Search found 398 matches

by bluelight
Thu Feb 08, 2024 11:43 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: going gluten-free
Replies: 55
Views: 4589

Re: going gluten-free

BenMcCool wrote: Thu Feb 08, 2024 11:12 am
Travel is pretty much restricted to the GF food you can take with you…

When DW was in the hospital overnight, the dietician called and asked me to bring her food from home. The kitchen couldn't provide GF meals.
Travel in Europe is pretty easy. Senza Gluten is all you need to say in Italy. They get it there as well as cross contamination.

Hospitals are notoriously horrible when it comes to GF. I don't understand why. At least the dietician told you they couldn't provide food. When my husband was in the hospital for a planned procedure they gave him a meal that contained gluten. Celiac was noted on his chart and they were also were notified in advance. Yet they still gave him a 'normal' meal.
by bluelight
Thu Feb 08, 2024 12:04 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: going gluten-free
Replies: 55
Views: 4589

Re: going gluten-free

My husband was diagnosed with Celiac 40 years ago (when they called it sprue). We've been together 30 years. Dealing with Celiac isn't that difficult anymore but you still must always be aware. For the most part, we eat simply. A meat or fish baked or grilled, rice or potato, and veggie. It just makes life easier if you all adopt a GF type of diet in the beginning. Costco has a number of very good gluten free items. My husband is a fan of the GF frozen pizza. GF Oreos taste just like the real thing. Most supermarkets have a Gluten Free section. Schar has many very good GF breads and rolls. Find Me Gluten Free app is very good for finding restaurants. If you are in a more metropolitan area you may find GF dedicated bakeries and restaurants. ...
by bluelight
Mon Jan 01, 2024 1:54 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Looking to buy 2nd home in VHCOL, can we afford?
Replies: 23
Views: 3042

Re: Looking to buy 2nd home in VHCOL, can we afford?

Is the only reason for this move for the school district?

My daughter and SIL started sending their young daughter to a small private school a few years ago. While cheaper than what you are paying, they felt the schools in their town weren't good enough. They purchased a new, larger house in an excellent school district with the intention of sending her to public school. Then they realized how much she was thriving in her private school. So they are spending much more on housing, taxes and utilities while she still goes to private school.
by bluelight
Sat Nov 18, 2023 10:38 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Does Anybody Remember The Midnight Special?
Replies: 20
Views: 3297

Re: Does Anybody Remember The Midnight Special?

Loved the Midnight Special. Thanks for posting that link.
by bluelight
Fri Nov 17, 2023 12:26 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: AARP Plan F to Plan G
Replies: 17
Views: 2218

Re: AARP Plan F to Plan G

Thank you. I will look into that.
by bluelight
Fri Nov 17, 2023 8:42 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: AARP Plan F to Plan G
Replies: 17
Views: 2218

Re: AARP Plan F to Plan G

Silk McCue wrote: Thu Nov 16, 2023 6:44 pm It depends on what state you are in. Medical underwriting may be required to change from Plan F to G.

Cheers
We are in NY. How would I find out if it is a requirement?
by bluelight
Thu Nov 16, 2023 6:30 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: AARP Plan F to Plan G
Replies: 17
Views: 2218

AARP Plan F to Plan G

My husband is eligible for, and currently has AARP Medigap plan F which has zero deductible. If we switched him from AARP plan F to AARP plan G we would have a savings of $350 after Medicare deductible is met.

