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On One Card Down and the Terrible-ness of Student Loans
HOOOOORAAAAAY LOGAN!! This is marvelous. I am so proud of you! Question regarding CC debt: I had/have a lot of credit card debt (max amount was $43K) due to medical bills. I got reimbursed by my insurance company for about $16K of that and used it to pay off the MRI/anesthesiologist bill to the tune of $12K. Does that still count? I mean, can I celebrate here publicly for paying off a card? I'm still going to celebrate winning the third appeal on my bill; the insurance company denied payment unreasonably, and it took me two years to change their hive-mind. Still. . .can I have two glasses of champagne instead of one?
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On Let's Not Lose All Our Teeth
Hi! My name is Mingus, and I'm missing half of the top of my mouth. Thanks to a good job and decent insurance, I was able to afford the six-month checkup with the dentist whose hygienist found my oral cancer. My cancer (polymorphous adenocarcinoma, low-grade) has no known risk factors and is generally--*generally*--not deadly, just disfiguring. Amanda, the hygienist who found the lump in my mouth, is the person I have to thank the most in my life. Without her noticing the lump on the right side of my hard palate, I might've had to have even more mouth removed, had to have head-and-neck radiation (NOT fun) or been dead. I am very grateful. As it is, I wear a pink polyethylene plastic palatal prosthetic that allows me to eat, drink, breathe, and speak both safely and intelligibly. I'm fucking LUCKY, you guys. My pal Mary, who lives in Washington state, which has one of the best Medicaid plans out there, is toothless at 35 and likely to stay that way. Medicaid paid for her surgery and radiation after a doc found tongue cancer, but wouldn't pay for her anesthetic to have multiple teeth extracted (we had a fundraiser) and won't pay for the surgical implants and dentures she needs to eat anything more challenging than Chef Boy-Ar-Dee. The moral of this story is that dental care is at least as important as Pap tests, mammograms, prostate exams, and heart-related stuff to our general health. Unfortunately, it's treated as a separate thing by insurance companies and Medicaid. If you can save the pennies to see a dentist, DO SO. I am thankfully living proof that dental visits can SAVE YOUR FUCKING LIFE.
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On An Australian Bread Secret For People Who Are Lazy But Not That Lazy
I use this same recipe, with two variations: I turn the oven to 450* F and bake the bread covered for only about 15 to 20 minutes. That gets it plenty cooked. Removing the lid of the dish after 15 minutes ensures the crust's nice and brown. Also, if you need to go run errands or something when your 18 hours is up, you can fold the dough over on itself, put it back in the bowl, and leave it for up to another four hours without any harm! This is like magic bread: I've never ever had a failure with it.
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On My Danish Bread Secret
But the dark rye is SO GOOD with paper-thin slices of salami. SO GOOOOD.
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On Do You Know How Much a Single Tampon Costs?
One of the cashiers at my local beer store caught a woman shoplifting a single tampon. He said, "Oh, come *on*. Just ask if you need one; we'll be happy to open a box for you." I love living in a college town.
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On The State of Things: The Two Logans, and Mike Premeditates
I love these check-ins. They make me feel like maybe I can manage to pay down some of this medical debt/all of this medical debt before the insurance company forks over the money they owe me. Because that will happen just before four horsemen ride across a blood-red sky, of course. Meanwhile, the fridge is stocked and I have plans for eating all the food so none of it goes bad, I've paid my bills, and I *might* just have some extra to put toward Ye Olde CANSUH Bills.
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On Do You Have Health Insurance?
Ha. Ha, ha, ha, ha, hahahahahahaha. I have health insurance, 100% paid for, through the largest health-care provider in my state. Which was great, until I hit the $15,000 lifetime deductible for tests/visits/hospital stays/surgeries in 2010. Then I found out that this fine, fine insurance will cover breast implants, but not the prosthetic I use to protect my airway and allow for speech and swallowing (oral cancer). I'm still fighting the company to get at least some of the $21K I've paid for the prosthetic back. Even good insurance can leave you badly in the lurch if there's enough fine print and enough loopholes.
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On The Agonies, the Ecstasies and the Efficiencies of Menu Planning
@MissMushkila It depends on what I'm buying that week. About twice a year I declare Pantry Bankruptcy and have to restock all sorts of things (like capers). Those times I'll spend well over $100 (this last time was $168), but I'm buying all sorts of lasting things, like oils and vinegars and canned ingredients. Normally a week's shop for me runs between $40-$60, depending on what's on sale. I live alone, by the way, but have expensive tastes in coffee and two cats to feed. That amount is going to go up, I fear, because I've been told by my doctor to eat red meat. When I was really poor, I could get by on $15 a week, but that was 20 years ago and I never ate eggs or drank decent coffee.