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.

BA's post about celebrating frugality made me think about being frugal.

I guess I'm frugal..... at least compared to some people.

I save 20% of my salary to 401K, invest $200 to Sharebuilder, do not carry CC balance, clip coupons, send out rebates, and always looking for deals.

On the other hand, I carry LV purse (which I debated for five years to buy it, saved money and paid cash for it) and have other name brand stuff.

Oh, and I take vacations in places like Hawaii.

Why I save 20% of my salary to 401K? Well, I think the answer now is "Because I can". I've been working for the same company for 10 years, and got a couple of promotions. I always try to contribute 20% of my salary since I started working in the U.S. However, it wasn't that easy when I was making around 40K or so. I still managed to save about 15% every year. Over the years, it got easier because my salary increased. It's so nice that I have some spending money even after saving 20% to 401K. Oh, and another reason is that I am not counting on SS I know the system will be there somehow, but who knows how much I can get out of SS in 20 years. I'd rather be prepared.

Why I clip coupons and hunt deals? I guess the answer is "Because I like it". DH and I make decent salary and our household income is little over 100K. I know it's not a lot (especially in CA), but we can live pretty comfortable without being so tight about money. But, I just cannot waste our hard earned money. We do not have rich relatives and everything we have is bought with the money we earned. So, when I know I can buy a box of cereal for 10 cents, why do I want to pay $4 for it? I'd rather save the difference and buy DH his favorite steak. He works hard, and he deserves it.

Well, I guess my life style does not make sense to some people lol I have bunch of coupons in my LV purse, and pay 10 cents for cereals but pay $10 for a piece of meat. But I have my own reasons why I spend our money that way.

I guess I can call myself frugal : )

One of my friends is getting a divorce. She's been married for 17 years and has two boys. Her husband is a friend of ours, too. And he's a great guy who worshiped his wife.... until he found out his wife wasn't faithful to him.

I think the husband wanted to do over, and was willing to forgive his wife. But the wife said she doesn't love him anymore and wants to get a divorce. In their case, I'm feeling sorry for the husband. He's so screwed.

His wife never worked, and doesn't have a college degree. So, she knows she won't be able to get a high paying job. Thus, she wants him to pay her spousal support in addition to child support.

I had lunch with her with other friends and a couple of her comments kind of touched my nerve.

Me: "My co-worker was paying his ex-wife $700 for spousal support."
My friend: "That's it??"

Well.... do you know how hard it is to earn $700???

Me: "Do you have your own bank account?"
My friend: "With what money can I open a bank account?"

Well.... it doesn't cost $100k to open it. All you need is... maybe... $20??

So, here she is, doesn't even have her own bank account (to me it means no independence whatsoever), and pissed off a guy whom she will totally be dependent on financially, and complaining that the only job she can find is a kind that pays $10 an hour. Well.... you need to start somewhere.....

They live in a beautiful house that cost them $1M when they moved in a couple of years ago. Of course, it is upside down now, approx. $200K. Her husband doesn't want to sell the house because he knows he cannot sell it for what he wants. He is so angry at her now that I really cannot blame him. He always treated her like a princess, as far as I know.

They're going through mediation now but not sure how much they will agree on stuff like house and spousal support. I just hope she is making a right choice for her.

I am a big believer in education. So, I jumped on when I saw a campaign ad for "Operation Backpack". (OperationBackpackSac.org) This is to donate a new backpack with school supplies to school age children. Stores are having back to school sale and I love shopping. Perfect win-win for me!!

I went Longs/CVS and got free school supplies. Then, I went to Target and got cheap color pencils, markers, etc. (They're like 50 cents each!!) I also bought a backpack at Target for $9.99 that came with a lunch pail. Yay!!

The backpack was pretty full after I put all the school supplies. I hope a boy (I made an assumption from the color or back pack and school supplies I bought - mostly blue and green) who receives this backpack will be happy.

My friend threw a party last night. I brought my homemade potstickers as requested and they were gone in 10 minutes. I should have made more, but I brought about 40 of them. I need to double my batch next year.

I went to Rite Aid for free pads. Stay Free products are BOGO and I had 10 BOGO q's. Since I went to the end of sale cycle, I only could find a dozen of them. But it's OK. Got a dozen packages of pads and paid .33 each (sales tax). This purchase also counts towards rebate.

I also bought new Purex laundry detergent. It's a sheet and works as both detergent and softner. They were BOGO at Walgreens and $2 q's were out. I paid $2.5 per package that has 20 sheets in it. It comes to 12.5 cents per load. I was curious to see how well this product works. I did about 5 loads and so far so good.

