krw wrote:
[...]
As I said earlier, we heat with gas until it gets below zero
(usually even then).
Can't do that out where where they charge $3/gal or more for propane.
But a wood stove works even with mild chills. Just fire a load in the
morning and let it trundle out during the day. Unfortunately most folks
around here bank the stoves way too much and that creates plumes of
smoke. We try to never let off visible smoke from our chimney, to the
point where some neighbors thought we'd never use our stove. When they
came over they could not believe that it was cranking out heat.
Did you pass this by your accountant? Let us know how it works
out. For young and reasonably healthy people ISTM that this is the
best plan. It also puts makes health insurance "insurance" again.
I didn't ask my CPA, there just wasn't enough time to make the Jan-1
deadline. I am pretty good in tax matters and sometimes my CPA (who does
the biz taxes) said he wished other clients of his would be that organized.
But when they jacked up the premium for full "insurance" another 20% it
can only make sense to go HSA. Even with zero tax effect we'd most
likely be ahead of the game in less than a year if our health remains as
good as in the past years. A $2700 deductible per person drops the
premium to around 60%. Not bad, considering that the "benefits" under
the full plan had been eroded away to the point where a lengthy hospital
stay would mean de-facto almost the same deductible. Via tricks such as
$200 copay per day etc. A regular doctor visit isn't all that expensive.
Kaiser lists most of that on their web site which helped in the decision
making process. AFAIR it'll be $65 out of pocket now and before the
switch we'd still pay a $25 fee.
The good thing is that from what I read we can pay the dentist from the
HSA and that really helps. Dental insurance in the US is mostly a joke IMHO.
[*] A friend commented that he can't remember a "green Christmas"
since at least the late '60s. ...not a bit of frost in the ground,
even.
Out here it was the other way around. After moving to this area people
told us that it never gets really cold. Nah, don't need no salt and
yada, yada, yada. Sure enough there came the day when we couldn't make
it down the driveway. It was completely iced up one crisp morning.
I don't use salt (sodium chloride) because it makes too much of a
mess and often doesn't work. Sodium Chloride is much better and
doesn't track into the house. It';s been so warm I've only used a
couple of pounds so far. I've only had to start the snow blower
once. This week I gotta dump the gas and buy new stuff. This
weather can't hold forever.
It's not salt either. Some kind of greenish granulate but it works.
A few years ago it was so cold salt no longer worked. We were
driving on a foot of packed snow for several weeks. What a mess
when that started melting!
I remember that from Europe. But drivers ed over there is mandatory and
usually contains a module about how to drive on slick surfaces and what
to do after loss of grip. After some winters you get used to it. The
only not so good thing I had happen was when my old Citroen over there
plowed up so much snow in front that it eventually floated onto the top
of that pile. That meant 15 minutes of shoveling it out from underneath
the car. Always had a foldable shovel in the trunk, mostly used to dig
others out ;-)
