February 2011 Controlled/No Spend Thread

[mizbear]

3 cats- Good luck with the dentist.

[Honeylioness]

SES - I often take this recipe to pot lucks ... and usually bring very little back home



JAPANESE CABBAGE NOODLE SALAD



1 medium green cabbage, shredded (of sliced finely)
1 green onion, sliced
2 pkgs. chicken flavor Ramen noodles, break up but DO NOT COOK
4 tsp. sesame seeds
4 tbsp. sliced almonds (optional)
i cup red grapes, cut in half


Dressing - Combine:

1 tbsp. sesame oil
1/2 c. salad oil
4 tsp. sugar
6 tbsp. white vinegar or rice wine vinegar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper



Assemble all the salad ingredients in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over it all and toss well. Refrigerate overnight.


As an option you can add cut pieces of white chicken meat for a luncheon entree.

[ses]

Mizbear--while I think of it--I thought most medical transcriptions work for hospitals, clinics, doctors and just do the work at home, wherever that home might be. We had a medical transcriptions posting here for awhile who lived in Alaska but worked for a hospital in Georgia, I think. Then your employer would take care of those pesky details like taxes and insurance.

[muttleynfelix]

Sprudy - We actually do collect unemployment for the days we are off (or will, still waiting on paper work at the moment). It is a small business deal that the boss can lay us off 1 to 2 days a week and we can get unemployment for those days. Missouri's maximum unemployment is very low compared to what I have heard other states get. So instead of 60% of my salary, I'll be getting around 75% to 80%.

[mizbear]

ses- If I can find a deal like that, that would help, but from what I found out in my seminar when I first started, many are going to self-employed status. It would be great if I could just contract out for another entity like that and have insurance, taxes, etc taken care of through them.

[ses]

Mizbear--With all of the computerization of patient records and the way the health care field is growing (with Obama care or what we have now) due to the aging of America I would think you would have a good chance of hooking up with a service provider. I think you should start now trying to make employment connections. Many of the training schools and facilities, especially private ones, don't put as much emphasis on getting and keeping their graduates employed since their profitability is on getting new students rather than dealing with the ones they have already trained. Is there a professional organization you could hook up with as a student membership? They frequently are stronger at keeping their membership employed than training schools. Have you visited a local hospital to inquire what their procedures are about hiring? Or maybe an employment agency? Even a state employment office. What about a temp agency to start with. You have made such a good career choice, keeping track of patients is never going to go away, that there has to be someone out there to help someone starting out. You can't make me believe they expect someone fresh out of school to have the skills and knowledge to start out self-employed.

[dakota4600]

Hey ladies, I'm still alive, just not much in the chatting mood. I've been reading along. I think I'm finally getting over this cold. I've spent the last 3 nights in bed after work. Mini-D has been surprisingly good about leaving me alone so I could rest. DH ran out and got dinner last night. So it was a spend and EO, but DH had lunch for today and there are still some leftovers in the fridge for later.

Muttley- Hope things pick up soon. Sorry DS is having such a rough time with teething.

SES- I understand the lack of motivation. I'm suffering from it severely right now.

3cats- Hugs! Glad the teeth are bothering you and that it wasn't your computer with the virus.

[mizbear]

There is a professional organization that I will be joining (in fact my DGM has offered to pay my dues even though I can afford them as a present for making Dean's List) and my school helps with job placement. Believe it or not, living in a small town is helping me because all the doctors know me and they are keeping their eyes and ears open for positions. One of the local doctors has suggested since I already have a fixed income that allows me to go to school, maybe start out part time filling in for people, or as an intern somewhere and get my AAS in Health Information Management. It will give me more on my resume when I apply for jobs and I already have all of the regular college stuff, so I just need the medical courses for it. The state employment agency i great because you can walk in usually and use the computers for job search during their business hours. Because I am considered disabled, there are also some other job placement services I could utilize, but choose not to- it's not that I think I am too good for these services, but I leave them for people who truly need them. The temp offices around here, with rare exception, generally suck, but one of the doctors I know said he heard there was a medical temp service now, he was going to get the name for me.
Believe it or not, DB has actually shown me some decent job sites- could explains today's cold rain...
My ex-SIL is helping me come up with a new resume- mine has this gap in it, so we are trying to rewrite it as an accomplishment based, instead of job based resume.

[ses]

Mizbear--you are so on top of things! The idea of getting your AAS in Health Information Management is great. It will broaden your opportunities in what is a growing field. In many cases employers will substitute education (and internships) for actual experience, especially if it is broad enough to save them the cost of training you in related and associated jobs. You will be opening many doors to your experience and background.

[MittenKitten]

Muttley: Tough about the job. I have been happy we have been okay so far but am thinking of getting a parttime job just to close the gap.

spruby: I agree with you I thought the conversations mild. But we have a diverse group of women and can certainly avoid politics since it some prefer it. So many other things we can talk about LOL.

Need to get to the grocery store, again..... Can hardly wait for our mini vacation.

I am hoping to be able to go to a family camp for late this summer for families with special needs kids. The camp would assign a person to DS#2 and could take him to activities and just be with our family so we can go together but not have to focus all our attention on DS#2.

[muttleynfelix]

mitten - Yeah I am thinking that if this goes into April with no end in sight then I think DH will probably be getting a part time job. We'll see how it goes.

[MittenKitten]

Where is everyone today? Wow is it quiet here! Bars open for Happy Hour, I am pouring! Chocolatetini is the specialty of the day!

[dakota4600]

Mitten - Chocolatini sounds good! Hope you get the trip arranged for your family sounds like it would be great for all of you!
It has been quiet around here today.

