Due to health care costs rising, we are going to have to pay a portion of our family's health insurance beginning in January. I must stress that we were given a choice and we chose to continue with our current insurance and pay a portion of it instead of switching insurance. We really appreciate that our insurance includes medical, dental, mental, vision, and more. We are thankful that Ram's employer is still paying a much bigger percentage than we are.
But due to paying this next year, our finances are going to be tighter than they have been. I was glad that we had several months notice before this took effect. I began by trying to figure out a family budget including this. Since I did it several months ago, I have had time to get more exact numbers and make corrections.
We rearranged payments for our life insurance and stuff like that. We used to pay the boys life insurance quarterly and now we will pay each boy's once a year. I prefer this because instead of paying 3 bills each quarter, we will pay 1 bill each quarter and get a break 1 quarter. That will save on postage and checks too as this was one that was not withdrawn from our bank account. Some of our other payments are withdrawn but we chose to not make this one automatic.
We contacted our cell phone company and changed plans. We are saving a lot of money with our new plan plus we get unlimited talk and text now.
We told the church the amount we wanted to be deducted from Ram's paychecks for our HSA. We contacted our tax lady to get an idea of what our taxes will be next year. When all this was done, my budget turned out much better than I thought it was going to be. We will need to continue being frugal, but our new budget was not impossible.
I remember my mom often saying that you have to have money to save money. What she meant by this was if there is a good sale at the grocery store you need to have enough money to stock up on that item when it is on sale. If you don't have enough money to buy it while it is on sale, if it is an item that your family needs, then you'll have to buy it later when it is more expensive. I have thought of this advice often while I was shopping the past few months. Recently when there have been good sales I have stocked up a little more than I used to. I ordered 60 lbs of chicken from Zaycon because it was a good price. Even doing this, I have been under budget on my groceries the last few months.
When Ram got the car serviced they said the battery could make it longer, but he should start thinking about replacing it. He told them to replace it immediately because we have the money now and it would be one less thing to worry about next year. We have done other stuff like this recently.
When I realized our property taxes had a slight increase I added that amount to my December mortgage payment. I don't want to get behind in monthly mortgage payment amount. We did that a couple of years ago and it was awful!
We have done our homework and planned well for this. We are ready for January 15, the first paycheck when this takes effect!
Showing posts with label finances. Show all posts
Showing posts with label finances. Show all posts
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Living frugally in our house
We decided that after 4 years living here we would have the furnace checked and any maintenance done before winter instead of during winter. When we first moved in we had the furnace checked and we haven't done anything since then except change the filters.
A couple of interesting examples of living frugally happened at this furnace checkup. We asked if he could look at the A/C while he was already out here and prevent a spring checkup bill. I knew that it was too cold to run the A/C but figured since we didn't have any problems this summer he could at least look at it and see if there was anything major that he would notice. Since we have never had a spring or fall checkup, the A/C unit was really dirty and there was really no way to avoid a spring checkup if we want our system to run efficiently. At least he tried to take a look at it. I will admit that we run our A/C a lot more days than we run our furnace so it should have a spring checkup too.
Second, I mentioned that the day he came to check out the furnace was the first day we turned on our heat. He said his house is much older so not insulated as well as ours so he has needed to have his furnace on for the past few weeks. The day that I turned the heat on was honestly the first day that our house temperature was lower than I would have set the thermostat. We were fine with sweaters and blankets until then. I will also admit that it is never hot in our house during the winter, we set our thermostat much lower than the average family.
Third, while he was out he took a quick look at our water heater. He mentioned that our water heater was set low and we could easily turn it up from where we have it without being worried of burning the children with hot water. He said most people have theirs set higher than we do. If the temperature ranges were very low, low, high, and very high- he was suggesting that we move from low to high. But we have experimented with the temperature from where it was set when we moved in and where it is set seems to be perfect for us. If we lived where it was colder we would set it higher. But being set to low seems to be perfect for us and saves us money too.
Fourth, he told us that our furnace is the EXACT right size for our house and the builder planned that well. If we had any more square footage the furnace would not be big enough. If we had any less square footage the furnace would waste energy.
All this added up to tell me that even though we get disgusted with how easily things break here and we have done more repairs than we expected, it was a good financial decision to buy a brand new house. The furnace man confirmed all that for me. I'll continue to wait to turn on the heat until we really need to, set my thermostat low, and keep the water heater set low to save even more. Every little bit saved helps the budget!
