Maismom's every day life

It is pay day, and NSD.

The weather was pretty nasty today. It's raining and windy. Fortunately, I was working from home today and totally enjoyed it. I love the power of internet that enable us to work from home.

I received a letter today from my company. I'm now in the category of "HCE - Highly Compensated Employee" and can contribute only up to 10% of my annual salary to 401K.

10% of my annual salary is less than max of 2012 ($17,000)

Crap. Really?

My co-worker told me about this a couple of years ago, and I didn't even care because I was making waaaay less than HCE category.

But my promotion and job change to high cost of living area (salary is adjusted upwards to adjust the cost of living) pushed me into HCE.

I really don't feel like I am making a lot, but I guess I do.

Well, good news is I can still contribute 10% of my salary. I should be happy about that.

I applied for United mileage credit card so that I get 50,000 bonus miles. After several weeks of waiting, it's finally posted to my United Mileage Plus account. Yay!

I have total of 100K miles now and thinking about how I can use them. I can visit my daughter who is in Salt Lake City, or my husband and I can fly for Vegas or somewhere fun.

Planning free stuff is always fun : )

I went to Walgreen's this morning to get some Southbeach diet snack bars. They're sale for $5.99 and they give you $6 register rewards.

I thought they were gone by the time I get there, but surprisingly, they have a ton of stock. I think people didn't even know they were free after RR because this store does not put out the sign for them.

Anyhow, I got 5 boxes and used some of RR to get VIVA papertowl and Lysol wipes.

I also stopped by CVS and got 3 greeting cards. You can get $3 extra bucks when you buy 3 greeting cards including .99 cents cards. So, free greeting cards if you buy three .99 cards.

My boss asked me to review some document and I was stuck in a conference call from 9 to 3. Good news is he ordered lunch for us who were working on this project. I didn't bring lunch today, so I had to buy something if he didn't offer lunch.

Anyway, I normally have "emergency food" in my drawer such as can of soup, or cup noodle or something so that when I forget to bring lunch or didn't have time to prepare anything, I have something to fill my stomach.

My company is moving to new office and it will be "New Office Concept" = we don't have our own desk. Yup, it is first come first served type of office and I don't have my own drawer anymore.

This sucks. I need to find place to stash my emergency food.

At the same time, it is an opportunity to work from home more often. Some people are totally against this new office concept, but I am actually fine with it. I don't have much attachment to my cubicle anyway. I'm more excited about being able to work from home more often and new office location is little closer to my condo.

As I posted before, I received my Citi credit card. I've been using this card for all the purchases I make since I received it in order to get 500 reward points. (I need to charge $2,500 in 3 months.)

Today, I charged our car insurance which is close to $900 for 6 months. Charge on this card is already more than $1,000.

And, I have this card for like.... less than a week. Wow...

It amazes me how easy it is to spend money if I'm not careful, or even when I'm careful.

Good news is, most of the charges I made is things I buy anyways, such as household goods like bathroom tissue and laundry detergent. So, I'm not spending on things I don't need.

I think I will receive 500 points earlier than I expected.

I work in Silicon Valley and it seems that economy is picking up around here. One of my co-workers mentioned companies cannot find office space and going even outside of San Jose.

Actually, we lease our office space form Google and they're kicking us out as they're expanding like crazy. Our CFO told us we found the office space about a mile from here. He thought it was too expensive so he was looking around more, but couldn't find anything else that are cheaper. So, he came back to the original location, only to find out the price went up LOL But this time, he agreed to sign the lease contract knowing nothing else is available for the price range he had in his mind.

Now, that's in Silicon Valley.

In Sacramento, one of my neighbors posted in her FB page her company is growing (she works for an insurance company) and hiring people. When I go to the shopping mall in suburb of Sacramento, it is always packed.

I wonder if economy is finally getting better, or is it just regional thing. Do you feel it in your area?

I organized my drawer yesterday, and thought about how important it is to make things visible.

It was a drawer for my clothes and I found things I was looking for while I was organizing things in it. After the organizaiton, I now can see everything in this drawer so that I won't waste my time or money thinking I don't have certain items that I actually have.

