Day One-hundred-and-forty-eight: Retirement costs!

I was not given the opportunity to enroll in my former company's benefits for next year.  This means that until June I will continue my health coverage through Kaiser Permanente, my dental coverage through Delta, and not have any Health Savings Account.  (I'm not too concerned about the latter as I didn't use all of my reduced amount this year.  About the only thing it goes for is dental deductibles and Kaiser co-pays.)

What was disturbing is what I was told about the cost.  After June, my out-of-pocket cost to continue with Kaiser will be $602.41 a month.  That's over $7,200 a year and I'm not eligible for any retirement subsidy, which makes it the full COBRA cost.  At that rate (pun intended), I should go self-insured, or at least look into catastrophic only insurance, which at my desired level of health would be the equivalent of self-insurance.

Of course, a book I'm reading tells me that a person in my situation is more susceptible to heart disease.  I'm hoping that doing all the other things will mitigate the negative impacts of the situation.

House, vehicles, health insurance, food, ... Life after Layoff is expensive.

Out for a haircut and the first posting of my new flyer, back home for lunch, then to Staples for some kind of holder to attach to the flyer for the take away business cards, and then to Whole Foods.  I was going to buy something but the real reason was to post the flyer.  Unfortunately, Staples didn't have anything so I went home to make some of my own.  It is slow going but I can do them.  I don't know how many I can make for the trip between now and the time I leave, with everything else I have to do.  The second one went better.

My oldest daughter was a tremendous help with her editing of the flyer.  I'm planning on taking two or three for her to post when I see her on Thanksgiving.

Normally I'd welcome rain and it looks like it really will but I was planning on washing the Prius.  I vacuumed out the floors but forgot to do the hatch deck.  I also held off washing the windows because I wanted to wait until after I washed the car.  With my busted trip down to Whole Foods, I don't know whether or not I will get that posted before I leave or not.

I had a full dinner:  asparagus, baked potato w/ chili beans, and salad.  I have a lot of food to go through before I leave.  I also have purchased some travel food.  Of course, I'll have to ration the travel food or I could eat it too fast.  With all that I've purchased, I don't think that even I could eat it all on the first day, even if I didn't eat anything else.  Some of it is even good for me.

I'm doing both a list and a collection point.  The guest bedroom is my collection point and the list is my backup.

When I was looking for the double-sided Scotch tape, I found another card that Marilyn had addressed and stamped the envelope.  For this one she had drafted its contents but had never put them on the card itself.  I stopped looking for the double-sided tape after that.