A couple of interesting examples of living frugally happened at this furnace checkup. We asked if he could look at the A/C while he was already out here and prevent a spring checkup bill. I knew that it was too cold to run the A/C but figured since we didn't have any problems this summer he could at least look at it and see if there was anything major that he would notice. Since we have never had a spring or fall checkup, the A/C unit was really dirty and there was really no way to avoid a spring checkup if we want our system to run efficiently. At least he tried to take a look at it. I will admit that we run our A/C a lot more days than we run our furnace so it should have a spring checkup too.
Second, I mentioned that the day he came to check out the furnace was the first day we turned on our heat. He said his house is much older so not insulated as well as ours so he has needed to have his furnace on for the past few weeks. The day that I turned the heat on was honestly the first day that our house temperature was lower than I would have set the thermostat. We were fine with sweaters and blankets until then. I will also admit that it is never hot in our house during the winter, we set our thermostat much lower than the average family.
Third, while he was out he took a quick look at our water heater. He mentioned that our water heater was set low and we could easily turn it up from where we have it without being worried of burning the children with hot water. He said most people have theirs set higher than we do. If the temperature ranges were very low, low, high, and very high- he was suggesting that we move from low to high. But we have experimented with the temperature from where it was set when we moved in and where it is set seems to be perfect for us. If we lived where it was colder we would set it higher. But being set to low seems to be perfect for us and saves us money too.
Fourth, he told us that our furnace is the EXACT right size for our house and the builder planned that well. If we had any more square footage the furnace would not be big enough. If we had any less square footage the furnace would waste energy.
All this added up to tell me that even though we get disgusted with how easily things break here and we have done more repairs than we expected, it was a good financial decision to buy a brand new house. The furnace man confirmed all that for me. I'll continue to wait to turn on the heat until we really need to, set my thermostat low, and keep the water heater set low to save even more. Every little bit saved helps the budget!
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
2016 Budget Additions
This is what I remembered I forgot in the budget so far.
- Irrigation water for lawn
- Shoes for 3 Lambs (budgeted 4 pairs each per year-we'll see if we can stick to that few!)
- Stonesetters fee for 3 Lambs (for January 2017 but pay in 2016-Stonesetters is a day they get to go to learn about the ID legislature, I will blog more about this soon.)
- Swim Lessons for 3 Lambs
I'm realizing all the extra activities the Lambs do add up when it is times 3 Lambs. They really are at a minimum of activities that we think are important for them to do. They each want to be in more activities and we've said no because of finances but especially because of time. So it's time to budget for all these extra activities instead of being surprised at another $25 fee x 3 Lambs.
My Lambs are typical boys that are rough on their shoes. Add in all the running that they do for track and cross country it seems like someone always needs new shoes. Once one announces they have a hole in their shoe, another Lamb says that their shoes are too small. This usually means that all 3 need their shoes replaced at once. And I thought I was going to get off easy with boys shoes-they don't need several kinds of cute shoes like girls...
Friday, July 24, 2015
Family Update
1. Lamb 2 took a science class this week. I will blog more about his class later. The location ended up changing from where it was supposed to be. That meant a longer drive to chauffeur him than I planned. Ram did a couple of pick ups but it was a 22 mile round trip in traffic. I was so glad when the week was over and we were done with all that driving. He loved his class so it was worth it. The other Lambs weren't interested in doing a science class this year.
2. We received some information on our health plan changes for next year. I spent much of the week researching it online and also e-mailing some fellow pastor wives about what their church plans to do about health insurance for next year. I still have a lot more research to do in order to recommend to the board of directors what I think is the best way for both the church and for our family. I know no one on the board of directors has time to research this. Nor do they have as much interest in this as I do for my health care costs for my family. I misread the information at first and was panicking about the changes. Thankfully I misread it and it is not as bad as I first thought. Health insurance and doctor billing is so drastically different than when I was born. I don't know what the answer is for this whole situation, especially for small LCMS churches. I do know that God will continue to provide for our family even if it is not in the way that we expect or would choose.
3. I listened to most of the Higher Things broadcasts of church services from Grand Rapids online this week. It was a little tricky because of the time change. I needed to get up to get ready to take Lamb 2 to his class anyway so I was able to listen to Matins. It was time to go get him during most of the Vespers so I was only able to listen to about half of those. I prepared supper during most of the Evening Prayers. I could totally get used to all those services live streamed every day and I would never get tired of them. Ram picked up Lamb 2 from class today and when he got home I was bawling because they had just finished singing Behold a Host Arrayed in White and For All the Saints. Thank you so much to Higher Things for the Live Stream. Lamb 1 is excited about going to Higher Things next year. We already have a meeting at church planned for next Sunday to start fundraising and planning!