The same principle applies to our savings and debt. I haven't done it for a while, but I will write down all the savings and debt we have and understand where we stand.

Anyhow, it is a great coupon day today. There are 4 inserts and some great coupons. I found BOGO coupon for shower gel my hubby uses and CVS is having a deal, buy 3 get $4 in extra bucks. So, I went and bought 3. Final price after extra bucks including tax is $4.5. Not too bad.

I thought about buying some more newspapers, then, decided to order coupons from coupon clipping service. It will be cheaper and I can get more coupons I actually will use.

I applied for Citi thank you card and just received it. I will get 500 points if I spend $2,500 in three months.

My plan is to pay some of our utilities and car insurance with the card. Car insurance is due soon and I will charge 6 months premium which is about $900. (We have 3 cars including my DD who is 20 and the premium for her is high.)

I can charge our cell phone and grocery, too. I need to keep track of what I charge to this card. Once I get the points, I will move on and cancel this card.

Needless to say, we have enough to pay off the balance so that we won't pay any interest.

We reviewed our monthly expense and decided to cut back on some things.

First, we cancelled landline. $33 per month savings.
Then, we raised our deductible of home insurance. Approx. $400 savings per year.

The latest one is cable TV. We were paying $95 and I hardly watch TV. My husband watches it but he was complaining about the quality of channels, too many re-runs, commercials, etc.

So, he called the cable company and told them we will cancel it. Guess what? They kept offering him lower rate and the lowest they offered was $22 per month for next 6 months and they will even give us $50 rebate!

He didn't take the offer and went ahead and cancelled it. But, we were amazed how low they were willing to go in order to keep their account. At the same time, I was kind of upset that how much they were charging us for so long for so much!!

Anyhow, it is $95 per month savings.

Total savings so far
Landline $396
Home insurance $400
Cable $1140 (Wow!)
Total annual savings $1,936

I ended up having NSD today. I was going to stop by Japanese market to buy a bento box for dinner, but my soon to be roommate was coming to get a key for the condo. So, I came home straight from work. I had some frozen dinners in my freezer and I ate it for dinner.

Here's a little Background about the condo......

We live in Sacramento and I was offered a job that I couldn't say no.... So, I took the job in November 2010. The thing is... it is in Bay Area, 140 miles away from my home.

So, I rented an apartment and was doing weekly commute between Sacramento and Bay Area. Coming down to Bay Area on Monday morning and go back to Sac on Friday afternoon.

Then, my hubby started to spend more time in Bay Area as his company has HQ in Bay Area as well. We needed a place we could take our dog with us. So, we bought a condo. Why not rent? Rent in Bay Area is sooooo expensive and it is almost better to buy if one can afford it. 1 Br 1 Bath apartment can cost $1,500 around here and it is getting worse as high tech industry is picking up.

So, here we are. We have two mortgages (sigh.....). Good thing about Bay Area is there are plenty of young professionals who need place to live. So, finding a roommate is not that hard. Could we do without roommate? (The purpose of having a roommate is of course reduce our mortgage payment) Maybe. But we're not here on weekends and I travel quite often. So, why rent extra room that sits empty and it generates $900 per month. Some people may prefer complete privacy, but hey, I'm too cheap and go for the money.

Today is my first day back to work in 2012. I came to office in 7 in the morning to get started. People around here normally don't come in until 9. It is my quiet alone time to get things done.

I used my Starbucks reward coupon to get a Triple Venti Caramel Macchiato. That is $5 cup of coffee that I got for free.

We had pizza last night and I brought left over for lunch. Today may be my first NSD this year, too. Woo hoo

My points with Chase Freedom was almost 20,000 and I was thinking about redeeming points.

I was going through their reward website and noticed some gift cards are 10% off. I redeemed $100 Kohl's GC, $50 Macy's GC, and $50 Banana Republic GC for 18,000 points.

I'm thinking about cancelling Freedom card and switch to United (it's Chase anyway....) to earn some miles. I will keep looking for good credit card deals and try to maximize the benefits they offer.