This seems like a no brainer to me, but I wonder if I'm missing something. Any downsides to switching him from plan F to G?
by bluelight
Fri Nov 10, 2023 4:59 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Buying a 120k car... yes, I need your help
Replies: 275
Views: 34111

Re: Buying a 120k car... yes, I need your help

I say go for it. You can afford it. Do it while you are still young and can enjoy. Join your local PCA club and have fun doing treks and rallies. Definitely sign up for Drivers Ed with the club. The PCA groups (NNJR and Metro NY) that we have been members of are very family oriented. Your wife may even enjoy it. Ten years ago I told my husband to go ahead and buy a sports car. We discussed budget and options and ended up buying a 4 year old CPO Cayman. Flew to Florida to purchase it as there were none locally that fit what we wanted, and drove it home. One of our best vacations was to Porsche Parade. All back roads. Even though the car hasn't been driven much over the last couple of years, my husband has some health issues, we don't regret ...
by bluelight
Sat Sep 30, 2023 2:47 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Mix and match pharmacies for lowest co-pays? (Medicare part D)
Replies: 21
Views: 1942

Re: Mix and match pharmacies for lowest co-pays? (Medicare part D)

We mix and match as needed. One of the prescriptions my husband is on would be over $200 per refill using his part D insurance, with GoodRx at a different pharmacy it's about $40. I had a similar issue with a short term medication, it was close to $1,000 for a month supply with insurance, and $120 with GoodRx. Luckily I only had to be on it for 3 months. For any of his new prescriptions we will check out the prices before we pick the medication up from the pharmacy and if there is a large GoodRx savings, will call the doctors office back and request that it be sent to the cheaper pharmacy. Mine is a little more difficult to do, as I use mail order, but I will check the price before it's shipped. We check possible drug interactions on our ow...
by bluelight
Wed Sep 13, 2023 9:15 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

anoop wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 11:59 pm
bluelight wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 11:54 pm I finally found the email that was auto created when the bill pay was created. It was in the junk folder in my primary email account. I wish I had seen it a few days ago.
With gmail, I find that spam filtering is horrible. Close to 50% of the messages that land there are legitimate--stuff that was sent to a mailing list that I am on, a response to a query from an online business, and many brokerage notifications. So I check it regularly.
Actually the gmail account that I use as a secondary had the messsage. My primary acct is the one that put it to spam. It's like the gods were against me.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 11:54 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

Is your bank one of the big 4 -- Chase, BofA, Wells, Citi? I ask because I think they probably have better security, the main reason why I chose to stay there instead of going to a smaller bank or CU with maybe better customer service and rates. Regardless, that you haven't been able to figure out how it happened is worrisome. Does the bank at least have an audit trail of where the login came from that resulted in adding a payee and initiating a payment? Do they know if it was your userid or your husband's that was compromised? It's a community bank, I think about 100 branches throughout the state. I gave up on the big banks years ago and just used this bank and credit unions. With the exception of the branch manager who called me today an...
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 11:30 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

Please use a password manager and generated long unique random passwords for each account and 2FA if available. The only password that should be in your brain is the one to get in there. The most clever password will always have a hard time standing up to a botnet of crackers. KeePass is an open source password manger that is not cloud based. It has clients for all platforms. It's on you to back up the data though. One file easily copied to Dropbox/GDrive/OneDrive/etc. Those aren't the password cloud targets that LastPass and 1Password are. All browsers these days are pretty secure. Just keep the browser updated and mind extensions. Ad blockers also limit nefarious code. Chrome is not better than Firefox. Firefox is fine. No idea how they ...
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 11:24 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

I only have Facebook container and translate extensions turned on. I usually shut down all other sites when I do banking or the financial websites, with the exception of email. I honestly take so many precautions with anything related to our finances that I just can't see what I did wrong. It's hard to know what could have happened after the fact, because there is so much out there that is malicious that tries very hard to pretend to be something legit. If you have not done so you should file a police report with your local police, as well as report it to the FBI's cyber crime center: https://www.ic3.gov/ Almost $10,000 stolen could be a felony level theft, the police may consider it enough to look into the matter instead of just taking a ...
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 10:59 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

TheRoundHeadedKid wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 10:53 pm Do not install any extensions or add-ons to the web browser that you do your banking, except for a trusted password manager. The extensions can read your web pages that you visit and who knows where it gets transmitted. May want to go to incognito mode or in-private web session so that no sessions cookies get left behind when done.
I only have Facebook container and translate extensions turned on. I usually shut down all other sites when I do banking or the financial websites, with the exception of email. I honestly take so many precautions with anything related to our finances that I just can't see what I did wrong.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 10:33 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

beyou wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 8:47 pm Sounds like you could have a keystroke logger virus on your pc. Only way they could create bill payments was to login to your bank. They also changed your pwd, a sure sign the are doing more than using the info on a check.

