(no subject)

McKenzie and I are making a real effort to track our budget these days. We make enough money, but somehow we don't have enough money. So I'm attacking that problem Weight-Watchers-style and tracking everything. To that end, I'm trying to be realistic about travel. In years past, cheap tickets for long flights were always appealing because all those miles lead to status and status is awesome. But United (and all the other airlines) have changed their status requirements to be dollars-based, so grabbing a cheap long-haul flight isn't worth what it used to be. I was doing some research today to see if I have any hope of making status for next year (I'm gold now and Z is platinum -- we'll both make silver no problem, but the benefits are a lot nicer with gold status). I had thought the system had shifted to strictly dollar-based, but it turns out there are some loopholes. It's actually now total miles + dollars spent on flights. Total miles, I'll probably get to gold (50,000). But you have to spend $5000 on those flights, too. I don't think I'll come close to that -- right now I have 7100 miles in the bank on $400 spent. I mean I guess I could get there. But I'm not looking for ways to spend more money.

Enter the loophole!

If you have the credit card (and I do), and you charge $25,000 or more in the calendar year, then the flight dollar requirement is waived. I don't have $25,000 to spend on myself this year, BUT I think I can get there by charging things for other people in exchange for cash or checks. I did that with my friends' flights to New Zealand last year. So if you have any big purchases you'd like to make, let me know. I'd love to put it on my credit card -- provided that, you know, I trust you to actually pay me.

I will have flown 25,000 miles by the end of June without booking any more travel than I already have, but I will definitely be booking at least 5000 more miles' worth, so I'm well on pace to hit 50K by year's end, except I don't have any international travel scheduled (yet?) besides Italy in April, which I'm already counting. My family is taking another international cruise, but I'm only flying as far as the port for that, so it doesn't count for mileage purposes.

I actually really like number crunching and figuring all this shit out, but gosh life would be so much easier if I didn't have to make so many adjustments to fit my travel into my schedule and budget. I know I travel way more than most people and I'm lucky to have a job that's pretty chill about it, but I'd still like it to be easier.

Obamacare FTW

I will be putting my new insurance policy to use for the first time next week. When I purchased the plan, I knew it was pretty barebones and didn't cover things like regular doctor visits and has a high deductible and all that, so when I made the appointment to get my IUD replaced, I definitely didn't think I'd get any help from insurance. But the Planned Parenthood office urged me to check with them, because they are in-network with my provider. So, what the hell, I gave it a shot. Turns out it's 100% covered. I will owe nothing. It doesn't come out of my deductible. That'll save me over $1200. And it's paid for itself this year already. It's wonderful to have insurance.