About seven months ago I discovered that my health plan (Oxford/UnitedHealthcare) gives members a $200 reimbursement towards gym membership fees every 6 months.   All you have to do is have proof of 50 visits in a 6 month period, a copy of your bill, and a brochure for the facility.  So six months ago I printed out the form from the Oxford website (members: login, click Forms and Materials > Exercise Facility Reimbursement Form), kept it on my desk and faithfully recorded my visits.  I got a little behind towards the end with travel and the holidays so now I have to go every day this week to squeeze all my 50 visits in before my 6 month window is up, but for some reason this added motivation is all I need to get myself across the street to NYSC.   Money’s funny that way.  If you offered me $4 to go to the gym on any given day I’d probably turn you down if I didn’t feel like going, but the promise of $200 every 6 months ($400 a year!) feels like so much more.  Fifty visits in 6 months is roughly 2 visits a week so there’s really no reason it’s not do-able even with a few weeks off for nice weather or vacations.  To make the whole record-keeping easier, the NYSC website also allows me to request a record of my scanned visits so there can be no contesting my record (hopefully).   I should probably mention that my gym membership sets me back $995.88 a year, but having my [mostly otherwise useless] health insurance pay for 40% of my membership is a pleasant bonus.

Thanks. Way to make my work feel under-valued and under-appreciated. (In her defense, my friend did hush him).

First, I’d love to know what he was expecting it to cost for his dog to undergo full anesthesia, a dental cleaning, and dental xrays (est. $400), not to mention any necessary extractions, surgical flaps, nerve blocks, etc (the additional costs). I have so much difficulty understanding how people demand that veterinarians provide first rate medical care for their pets, but then can’t fathom when our charges must correspondingly cover for the cost of the supplies and services. If people didn’t have health insurance and paid fully for their medical procedures, perhaps they’d have a better idea. I can swear to you that I don’t get paid anywhere close to what a physician does, nor do veterinary nurses and technicians get paid anything close to that of a registered nurse – so it’s not like that money is ending up in my pocket. I don’t expect us to be paid equally, I just wish people realized how the entire veterinary industry seems to hover just in the black, always walking the fine line between making money and making things affordable for owners. The median annual earnings for a veterinarian was $72,000 in 2006.

Second, don’t get a pet if you aren’t prepared to pay the associated costs. Just as you wouldn’t (responsibly) have a child without being able to afford their care, you shouldn’t have a pet if you can’t afford one. Or, you can have the pet, but you have to realize that you might encounter a financial liability that you can’t take on. You can’t expect veterinary care as a right, free of costs.

It’s one thing when I see owners who I can tell are legitimately being faced with tough monetary decisions about their pets and their veterinary care. It’s another thing entirely to have my well-educated, and mostly well-paid, acquaintances from Dartmouth, Darien, or Manhattan complaining to me about those costs. It feels like an insult.

Steve Rhode, president of Myvesta, a nonprofit consumer-education organization, agrees, saying that each time you open a store credit card, 20 points are taken off of your credit score because, he says, “Historically, store credit cards are issued to anyone with a pulse. They issue credit cards to people who otherwise can’t get credit.”

Other credit counselors say that you should open a store credit card if it is a store that you shop frequently. Williams says that many store credit cards provide their customers with coupons, bonus points and information on upcoming sales that can only be obtained if you carry the store’s card. However, she highly recommends that you open no more than one favorite-store card.

I just called and closed my J. Crew and Express accounts. My Banana Republic/Gap account I use almost monthly and get lots of coupons so I’ll keep that one, but what about Bloomingdales? Or what about my Macy’s card (which I never use) but is a co-branded credit card?