Get a tool to scan for spyware/virus.
We've run spybot for years. I just did a new scan, it came up clean.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 7:59 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

I wonder about that too. They called me about the $9,800 bill pay Monday morning, before I logged on for the day. They didn't mention the ACH withdrawals, I saw that when I saw my savings balances had dropped drastically. I don't know if it was flagged by the system or if there were others impacted by a breach and they were specifically looking for something off. I've never had them call before about any large bill pay or withdrawal. I have all my accounts linked to Quicken. Almost every morning, I run an update to download transactions from all my linked accounts. Advantage is temp deposits to link a new bank for ACH or any bank or CC transactions are downloaded with 24 to 48 hours. Makes for a central method to monitor all your accounts....
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 7:56 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

Money_Badger wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 7:49 pm Yikes. Changing a bunch of my passwords now!
I already changed any passwords that were related to my husbands retirement accts. Tomorrow I need to disengage any accounts that were tied to my checking acct for funds transfers. Then change all passwords.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 7:46 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

Try this: The first two letters of the financial institution. Example Bank of America: ba Your personal phrase. Example: iluvmyluvlY = ("I love my lovely" - mutilated with a capital at the end) Password = bailuvmyluvlY You only have to memorize your mutilated phrase. Now, go try it out here: https://www.passwordmonster.com/ Get a password manager. I recommend 1password , for families it is $5/month and you can have 5 individual password vaults. If you use a Mac, you can use the 1password for safari addon, and you can go to the site from 1password and then click in the login box and it will fill in username and password. 1password will generate a random password for you, and you can specify the length. 15 characters is considered ...
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 7:43 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

About 10-15 years ago a retired guy had an issue with his accounts. He got some money out of the ATM and noticed the account seemed low and went inside to talk to someone. In his case it was his housekeeper who wrote down his bank account info and was paying her bills with his account. Apparently some of the companies (MCI was one) did not follow proper procedure when she used his account so they were personally responsible for the loss of money. In his case it wasn't a large amount of money (maybe a couple of thousand or so) and he had a tough time getting the local police to charge her. He was persistent and I think they finally did charge her. She tried to claim that the bank made a mistake. Good luck with everything. Thank you. Unfortu...
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 7:40 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

jayjayc wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:59 pm
bluelight wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:24 pm I expect that they should. Funny, the branch manager called me today and after speaking for awhile he told me I was calm about it. I know that getting upset won't make it any better. I sent the unauthorized debit form back to him and do expect them to correct it.
I would call the bank using the phone # published on their website and ask for that branch manager. Just to make sure that original call to you was legit and not the hacker posing as the branch manager.
I called him later on. It was legit.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 7:36 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

If bad actors are able to obtain your bank account number, they just pull the money out. Not hard as the account number is printed on every check! I'm increasingly convinced the security risks of using something like Mint are greatly outweighed by the security benefits of seeing all transactions in all your accounts in near real time. I've caught several fraudulent transactions thanks to Mint, that at a minimum would have taken considerably longer to see without Mint. Interesting thought. I don't use mint, but I use money management software provided by the bank for my accounts and credit cards. I removed other accounts (credit union and an addition checking account) from it a few months ago. I have used that software for over 10 years. Is...
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:48 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

pizzy wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:45 pm
bluelight wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:44 pm
pizzy wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:39 pm Where was the $9,800 bill pay being sent?
Numerica Credit Union. I only found that info out tonight.
Local? Ever heard of it?
No, I haven't. Numerica serves the Spokane, Tri-Cities, and Wenatchee Valley regions of Washington state, as well as the North Idaho Panhandle. I'm across the country. I wonder if that is a bogus name for where the money was really setup to go. With my accounts locked, I can't see any additional information.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:45 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

bighatnohorse wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:40 pm Try this:
The first two letters of the financial institution. Example Bank of America: ba
Your personal phrase. Example: iluvmyluvlY = ("I love my lovely" - mutilated with a capital at the end)
Password = bailuvmyluvlY