I hope everyone had a nice New Year's day. Mine was busy busy busy, but good.

We went to our friend's for New Year's Eve party. It was a lot of fun with a lot of people. We came home after the count down.

I went to gym this morning and burned 500 calories. After that, I checked store flyers and coupons. P&G insert has $2 off Tide coupon this week and Safeway is selling 100 oz Tide for $9.99 when you buy 2. I managed to get 2 coupons, so I bought 2 for $7.99 each.

I have one more day off tomorrow, and will be going back to work on Tuesday.

I was checking my bank account balance as usual and noticed the amount was larger than I expected. Then, I realized my incentive was paid out from my previous dept.

I was managing a project in my previous dept. and we were incentivized by project milestone. I left the organization about a year ago (but I still work for the same company in different dept.) and I heard from my ex co-worker that our project reached a milestone to pay out incentive.

Of course, it was nice surprise for me. I was not planning this income at all, so it will go straight to my EF.

I called a phone company and cancelled our landline.

We all have cell phones and hardly use our landline. For some strange reason, maybe it is called a peace of mind, I've been procrastinating to cancel it. But I finally did it.

We were paying about $30 per month, so this is about $360 savings per year.

I have two doctor's app today.

One for vision and one for regular physical. I took my daughter to check her vision as well.

My vision got slightly worse, but still not at the level I need glasses. I still got a pair of sunglasses with prescribed lenses since it was within coverage. I only paid $25 ($10 copay to exam and $15 for lenses) for the exam and a pair of brand name sun glasses.

My daughter also got a new pair of glasses as her vision has changed. She picked more expensive frames and got special coating for lenses. The final price for the glasses and exam was $116.

I had $176.6 left to spend and the cost of vision exams and glasses were $141.2 that leaves me $35. I have a couple of receipt from Kaiser that should fulfill $35.

My $1,000 FSA fund is now fully utilized.

We will have a guest from Thursday, and we needed a twin size comforter for our guest bed. So, here I went to JC Penny. I bought a comforter, sheets set, and a nice warm blanket. Everything was 50% off.

I also found a electric blanket. Original price $120 and it was 60% off and I had a $10 off coupon. I couldn't resist and bought it for myself.

I will sleep well tonight for sure : )

My DD came home for Christmas and my husband and I took her shopping at Outlet. She found a jacket she was looking for. According to her, it was exactly what she was looking for.

We also bought her a couple of pairs of pants, a skirt, and a nice coat.

This outlet offer free membership in their website that members can receive extra discount with coupons, but I didn't print out these coupons because I didn't know which store she wanted to go. I stopped by the information center and asked them about the coupons, then they told me to go to the website with out smart phone and show the store cleark coupon code.

We did with my husband's iphone, and it worked and we received extra 15% discount at a couple of stores.

It never hurts to ask.

It is December and I am claiming money I spent on medical related stuff.

I have $1,000 in FSA account and claimed $823.40. I need to look for receipts to claim the rest of the money that is $176.60.

I also made an appointment for vision exam for me and my daughter so that I won't waste my FSA money. Hopefully, I can find enough qualified receipt to claim this money.

I have been out of this blog for a while as many things happened during last 13 months.

I was offered a job in Bay Area that I could not resist.... So, I took it and started weekend commute between Sacramento and Bay Area. It is 140 miles one way and I'm getting used to this. It is only once a week drive anyway.

Then, we bought a condo in Bay Area. I was looking for a nice apartment, but couldn't find anything nice and reasonable. One bedroom apartment for $1500? I almost sign the contract and realized.... wait! It is as much as my mortgage in Sacramento house! Since my hubby is a vet, we took advantage of VA and managed to buy a condo.

Now, I'm deeper in debt with another mortgage and motivated to be more frugal.

Since I was busy with my new job, I didn't have much time to stock pile, either. I just found out I'm running out of shampoo from my stock pile!! Unthinkable!! I need to PAY for shampoo??? Nooooo!!!!

Time to tighten the belt and hunt for deals. Back to my cheap self.

Walgreen's is having a sale for Pepsi products. And there's a Pepsi rebate to double dip.

