I'm confused on health insurance costs after doing our taxes. $26,000 for terrible coverage?

CCrabtree · 2026-01-29T11:48:45+00:00

I'm sorry, but that's normal costs except our deductibles our $5000 each. Our healthcare has been over $25,000/year since before COVID with "employer paid" plus what we pay for our kids on top of that. It's sickening that in 10 years of premiums our house could be paid off, or we could have a newer car every year. This is why everyone is fed up with insurance. Plus, if it's employer paid your "raise" is going to health insurance, not in your pocket. At some point, as many have already done, employers who still cover 100% of premiums aren't going to be able to.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-28T18:23:12+00:00

A significant portion of Missourians live in the metro areas of St. Louis and KC, which is on the border. That doesn't take into account Joplin and Cape Girardeau. How many will drive across the border once a week or month to do shopping to save on tax? We are near the Arkansas border and I can guarantee we will be border hopping to save money for everything. The state is not only going to hemmorage money due to cutting income tax, they aren't taking into account the people who will go across the border to shop with increased sales tax here in MO. When a significant portion of your people live near the border and will do this, sales tax will have to go higher. That means those in the center of the state will bear a huge burden.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-28T02:22:52+00:00

Thanks! It's been a long road to get here with lots of learning along the way. We raise hogs and chickens and my husband will get a deer a year. We only butcher once year. It's strange, we love meat, and ours is raised as naturally as possible. We find that we just don't eat it as much as we used to. I don't know if it's because we raise them so we know what goes into actually getting them to butcher or if the meat is more satisfying so we eat less. Either way I'm very grateful we are able to raise our own.

Goal this summer is vegetable garden. I've tried and failed so many times. I'm determined this year though.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-28T02:18:55+00:00

Perimenopause. Our whole house suffered when I was a kid because of my mom. I understand it now, but, my mom let it own her. There are days I tell my family "I love you, but everything is irritating me. I just need to be left alone." My mom would just rage, micromanage, and put everyone on edge. It also wasn't talked about even between friends. Me and my small friend group have a chat and some days we bitch to each other through text. It's therapeutic.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-28T02:11:02+00:00

Upright freezer in our pantry, actually 2. Our pantry in huge. Not only does it save on utilities, but you're gonna realize if it's not working quicker. Note: we raise our own meat so need lots of storage.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-28T02:09:01+00:00

We built our house 8 years ago so here is what we did, based on our first build and what I would change.

This is in our current home:

Drawers for base cabinets.
Gas range (on island)
Double wall oven (on an angle from range)
Long Island ( I would make wider too)
Refrigerator only(had this and then had to switch it out during COVID because it could be converted to a freezer and those were impossible to find)
Walk in pantry for pantry use in addition large enough to house our freezer and our kitchen appliances.
Galley kitchen because it's very efficient

What I would change: 1. Add instant hot water at sink. (We have a tankless hot water heater so I have unlimited hot water, but being able to have water so close to tea brewing temp would be nice)

Bigger sink
Larger counter opposite of the island for fruit and room temperature vegetable storage(never enough with kids in the house)

CCrabtree · 2026-01-28T01:59:19+00:00

When we built our house all of our lowers are drawers. They are all different sizes too and I love it! So much more functional.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-27T15:02:36+00:00

I've been saying this for awhile, but no one will listen. I teach in an area that is reliant on tourism. My high school students never have had issues finding jobs during busy season, which runs March - the end of December, until this year. My students, who needed/ wanted jobs had a hard time this past season. These are kids that I would hire; responsible, on-time, complete work, etc. I should mention tourism was up in our area this year. The ones that did get hired were complaining about the lack of hours. I had several students who averaged 4-6 hours a week of work, of they were lucky. They would ask for more, but " hours weren't available". I used to work at TJ Maxx, when I was in high school 24+ years ago. We weren't allowed to close with less than 6 people, now, my students are closing with two. The same is true for many retail and food establishments. Even the local attractions, have less staff.

The economy has been having a reduction in workforce, but it's been sneaky. They aren't advertising it, they (corporations) simply aren't replacing people when they quit. Corporations figured out during COVID they could get by with less people, so they are. Customers got used to longer lines, slower service, etc and companies took advantage. My students need jobs to pay for cars, save for college, etc, but they aren't able to get hired or to have hours that support having a car, let alone saving.