You only have to memorize your mutilated phrase.
Now, go try it out here: https://www.passwordmonster.com/
Thanks. I'll look into that tomorrow. I'm just fried for today.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:44 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

pizzy wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:39 pm Where was the $9,800 bill pay being sent?
Numerica Credit Union. I only found that info out tonight.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:42 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

If bad actors are able to obtain your bank account number, they just pull the money out. Not hard as the account number is printed on every check! I'm increasingly convinced the security risks of using something like Mint are greatly outweighed by the security benefits of seeing all transactions in all your accounts in near real time. I've caught several fraudulent transactions thanks to Mint, that at a minimum would have taken considerably longer to see without Mint. Interesting thought. I don't use mint, but I use money management software provided by the bank for my accounts and credit cards. I removed other accounts (credit union and an addition checking account) from it a few months ago. I have used that software for over 10 years.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:38 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

02nz wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:32 pm
H-Town wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:25 pm If bad actors are able to obtain your bank account number, they just pull the money out.
Not hard as the account number is printed on every check!
I don't have checks for my husband's checking acct. It is only used for his SS and pension deposits. Any withdrawals from that account are only done by me as a transfer to either a savings or my main checking account. The main account is the only one I have checks for. It wasn't touched..
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:35 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

What does your husband say about it? He's upset. He does nothing financial. The bank and I will hopefully fix it. "My bank told me transferred funds were pulled from my account." This sounds like the bad actors did an ACH pull. If it was ACH your bank should be able to recover the funds. ^ this. Not all banks match name with ACH pull. If bad actors are able to obtain your bank account number, they just pull the money out. Another possibility is bad actor is working in your bank. You should push to get more info from your bank investigation as to *how* it happened. I wonder about that too. They called me about the $9,800 bill pay Monday morning, before I logged on for the day. They didn't mention the ACH withdrawals, I saw that wh...
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:24 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

anagram wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:14 pm
bluelight wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:02 pm
Beensabu wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 5:59 pm What does your husband say about it?
He's upset. He does nothing financial. The bank and I will hopefully fix it.
"My bank told me transferred funds were pulled from my account."

This sounds like the bad actors did an ACH pull. If it was ACH your bank should be able to recover the funds.
I expect that they should. Funny, the branch manager called me today and after speaking for awhile he told me I was calm about it. I know that getting upset won't make it any better. I sent the unauthorized debit form back to him and do expect them to correct it.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:19 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

ClassII wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:10 pm
bluelight wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 5:44 pm I worked as a consultant to IBM a few years ago. They suggested creating a sentence and and using the first characters of the words, along with numbers to create an easy to remember password. For each logon I just need to remember the sentence for that site.
That's novel but you better remember all those sentences. Get a password manager ASAP.
I get it. I have never really trusted password managers. I allow Firefox to remember some non financial passwords, but I password protect that access.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:09 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

It's a text to the phone number on record. My cell is the phone number on record.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:05 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

I have 2 factor auth on most of my financial accounts, not on this one when I use my home pc. I don't know if that would work for pull from the savings accounts.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:02 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

Beensabu wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2023 5:59 pm What does your husband say about it?
He's upset. He does nothing financial. The bank and I will hopefully fix it.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:00 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

99% of my access to the account is through Firefox on my home PC. I have the app installed on my phone and use it when we are traveling. For any of my financial sites I do not allow Firefox or the apps remember the userid or password. When I use any financial apps on my phone, I only go over the provider network and use a VPN. Editing to add that I have the bank icon on my main Firefox screen on my PC. I just click that to get to the bank website. No search engine involved.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 5:49 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

They text a new temporary password. It had been so long since I had changed this one, that I don't remember if email is also an option
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 5:44 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