4. Ram and I both had dentist appointments today. I was shocked when he got home and said he had his first cavity. Just like Lamb 3, they have been watching this tooth for awhile and he finally needed a filling. Because of Lamb 2 breaking his tooth, Ewe's root canal, and Lamb 3's first filling, we have met our dental deductible this year. After I asked Ram a bunch of questions about his cavity, that was my first thought- if he is going to need a filling this is the perfect time to need it since we have met our deductible! I still can't believe he was 40 before he ever had a cavity. The dentist apologized to me again for needing to do 2 root canals. He said that is so rare that he never expected I would need two until he tested my teeth.
5. The Lambs begin two weeks of swim lessons next week. I'm looking forward to seeing how Lamb 2 does this year after his nose surgery last year.
6. I'm going to pick blackberries on Monday so plan on lots of time in the kitchen next week making jam and preparing blackberries for the freezer.
7. I cleaned out my scrapbook closet this week and got things more organized. I'm not done but it looks tons better than before.
8. I went to my naturopath chiropractor today for the first time this calendar year. I was generally not feeling well since we returned from our vacation and I already feel better. I don't understand how naturopath works and perhaps it is all in my head, but I feel it is worth every penny because I feel so much better after I go. He started me on three supplements and I am to let him know in three weeks if they help. I may not need to return to him, we'll see then. I was pleasantly surprised that he only charges $70 an office visit since we have not met our deductible. That is worth it to me.
9. Ram had a funeral last week that was physically and emotionally draining for him and also totally unexpected for everyone in our congregation. We both received a lot of phone calls from members that wanted to talk about it. We have nothing on the calendar tomorrow and we plan to sleep in and relax after a tough week. Funerals were common in MN but Ram has only done a couple of funerals of active members since we arrived in ID. We were both out of practice of the whole funeral interrupt your schedule completely. I don't think most people realize how much work LCMS pastors put into deathbed calls and funerals. This family was shocked how soon Ram arrived at the hospital and he spent a lot of hours after that. We know that is what this saint would have wanted and I was happy to share Ram with her family and he was happy to help them even though it was exhausting.
2. We received some information on our health plan changes for next year. I spent much of the week researching it online and also e-mailing some fellow pastor wives about what their church plans to do about health insurance for next year. I still have a lot more research to do in order to recommend to the board of directors what I think is the best way for both the church and for our family. I know no one on the board of directors has time to research this. Nor do they have as much interest in this as I do for my health care costs for my family. I misread the information at first and was panicking about the changes. Thankfully I misread it and it is not as bad as I first thought. Health insurance and doctor billing is so drastically different than when I was born. I don't know what the answer is for this whole situation, especially for small LCMS churches. I do know that God will continue to provide for our family even if it is not in the way that we expect or would choose.
3. I listened to most of the Higher Things broadcasts of church services from Grand Rapids online this week. It was a little tricky because of the time change. I needed to get up to get ready to take Lamb 2 to his class anyway so I was able to listen to Matins. It was time to go get him during most of the Vespers so I was only able to listen to about half of those. I prepared supper during most of the Evening Prayers. I could totally get used to all those services live streamed every day and I would never get tired of them. Ram picked up Lamb 2 from class today and when he got home I was bawling because they had just finished singing Behold a Host Arrayed in White and For All the Saints. Thank you so much to Higher Things for the Live Stream. Lamb 1 is excited about going to Higher Things next year. We already have a meeting at church planned for next Sunday to start fundraising and planning!
4. Ram and I both had dentist appointments today. I was shocked when he got home and said he had his first cavity. Just like Lamb 3, they have been watching this tooth for awhile and he finally needed a filling. Because of Lamb 2 breaking his tooth, Ewe's root canal, and Lamb 3's first filling, we have met our dental deductible this year. After I asked Ram a bunch of questions about his cavity, that was my first thought- if he is going to need a filling this is the perfect time to need it since we have met our deductible! I still can't believe he was 40 before he ever had a cavity. The dentist apologized to me again for needing to do 2 root canals. He said that is so rare that he never expected I would need two until he tested my teeth.
5. The Lambs begin two weeks of swim lessons next week. I'm looking forward to seeing how Lamb 2 does this year after his nose surgery last year.
6. I'm going to pick blackberries on Monday so plan on lots of time in the kitchen next week making jam and preparing blackberries for the freezer.
7. I cleaned out my scrapbook closet this week and got things more organized. I'm not done but it looks tons better than before.
8. I went to my naturopath chiropractor today for the first time this calendar year. I was generally not feeling well since we returned from our vacation and I already feel better. I don't understand how naturopath works and perhaps it is all in my head, but I feel it is worth every penny because I feel so much better after I go. He started me on three supplements and I am to let him know in three weeks if they help. I may not need to return to him, we'll see then. I was pleasantly surprised that he only charges $70 an office visit since we have not met our deductible. That is worth it to me.
