Under the Weather Without an Umbrella: Part 1

Between Obama's stimulus plan for Healthcare, the H1N1 virus scare, and the surge of unemployed Americans finding themselves without health insurance, confusion and anxiety over what will happen to access and affordability of care has become a hot topic in the media as of late.  Still, most Americans are passive consumers of the healthcare system - people drive to the closest hospital/clinic, attend physician office visit unprepared to ask educated questions of their doctors, and fail to ask for the generic version of their prescriptions.  The lack of understanding and initiative on behalf of the patient really serves as a detriment to the patient, the provider, and the system at large.  This series will provide a number of ways to improve your understanding of the healthcare system, save time and money, and become a champion of your health:

Health Insurance.  

As if getting pink-slipped is not enough, you now have a serious amount of paperwork to siphon through and figure out, making that last break-up with the ex seem like a cakewalk in comparison.  Here is some high-level options for you to consider, to insure you are insured as you work to figure out and find your next professional move.

• COBRA:  Most employers offer the option of continuing the current health plan you enjoyed as an employee for a limited time period after your departure (usually 6-18 months)  Under the stimulus act (and assuming you lost your job after September 1, 2008), this means you will pay 35% of your healthcare premiums (the government will recompensate the employer or insurer for the remaining 65% through certain tax credits).  In layman's terms, you will be able to enjoy the same benefits of your previous plan provided through your job, but will be paying a lot more out of pocket for your premium. 
• Blue Cross/Blue Shield/State Programs:  Most states offer a multitude of Blue Cross/Blue Shield programs, that range in benefits and prices.  The website is generally very helpful in guiding you through the necessary steps to attain coverage, but there are a few things to consider before selecting your plan.  First, determine realistically what you need (not necessarily want) in a healthcare plan.  If you have not gone to a physician since Bush I was in office, you may want to consider a "High Deductible" plan - less money paid monthly, but more money paid out of pocket if you do decide to get that annual physical your spouse has hounded you about.  On the other hand, if your provider's clinic seems to serve as a pied a terre, consider a higher premium, more comprehensive plan.    
• Medicare/Medicaid:  Under certain conditions, you may be eligible for further government assistance with medical expenses.  Because eligibility varies by state, you will need to contact your Local Medicare/Medicaid office to determine if you qualify.  The government has recently put in place additional program funding to aid pregnant women and children who are without insurance.        

When determining the correct option for you, perform an assessment of your overall health needs and expectations of care, along with an analysis of what you can afford.  Ask tough questions and be ready to negotiate ( a common theme in this blog.) Though you may be unemployed, remember your health is still your responsibility, so manage it well!

Weekly Top Five Freebies and Cheapies

Every week, I scavenge the Internet, US cities, nay, the world to bring you, my beloved, the best freebies and cheapies that life has to offer. (P.S. I promise to include at least one "date" offering for my penny-pinching friends who know that lack of income should never mean lack of love!)

1. Free Coffee. Spending a rainy Saturday afternoon perusing the books of my local Borders bookstore is a (free) guilty pleasure for Recessionistas as is, but now the National bookstore chain is offering a free cup of java to boot.

2. Cheap Derby Day Delights. Free bluegrass and $3 Mint Juleps make Union Hall in Brooklyn (Park Slope) feel like Louisville meets Recessionista meets Big City. My money is on Summerbird. (PS - Look for the upcoming entry on "Recessionista at the Races" for our recap of the actual Kentucky Derby.)

3. (Relatively) Cheap GPS. If you are one of many flocking to Louisville for the weekend, save yourself the headache of the often confusing highways and dreaded "shortcut through the park" with a GPS system, like this one, which, at $180 compared to the regular price of $400, is Recessionista-approved.

4. Free Way to Make a Buck from Fido. If you think your pet is the animal-equivalent of Miss Universe and you live in the Chicago area, time to cash in Lynne Spears style and loan your pet out to Animal Talent. For $60-200 per hour, you pet will participate in photo shoots for advertising firms and mug for the camera, while you sit back and sip Pellegrino. Ah, life in the limelight...

5. Free Way to Earn Your Way to Heaven. The old proverb says, "Good intentions pave the road to hell." Put your good will into action without spending a buck - go online to http://www.thehungersite.com/ , spend a few minutes meandering around, and site sponsors contribute money to cure hunger in the third world. Of course, you will have to sacrifice those extra five minutes you might have sent reading Perez Hilton, but no one said charity was easy.

