I work with our new hires at work. Most are low paid employees. It's not part of what I should be talking about, but I usually ask if they understood the benefits as I can explain them again if they have questions and then I tell them something like "this is my personal opinion, but I feel I should say this" and then I make it a point of talking about the 401K and how they really should invest. If you don't put in you don't get a match. It's really not a huge amout of money (50% up to the first 4%), but it's free money - like a raise. That 4% of $1000 is only $40. That out of their paycheck its like $25-30. Usually the new hires just laugh, but I actually think one got it today. I explained how I add in my raise each year. I never had the money before so I don't miss it and I really think she got it. So nice to see.

I was enjoying my lunch at work today when the cashier yells, "is there a nancy here?" I wasn't paying attention, but my friends call out to me to let me know it was me. Apparently there was an emergency phone call for me on my floor. Needless I run to the floor to find out that the school is calling. My 7 year old was pushing another child on a swing to have it come back and hit her in the mouth. All I heard was a tooth was out (they didn't know if it was adult or not ) and there was a lot of mouth trauma. I went to go get her to bring her to a dentist. Good news: it was a baby tooth ( I saw that right away), but I wanted x-rays to make sure the adult teeth weren't injured. Bad news: we switched dental plans at work and our dentist wasn't in this new plan. This was not the time to find a new dentist. Everything is okay in her mouth other than a lot of bruising inside her mouth and it looks like it won't be that bad for my purse as they will submit to this insurance and they feel it will be covered (apparently other patients use this insurance also).

Moral of the story
1. pay attention when you push someone on a swing
2. when you switch insurances research the new doctors / dentists and pick one right away. Or at least make sure your old doctor/dentist will accept payment from the new insurance.

ugh.
another unexpected spend day.
I've noticed water in the basement for the past week. It's always been around the furnace (baseboard hot water heat). Just a small puddle, but it's there every day. It always happens early morning/ late night. There is never any water there during the day. I finally figured it's related to the boiler. There is some sort of drain spout at the back of the boiler. When we use hot water (like for a shower) it ranges from a drip to a small pour out of this spout. Called the oil company. They'll be out today - hopefully this morning and I'll make it in to work (better late than never). Luckily we have the maintainence insurance (We got the insurance as that covers routine cleaning - so it really doesn't cost much extra) and I guess this is what the flex time off is for (though I'd rather use it in the summer for a pool day).

hopefully it isn't a budget breaker.