Re: We were hacked

I worked as a consultant to IBM a few years ago. They suggested creating a sentence and and using the first characters of the words, along with numbers to create an easy to remember password. For each logon I just need to remember the sentence for that site.
by bluelight
Tue Sep 12, 2023 5:28 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: We were hacked
Replies: 105
Views: 9705

We were hacked

We were hacked. I'm still not sure how this happened, but my bank spotted it and called me at 10am Monday morning, asking if I had setup a $9,800 bill pay. When I tried to logon to my acct, the password didn't work. I had experienced that about a month ago even though the password was many years old and the password requirements hadn't changed. I reset it and didn't think about it again. I use a different password for each of my financial accounts that are stored only in my head. My husband and I both banked at the same bank when we were married, so we just added each other to our own checking and statement savings accounts and I linked all 4 of the accounts to my online banking. My husband has zero interest in finances, and I don't know ho...
by bluelight
Sun Apr 30, 2023 11:33 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Keep or sell Audi ??
Replies: 44
Views: 4980

Re: Keep or sell Audi ??

We have a 10 year old Audi. Great car that has been extremely reliable so far. I would go with the fix.
by bluelight
Sun Apr 02, 2023 10:53 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Cordless leaf blower under $200
Replies: 37
Views: 2628

Re: Cordless leaf blower under $200

Hello, I’m looking for a cordless leaf blower preferably with a leaf vacuum and bag under $200. I have a patio and driveway that I would need to clean, half acre lot, driveway is about 125 feet long, the patio is about 200 square feet. This would be relatively light duty as we do have a landscaper come in once every week or two. Locally we have Ace and Lowe’s, I’d prefer to buy from them, but Sam’s Club and Home Depot are also options. My property is about the same size as yours, with long 2 car wide driveway, large paver patio plus a 100+ ft walkway from the front to back of my house. I purchased the $99 Ryobi blower 2 years ago along with a 2nd battery. I love that blower. Easily handles the hard surfaces and I have also used it on the l...
by bluelight
Tue Jan 10, 2023 10:47 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Fidelity free Turbotax 2022
Replies: 473
Views: 58547

Re: Fidelity free Turbotax 2022

Try to clear your cookies for both sites or use a private browser. I chatted with Fidelity yesterday, the agent verified that I was eligible then told me to try again over the next two weeks. If I still couldn't get it to work, to call the client service dept at 800-343-3548.
by bluelight
Tue Jan 10, 2023 10:03 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Fidelity free Turbotax 2022
Replies: 473
Views: 58547

Re: Fidelity free Turbotax 2022

Got it to work today. Had to delete it, then add again, but I was finally able to download for $5.
by bluelight
Sun Jan 08, 2023 4:30 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Fidelity free Turbotax 2022
Replies: 473
Views: 58547

Re: Fidelity free Turbotax 2022

MisterBill wrote: Sun Jan 08, 2023 1:41 pm
As for the instructions on how to get the free/$5 to work, have you tried it today? It's broken again. I logged into the website in Safe Mode and did not see the free/$5 pricing. Also tried it in an entirely different browser.
I tried the same. It's broken again. I'll try again tomorrow.
by bluelight
Mon Mar 28, 2022 1:09 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Gardening 2022
Replies: 144
Views: 15148

Re: Gardening 2022

Trying something new this year, winter sowing. Started with native perennials in January and have been working my way to herbs and annuals. Current total is 34 water jugs and juice bottles and will be adding 6 more jugs with tender annuals next week. So far I have 95% germination rate. I would love to do veggies, but we have too much shade and no where to put in a fenced garden. Most of the flowers will go into containers as the raccoons tend to destroy seedlings. I can't remember the last time I grew anything from seed, so this has been a fun way to experiment with new plants and get my fingers in the dirt during the cold, gloomy days of winter. https://getbusygardening.com/winter-sowing-seeds/
by bluelight
Mon Mar 21, 2022 9:59 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Gifting to family
Replies: 2
Views: 548

Gifting to family

My husband and I want to gift my daughter and son in law $50K to assist in their purchase of a house. To bypass any possible issues with a gift tax, would we need to cut 4 different checks.... me to my daughter, me to my son in law, my husband to my daughter and my husband to my son in law. Or am I making this overly complicated.
by bluelight
Tue Dec 21, 2021 1:31 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Hardwood floor in basement - Glue or floating?
Replies: 16
Views: 2219

Re: Hardwood floor in basement - Glue or floating?