I realized my profile was outdated, so I updated it. It seems that nothing is happening but there are some changes in life.

First big change is that I'm not a student anymore. I've been saying "I work full-time and going to school" for last 8 years. Not anymore. That's a huge change for me. Another change is my job. I was working as a financial analyst for a small dept. (sale of about $10M) I got a promotion in April and now work as a project controller, managing projects that are $180M and $90M respectively. The job itself is pretty much the same, but the numbers got much bigger.

It's a lot of fun and I love what I do : )

It will be very hot here this weekend.... like 105 degrees. We're planning to go to Folsom lake to stay cool. There will be so many people there.

My DD's friends are coming along. I will be making some sandwiches and fruits salad for them.

Not sure what I'll do on Sunday. It will be another hot day. Maybe I should go to gym and work out a little. I've been lazy and haven't been working out these days.

Other things I can do is clipping coupons and decluttering my closet. My neighborhood is planning a large neighborhood garage sale in July, so I should look for something I can sell.

Our governor visited my company today. Yes, it is the governator. He looked exactly like in pictures and movies. (Sometimes, these movie stars look very different in real life....) And, to my surprise, he was a very good speaker as well. And he did say "I'll be back" at the end of his speech.

I've been in a slacking mood since my graduation in May.

I gave myself a trip to Hawaii with my DD. Well, Hawaiian airline had a great price (less than $400 round trip per person) and I get to stay at my friend's house and she drives me anywhere I wish to go. So, the only big expense I had was an airfare for two ($800), no cost for hotels and local transportation. Yes, I know, lucky me.

We left on June 5 and came back on 11th. So, I've been back for more than a week.

I haven't touched coupons.... Ahhh!! What's wrong with me!

Maybe I have enough stockpile for things I need. But still, I have no motivation to be frugal these days and spending more than I normally do.

OK, this needs to stop soon.

I promise I will clip coupons after finish writing this entry : )

I took last Friday off to make it 4 day weekend. Boy, it is very hard to be in full-working mode.

I had my commencement on Saturday, and my friends threw me a surprise graduation party that night. I thought they were taking me to dinner in downtown. Instead a bunch of friends and neighbors were at my friend's house (she lives a couple of houses down the street), and there was a "SURPRISE!!" I'm so blessed to have such good friends : )

They gave me a frame for my diploma and a "pot of gold". She has this large pot she uses for parties, and told everyone to pitch in instead buying me small gifts. I ended up getting $174. Well, really. I didn't need the money. I'm not a starving college student. I have a house, a car, a boat, yada yada yada.... I went back to school for, well, fun i.e. studying about business. (College kids think I'm weird.) But I was very grateful about their thoughtfulness. It really was the thought that counted. I'm very lucky to have very supportive friends.

Some people showed up just for fun : ) That is totally ok with me. They're like, thank you for making an excuse to party lol

I finished my last final exam last night. I am officially done with all the school work for my bachelor's. I still can't believe I am done. Wow..... It has been 8 years since I went back to school and seemed like a never ending road. But it ended. I completed 143 units with 3.94 GPA. (I have some extra units from classes for my A.A. and pre-requisites.) I'm so glad I spent my time working on degree instead of wasting it away. Time passes no matter what.

My commencement is on Saturday. Some people asked me if I will walk. Of course, I will. I worked too hard not to ; )

I viewed this Friday's paycheck. This is the first paycheck my raise is 100% incorporated. My take-home increase by $137 per pay-check. Nice : ) I'm still contributing 20% to my 401K. 401K contribution limit in 2009 is $16,500. I thought about maxing this out, then, I decided not to do it.

Reason: I need to save for a car.

I drive 2004 Toyota Rav4 that has about 105K miles. Well, I am planning to drive it until it totally dies on me. However, I commute over 60 miles a day and not having a reliable car is out of question. So far, my lovely Rav4 has been super dependable, but you just never know with high mileaged car.

So, I decided to start saving for a new car, in case something happened to my Rav4. I was thinking about investing in two or three stocks (like GE or Citi) for next 2 years in Sharebuilder account (say, $100 per stock per month) and see how much it grows by the time I need to buy a car. I guess my return will determine what kind of car I can buy.

Or, should I resort in regular savings account??? I think this car should last at least two more years. (I drive about 20K miles a year.)

What do you think?

Today was a super busy day.