Celebrationista

Spotlight: A Night Under the Stars

By the time April has come around, most of us will do anything that we can to get outside and enjoy the warming temperatures and signs and smells of spring. Though April evenings can sometimes get chilly, my friends and I would not let that deter us from hosting parties and events outdoors in early spring. For those Recessionistas looking for an antidote to spring fever, consider hosting a group of friends for a glamorous but budget-friendly take on the drive-in cinema.

Since you will be hosting the theater and providing the venue for a sizable crowd, lower costs by asking guests to bring an appetizer to pass and a bottle of their favorite spirit for this starry night soiree.

Cost: $200/20-30 guests

What You Will Need:

• A Recessionista movie screen - $99*: Recessionista found this amazing deal on one that is not only reasonably-priced, but super easy to set up at http://www.yardtheater.com/home
• A movie projector - $99*
• Your laptop (just plug into the project - EASY!)
• A favorite DVD
  

Tell Guests to Bring:

• 1 Bottle of favorite spirits and mixer if required
• An appetizer to pass
• A blanket or two

Set-up is easy, and the tone of the gathering can be as casual or elegant as you prefer (choose an appropriate film to match your theme - it is a bit awkward to sit through Team America in a black cocktail dress, as I can attest through personal experience.) Despite the initial cost of equipment up front, you will be able to replicate this theme party and offer different versions throughout the good-weather months. Even if you only use the equipment 4 times this season, it breaks out to $50/party and you can not beat that!

The magic of a night with friends under the stars beckons nostalgia, enchantment, and the creation of new and lovely memories. Under the blanket of night, rest easy...you are amongst friends.

Weekly Top Five Freebies and Cheapies

Every week, I scavenge the Internet, US cities, nay, the world to bring you, my beloved, the best freebies and cheapies that life has to offer. (P.S. I promise to include at least one "date" offering for my penny-pinching friends who know that lack of income should never mean lack of love!)

1. Cheap Way to Stay Healthy: As the weather warms up, we tend to spend more time outside. Most people know they should wear sunscreen, but most people do not know that moisturizers and foundations purporting an "SPF" typically do not offer "broad-spectrum protection" - namely they only block out a portion of skin damaging UVA rays. Take an extra 20 seconds and apply Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sunblock SPF 85 to exposed skin; a tiny investment ($10) now can save you a lot of pain later.

2. Cheap Way to Look Healthy: I expect a fear of following #1 is trying to make Casper the new tan. Recessionista, puhlease! I wouldn't leave you out to dry! Try Physician's formula powder bronzer for $10 at the local drugstore, or, for a recovering Tan-aholic, perhaps you should splurge on Benefit's Jiffy Tan bronzer, a liquid that caused the Chairman of the Board at my company to ask me where I went on vacation.

3. Free Chance to Show Off Your Snuggie: Rather than let that fleecy blanket-cum-garment continue to collect dust at the back of your closet where it has been since Christmas given your inability to regift it, show it off at the The Snug, a 9th Avenue NYC bar that will be hosting The (free) Snug Fest this Saturday, April 11th. Be sure to take pictures and send them to that great aunt of yours who, bless her heart, knew you needed a snuggie.

4. Free Healthcare: With so many people I know losing their jobs recently, Walgreen Clinics have stepped in to play Healthcare's White Knight to the recently unemployed. If you have lost your job since the end of March, you are likely eligible for this program. Click on the link for specific details, and hats off to Walgreens for having a heart.

5. Free Way to Save Yourself Alot of $$$: If you think that the time and complexities of getting to a customer service representative to ask about a bill, make a complaint, are just bad luck or an afterthought of an engineer, then I think you might cut back on the Margaritas, Recessionista! With the help of this incredible directory to an extraordinary plethora of major business, you will get to experience the natural buzz of getting directly dialed in...saving yourself time, frustration, and, because we all know humans are much more respsonsive than prerecorded, non-emotive, robotic voices (well, most humans anyway...), you will save money.

Weekly Top Five Freebies and Cheapies

Every week, I scavenge the Internet, US cities, nay, the world to bring you, my beloved, the best freebies and cheapies that life has to offer. (P.S. I promise to include at least one "date" offering for my penny-pinching friends who know that lack of income should never mean lack of love!)



1. Free Love-in: Chicago Recessionistas looking for love in the written word take note - Loose Leaf Tea Loft is hosting a free Poetry Love-In event this evening, featuring readings from poets including Sid Yiddish, Lee Grobman, and others.



