by Tricia
Wow. Brrrr. With temps below zero (and the windchill making it even colder), shoveling out the two feet of snow in our driveway is pretty tough. I’m back in the house now after one trip out there. We’ll have to do another trip before we can go anywhere today. I may complain sometimes about the snow, but I really do like it. Depending on where my husband finds a job, we may no longer have snow to shovel. That would be really weird.
Speaking of my husband’s job search, he’s heard back from a couple jobs. He received the “Thanks for playing” letter. There are still some that he hasn’t heard back from yet, including the awesome job. I have this feeling, though, that there is a job out there that we haven’t found yet. One that would meet our monetary and non-monetary goals, such as getting closer to our families. We will keep searching.
I’d like to thank everyone for your input about health insurance. Our premium is due soon ($800 for two months) and while I gulp every time I make the payment, we will keep that policy for a while yet. If we move we may get insurance through my husband’s employer or we may have to get a whole new policy anyways. So we’ll sit tight on that expense for now. As for reducing the deductible on the policy we have (as a few commenters mentioned), it’s not possible. We already have the lowest cost individual policy that they offer.
I have a few more updates to give, such as a new tactic we are trying to save money on groceries (and so far is working!). Right now, it’s time to go back outside and shovel some more snow 🙂
Good luck in your husband’s job search. I hope he finds something great.
-1MansMoney
Two feet of snow???? We’ve gotten about 1-2 inches here in Atlanta and it is a major news story right now. If this happened during a weekday, the city would be shut down.
Just ran across your blog. Good luck with everything. As the previous “guy” commented, I’m north of Atlanta and we got around a quarter inch of snow and it’s already melted.
Two feet of Tricia’s light, fluffy powder is a much different substance than the soupy mess you guys call snow in Atlanta. If you try to heave it off to the side with a shovel, it’ll kinda hang there in the air like a sparkly fog… then blow back into the driveway.
Ya gotta kinda push it wit da scooper.
Wow, $400 a month sounds like a lot, but if it’s good coverage then I suppose it’d be worthwhile.
To be fair, I’m averaging the two feet of snow. There was one foot in the lowest part and close to three that was left by Mr. Snowplow.
Oh – and my nice neighbor guy helped out with the worst stuff (the clumps left by Mr. Snowplow). His truck and plow did in less than two minutes what would have taken me at least half an hour to do.
DC Smith – Usually by the this time of the year, I abandon the scooper (no place to put the snow). I use my trusty snow shovel that I have had for the past 12 years and toss it as far as I can (and prepare for the snow sprinkle backlash) 🙂
The worst part of the big snow falls is the temperatures drop like crazy afterwards and it gets windy which makes shoveling extra fun.
Hope you’re hubby’s search goes well.
I’m curious how you’re doing with saving money on heating your house after you rearranged the furniture and “closed off” one of the bedrooms. Are you seeing a difference in your gas bill?
Sharon – It’s hard to tell at this point. In November, our bill was less. In December, it was more. I’m going to have to look at the average temps during the same periods. Unfortunately, our gas company doesn’t do that. My electric company does, so I may look at them to help see how much we saved.
Quick! Get a new copy of: What Color Is Your Parachute? the best job search book around by Dick Bolles. He revises it yearly and the 2008 edition is out.
(He kindly listed me as a career resource in this part of WA state). Go read!