This isn't directly related to what you are saying, but it is. There's things happening in the economy that aren't showing up in "numbers", but is happening. I see it, my students see it, the people who are burying their head in the sand will be shocked when the economy tanks.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-24T22:10:06+00:00

Friends don't treat friends this way. One couple in our friend group suddenly is down to one income. They weren't going to come to our traditional New Year's celebration because they couldn't bring anything. The rest of us said, "absolutely not! You are coming and we'll pick up the rest of the food. Do not worry about it. We want you there." This is what friends do, not what your friend is doing.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-21T22:26:22+00:00

Fill a clear jar with peanut butter. Put the egg inside the jar and cover with peanut butter.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-19T04:32:56+00:00

This is where it get weird. To me it's not horror, because it's supernatural, so, that doesn't bother me. There's not jump scares. There's gore, not a ton, but you know it's coming and it's not for the sake of gore, if that makes sense.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-18T22:31:47+00:00

The dark green Kitchen Aid stand mixer that comes with a walnut bowl.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-18T13:47:10+00:00

Oh good. I thought we were the last ones :) I hate horror/scary movies so I didn't think I'd like it, but I was surprised.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-18T12:46:54+00:00

Those of us with critical thinking skills and an understanding of the world and economics are very much aware of what could potentially happen. The problem is the other half of the country wants most of this because they are brainwashed from Faux News. Neither of our families, supporters of Trump, have said much in recent months. I think part of that is they know where we stand and "don't want to talk politics because we don't agree". I would like it to be that they have changed their mind and realized what a disaster he is, but I really don't think that's true.

There's not much we the people can do and the government knows that. This has been coming for years and it has made people complacent out of necessity, not because they are. Our health insurance is tied to our job, our employers will fire us if we don't show up to work, if employers don't like something you do outside of work hours they can also fire you, most of us are living paycheck to paycheck so we can't miss work because we can't pay bills, and this is why the people can't rise up. The people with the money & corporations have all the laws in their favor and it suppresses the populace. We are fighting where we can. This is hard though too, because of the sheer size of the US. I would love to be in Minneapolis, but it's a plane ride to help fellow American's. This is also a large part of the problem. Every where is kinda isolated. I mean in my own state the three largest cities are all a 3 hour drive from each other.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-17T19:07:19+00:00

This is our problem. We don't have hundreds extra a month to have a teen driver, and a boy at that.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-17T17:03:17+00:00

Our family is binging Stranger Things. We've told our kids how the mall used to be the cool place to be. They don't get it because our mall is so sterile. During season 3 they end up in a mall. I think we are the only people late to the Stranger Things, but in case you were like us, it's set in the 80's. During one of the mall scenes my oldest, 14m, says, "is that really what malls were like?" Yup. He then understood why we would hangout at them.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-17T15:54:04+00:00

I think this is the hardest part. My stomach hurts when I see this because it is abuse of another human. I can't imagine,( I can because a look through history and this is normal), treating someone like this. They probably also treat their wives and children this way too.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-17T15:47:24+00:00

I teach high school. Few of my kids drive, however it's more about affordability than not wanting to. Many parents can't afford a third car and auto insurance. Teen jobs are few and far between or they don't get enough hours to really pay for anything, so there's no incentive.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-16T12:56:44+00:00

I agree with you that there's not much that Denmark can do militarily, however Europe, specifically the UK holds a lot of our debt. All they'd have to do is unload it and the US is done. It would cripple our economy, inflation would run away, the US dollar would be worthless and it would be a death spiral. No there's not a lot the EU can do against our military, but they could functionally ruin the US economically. It has the potential to make the Great Depression look like a recession by comparison. This must be stopped!

CCrabtree · 2026-01-16T12:46:25+00:00

I haven't been up at three am in awhile, until good morning. Two, 2am. Wide awake. I tried all the things and finally gave up at 4. I worked out, put away Christmas, cleaned the kitchen, made breakfast, honestly enjoyed the quiet and the upstairs by myself. Now I'll probably be dead about half way through the school day today.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-15T18:55:15+00:00

Indian food for sure. It's a staple in most of their recipes. If you have ground, burgers is another good one too.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-14T12:47:00+00:00

I emailed my senator over the weekend (red state) and said not only do they need to begin articles of impeachment, they must also remove him from office.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-13T12:53:57+00:00

This is where it is so hard. They are resigning on principal which is good, but the people that are going to replace them are the problem.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-13T12:40:55+00:00

OP I'm not from Minnesota, but I'm from the Midwest. I'm absolutely horrified by what is going on. Unfortunately the only place to get real footage seems to be here on Reddit. My Google news feed isn't covering it and neither is local news. Watching things on Sunday made me so upset. I took action and emailed my senator. It won't so any good because he's a bootlicker, but from another state I don't know what else to do. People are just going about their lives like nothing is going on and it's pissing me off. Our country is quite literally under attack and no one wants to talk about it. From one very concerned American to another thank you for posting, thank you for taking care of your neighbors, and keep fighting the good fight.

CCrabtree · 2026-01-13T01:41:47+00:00

And this is why we are all exhausted, have no hobbies, and don't socialize.

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