My daughter was involved in the DUI prevention program called "Every 15 minutes". They mock an accident and have HS students experience what it's like to have DUI accident involving death.

Since she is one of "victims" in the scene, I had to drop her off at school at 6:30 a.m. for preparation.

Like I said, it is all fake, but they use real fire truck, helicopter, sending DUI driver to jail, and the kid who's "dead" at the scene is sent to morgue.

Anyhow, my DD played a role, victim who was transported to the hospital by helicopter.

She was actually pretty excited about getting a ride in a helicopter. LOL

Being her parent, I was asked to go to the hospital and played a parent of DUI victim. Yuck...

I know it was all fake, but it felt so real that I started crying in the counseling room when doctor told me my DD is injured and her brain is dead. (Again, it is all fake, but the doctor did a really good job making it sound so real.)

What hit me hard was, right after the doc, this lady came in and started asking me about organ donation.

OMG!! If this is real, I just lost my child unexpectedly, and have to decide if I'm willing to donate her organ now???

I cannot imagine people actually going through this for real. I really truly feel sorry for them.

DD is at "undisclosed location" and spending a night away as part of the program.

Well, I was doing all this between my work hour!! Leaving for the hospital about 10 a.m. and came back to work at around 2 p.m., then, parents retreat at school at 7 p.m.

I'm so glad today's almost over.

The weather is beautiful and I spent quite productive weekend.

Saturday
1. Went to gym
2. Washed my car
3. Finished laundry
4. Cleaned pool filters

Since DD is in San Jose for leadership conference, DH and I went out and went to Red Lobster.

Today
I met my friend and her sister. Started with morning coffee, window shopping, and lunch at Whole Foods.

I stopped by Target on my way home and bought a box to store holiday wrapping paper. I cleaned out one of my covers that I stored wrapping paper/gift bags/tissues, etc. It looks nice and neat now.

Then, I went grocery shopping. Bel Air had ground beef for .99 per lb. This is the cheapest I've seen. I bought two huge packages of ground beef.

As I'm writing this blog, my roomba is doing its job. I love this guy.

Anyhow, I feel pretty good now as I finished a lot of "to do" list items.

I finally finished filing my tax 5 minutes ago. We got $1100 back from fed and owed $750 to the State. Pretty much break even and that's what we wanted.

I'm kind of glad we owe State because CA is so broke. I heard a rumer the state will issue IOU for the state tax return. I don't know if it's true or not, but don't want to take a chance.

It's my spring break this week. I have all kinds of time this weekend. Time to hit the gym!!

I got a job I was applying for. I'm so happy.

I love what I do now, but this job will give me better career path. I will be learning new skills, like heavy duty project management, and I'm looking forward to it.

My new boss who interviewed me told me she has several internal candidates so I wasn't really counting on being selected. But I did : )

I also got 10% raise with this promotion. It's not too bad because I just got 4% raise in January.

Money wasn't my main concern, though. My spending habit hasn't changed, and will not change. My main concern was the job itself. I don't mind taking a pay cut if that's what's I really want to do.

On the other hand, it is nice to get a nice raise!!

Things I did today:
- Finished reading a chapter in Accounting book (I have an exam on Monday)
- Got pedicure (I was reading my A/C book while I was getting pedicure)
- Cleaned the house
- Did laundry
- Went to gym

I also went to Rite Aid. I don't know why but Rite Aid sent me $10 coupon good for any purchase. All of their FAR products were out, so I bought some pantyhose that were BOGO. I bought 4 pairs, and 2 boxes of footies, and paid $2.65 for all of them after coupon.

Then, went to Walgreens that is across the street from Rite Aid. I haven't bought Revlong FAR item yet, and today is the last day of Feb rebate. Paid with my GC, so not cash spent for this one.

I will be going to Walgreens first thing tomorrow morning to get a blink tears eye drops. They are free after catalina coupon. Colgate toothpastes are also free after catalina, like I need more toothpaste LOL

I found Ebates website from fellow blogger's link and used it for my holiday shopping. I received a check for $23.63. Not too bad for few extra clicks. I referred it to my friend, too.

Well, I was going to go lunch with co-worker today, but she got sick and took a day off. I didn't bring lunch today because I had a plan. Ahhhhh, I should've thought about Plan B. Actually, I had a can of soup, but didn't feel like eating it. Oh well, I went and got junk food. I will be bringing lunch for the rest of this week. I swear : )

It's Friday and I loosen up my wallet, or I should say, I loosen up my GC.

