where they can go to be busy.)
Also Z has been informed that that check from April is on its way to him, followed by the one from June, so that's pretty great. That's most of the debt we've accumulated, you know, since April, settled, as far as I can tell. [We're not thinking about the debts I already had.] He also assures me they're going to be more timely in future with his checks. Great. Unfortunately, he researched how he could get health insurance, and to get it for him and me requires a family plan-- costs no extra if we have kids, but for two people it's more than twice as much for one person. So basically they're charging childless couples extra to subsidize the ones with kids. Sweet. So it would cost over a thousand dollars a month for the two of us, PLUS unspecified dues to the chamber of commerce, plus he'd have to pay to incorporate himself as a business. The premium alone is more than twice what I make a month; it would be more than half of his total income. So if we did it, we'd have to give up the car and, um, eating.
So it's not really an option.
Hm.
It seems the prevailing rate for sole coverage is about a quarter of your total income. Is this normal? Did I miss when this became a thing, that a normal person pays 25% of their GROSS, mind you, not NET, income towards health insurance? How the fuck do people have houses and cars and stereos and college educations? How is everyone NOT crushed under crippling debt? It's completely insane!
But anyway, at least soon we'll have more than $30 in the bank, in time to pay rent, and that's a good thought.
Accounting has gotten very tangled of late; I guess I should go through and re-separate it. Despite appearances, Z and I really don't pay for each other's shit. We're not married, we're not codependent, we have our own checking accounts, we've just been so poor for, um, the last five or so years of our relationship, that every cent earned has gone directly into the joint bills account to pay the things we split.
Z was dismayed to realize that no, he hasn't just been paying for everything lately-- he'd been sort of bitterly assuming that he was, but then I pointed out the credit card thing and he was a bit shocked. Money's been tighter than he thought. I'm willing to assume responsibility for most of it, since he put far more cash into the account than me lately, but I don't want him to not realize it's there.
Ah well.
But in more cheerful news I've been plotting and planning the next sewing projects I have to do. Which is that since I'm the maid of honor in a Colonial-era-themed wedding next summer or fall (I was told a date in October, but my mother was told, by the mother of the bride, July), I've got to have an outfit. The bride is not forthcoming with specifics-- what precise year are we going for? What style? What colors?-- so I'm starting with the underthings and working my way up.
I'm going to start with pockets. That's the simplest thing, and the most unchanging, and won't show anyway. Then a chemise, then a cap and stockings (I think I will just wear wool socks, though, I admit). I have to start all these things now, because I also have to make stays, pocket hoops or panniers once she's told me what silhouette we're going for, and then the overlayers-- some sort of dress or gown? and petticoats, at least three layers, one of which is going to show and thus must match? And somewhere I have to find shoes, and possibly a hat. (I do have a wool hat blank from Pennsic which I've been wearing untrimmed; I could cockade it if I ought to.)
I want a nice riding habit but if this is a formal wedding I should make something more formal. I just don't know. It's going to take a long time for me to accumulate the materials, and an even longer time for me to make them. I am worried I'll get roped into helping make the bride's dress, and I really can't; she lives four hours away and doesn't drive, and I just can't get away to go visit her often enough for fittings. Besides which, I'm barely competent to make my own dress, and plan on tapping talented friends for help, to the limit they'll offer; that won't stretch to a dress for someone else. (I can't make a friend in Rochester drive to Utica for someone she doesn't even know. Nor can I drive to Utica to drive someone to Rochester and back to Utica-- from Buffalo. Not feasible.)
I can help make her underlayers if that's a thing. I can do a chemise and petticoats. I can even do pocket-hoops. I cannot do stays, however; fittings are too difficult. I'm going to take forever just to do mine. (I plan on doing two layers of interlining, and starting with those two layers and making a full mockup, then doing the lining and fashion fabric over the top once the mockup is adjusted properly.)
I am thinking of boning the stays with reed, since I bought a roll of reed in a flusher time and have not yet had a chance to use it. I am actually thinking of getting about six steels, using those at center front and center back and perhaps sides, and then boning half with reed and half with cord, to get kind of a demi-baleine effect. How well that'll work, I dunno. I just have most of the materials to do that already, and the steels are just a concession to JJs. My mom used plastic in hers and I know already that NO. Just no.
Sigh. I've procrastinated enough. The problem with evening shifts is that I fritter away the morning on decompressing from the previous night, and by the time I'm ready to go to sleep, it's time to go to work. Whoops. And I get home from work and need four hours to decompress and oh, it's midnight, and I haven't even started thinking about sleep. So I just don't get much of it. Six hours last night. I suppose that's adequate. I slept funny on my back, but it seems OK now.
As concludes most of my thinking sessions lately, I will probably live. Onward!
They were going to visit, but Gram is in hospital again-- moved to rehab facility, but what they're rehabbing her to do, no one is sure-- she's having osteoporosis-related compression fractures, or possibly severe arthritis, and in order to dull the pain, she's got to be on so much pain medication she doesn't know how to dress herself. Which really puts a damper on her living alone. So they're sort of puzzling over that, and Mom and Dad don't feel like they can scram out of town for any amount of time, so they're sitting around at home. (Well, frantically busy as ever-- they're never not busy-- but restricted in where they can go to be busy.)
