August 2009

Welcome to August - Really too hot with lots of humidity.

Going up to Corolla to see friends, seeing lots of people this month, including Sasha's Brother!

Expenses: Hopefully not as bad as July. YES! We finally managed to go nice and low, under $1000 for the month. Of course, we really were saying we wanted to buy some groceries before the end of the month, but decided to eat from the provisions.

It seems we still spent a bit of money on things, but again always necessary things. The food costs around here are high, both in groceries and in eating out meals. So we are hoping next month that we will spend less than $300 in food & household & provisions, and less than $100 in Meals to Go. We shall see. -HAHAHA HA - I do believe there is no way to do that. This area jacks up the prices so that it is impossible to get sales on practically anything. I guess that is the case when you live in a resort town. But we don't eat out very often, it just is not worth it. 

We did get peaches when we went up to Corolla to visit Todd. Those peaches were excellent full of juice and really tasty. When we went to the store to get peaches (Food Lion of course) I got a bunch to dry, but to eat, well, the peaches in Corolla were better.

But still, over three hundred for food stuff, no matter that some was provisions and others was regular food stuff, it is continuing to be very expensive to buy food here. Sasha was checking out the food prices elsewhere, and it is so much cheaper, even just north, say in Norfolk Virginia. But when you have to consider the price of fuel, I guess the prices would be about the same.

First time in a while I bought clothing - but this was for my pirates' program rather than for something to wear for myself. I did not want to wait around for my supervisor to approve of the buying of stuff, I just went out and got it. Maybe I can write it off as an expense for work. I got a pair of Capri's and a ruffled shirt plus a bandana and a pirates extra pieces to have when I do my program. The last couple of times I did the program, it worked out pretty well. Having the extra props helps, as I could go from one to the other without notes.

We still have lots of diesel, but when we went to Todd's we filled up the truck on the way home. We are not driving much, as I have a bicycle now, which I use all the time. It only takes about 2 minutes to get to work, as opposed to 15 minutes by walking. I think it takes longer for those in cars because they have to park it. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

We got something for the trailer, some sort of sealant or something. I am just glad that it is there, so that we can put our extra stuff in, especially when Hurricane Bill and Tropical Storm Danny came through, so that Sasha could put away everything without a problem. At least those storms got us to clean up our site a little. It will make the end of the season so much easier.

While this month's bill for Verizon is the same is last month, NEXT month will be higher, because we went over the 5 GB allowed limit. We already got an email that we went over - by only 30 MB - BUT EACH MB is $1 OUCH! Sometimes I really do hate these companies.

I have been applying to jobs and of course, there are jobs out there that need mailing. The government is starting to wise up, telling the rangers that they have to get the application in BEFORE the end date, it can no longer be post-marked by the end date of the job application. So there are a couple of Canyonlands National Park jobs, their end date stated August 24 BUT in order to get it in on time - I did a Priority Service on August 21st to get it to them on time. I guess they are trying to get us to get the applications in sooner, but when you have so many to do, plus work, and down-time, well, then we get them later. I'd rather do the online ones but some of the best jobs are the ones where you have to mail it in.

Our health insurance is the same as before, but it is interesting that for our entire bill for the month, one third of it is health insurance. Almost all of the park rangers here do NOT have health insurance. Which is pretty scary considering that we do have physically demanding jobs. But most people tend to get hurt not on the job but when we are on our off-time, therefore, no job compensation. Of the seasonal rangers, I think there is only a few (maybe) that have health insurance. And then to be quoted such high prices of $300 to $350 per month! Well, I hope that the health insurance plans in Congress go through, and that they make it affordable for everyone to get it. 'nuf said.

We did have an old bill - well, it came in the mail just recently, the insurance did not pick it up  (Again, why do we have insurance, if they do not pay for the bills ugh) so we had to pay it. I suppose we could put some money into the Health Saving Account and pay the bill through that way, but it is better for us for the money to be liquid for the times that we need it. But I said my piece on health insurance above, no more on that.

We did not do too much fun stuff (buying-wise) except for an iTunes song that Sasha wanted, but we did see Todd and also saw Bo when he came down to Hatteras. It is nice when people come to this area, and seeing family is always fun. Hopefully next month we will see some more family as well.

Check out Next Month: September, the start of the Fall Season, not so many programs but possibly more hurricanes?