9. Ram had a funeral last week that was physically and emotionally draining for him and also totally unexpected for everyone in our congregation. We both received a lot of phone calls from members that wanted to talk about it. We have nothing on the calendar tomorrow and we plan to sleep in and relax after a tough week. Funerals were common in MN but Ram has only done a couple of funerals of active members since we arrived in ID. We were both out of practice of the whole funeral interrupt your schedule completely. I don't think most people realize how much work LCMS pastors put into deathbed calls and funerals. This family was shocked how soon Ram arrived at the hospital and he spent a lot of hours after that. We know that is what this saint would have wanted and I was happy to share Ram with her family and he was happy to help them even though it was exhausting.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Recent Budget Blessings
I watched my pennies very carefully during January and February. Recently we had a little relief in our finances. I'm praising God for these blessings.
1. We had a mess with one of the bills for one of Lamb 2's doctor visits from October 2013. Yesterday I received the refund I was expecting from the doctor. Our HSA reimbursed the rest of the visit. It's disgusting that it took over a year to straighten all this out, but I kept writing letters and it paid off finally.
2. Our church got a new treasurer last year and our HSA money was sent to our account, but somehow the wrong paperwork (or computer trail) went with it. So we weren't reimbursed anything from our HSA for several months even though we had several doctor bills last year. In January we finally began receiving HSA money again for 2015. In February we received the rest of the reimbursement for 2014 and also reimbursement for 2015 too. All but one doctor visit has been reimbursed by our HSA account. We have not been caught up on our HSA reimbursements since we moved here.
3. This is the month we receive our yearly Costco rebate. I'm glad it was $260 and embarrassed that we put that much money on our American Express last year. That is a lot of 1% to 3% spent. We pay it off each month so it turns out being free money to us minus the membership fee. I will be able to shop at Costco for free for the next several months if I watch my pennies while shopping there.
4. Ram finally took his old phone in so because he got reimbursed for that and because we watched our pennies so closely the last couple of months, our Visa bill was the lowest it has ever been. We charge almost everything on the American Express, but there are times that they don't take A.E. I don't know why our cell phone bill is still on our Visa, we should change that. But it was nice to have a low Visa bill for one month!
5. When we moved here we withdrew the Lamb's savings accounts from the MN bank. We never got around to opening new accounts for them. I finally opened up new savings accounts for them in December through L.C.E.F. Now that the budget isn't so tight, I added the amount they had in MN to their new savings accounts. I was glad to cross that off my to do list. They get 3.5% on the first $1000 invested. I will blog more about this great program later.
6. Because I bought something from Memoria Press last year I received a gift card from them at Christmas time so I purchased a Latin DVD for a few dollars plus shipping.
7. Ram did receive his Be Well reward for last year. It was not for the full amount but every little bit helps. I'm determined to get my full amount this year after not getting any last year. I've already begun working on this. We used his reward for some necessary items and a few treats too.
8. Because I'm caught up on paperwork, I have been able to find receipts when I need them. Recently one of our Lambs became allergic to a product he used and I had stocked up on it. I returned all the unopened packages and got a refund.
9. Ram won a massage and a coffee gift card at our church preschool auction. I bought $20 of raffle tickets so that was a pretty good deal. I won some doTerra at the silent auction. We will definitely use that plus it helped out our preschool.
10. February was rough for the grocery budget with Lent suppers, preschool fundraiser, stocking up for Lamb 1's birthday, preparing for company for Lamb 1's birthday, hosting treats after church one Sunday, buying Zaycon chicken, and stocking up for snacks for track practice days. I'm happy to report that I was $3 under budget including food tax. Plus ID is talking about dropping the grocery tax. March is going to be rough again, but I did it in February so I know I can do it!
11. We are blessed with good dental insurance so Lamb 2's chipped tooth and my 2 root canals were not nearly as bad as I expected. I did fine with ibuprofen and did not need to fill the prescription for pain meds so we saved $ there too.
12. I sent our info off to our tax lady so we'll see how those turn out and if those are a budget blessing too. I'm hoping all our medical miles and dollars help us on our taxes, but we just have to see.
1. We had a mess with one of the bills for one of Lamb 2's doctor visits from October 2013. Yesterday I received the refund I was expecting from the doctor. Our HSA reimbursed the rest of the visit. It's disgusting that it took over a year to straighten all this out, but I kept writing letters and it paid off finally.