Also Z has been informed that that check from April is on its way to him, followed by the one from June, so that's pretty great. That's most of the debt we've accumulated, you know, since April, settled, as far as I can tell. [We're not thinking about the debts I already had.] He also assures me they're going to be more timely in future with his checks. Great. Unfortunately, he researched how he could get health insurance, and to get it for him and me requires a family plan-- costs no extra if we have kids, but for two people it's more than twice as much for one person. So basically they're charging childless couples extra to subsidize the ones with kids. Sweet. So it would cost over a thousand dollars a month for the two of us, PLUS unspecified dues to the chamber of commerce, plus he'd have to pay to incorporate himself as a business. The premium alone is more than twice what I make a month; it would be more than half of his total income. So if we did it, we'd have to give up the car and, um, eating.
So it's not really an option.
Hm.
It seems the prevailing rate for sole coverage is about a quarter of your total income. Is this normal? Did I miss when this became a thing, that a normal person pays 25% of their GROSS, mind you, not NET, income towards health insurance? How the fuck do people have houses and cars and stereos and college educations? How is everyone NOT crushed under crippling debt? It's completely insane!
But anyway, at least soon we'll have more than $30 in the bank, in time to pay rent, and that's a good thought.
Accounting has gotten very tangled of late; I guess I should go through and re-separate it. Despite appearances, Z and I really don't pay for each other's shit. We're not married, we're not codependent, we have our own checking accounts, we've just been so poor for, um, the last five or so years of our relationship, that every cent earned has gone directly into the joint bills account to pay the things we split.
Z was dismayed to realize that no, he hasn't just been paying for everything lately-- he'd been sort of bitterly assuming that he was, but then I pointed out the credit card thing and he was a bit shocked. Money's been tighter than he thought. I'm willing to assume responsibility for most of it, since he put far more cash into the account than me lately, but I don't want him to not realize it's there.
Ah well.
But in more cheerful news I've been plotting and planning the next sewing projects I have to do. Which is that since I'm the maid of honor in a Colonial-era-themed wedding next summer or fall (I was told a date in October, but my mother was told, by the mother of the bride, July), I've got to have an outfit. The bride is not forthcoming with specifics-- what precise year are we going for? What style? What colors?-- so I'm starting with the underthings and working my way up.
I'm going to start with pockets. That's the simplest thing, and the most unchanging, and won't show anyway. Then a chemise, then a cap and stockings (I think I will just wear wool socks, though, I admit). I have to start all these things now, because I also have to make stays, pocket hoops or panniers once she's told me what silhouette we're going for, and then the overlayers-- some sort of dress or gown? and petticoats, at least three layers, one of which is going to show and thus must match? And somewhere I have to find shoes, and possibly a hat. (I do have a wool hat blank from Pennsic which I've been wearing untrimmed; I could cockade it if I ought to.)
I want a nice riding habit but if this is a formal wedding I should make something more formal. I just don't know. It's going to take a long time for me to accumulate the materials, and an even longer time for me to make them. I am worried I'll get roped into helping make the bride's dress, and I really can't; she lives four hours away and doesn't drive, and I just can't get away to go visit her often enough for fittings. Besides which, I'm barely competent to make my own dress, and plan on tapping talented friends for help, to the limit they'll offer; that won't stretch to a dress for someone else. (I can't make a friend in Rochester drive to Utica for someone she doesn't even know. Nor can I drive to Utica to drive someone to Rochester and back to Utica-- from Buffalo. Not feasible.)
I can help make her underlayers if that's a thing. I can do a chemise and petticoats. I can even do pocket-hoops. I cannot do stays, however; fittings are too difficult. I'm going to take forever just to do mine. (I plan on doing two layers of interlining, and starting with those two layers and making a full mockup, then doing the lining and fashion fabric over the top once the mockup is adjusted properly.)
I am thinking of boning the stays with reed, since I bought a roll of reed in a flusher time and have not yet had a chance to use it. I am actually thinking of getting about six steels, using those at center front and center back and perhaps sides, and then boning half with reed and half with cord, to get kind of a demi-baleine effect. How well that'll work, I dunno. I just have most of the materials to do that already, and the steels are just a concession to JJs. My mom used plastic in hers and I know already that NO. Just no.
Sigh. I've procrastinated enough. The problem with evening shifts is that I fritter away the morning on decompressing from the previous night, and by the time I'm ready to go to sleep, it's time to go to work. Whoops. And I get home from work and need four hours to decompress and oh, it's midnight, and I haven't even started thinking about sleep. So I just don't get much of it. Six hours last night. I suppose that's adequate. I slept funny on my back, but it seems OK now.
As concludes most of my thinking sessions lately, I will probably live. Onward!
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-18 04:58 pm (UTC)So I would say, sadly, that paying 25 percent is much, much better than your average company would pay in total, after employee contributions -- so you are getting a "deal." Ha. Of course most employees don't pay nearly that much -- they get subsidized heavily by their employer.
25% is ridiculous. I mean, people are considered to be in severe financial distress -- the "risk of bankruptcy" type of distress -- if they spend more than 33 percent of their income on rent/mortgage and utilities. Paying 30-33 percent is considered average. So let's think about that. 30 percent of your pay goes to having a roof and heat. Then 25 percent goes to insurance?! Now you have like 40 percent your paycheck left for things like car, fuel, insurance, food, school loans, clothes, etc. That could be some $70. Who can afford to live on that?
I am very very lucky -- I pay $80 a month. Granted I have crazy co-pays -- an MRI may cost me $150 -- but still. $80 is amazingly cheap. That's just 4 percent of my pay. It's not because the Gaz gets cheap health insurance -- in fact it just went so high that they canceled two of the plans and made everyone get onto one, the cheapest one, which pushes the most costs to us through co-pays, just so the Gaz could keep offering some type of health care. The Gaz is paying most of each employee's cost, which is very very generous.