Morning: My Friday treat, Starbucks. Grande caramel latte & lemon loaf. I used a GC my DD gave me.

Lunch: To go's sandwich, $3.99. Paid with GC.

Dinner: Pizza. Used entertainment coupon book. $10 for a large combination pizza.

So, all and all, actual cash flow was $10.

It was nice. My DH bought me a basket of flower and a beautiful card. My DD gave me a GC for Starbucks : )

I gave my DH a GC for Sarbucks (which is his 2nd home) and got my DD a caramel apple.

DH found a recepi for beef short ribs and asked me to cook it. It came out really nice.

Grocery store was really busy. Since I wanted to buy little upscale food for V-Day, I went to Nugget instead of Safeway. Nugget sent us $20 off/$100 coupon, so it was good time to stock up, too.

I bought things for short rib dish, rasberry cheese cake, key lime cheese cake, and a lot of other items. The total was $91 after using $20 coupon. To me, it is A LOT for grocery, but it included some special items I normally do not buy.

Tomorrow will be study day. I will be meeting my friend who is working on her master's degree to become a speech therapist in the morning for coffee. We will complain about our school work, then, we both come home to study. Yeah, we're such nerds. LOL

I haven't blogged much. Not much is happening.

Three weeks into school now, and I have one exam next week already. But I feel like we haven't done anything for this class. (It's corporate tax class.) We just touched on corporate distribution and how it's allocated to dividends, return on capital, etc. I'm not sure what the professor will test us on.

Not so much excitement in money areas, either. Same old things.... I know market is not doing so good, but I'm still contributing 20% to my 401K. I just hate paying tax.

Oh, tax! I have file tax. Crap... I was going to buy Tax Cut last week but have been slacking off. I will do it this week. Yeah, I will.

By the way, my DD has her W-2 showing she made about 2K last year. How does it work? Will Tax Cut software handle our filing (DH and I file as married, joint) and hers?

It's middle of the month, so work is kind of slow. (Thus, writing this blog LOL)

I noticed airfare to Hawaii came down like $200 since lat time I checked. Round trip tickets are now around $600 in June time-frame. Hmmmmm....

Actually, lower price is a upside of bad economy. There are bargains everywhere, and gas is cheaper. Media is busy showing people who were over-spending when economy was good. But, I don't think there's much changes for frugal folks. I still clip coupons and pack my lunch. The amount of money in my wallet hasn't changed since Monday, and has no plans to spend any money tomorrow either. I still have enough gas for tomorrow.

Yesterday:

- Got my last free tea latte using Safeway store coupon. Needless to say, all the store flyers are gone from the shelf, but I grabbed several copies on the first day of sales cycle so that I will have enough for the week.

- Spent $7 for lunch. I craved for special noodle dish at the Chinese restaurant near my office. It was worth it.

- Went to a yoga class last night. Her class is pretty easy and not challenging enough for me, but I guess it is a good stretching exercise before I go to bed.

- Realized it is the end of sale cycle and had to get some cheap cereal. Stopped by the store after yoga, and grabbed 4 boxed of Kellogg and paid $2 after discount and coupons.

Today:

I brought my breakfast and lunch to work. I want to go to Walgreens and Target today. Walgreen's has some good deals going on for Uniliver and P&G products. I want to hit the store before shelves are empty. I have some $1/1 coupons for Tide and Target carries travel size Tide for $1 or less. The coupons expire on 1/31, so I need to go to the store and get some before the expiration date.

I joined the gym on Sunday, and have been working out three days in a row. That's pretty good for me!

I just want to make sure I recover the cost of membership. Well, just kidding.... a little.

My friend called me and asked me to play bunco tonight with them. I said "SURE!" I normally have to say no because I have school, but not today. It is so nice that I have some break from school and be able to do something different.

So, no gym tonight, but will be playing bunco. It will be fun. It's been a while since last time I played this game.

Oh, about my spending today, I went to WAG and finally got free shampoo and conditioner. I need to go back there with more coupons and get some more before sales cycle ends. I didn't bring lunch today, and went to Togo's and bought a sandwich, a bag of chips, and 20 oz drink. $4.38 with "Get $1.99 regular sandwich when you buy chips and 20 oz drink coupon."

I signed up for gym yesterday.