2. Cheap Wine: It does not have to come in a box, Recessionista! Check out http://www.cheapwinefinder.com/ for outstanding deals and helpful buying tips.



3. Cheap Mea Culpa: New York magazine features an apology from Michael Osinski, a former Lehman Brothers and Wall Street Fat Cat, as well as an explanation of how we found ourselves where we are with the economy. (Warning: this article, with all its good intentions, can get a little esoteric at times - oy, acronyms!) By reading this article, the next time you hear someone say, "How did we get here," you can say, "well, actually, I know exactly how we got here..."

4. Free Help Finding a Job: Take one ounce of Monster, mix in a dash of Craigslist, and sprinkle in a bit of Facebook. Voila! You have http://www.workstir.com/, a site that will serve up a range of job opportunities without the mass quantity of spam you have grown accustomed to from other sites.

5. Cheap Shoes: So, cheap is a relative term. However, when a pair of Christian Louboutin pumps crosses the Recessionista Roadmap at a drastically slashed price of around $200, we have to let our lustful fashionistas know.

Weekly Top Five Freebies and Cheapies

Every week, I scavenge the Internet, US cities, nay, the world to bring you, my beloved, the best freebies and cheapies that life has to offer. (P.S. I promise to include at least one "date" offering for my penny-pinching friends who know that lack of income should never mean lack of love!)



1. Cheap Opportunity to Show Off Your Nerdiness. NYC Recessionistas can enjoy cheap entertainment in the way of trivia and impress a date with The Big Quiz Thing, held at Crash Mansion, 199 Bowery at Spring Street. Bonus: $250 cash prize to the winner.

2. Free Love. For Recessionistas on the prowl but without the financial means to pay the monthly Match.com or eHarmony rates, www.mingles.com offers a way to connect absolutely free. Still no guarantee the photos are recent though, folks.

3. Free March Madness. Whether you cut cable to save some dough or sold your television on Craigslist for the extra cash, you still can catch every minute of the basketball series online, including a free subscription to the feeds for up to the minute scores.

4. Free, uh, Stuff. One of the coolest sites I have seen recently, www.freenapkin.com lets you claim items others have discarded (furniture, technology, and more) or services (such as a Free Haircut at Bumble and Bumble). Happy shopping!

5. Free Opportunity to Shake It on Sunday Night: Recessionistas in Chicago looking to liven up the drudge of Sunday nights should check out Rodan, where Slava performs live.

Living La Vida Broke-ah

If the creators of South Park can come up with hundred of ways to "Kill Kenny," one can imagine that there must be many other sites that offer valuable deals, discounts, and overall tips to fabulous living on a budget. Recessionista Roadmap wants to arm all of the masses with these, and we will continue to spotlight blogs and websites that can contribute to a positive outlook on life during dark economic times. Here are a few of note:

Popsugar: This website offers fabulous up to the minute tips on beauty and lifestyle, entertaining, technology, and, for the uber-indulgent Recessionista, a plethora of celebrity gossip. With special offers and fantastic tips, this is one to check out when you need a break from perusing Monster.com.

Wisebread: Who wants stale, dried-up financial advice, when a deliciously-written, starchy alternative is a hop, skip, and click away? Wisebread offers daily savings tips that, while entertaining you, can help increase the, er, dough in your pocket.

4 Reluctant Entertainers: I've met Martha Stewart and can honestly say there is only ONE of her in the world. Time to get realistic. However, the reality is Recessionistas can throw fabulous parties, be tremendously creative, and accomplish all of this on a budget. This website is loaded with excellent examples and lessons learned. It's a good thing.

Recessionista Tip of the Day: So, you can't quite kick your Starbucks habit - no judgement, Recessionista! However, instead of falling prey to the green and white cupped monster, try a quick stop by Dunkin Donuts instead. A Venti latte at Starbucks will run you $3.65, where the DD equivalent is $3.29. This minor switch saves you $131 annually. If/when you give up your daily DD habit, you save, brace yourself, $1200, yes, twelve hundred dollars. That overburnt office cup of joe never tasted so good, right?

A Date with the Recessionista Computer Guy

Contributed by our very own "Nick Burns" - Charlie Boy

Assorted Software Stuff, Hardware, And Technology... (Project A.S.S.H.A.T.)

Tough economic times right now. So don't spend too much money on big technology purchases. (instead, be like me, and spend too much money on lots of small technology purchases). Here are my thoughts on good places to start...with lots of free stuff thrown in as well.

