Life keeps a changin'

A few small changes going on financially and otherwise. First, I am starting to contribute again to my 401k plan through work. I'm only doing $100 a month for now, but at least it's something. My company will match half of that, plus they also give us 3.4% of our salary as a profit sharing contribution. I will reevaluate my budget next January and see if I can increase the contribution. It all kind of depends on how much the new healthcare plans end up costing. (what a flippin' joke!)

It looks like we might have some reduction in expenses coming up. DS is making plans to stay and work in Canada (at least for the next 6 months or so). He will be working as a mechanic's helper and the pay is still WAY better than any job he could get here at home. He is going to rent the basement of the son of the couple he has been staying with the past 6 weeks. They have a big house with an unused finished basement, so for $400 a month DS will have a nice big family room, a bedroom and a bathroom - and most important - use of the big shop to put his race car :) The couple he has been staying with (I think they've basically adopted him, LOL) are going to let him use an old small economy car they have for driving back and forth to work, so they are putting him on their insurance. I emailed him documents from our insurance company on Monday, so they'd have proof he doesn't have any claims or accidents. They are currently figuring out how to go about getting him a work visa.

So, that means DH and I will probably sell the extra car we have no need of anymore. That will give us approximately $4000 and take away that insurance cost for that car, which I think is about $50 a month. I think I will be leaving DS on our insurance as a driver though....he still has our old tow rig with him and might be driving that on occasion. But, I can have him keep paying me back that insurance cost, as he has been for about the past year, anyway.

I don't have any details on whether with this job he will get health insurance (I really don't know how all that works, since it's Canada) but regardless, if I have to leave him on our insurance plan, he'll be making enough to reimburse me for the monthly cost of it and dental, which, at least until the end of the year, is $90 a month for him. Not sure yet what our insurance costs will be once the "affordable" health care act kicks in. I'm sure it will really be less "affordable" for us - probably to the tune of taking up the nice big raise I just got :P

DD has offered to work the weekday morning shift as host (that person is leaving for school) so she will now have weekends free again. Her classes at the community college, starting near the end of September, will be afternoons 2 days a week, an evening class 2 days a week and an online class. We are excited that she will have weekends free to spend together. That was always our time to go shopping and run errands together and we've missed it. I've only got her one more  year, so I'm excited to get to spend a little more time with her this next year.

Tomorrow is payday and along with the $500 I already put in savings from my last paycheck, I still have almost $300 left! In budgeting tomorrow's paycheck I should have about $150 left from that, too. The house payment comes out of that check, so there's usually not much left. Well, it used to be that there was less than enough left after house payment and expenses that I'd have to make sure I always had some left from the paycheck before it, to carry me through. It's nice not to have to do that anymore!