I know this isn't what you asked, but you should also take a look at LVT. It has the look of wood and is waterproof.
by bluelight
Sat Dec 18, 2021 3:21 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Received bill for service already paid
Replies: 11
Views: 1440

Re: Received bill for service already paid

Just call them. I've had to do this multiple times this past year. It will probably take them about a month to correct it.
by bluelight
Sat Dec 18, 2021 3:06 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Who do you bank with and why? (2021)
Replies: 180
Views: 20863

Re: Who do you bank with and why? (2021)

Main checking / bill pay and savings is with a bank that was local to me when I lived in NJ. They have a free money management product that I have hooked into all other accounts and allows me to easily track all income and expenses.

Secondary checking and savings is with TD Bank. Local branches and ATM for ready cash. I transfer funds between them and the main checking as needed.

My ex employer's CU for emergency fund. They have the best interest rates and I can easily do transactions using their shared banking with a local CU.
by bluelight
Fri Nov 19, 2021 6:19 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Canned dog food online purchase
Replies: 16
Views: 1369

Re: Canned dog food online purchase

Are you purchasing anything else in the case that could dent the cans? I have been ordering cases of canned food from Chewy for my cat for years. Made a mistake once by also ordering a large bag of cat litter. All shipped in one container without any paper padding. The cans took the brunt of the handling and some were unusable. Chewy refunded the loss and I made a note to purchase separately in the future.
by bluelight
Tue Oct 26, 2021 7:05 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Any downside to chosing the cheapest RX plan
Replies: 2
Views: 423

Any downside to chosing the cheapest RX plan

I'm trying to figure out my Medicare part D plan. I have created a spreadsheet of my medication prices (I'm on 14 different meds). Most of them are tier 1 and tier 2 generics, with a couple of tier 3 thrown in for good measure. Including the $480 tier 3 copay, Humana Walmart $25 a month plan still seems to be the best cost wise using their Humana mail order pharmacy and a few meds filled via Good Rx. As this is the first time that I've had a choice of pharmacy plan and medical plan (I chose a Medigap plan), I'm thrown off by the monthly costs for each choice. My 2nd best plan per Medicare is the AARP $101 per month plan. The total difference in price is over $1k, but I'm wondering if there is ever any reason to choose I higher priced RX plan.
by bluelight
Mon Sep 13, 2021 12:43 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Service inflation also?!
Replies: 19
Views: 2073

Re: Service inflation also?!

This is our 5th year in our house. A little over 1/2 acre total, probably a little over quarter acre lawn. I pay $40 per cut, the same as I have since 2016. My sprinkler guy just increased our yearly turn on/turn off service from $80 to $100 for both. But whenever I've had an issue with a sprinkler head or the lines, he has been here ASAP to correct and gives me a good price to fix.
by bluelight
Sun Sep 12, 2021 11:25 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: FEMA/Insurance coverage for flood damage
Replies: 3
Views: 601

Re: FEMA/Insurance coverage for flood damage

Rules may have changed in the interim, but I had a flooded basement during TS Irene. I lived in NJ at the time. Luckily my power never went out and thanks to friends, family and 3 pumps running 24/7 damage was kept to a minimum. Because only a tiny portion of my property was considered in the 100 year flood zone, and the house built in 1938 had never had a drop of water, I was not required to have flood insurance. The water during Irene came up from minor cracks in my basement walls and floor. My appliances and boiler weren't damaged, but we had a mold issue. I contacted my home owners insurance as required and they rejected the claim as expected. I then had to send FEMA info that my HO had rejected my claim. I hired ServePro to clean and d...