New Computer: Before you rush out and spend $2000 on a computer because they have a catchy song in the commercial, think about why you need a computer. If you're like me, you probably use it primarily for web surfing, email, etc. If you're not an online gamer or Photoshop junkie, consider a netbook (and see "picnik.com" below for your Photoshop jones). I just bought an Acer Aspire One for $249. Yep, 250 bones for a totally functional (and cool) computer.

• 1GB RAM


• Intel Atom 1.6 GHz Processor


• 16GB of Solid State Memory. I doubled this for 28 bucks with an SD card... super silent with no spinning hard drive or whirring fans.


• Windows XP Home (full version). WiFi, Webcam, 3 USB ports, 2 SD/Memory Stick ports


• 8.9" screen - tiny!


• Surprisingly usable little keyboard. (warning, try some out at Best Buy...some of these little netbooks have awful keyboards)


• Lots of people run Linux on these Netbooks, and I may try to install it at some point.


• The perfect email, web browsing, & Skype machine at a great price.
  

Also, i searched online and found a $10 coupon for buy.com. If you're buying stuff online and there's a spot for a promotion code at checkout, take the time to search for a coupon.

SO, once you have your new machine...or if you want to trick out another laptop or, (gasp), desktop, try these great, free, recessionista-friendly software tools:

Rocketdock: if you have Mac Envy like I do, but don't want to buy a f#@ing Mac... This is the tool for you. Definitely the coolest piece of software I own... and it's free. Check out the video after clicking the link.

OpenOffice: Let's say your 60-day free trial of MS Office expired...or you're just all about the open-source movement... or you're just sick of Microsoft. You should try OpenOffice. It's basically a free (and legitimate) impersonation of the Office Suite. As for the quality of the impersonation... I'd say it's worse than Dana Carvey doing Johnny Carson, but way better than me doing Carvey doing Carson. "That is some wacky, wild stuff. I did not know that." See? That sucked.

Make sure to download Word ("Writer"), Excel ("Calc"), PowerPoint ("Impress"), and others if so inclined. All the documents are completely compatible with the original Office software, so you can work back and forth between them with little or no issue. It's rad. And free.

Google Chrome: Have you tried this yet? It's a very different approach to the web browser, and it is reportedly faster than IE, Firefox, and the other browsers out there. And it's, you know -- free.

picnik.com This is a web-based photo editing tool that's really easy to use... and free. You'll be surprised with just how much you can do with this. And you don't even need to register or anything. Just go to the site, upload your photos, and create a mash-up of The Recessionista making out with the dude from Law and Order.

Then sell it to her!(A.S.S.H.A.T. BONUS)

pandora.com/ Props to my wife for turning me onto this site. Free streaming radio that lets you create your own stations in a really cool way. Pick one or two of your favorite artists, then let Pandora suggest music for you all the live-long day. You'll be surprised at how smart the suggestion engine is -- I play Ben Harper and Pandora suggests Fugazi? weird... but cool. OK, I made that one up, but you get the point.

istockphoto.com/ Amazing photography submitted by people all over the world and available for very cheap. Use it for your website or blog... or buy higher-resolution images, print them out at Kinkos, and throw them in Target frames. Without doing any pesky math, I'd say you could get yourselves some awesome framed artwork for 20 bucks or so.

A.S.S.H.A.T. BONUS: you can upload and sell your Picnik'd pics of the Recessionista in compromising positions with celebrity Silver Foxes. (free)

Bit Torrent: Don't use this. It's a totally illegal way to get really awesome free music and movies. Don't use it. It's bad. And free. Check it out. No, don't.

Has anyone noticed what has happened to the price of Flash Memory lately? You can get a ridiculous amount of storage for very cheap now. Check this out... 16GB thumb drive for 29 bucks. I feel like this was how much you'd pay for a 1GB drive like a year ago!?

On a related note, i just recently bought a 16g SD card for $27.50

Enjoy... and post comments with any other recessionista-friendly deals you've found on the interwebs lately.

Recessionista Tip of the Day: Negotiate! This is a common theme here at Recessionista Roadmap, but worth reiterating. I know of one Recessionista who just had both of her dogs groomed for the ten dollars more price of one, because she told her groomer she could not afford both. Whether you are at the store, the salon, or at the gym, make sure to ASK, to BARGAIN, and to NEGOTIATE.* Businesses want your business badly, so utilize your power and get yourself some deals.

*Might not be the best idea with policemen though, especially if you are pulled over for speeding for the 19th time.