I bought 4 bags of potato chips, three 12 pack Pepsi, and one 2 litter Mountain Dew. Paid $20.25, got $10 catalina back. Then, I'm sending my $7.50 rebate in. Final price $2.75. Getting ready for Super Bowl Day.

Here's a link for the rebate. There are four types of rebate, and I used the one says $7.50.

http://www.coorslight.com/superbowl44/coupon/LGC03105609_101058_LR.pdf

I haven't changed my categories for a while. Yeah, I had 2008 Resolution. Oh boy, it's like 2 years ago. Time to change my side bar.

I deleted "2008 Resolution" (about time...) and "School". I graduated last year and don't really need it for now....

Aaaand, new category was added for 2010. "Decluttering in 2010"!!

Yes, my new year's resolution is to get rid of 6 things every day.

My goal is to get rid of 2010 unnecessary items this year. 2010 divided by 365 days is 5.5. So, I figured if I get rid of 6 things per day, I will reach my goal.

I went through my desk and closet and got rid of two or three garbage bag full of stuff last week. And I threw away some old paperwork from 2001 (!!) two nights ago. I should easily reach January goal of getting rid of 186 items.

We re-did our curtains and it was over $400 for all the rods, balances, and panels. When we were paying for items, I told her I had some coupons but forgot to bring them. She told me she will adjust the price as long as I have receipts.

I went home and looked for coupons, but I could only find two. I needed more than two because I bought total of 12 items and coupons are good for single items. (it's 20% off coupon for single item.)

So, I posted a message in Facebook, asking my friends if they have any they can give me. Well, I got some responses and scored 10 total!!

I went back to the store and asked for price adjustment, and got about $80 back.

Yes, it is so worth to ask for help. The power of networking.....

studying for GMAT. I originally scheduled GMAT back in July, then, I realzied I wasn't ready. I paid extra $50 to reschedule, and the new date is Jan. 9. Yes, it's around the corner, and I feel I'm so not ready.

I should have been studying for the test, but I have a hard time motivating myself for some reason. I have (or I should say I had) two weeks off, so, should have plenty of time studying.

Instead, I'm internet surfing and playing scrubble on Facebook. Sheeesh...

One thing is that this test is about testing my overall skills and knowledge, so, other than knowing strategy of taking the test, there's no one specific area to study. I need to know basic of math and English, and who knows what they will ask.

I've been doing English sentence correction problems and doing poorly. That leads to no motivation cycle. Grrrr.

Well, good news is, I won't die doing poorly on this test and I can take it again as long as I pay for it. Also, the school I will apply is not accepting any students in 2010 anyway (the deadline for fall 2010 was Nov!!), so there's no hurry doing this. I ended up taking it now because I went ahead and applied for the test last May, right before I graduated = I was still academically motivated lol

Anyhow, I will take the test anyway and see what happens. If I score good enough, one less thing to worry about in 2010.

DH needed new reading glasses. We originally had an appointment at Wal Mart vision center, but they screwed up the date. So, I cancelled it and made another appointment with an eye doc at the shopping mall.

It was a very fancy eye wear store, and has the latest exam equipments. I found this place from DH's vision insurance website (VSP). I was surprised how great the coverage is.

Co-pay for exam is $10, and co-pay for lenses is also $10. We upgraded the quality of lenses, so our co-pay was $25. Still a great deal. DH has a frame that he loves and insisted he wants to use it, so we didn't buy new frame. Frame is covered up to $130. We ended up paying total $35 for his new glasses : ) (It would be close to $400 without insurance.)

Actually, I don't mind paying more because I still have some money I need to use in my FSA account. Oh well...

We also got 30% discount on sunglasses he wanted. I told him I will buy them as a Christmas gift. The original price was $180 but with 30% off, it was $126.

Unfortunately, my employer dropped VSP and changed to United Health or something for vision. DH and I cover each other for dental (we have double coverage) but not vision. I should have DH's vision insurance cover me and DD next year so we can use this store as well.

