The Move

Was this move good for us? 

It depends who you ask. My hubby seems to be happy. He likes his job. He's kind of a city person. I tell him I'm a country girl and he's a city boy.

Do I hate it here? No. Am I happy? I can't answer that. The sting of losses are still upon me. The view, the quiet little town that was so easy to drive around in, my doctor, the close proximity of beautiful State Parks with HILLS. Great windows for my plants. Hartford Utilities which was FAR more affordable than WE Energies. I am making a great deal of adjustments to make this new life fit into my comfort zone.

This apartment..."spacious" 2 bedroom, 1 bath, 970 sq. feet, not enough closet space, vertical blinds which make the windows nearly unusable for plants, no view, is only $45 cheaper than the 1110 sq. foot roomy apartment we left in Hartford, with a view. What do I like better about this one? The water is softened and the windows aren't drafty.

The utilities. The highest bill I had in Hartford was $144 in July of last year. Hartford Utilities combines water, sewer and electric all on one bill. Only people who use gas need WE Energies.

Here the city water and sewer was $58 and next month the WE Energies electric bill will be $105. So that is $165 for wintertime utilities. I dread summer, add two window airs to that bill. I'm sure utilities will be close to $200 per month. 

This apartment is old. It's ok, but not like what we had in Hartford. Rent is highway robbery in most places, even Hartford is getting that way. Our rent was reasonable because we were the first tenants in that building and stayed there 7 years. I wanted to live there for the rest of my life. Here, anything newer and nicer than where we are now is going to be in the $1200 to $1400 range at the lowest.

Maintenance. The maintenance at the apartment in Hartford was Awesome. Here it is mediocre to non-existent. We have resorted to doing some of it ourselves...gluing wood strips back that were loose, washing things that were dirty (and we didn't notice when we moved in), etc.

I guess the two main things in all this mess is (1) hubby's job has a fair wage and lots of overtime, meaning bigger checks, and (2) the airport is only blocks away, meaning he can fly home more easily. Note...I will be flying down to visit my daughter. Around $300 round trip to South Bend. She will pick me up!

My plants? Some have suffered. I am still working on moving them around AGAIN. Some might not make the cut. In fact, I need to get back to that project. I promise I will share pictures when I'm done.

The future? We are still waiting for spring, for things to green up. There are lots of awesome photos on the Internet of autumn colors along the river and in the parks. Fall colors are the best. Now if this apartment only had a real bathtub and a view...

Again My Question is, What The H*ll Did They Do to Medicare?

 I downloaded my drug summary from Walmart. I added the costs for Oct. Nov. and Dec. 2024. Total $1212.33. That's my total out of pocket for 2024.

Now, for 2025 I will have a $325 upfront drug co-pay and medication will cost more so my total cost for the year will be $1706.48, that's almost $500 MORE. What the hay is going on? All this talk of no more donut hole and drug cost being capped at $2000 per year and oh woopie insulin is only $35 a month. Well, fine. But I have never had insulin or drug costs more than $2000 per year. Why do I have to pay $500 MORE? I looked at "Extra Help". Income limit for a family of 2 is $30,660. That in itself is a joke. I would already need to be on Section 8 and Medicaid for us to have an income that low. The best I can do is use their new plan that doesn't save you a feakin dime but lets you spread their outrageous costs throughout the year. Lower drug costs my ass.

I am so sick and tired of being kicked down and down and down by this economy. 

Tomorrow

 Tomorrow the long-awaited Medicare plans for 2025 come out. I will be reviewing closely. Unless I am missing something, it looks like my medication is going to cost more, at least through Quartz. I sincerely hope I can stay with Quartz because any doctors I need to see and all the Aurora clinics and hospitals are on the plan, and coverage extends through several counties.

Random Updates

My son-in-law is in the hospital now for outpatient surgery for that kidney stone. He was on antibiotics for 2 weeks to recover from the infection and swelling that happened when his kidney backed up. They put a stent in place to allow his kidney to drain around the 9 MM stone. My daughter is at the hospital now.  Updates later.

Yesterday I pulled all the bins and boxes out of the big closet so I can go through them. All that's left in there are a few clothes hanging and a bunch of books on the shelf. I was a little sore yesterday and hubby said I'm doing too much. I told him, "No, somebody needs to do it and you're doing the garage." My back was sore yesterday but today I feel fine, just discouraged.

The job situation is dismal. Apparently most companies like to wait until after the elections to hire, maybe even until after the holidays. It's a sad state in this country that companies want to jump ship and move operations to Mexico or other countries. They are just running from paying their fair share in taxes. I watched a clip yesterday of the traitor former orange in chief talking to John Deere. He told them if they move their operations to Mexico he will put $400 tariffs on everything they produce and they won't sell any of it here in the US. So John Deere said, if he gets elected they will keep their plants open here in the US, but if Harris is elected they are leaving. They announced earlier this year their intent to close 3 plants here in the US and open them in Mexico. What does that say about our country? Where are all those jobs and the booming economy we keep hearing about? 

Government, Hospitality and Healthcare/Education. Well, there you go. Manufacturing is loosing. 

My son-in-law is prepped and waiting now, time 10:35 am.

Back to politics. Hubby and I are voting for Democracy and for protecting the Constitution and for protecting Kosovo and Europe from the onslaught of dictatorship from Russia. But I reluctantly understand why people choose orange because they view him as stronger on the economy, as in keeping jobs here in the US and not watching them flee our tax system. It's complicated. I can't pretend I can understand it all or even debate or explain it. It is what it is. 

Right now I don't know how we will move forward in this mess. All I can do is continue to pack, so if hubby gets hired for a good job, we can move. Or maybe a good job will happen locally, and we can stay. But I need to be prepared. At least my spring cleaning will be done. Our lease is up the end of April, then our rent will go up AGAIN. Our rent was $995 in 2019. It might have been the same when we moved here in April 2018. It's now $1115, and I'm sure it will increase again in June. So, $120 in 6 years may not seem like a lot, but everything else has risen horribly. Insurance, Internet, FOOD.....need I continue, and his job is getting cut by SEVEN dollars per hour. That's $1120 less per month, like a whole rent payment. 

We keep dumbing our budget down. And it's not just us. My son-in-law is an engineer, he and my daughter (who also works) are paying for the house they built. He's putting one kid through college and the other starts next year. He is the hospital and his out of pocket max is $8000. My daughter said he hasn't had any overtime in years.

My daughter said they took him into surgery at 10:55 am

11:32 am, he's done. They had to break up the stone, it was too big to pull out. One hour in recovery and she gets to see him.

I'm happy my son-in-law's surgery went well and he can recover and not be in pain all the time. 

Here are some pictures, the first two are from today. I was going to bring more plants in but it's just too beautiful out. The other three pictures are Sandhill Cranes. They stop in to eat birdseed I put out for them.

Budget

 I went over our budget with a fine tooth comb. We can do this for the time being, if we don't do anything or buy anything and stick to simple food. Will only need an extra $200 or so out of savings by the end of the year, which would be cheaper than breaking our lease and moving. In January one bill goes away and one will lower by $100. Maybe by spring some jobs will turn up before our rent goes up again in June.