I'm on my way out the door. I'll talk to everyone later.

[dianartemis]

Save one for me MK, please! I feel like this right now. I think I'd much rather feel like this

[redwagon]

I'll have one of those too, Mitten!!

Blue made chicken/veggie fried rice for dinner. So good! AND it's a WW recipe! Niiice! :-) Now I'm going to go ruin it by eating a chocolate cupcake...

Have a great weekend, everybody!!

[Honeylioness]

Hello ladies ...


This is a REALLY buzzed Lioness ... had an incredibly crap-u-lous afternoon ... ha ve already had four very strong screwdrivers!!

[mizbear]

I'll have a double please- of anything!- DNiece9's field trip bus was an hour late getting back and when she got back I found out the kids hadn't had lunch and the hood on the school bus almost flew off on the interstate! Not to mention the high winds here. So we went out for chinese- compliments of my DM- who was afraid I was going to have a 4th grade teacher for dinner.

[startsmart]

Hey Honey, I did see your post as I was skimming today in prep for the DC meet up on Sunday!
I made it to DC! Very long day and I'm rather conflicted about work right now.

We've been teaching in our course how to calendar, protect your time and eliminate workaholicism. And yet. I'm working more than ever. AND my client is kinda getting on my case about the number of hours I'm billing. Well.... you have a choice. Stop giving so much damn work or stop complaining! I haven't even compiled my invoice due today (friday) but I know it's going to be high. Again. And, this was interesting, I got copied on an email detailing what everyone on the team is getting paid. I'm... one of the highest. Which is wow. but I'm also working around the clock so you see how I'm conflicted!

I made a stupid-o mistake too in my planning and have a tour of the Capitol building scheduled for 10am EST tomorrow, which will be 7am CA time and it's nearly 1am now. Dumb move.

Oh, I should also avoid walking to my downtown DC hostel alone at night. It's about a mile walk from the metro but in that mile I did get approached for change. Yikes. Hopefully I can sleep well tonight, the people who run this place are LOUD despite their own rules about quiet hours.

Oy vacation! Technically a working vacation.

[muttleynfelix]

Honey - Are you drunk posting?

[spruby]

startsmart - are you at the hostel just off 11th and K street? If so, please be careful there - especially after dark. That is my work neighborhood and for a number of reasons there is a significant homeless population - a few of whom are violent (I was accosted in the park one day - during the late afternoon - it was quite scary).

[spruby]

startsmart - on the billings - are you the highest paid from a rate perspective or because of the number of hours billed - or both? You don't have to tell us - but it matters as you evaluate interactions with your clients.

When I was consulting - clients often lost track of what they asked us to do and had no clue what it took to accomplish what was requested. If you don't already do it - make sure you keep a task list of what you are doing, the volume (especially changes), and the time it takes. That way when they discuss your billings you can say:

I started out doing these x things and I now do 2.5 times x things. And the one thing I was doing that generated 5 help emails a day requiring my attention now generates 25 a day. And because of new features/programs/etc - they take on average 20 minutes to answer instead of 5.

As you know - your clients have a budget for paying you - and you want to make sure you are doing the interesting/high value stuff - by doing this you identify what work can be done by others (maybe even your minions for less) because it isn't valuable work for you.

Anyway - some unsolicited advice

[sapphire12]

start - welcome to DC.

I successfully completed 2 weeks of a 3-week exercise plan. I'm losing inches; some of my pants are falling down. The scale hasn't budged as far as I can tell. Amazing how that happens.

[MittenKitten]

sapphire: I have a hard time believing you have any inches to lose! Congrats!

[sapphire12]

Thanks MK! I have a habit of doing these 3 week programs and lose the inches and then stop exercising; that no longer works anymore. I would like to lose 1 more inch from my hip and thigh area.

[mizbear]

I 'd love to lose inches- will still be sitting tomorrow....

[spruby]

February Final Count

Since I know the plan for tomorrow - here are the results:

25/28 CS/NS Days - on vacation that meant staying in budget - pretty good here - but these were almost all CSD - only 2 NSD.
11/14 NEO Days - NEO means even if someone else pays for me - not great - but progress
12/15 MOAN Days - did great on vacation days - not so hot when I am home/working - but making progress


Time to think about March!

[3catslady]

update for the month; 24 CS/NS, 4 Eating Out.
I got my income tax refund on Thursday and I haven't spent any of it. Before I joined this board, it would all be gone and I would be upset because I didn't save any of it and I wouldn't have paid any bills that I had planned to. Also, I wouldn't have gotten my car fixed or picked up a steam cleaner, a cabinet for the bathroom and a few other things I had planned for half of the refund.
NCIS marathon is on and I am crocheting another baby blanket. One more baby blanket and I will be done with the Church's yarn that they gave me and I can start using my own.

[moneysquirrel]

Update: 19 NS days & 4 CS days = 23 NS/CS days

Cannot believe that this month is almost over. I think that I will wait and do my final update later because while I am pretty sure that tomorrow will be a NS day I want to be sure.

Wishing all a good peaceful week.

[mizbear]

I lost track of my days- I do know I did not make my goals... grrrr

[spruby]

mizbear - I only keep tracking by writing at the end of each day our house calendar whether it was a CSD/NSD/MOAN/NEO. If the square is blank I assume it is because I didn't achieve one - which motivates me to remember each night.

On hitting goals - I haven't hit mine yet - and I'm still trying for pretty basic stuff! But - after kicking myself a few times (every month) I remind myself that the first step is to just be conscious of what I am doing - spending/eating/exercise wise. Increased mindfulness! Which I'm getting. Now I'm working on turning mindfulness into action!

Good luck!