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How I afford Health Insurance (as a part-time employee)

  • Posted on July 6, 2009 at 1:55 pm

Lifehacker.com recently posted an article titled How to Buy Your Own Health Insurance, which further links to their post asking How do you stay healthy without insurance?

I’m not self-employed anymore, but I am underemployed in the retail sector, and classified as part-time to boot. However, I do have health insurance. I have health insurance yet do not lose money every month paying insurance premiums and so can you (providing you qualify for the EITC).

Why does qualifying for the EITC matter? Because our lovely wonderful government allows you to get some of your EITC in your paycheck. It’s an easy way to increase your income without affecting your tax withholding.

What you need to do is:

  1. Read the IRS Q&A on the Advance EIC or if you’re in a hurry go straight to the Form W-5 EIC Advance Payment Certificate (PDF link)
  2. Fill out the form and turn it into your payroll department. The amount of money you get in your check is based on your wages, whether or not you’re married, and IF you are married whether your spouse also has a Form W-5 in effect.
  3. Sign up for health insurance through your employer. Just make sure your monthly premium does not exceed your AEITC.

For the record, I turned in my W-5 first and waited to see how much I actually got in my paycheck before opting-in to my employer’s health insurance plan. I was able to afford health insurance on myself AND to contribute to an HSA.

The Form W-5 does have to be renewed every year. I have the AEITC website bookmarked and when I fill out my preliminary tax forms using my last paystub of the year, I go ahead and fill out the new form.

One last thing: following these directions will reduce the amount of your April 15th refund, since you’re getting it in your paycheck. Personally, I think the peace of mind that comes with health insurance is worth it.

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I landed on the duct-taped parts

  • Posted on May 4, 2009 at 1:06 pm
This entry is part 8 of 10 in the series atypicalrelationship

I am not the right woman for him.

I refuse to discuss marriage.

I am shoving my children down his throat.

I am just using him for sex.

I am under my mama’s thumb (and after her money).

I let That House come between us.

I wouldn’t have nothin’ if it weren’t for my Daddy dying. HE worked for it all.

I’m looking for a father for my kids, not a relationship.

The texts keep coming. I flipped the bitchswitch, the cold-as-ice, the “there’s no way in hell I’d speak to you again” mode as soon as he accused me of shoving my children down his throat. I’m already a single mom – I already do it all alone. I’d rather do it alone than with a jackass any day of the week. He asks, textingly, if I miss him. I reply that it doesn’t matter if I miss him or not, he’s not the man for me or my children.

Weeks go by, and I call/text. I need to know when/if he is going to pay his portion of the phone bill. He goes off on a tangent.

His wife, his soon-to-be-ex, his friend stops by and speaks to my manager at work. Leaves a letter for me with him, telling me to leave “her husband” alone. No calling, no texting. He’s in my past, it’d be best to leave him there. Complete with a copy of NC’s “criminal conversation” law. No problem – I call the phone company and have service to that line interrupted. I will not be responsible for a phone bill when I’m “not allowed” to call or text that line.

His parents come in the store, and I ask if he’d reconciled with her. They look at me like I’ve grown horns. I showed them the letter, and how it sounds as if they are back together. They say they’ll take care of it, and we go our separate ways.

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Big, Bigger, Biggest

  • Posted on January 25, 2008 at 3:26 pm

Lorelle issued a Blog Challenge: Blog About Being Big – aka Successful. Specifically, to write about a moment when I felt “big”, or to write “what it would look like if I were big”.

When I first read her post yesterday, I was all prepared to pick and choose between conquering anxiety attacks, restarting college as an adult, being a single mom to three, writing this blog, being promoted at work, losing weight, and teaching computer skills classes. Dating again (though I daresay that hasn’t been as successful as I’d like). All perfectly good examples of “when I felt big”.

Then I went to look at apartments with The Teen ™ and got the great joy of hearing about how I need a new vehicle (I really do), she needs new clothes (what teen doesn’t?), and I need to find her a job so she can start saving up for her own car (she can find her own damn job). And how she’s going to live her life differently so she doesn’t have to live the way I do. In my daughter’s eyes, I’m a hard-done-by loser. (She wouldn’t necessarily use the word “loser” though).

After that wonderfully uplifting discussion, I got to come home and listen to My Sainted Mother. Why in the WORLD would I want to live in an apartment when I can live in her Doublewide Paradise.

(Yes, I’m serious.)

And then I felt really really small and alone. And the see-saw started. Quitting school would meet my daughter’s immediate need for a vehicle “she can be seen in” and a house “she can invite people to”. Oh, and we can’t forget “shopping at the Mall!” Quitting school is not an option; I categorically refuse to be a retail and/or pink-collar zombie again. I don’t want to live with my parents anymore, but if I moved out I would have to add regular, frequent visits to check up on them. How would we handle scheduling? We, hell. How am *I* supposed to fit all that in?

And yet, right now, I feel more BIG than I ever have before. School is challenging and wonderful, work is routine but enjoyable. The Folks ™ and I have established a mostly-functional relationship. My children are happy and healthy (shallow teen-living aside). Writing is only more difficult because I’m waiting for that whole “time to write” thing to resolve itself.

What would it look like if I were BIG? Exactly the same as it does now, only with a partner and a house with in-law quarters 1/2 acre away. Oh, and I’d be an at-home mom again.

4 comments on Big, Bigger, Biggest