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Yesterday, I sat down and tried to figure out how much money to put into my FSA for the year. For those of you who are already confused, in brief, an FSA, or flexible spending account, is a way for employees to set aside a portion of their earnings pre-tax to be used for qualified expenses. It’s a great deal, but the hard part is figuring out just how much money to put into that FSA every year.
This is a “use it or lose it” plan, meaning that whatever I don’t use by the end of the year (well, the end of the grace period, which is mid-March) disappears. So I want to try to estimate as closely as possible, but not go over. Sure, if I have a little bit left at the end of the year, I can restock my medicine cabinet with Aleve and sunscreen and those sorts of things, but one only needs so many OTC medications.
One perk that I learned about with my FSA is that I can use the money before it’s technically there! Let’s say that I decide to put $260 into my FSA this year, which would be $10 out of every paycheck. And then on January 15, after only one paycheck, I have a medical expense of $100. I can use that $100 to pay the bill, even though I’ve only contributed $10. Because I have already agreed to have a total of $260 taken out of my paycheck, I can spend that entire $260 before it’s there.
But trying to estimate my medical expenses is harder than I thought it would be. Regular prescriptions are easy to figure out, as is the cost for my disposable contacts. But beyond that? It’s tough. I might be excessively healthy next year. I might be not so healthy next year. Who knows! So I used some reasonable estimates, made some wild guesses, and picked a number. And now it’s a game to see how close I managed to come.
My uncle, a musician, wants to buy me a guitar for Christmas. I’m really excited about this – I really really would love to have a guitar. And when he asked me what I liked, I gave him some general ideas, but stressed that while I wanted something that would sound good, I’m a relative beginner so I wanted something inexpensive, something I could upgrade in a few years if I wanted to.
He wanted me to go to a local guitar place and check out a few different shapes and styles to see what I liked the best. And suddenly, the gift became awkward.
When I gave him generics, I knew that I was still talking a pricey gift, but I could ignore the cost. Plus I figure he has all sorts of connections and could find something much cheaper than I could. But then I had to go to the store and see the price and then make a decision, knowing that he wants to get me something I want, but I needed to keep it in a reasonable price range.
I found one that seemed reasonable, but getting him the information just felt painfully awkward. “Hi, buy me this.” Even though that’s what he wanted me to do. Money and family is just awkward.
Recently, one of my friends made this comment online
thinking about what black Friday deals to camp out for… LOL!
The idea makes me cringe. Camping out for a deal? I realize that there are some great door busters out there on Black Friday, but… yeah, I can’t bring myself to do it. There is nothing that I need and/or want that much.
I have made this argument before and a number of parents responded saying “I want to be able to get this for my child, and so to me, it’s worth the time spent out in the cold to see their face on Christmas morning.” And okay, I understand that. I love watching people open gifts that I have gotten for them, especially when I know it’s something they will love (if I’m not sure, I cringe and hope for the best). But I have to wonder what that’s teaching our kids.
Either way, while I love a deal as much as the next person, there are limits. I know a lot of people who go out early on Black Friday for the adventure of it. Two years ago, I went to the outlet malls at midnight with a friend. And yes, I bought a few things that I still use today. But I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, and thus, wasn’t stressed or frustrated by not getting it. It was definitely an adventure. And not one I want to repeat. I was so tired!
This year, the only Black Friday shopping I will be doing will be online. I volunteered to work the day after Thanksgiving so that my team members could have time with their families. That’s right, the U.S. Government is open for business on Black Friday. I’m sure you noticed (well, you probably did, if you got mail that day). I’m not going home for Thanksgiving this year, but I will be spending Thursday with a bunch of friends in similar positions.
Are any of you planning to camp out on Black Friday? Are you going for any particular deals or are you just going for the adventure of it all?
I don’t think it’s a secret that I love Christmas. I think it’s in my genes. A few years ago, my brother commented that during the holidays, my parents’ house looks like Christmas threw up on it. My mom makes the house look like something out of a magazine. I believe she had nine trees last year. Nine. Trees. Now admittedly, half of those trees are small. One is a tiny table-top tree placed in the laundry room as a joke (all of the other rooms have trees, after all). But it’s not just trees. There are ribbons and greens strewn throughout the house, a Christmas village (for the cats to sleep in), stockings for every family member, including the pets, candles, lights, etc. I love it. Possibly because I don’t live there anymore, so I don’t have to help with the setup or cleanup.
I’m already itching to get my Christmas decorations out. I will have them done by the end of the month, as I am hosting book club the first Thursday of December, and I want everyone to see my decorations. I might start them as early as next weekend.
One thing I love to do at Christmas is go to the mall and see all the decorations. Of course, along with going to the mall to see decorations, there is always shopping. And everyone has such great Christmas items! I love the scents that accompany Christmas, which means that I have to be careful to not buy too many candles or room sprays or shower gels. I don’t need more decorations, so I have to avoid those as well.
I haven’t been to the mall in months. I’m pretty impressed by this. It’s definitely helped keep my spending in control, and I’m thinking about not going until my annual birthday shopping trip (when I use birthday gift money to replenish my work wardrobe). But the idea of missing out on the holiday decorations makes me a little sad.
And that’s exactly what the retailers want. They do everything they can to get the customer into the store because they know that once the customer is there, they will end up spending money. So I will just enjoy the free holiday decorations elsewhere and avoid the temptation to spend. At least until January. When all bets are off.
So after a few days away from the computer, I just logged in to find that WordPress has eaten all the posts I had queued up. Sorry for the silence, everyone. I’m going to dig through the logs to find out what happened (the odds are good that it’s my fault somehow), and hope to be back to normal posting tomorrow.
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