To Monetize or Not to Monetize

So, I'm considering doing the "monetize" function (i.e., using Google's AdSense) on my blog.

This month, I will have an extra $500 in expenses because of the need for a new crown.

In addition, I received extra summer salary this month, but where I thought I would get two full-time weeks of pay at the end of June, it turns out that I only got about one and a half weeks, which, after taxes, amounts to about $600 less.

Damn.  That's $1100 less this month, which means less to go towards paying off some debt.  Whatever extra I received will go to the new crown and to Eddie's "Wipe-out Kids' Edition" Birthday Party - with some extra going to the debt.

In the end, we do need more money coming into the household.  And doing Google's AdSense is an easy way to do it.  It will inconvenience my readers . . . just because they will be confronted with them.  So, I apologize.  I think, though, that I can choose to block some companies.  I plan to use whatever extra (which I realize probably won't be a lot) to pay down the home equity line of credit (which I used when I was diagnosed two and a half years ago and on sabbatical).  Mom and dad do contribute to the household - both in monetary and non-monetary ways - but it always seems to be a little touch and go.  A little more cash flow will be good . . .

So, dear readers, I will probably implement this change in the next week or so.  It'll be an experiment . .. if it pans out, great.  If not, then I will take it off.  Thank you for your patience!

A Glorious Day

We had a beautiful day here in the Willamette Valley. It was partly cloudy, but warm! I saw some crocuses blooming today on my way to the office. I'll try to remember to post the picture.



I had my echocardiogram today. The technician had trouble getting a decent angle to get good pictures of my heart. He finally got one, though, although it was a little "off-axis". I watched the monitor sometimes and could see my mitral valve moving as well as the color-enhanced picture that showed blood moving away and blood moving toward the transducer.

This afternoon, we had a meeting with some of the Ph.D. students on advanced anthro theory. I didn't read all the readings - but I did read a few more that were interesting. It was fun to discuss them. Well, not sure if "fun" is the right word, but it was intellectually stimulating.

I paid bills this afternoon and worked on my budget. My taxes were accepted by both the feds and the state. Between the items we've sold on Craigslist, a little more money I'm getting from taxes, more of a reimbursement from insurance for acupuncture, and the honorarium from Victoria, we are able to afford a little vacation getaway next week-end (after paying off a couple of things, of course). Eddie has a five-day week-end, so we're going to Brookings, Oregon, on the southern Oregon Coast. Plus, with mom and dad moving in, we all have a little extra.

Happy week-end!

And, there's a Plan C

As recent readers of my blog know, I've been trying to institute some ways to save money with impending pay reductions. I'm still planning to pursue a version of Plan A, but Plan B was to fix up the house enough to be able to sell it.

Plan C is to invite my folks and brother to live with me. Something happened yesterday and it looks like Plan C is what we'll do.

My dad and my brother have been looking for work the past two years. I know that my brother has put in well over 100 applications and my dad maybe 30 or 40. No interviews. At all.

In the meantime, several years ago, my mom had acid reflux, but it'd gotten so bad that she'd lost about 10-15 pounds and then had blood in her urine. So, she had an endoscopy. After insurance paid, she owed a significant amount of money. But she couldn't afford to pay. They took whatever was left in her checking account yesterday and left her broke.

I ended up giving them some money from my savings, but in the end, it's a bandaid approach. We all need something that will put a dent in our debt - me in the home equity line of credit that I used when first diagnosed two years ago and my folks who have old medical bills.

So, they're moving in to my house. Probably after the first of the year. I do have two rooms that I don't even really use in the house. We're all going to adjust. But right now the benefits outweigh any negatives to learning how to live with each other again. We each save several hundred a month in expenses, which we can use to pay down debt, and I get home-cooked meals more often. They can help with Eddie in the case I have to have chemo. Dad gets a much bigger yard to play in - for his garden and such. They get internet access and satellite TV. We will now have two cats and a dog. We'll need to figure out storage.

So, some big changes in store after the New Year. I think it'll all work out.

Have a great week-end everyone!

Some financial changes

With temporary pay reductions starting in January, I am trying to institute some cost-cutting measures. I've made changes over the past year - like refinancing my house and trying to pay off my car quicker - but it's now time to start cutting smaller things. So, here's what I'm going to do:

1) start drinking chai at home instead of on my way to work - save maybe $10/week
2) start bringing lunches from home more often - eat out only once or twice/week - save maybe $15-20/week
3) switch from Comcast to Direct TV - save $20/month
4) start buying my herbs and supplements online - I save 50%, which is about $10-12/month
5) decrease how much I contribute to the Charitable Fund Drive at work - $25/month; I don't really like to do this, on the other hand, I help my family out each month to help them make ends meet. They say "charity begins at home" and I figure that I need to help my family before I help others. They help me a lot - they babysit Eddie frequently and dad helps me with yard work; he's coming over today to help me with the leaves.

That is about $150/month in savings. These are probably changes I could've instituted awhile back. I don't sacrifice much - I still have luxuries that a lot of people don't have. I sacrifice convenience, but that's okay. I'm also using coupons more.