Wow, I didn't realize I haven't written anything since September. I guess I was more focused on my job than blogging during my work hour ; )

Anyhow, 2009 has been a great year for me and I made another accomplishment. I will be contributing full $16,500 to my 401K this year. Yipeeee!!! I've always wanted to do this, but I did not make enough to reach this amount before. (There's a max % I can contribute from my pay.) I am super happy and very proud what I accomplished.

Walgreen's
I had to get rid of some catalina coupons that was expiring on Sunday. I bought 2 bags of Nuts cluster that are free after RR. Used $1/1 coupons, so this was $2 money maker. I also bought 2 newspapers, 2 gums, and a bag of chocolate. Out of pocket was less than $2.

Rite Aid
Great week for stocking up baby wash and baby lotion. I bought ten bottles of baby wash/lotion/powder that I will use them for my co-worker's baby shower. The total price of baby goods was $30, and I used $15 worth of coupons and getting $15 in rebate. Thus, free. I had $25 Rite Aid gift card I got from previous promotion, and paid out of pocket portion with the GC. No cash impact which is nice.

Safeway
They have cheap grapes again this week!! I love them! Also, Yoplait yogurts are 50 cents each if you buy 10 or more. I found $1 off on 8 cups coupon in Pillsbury website. That make them 40 cents each. Sweet!

I heard the President's speech about the healthcare reform last night. I'm from a country with government health care. So, I will share my experience what it's like.

First of all, it is NOT free. Everybody pays in, just like SSN tax we pay. And, just like SSN, employers pay 50% and employees' share is 50%. I don't remember how much I was paying, but it depends on how much people make. People pay more if they make mroe, and people pay less if they make less.

There is one government agency, and it administers all health issues. And here's what people get.

- When kids are in school: A group of doctors and nurses come to school once a year. It is called physical check up day and everyone participates. Each student have "health record book" and it has record of results from annual check up day from K - 12. Nurses measure students' height, weight, check their basic health condition, anything critical for children's health. This check up includes dental and vision. If the student show any kind of warning signal, a doctor will write up a letter and it will be sent to parents so that the parents will make an appointment with their doctor. This annual health check up is done no charge to students.

- After people get jobs: Grown up version of annual physical check up is provided by companies. Again, a group of nurses and doctors come to our office once a year and give us physical check up, including measuring blood pressure, taking x-ray, etc. People over 30 years old are sent to stomach cancer screening (because Japan has high stomach cancer rate), and people over 35 years old are sent to what they call "Human doc" for very thorough physical. This is part of employees' benefit, thus, no charge.

- For housewives and self-employed: Local government (such as cities and towns) have medical office where similar service are offered to people who cannot take advantage of employees' benefits like above. These local medical offices also provide parenthood classes for pregnant women and their husbands, and issue "Mother and child" book so that we can keep health record of both mother and the baby.

- When you get sick, you can go to any doctor you want. There's no such thing that you need to choose your doctor. If you get sick when you're traveling and found a doctor by shopping mall, you can walk in and receive a treatment by showing your insurance card. The cost is the same no matter where you go. Different doctor may prescribe different medicine, but the difference of amount is nothing to fuss about. When I went to see a doctor when I got sick, the most I paid was like $10 or so.

- My cost of hospitalization when I had C-section was about $3,000. (well, it was like 18 years ago... but still...) It was a private hospital. I had my own room, three gourmet meals provided every day, my own shower, and I was there for 10 days. (Normally, people stay in hospital about 4 to 5 days for normal delivery.)

I won't say their system is perfect. There are problems including rising cost due to fast pace of graying society. However, I've never heard anyone filing bankruptcy due to medical bill. And, people live for a long time over there.

As I mentioned in my previous post, my co-worker said she wanted folding chairs for camping.

I bought four of them at $3 each yesterday at CVS. I asked her this morning "Do you want to buy folding chair? They're $3 each."

She couldn't believe how cheap they were and was pretty happy about my offer. The regular price of these chair was $25. She was so happy that she saved so much money, and I told her to go out to dinner with the saving

Well, I'm happy too that I didn't have to store them in our garage, and got $12 back.