But, not the one I checked out first. After I came home from California Family Fitness with $149 initiation & $54 monthly due quotation, I talked to my friend and DH, and I did more research. Then, I found 24 hour fitness was running a promotion $199.99 for one year. That is $16.67 per month! I went to check out the facility, and it was smaller than Cal Fit, but they have a pool and yoga class. The yoga class I randomly go to is $11 per class anyway. So, If I take two classes per month, I pretty much recover my cost.

Sign me up!!

The funny thing was when I sat with the enrollment coordinator, he didn't mention ANYTHING about this promotion, and started talking about initiation fee and monthly due. I said..."well, I saw a $199.99 promotion on your website...." Then, he said "Oh, that's what you want?" He didn't spend much time with me after that LOL I don't care. I got what I wanted.

One of my goals this year is to maintain my health and decided to spend money to make it clear to myself that I put some efforts in it.

So, here I went to the gym that is a minute away from my house to get a membership quotation.

Initiation fee: $149
Monthly membership: $54 if I pay 6 months in advance, $64 if I pay month to month

I didn't sign up right away, told the guy I will think about it and came home.

This morning, I told my frined and she told me other people joined with only $49 processing fee. Boy, I'm glad I didn't sign up right away!

I'm kind of discouraged by this right now and I didn't go back there to talk to the guy. I'm thinking about next "deal" to come around and sign up when initiation fee goes down to $49.

Or, should I go back and negotiate? Boy, I hate doing it.

I have a feeling 2009 will be better than 2008

DH and I went over to our friend's house for New Year's party on Dec. 31, and had a lot of fun. I bought some homemade pot stickers as usual, and everyone brought their signature dishes that were very good.

We slept in on New Year's Day, watched a couple of DVDs & Rose Bowl game. After that, I took down our Xmas tree. Our kitchen looks so much larger without the tree!

Today, I went to Whole Foods and bought some bacon for DH and bagels for DD & me. The store has a center cut bacon that is very expensive ($7.99 a package) but super yummy. I thought I'd buy it for DH as a new year's treat. He was pretty happy about that.

Then, I started writing down our spending in my new weekly desk planner. I bought the planner because I really like the layout, but wasn't sure what to do with it. Originally, I was going to use it at work, but figured this is a perfect planner to keep our financial records.

I will be heading out to Wal Mart soon to get some cheap veggies. Coupons expire on Jan. 10 and I want to use them up!

I went to Lasik surgery yesterday. The procedure itself only took about 15 minutes (or less). It was a lot more easier than I expected, and I have 20/20 vision now.

AMAZING!!

I haven't been able to see this well without any glasses or contact lenses for more than 30 years. It was worth the money for sure.

I don't know why but the Lasik center gave me an extra discount, and the final bill was $3,228. Kind of random discount on top of 15% discount from my vision provider. Of course, 'm not complaining!! Better than original estimation of $4,000.

Like I wrote before, I have some fund in my FSA account and DH's vision insurance will pay me $500. So, final out of pocket will be only about $500. Not too bad.

Until January 26th, I have a break from school. I took my final exam on International Accounting last night, and that was the end of this semester. Done. Finished. No more. Yeah!!

Amazingly, I only have 2 more classes to finish my degree. 2 classes!! It seemed forever when I went back to school back in fall semester of 2001. I took one class, American history, to see if I could survive, and I did. I cannot believe there's only one semester left to go.

November & December have been super expensive month.

November: DD's truck needed a break work and new tires. $860..
December: Our dog got really sick from dental problem. We ended up taking him to vet and he had some of his teeth extracted. The final price tag, $1,500.

And, I'm getting Lasik surgery this Saturday. Estimation was more than I expected because my vision is really really bad. $1,999 per eye. So, $4K total. My vision insurance company has a 15% off deal with them, so it will bring the price down to $3400. I'm also covered with DH's vision plan that will pay $500 for the surgery. With that, the final cost should be $2,900 and I have $2,200 in my FSA account. This is my Christmas gift to myself : )

Today was my birthday and had a very nice day.

I got some gifts. One of them was a beautiful hand made quilt. My DD gave me a pair of slippers that I wanted. My co-worker took me out to lunch, and few people text me wishing me a happy birthday.

Today was also bonus pay out day. I can pay off my tuition before getting reimbursed. Also, I am getting lasik surgery. With my FSA fund and the bonus, I don't have to finance my Lasik.

My DH & DD are at DD's school's football game. (This is a BIG one.) I'm home alone and actually really enjoying quiet moment. I'm grateful that I have a nice life, my family is healthy, and have good friends.

The weather forecast is rain this weekend. It is about time. I will be studying for my finals next week.