Hopefully I can keep instituting small changes like this and make paying off the home equity line of credit a priority. I had to use that to make ends meet two years ago when I was on sabbatical. At the time, I didn't want to worry about finances and wanted to put them off into the future. Well, it's the "future" now.

Plan B is to maybe fix the house up enough to sell it this summer and use the equity to pay off all the bills and buy a smaller place. As it is, I don't use one big room and we don't really use the yard. A smaller place would make life easier. It's like starting with a clean slate. We'll see!

What a Great Son I Have!

Today, when I picked up Eddie, he noticed that I was quiet. So, he asked me, "You're not acting too weird" (i.e., Eddie's code word for "silly").

"No, I'm not. I'm worried about money."

He replied, "Well, what do you like better? Me or money?"

"You."

He then asked, "And, which one would you rather lose? Me or money?"

"Money."

He then said, "Well, then, it's okay. Because I'm with you now!"

A good reminder for what's more important in life. Got to remember those priorities!

I'm BAAACCCKKK!

Yesterday was the first day in a long time that I felt emotionally normal. Yesterday and today, I am in a good mood - on an even keel - and I have had two good night's sleep.

Part of it, I'm sure, has to do with all the good, positive energy that you all are sending me. I hope you know how much I appreciate it and how much it helps me.

Part of it also has to do with the fact that I'm on the downhill side of radiation treatments. YAY!

Part of it has to do with some books that I've been reading lately that have to do with energy healing such as acupuncture, spirituality, and things like past life regressions. Through counseling, acupuncture, reiki, and taking time to try to get at the bottom of some really deep-rooted issues I have seems to be making a difference.

I must admit, too, that part of it has to do with the fact that I am receiving more money through various work efforts than I expected. I received Year Two funding on one grant a bit earlier which will enable me to travel to Alaska and do some interviewing and it will give me some extra salary this summer. In fact, I received some of it at the end of June and I thought that I might receive a certain amount and when I got the check, it was a couple of hundred dollars more than expected. Then, the work that I did at NSF two weeks ago also gave me a stipend and I found out yesterday that it was about $200 more than expected. I cowrote an encyclopedia entry with a colleague last year and when it was to be published, the press was going to give us a $250 honorarium - didn't know when that might happen, but I found out that I should get it within the next couple of weeks. And, another colleague wrote me into her grant (I just had to give her my CV) and we found out that it was funded by the Alaska Humanities Forum and that comes with salary over the next 18 months that I wasn't expecting.

In other words, my financial situation is looking up again. I've been on a reduced salary (60%) all of this year because I am on sabbatical. Dealing with a cancer diagnosis and treatments was a shitty way to spend my sabbatical, but at least I didn't have to teach or go to meetings I didn't want to go to. Since last October, though, I've been relying on my home equity line of credit, a little bit of grant funding, and my tax refund to make up my monthly payments and to pay out-of-pocket medical expenses. So, I've gone a little deeper into debt (with the HELOC), but it's a small price to pay for my health.

So, what did I do with the little bit of extra money? Well, I had some work done on my car - deferred maintenance like flushing fluids and all that - and was able to put more into payments on the HELOC and the credit card. And, I have some left to create my mandala mosaic and next month I will be able to have extra for raised beds and maybe even to begin some home remodel projects - I have a grand scheme to turn this family room that's little used into a master suite, which will then enable me to get rid of this useless 1/2 bath at one end of the house and create a bigger bathroom and a bigger closet. I also want to build a deck in the backyard. I am also toying around with the idea of building another structure on my property. This structure will be a place for meditation and healing . . . it's an idea that came to me a few days ago and I really like the idea.

For the past week, too, I have been thinking that I am in remission. It may be just wishful thinking, but I don't think so. I hadn't allowed myself to think that far ahead. However, I just have this feeling that all the things that I've been doing (radiation, chemo, acupuncture and Chinese medicine, counseling and spiritual work) to beat this shitty cancer is working. I am more hopeful than I have been in a long time- I see light at the end of the tunnel. I've been imagining the reconstruction surgery and getting rid of these tissue expanders - I hope that that will happen in September. I've been doing a lot of visualization.

A lot of people have helped me . . . my folks, my family, Scott, my son, my friends, my colleagues, my fellow bloggers, my fellow King Islanders, even this nice man on the plane from Raleigh to Dallas (Sean Park, who is the pastor of Charisma Church in Raleigh) said that he and his colleagues and parishioners would pray for me. I hope you all know that I really appreciate it.

I also have a good, fun week-end ahead of me. Today, Heather (of My Xeloda fame) and her family (Kevin, Josh, Amy, Jackson, and Josh's and Heather's parents), Scott, Ashlee, Eddie, and I are going to have a picnic in Brownsville and then watch the fireworks. Tomorrow, my folks and Eddie and I head to Portland for the day and night - we'll hang out and do fun things in Portland during the day and mom will get to see her cousin, Marie, and then Scott will join me for a pre-wedding cocktail party on Saturday evening (mom and dad will babysit Eddie and stay at a hotel downtown). Andrew's (the friend who suggested that I start a blog to begin with) and Jessica's wedding is on Sunday and I found a nice dress and some shoes to go with it this week! All in all, it should be fun.

Happy 4th of July everyone! Have a great week-end! I think I will!