Raises & Bonuses

We recently had a staff meeting where it was announced that end-of-year raises and bonuses will be given out within the next few weeks. 

Raises will be small, most being around 1%, and with a maximum of 2% being awarded to "exceptional" employees. But with most of my friends and family (including my husband) receiving pay cuts or a pay freeze, even a slight increase is quite welcome! 

And the best news is that the company has decided to still give out bonuses. Optimistically, I'm hoping for $1000 in after-tax money, which would be more than I've received in years past... but hey, I'll take whatever I can get :) 

A new credit card

Hubby recently went on vacation, charging $750 to his credit card. He covered someone else's expenses for part of the trip, and bought a few things beforehand that he didn't end up using, so the total cost will come out to about $500 after returns & reimbursements. 

And since he was spending money, I decided that I should too. I went shopping at Kohl's and picked out some new clothes for myself. The in-store radio kept playing ads trying to convince people to take out a store charge card to save 10%... and I normally don't cave. In fact, until then, I had never taken out or even applied for a store card.

But Kohl's sends out monthly discount coupons to its cardholders, good on full-price AND sale items, and I want some. The card doesn't have any monthly fees, and I plan to pay in full every month anyway, so it's sort of a win-win for me. I also don't anticipate taking out any new credit lines anytime even remotely soon, and I only have one card with a balance (and that'll be paid off in the next 4 months), so I should be able to handle any minor credit score ding caused by opening a new card.

They gave me a 15% discount, and a $1000 credit limit. Woohoo! 

Health Insurance Costs

Both of us are fortunate enough to be able to get group health insurance through our employers, and we've been able to pick from a variety of options each year. 

We just found out that, for the upcoming year, the cost will be increasing yet again while benefits will decrease. If we want to stay with the same carrier, we will need to pay $750/year more for the two of us, and $1000/year more if we need to upgrade to a "family" plan. 

We can switch insurance companies and our out-of-pocket cost won't change, but I'm hesitant to chance because the new company is one that I've never really heard of. I looked online and it appears to be a national company, and a pretty big one, but it's not that commonplace in this area. 

We have a HMO plan, where we have to see our primary care physician and get referrals for everything, and it seems to work well enough for us. Both of our doctors can get us in for appointments in a reasonable amount of time, and they accept several different insurances. 

New furnace?

I've been thinking about replacing our furnace & air conditioning unit next year, in 2010.  Although ours aren't that old (they are currently 11 years old), they are low-efficiency and result in much higher gas & electric bills than we should have for such a small house. 

The federal energy efficiency tax credits will reimburse us 30% of the cost, up to $1500, for a high-efficiency replacement furnace & AC unit.  I'm not sure how much a new unit will cost, but I would imagine it would be in the $5000 range.

Trying to Make More Money

I've been tossing around a few ideas to earn some extra money. While working overtime at my job is the easiest (and probably the most profitable & least risky) way, it's rather unreliable. My bosses generally dictate whether I'm allowed to work overtime or not, and that's based on company workload. 

A few retail stores around here are actually starting to post for seasonal jobs, for the upcoming holiday season, but it really doesn't seem worthwhile. If I can even find somewhere to hire me (which is a big if, since I already have a full-time job with set hours), I'd have to give up my nights and/or weekends for probably $8/hour. My overtime pay is more than triple that! 

So I'd really like something more flexible, that I can just pick up and work on whenever I feel like it - so that if overtime is available, I won't have to turn it down to "get to my other job" (and when overtime is mandatory, I won't have to worry about getting fired from my other job!). 

I have a few hobbies that I'd like to take to the next level, and perhaps start turning them into a small Etsy shop. I enjoy working with textiles (yarn, thread, fabric) - but I'd have to put more effort into making things that would have more mass-appeal (more neutral colors & patterns). I also love photography, and have some ideas to start selling some specialized/custom items. 

Maybe this afternoon I'll have to put some time into business-development, and see if any of these ideas could actually be feasible (and profitable!)

Debt Status, as of 10/23/09

STUDENT LOANS ($50,048):  

#1 -  $ 0 

#2 - $ 1106

#3 -  $ 24,355

#4 - $ 24,587

AUTO LOANS ($15,464): 

#1 - $ 5,195

#2 -  $ 10,269

 

CREDIT CARDS ($21,733): 

#1 -  $ 47 (I pay this card in full each month)

#2 -  $ 870

#3 -  $ 6,000

#4 -  $ 14,816

Some Extra Income

I've had a busy few weeks at work, so my next couple paychecks should be a bit higher than usual. Because I've been working longer hours to finish up on some projects, I've also been getting home rather late... leaving less time to shop for sales on groceries, to pack my lunch, and to cook dinner. We've been eating meals out a bit more than usual - I've gone out for coffee every morning and lunch everyday this week! 

Even so, I should definitely come out ahead. I'm expecting Friday's paycheck to be about $250 more than usual, and the following paycheck (in another two weeks) will be about the same. I will also have a mileage reimbursement check coming in a month or so, and that'll be about $250 (with about $100 of that being actual out-of-pocket expenses for extra fuel). 

It's perfect timing and will help take the bite out of the auto insurance and quarterly sewer bills...