2. Our church got a new treasurer last year and our HSA money was sent to our account, but somehow the wrong paperwork (or computer trail) went with it. So we weren't reimbursed anything from our HSA for several months even though we had several doctor bills last year. In January we finally began receiving HSA money again for 2015. In February we received the rest of the reimbursement for 2014 and also reimbursement for 2015 too. All but one doctor visit has been reimbursed by our HSA account. We have not been caught up on our HSA reimbursements since we moved here.
3. This is the month we receive our yearly Costco rebate. I'm glad it was $260 and embarrassed that we put that much money on our American Express last year. That is a lot of 1% to 3% spent. We pay it off each month so it turns out being free money to us minus the membership fee. I will be able to shop at Costco for free for the next several months if I watch my pennies while shopping there.
4. Ram finally took his old phone in so because he got reimbursed for that and because we watched our pennies so closely the last couple of months, our Visa bill was the lowest it has ever been. We charge almost everything on the American Express, but there are times that they don't take A.E. I don't know why our cell phone bill is still on our Visa, we should change that. But it was nice to have a low Visa bill for one month!
5. When we moved here we withdrew the Lamb's savings accounts from the MN bank. We never got around to opening new accounts for them. I finally opened up new savings accounts for them in December through L.C.E.F. Now that the budget isn't so tight, I added the amount they had in MN to their new savings accounts. I was glad to cross that off my to do list. They get 3.5% on the first $1000 invested. I will blog more about this great program later.
6. Because I bought something from Memoria Press last year I received a gift card from them at Christmas time so I purchased a Latin DVD for a few dollars plus shipping.
7. Ram did receive his Be Well reward for last year. It was not for the full amount but every little bit helps. I'm determined to get my full amount this year after not getting any last year. I've already begun working on this. We used his reward for some necessary items and a few treats too.
8. Because I'm caught up on paperwork, I have been able to find receipts when I need them. Recently one of our Lambs became allergic to a product he used and I had stocked up on it. I returned all the unopened packages and got a refund.
9. Ram won a massage and a coffee gift card at our church preschool auction. I bought $20 of raffle tickets so that was a pretty good deal. I won some doTerra at the silent auction. We will definitely use that plus it helped out our preschool.
10. February was rough for the grocery budget with Lent suppers, preschool fundraiser, stocking up for Lamb 1's birthday, preparing for company for Lamb 1's birthday, hosting treats after church one Sunday, buying Zaycon chicken, and stocking up for snacks for track practice days. I'm happy to report that I was $3 under budget including food tax. Plus ID is talking about dropping the grocery tax. March is going to be rough again, but I did it in February so I know I can do it!
11. We are blessed with good dental insurance so Lamb 2's chipped tooth and my 2 root canals were not nearly as bad as I expected. I did fine with ibuprofen and did not need to fill the prescription for pain meds so we saved $ there too.
12. I sent our info off to our tax lady so we'll see how those turn out and if those are a budget blessing too. I'm hoping all our medical miles and dollars help us on our taxes, but we just have to see.
Friday, February 6, 2015
Our 2015 Grocery Budget
When we lived in MN we went grocery shopping at a big store about once a month. I had no grocery budget, it was more important to buy items when we got to the city. It was not unusual for us to spend $400 at Costco because we only went to Costco about 3 times a year. When we got to a big grocery store we usually spent over $200. We did weekly trips over the border to SD to buy produce. We had to buy special items to feed Lamb 1 a dairy free diet. One good part was most of the time we lived in MN we received WIC. Also the members were very generous at Christmas time with giving us meat. I remember talking to a Looper then and being embarrassed because I had no idea how much we spent on groceries. Our pantry was always very well stocked, but I had no idea how much we spent to stock it.
When we moved here we are so close to Costco that it is not unusual to go to Costco every week or two. Thankfully those trips are usually under $30 since we go so often. I'm so close to stores that each week I usually shop at two different stores to get the best prices. I began in 2013 keeping track of what we spend. I didn't have a budget during 2013 or 2014, just kept track of what we actually spent.
I broke down what we spend into specific categories. The grocery category is just for what we eat and drink. It does not include items used in the bathroom (toilet paper, soap etc.), items used for cleaning (laundry soap, dishwasher soap, etc.) or items like baggies. It does include food I buy to take to church potlucks or church fundraisers which is often some parts of the year (Advent and Lent). It does include berries and produce for canning even though I give most of that jam away as gifts. It does include treats like candy for the Lambs and when I occasionally buy pop to have with homemade pizza. If I ever participate in rebates those are subtracted from what we spend. Usually we end up using our yearly Costco rebate from American Express on food, but I do not subtract that from the total-I'm looking to see how much we spent on food. It does not matter where we purchase the food-whether I buy it at the grocery store or farmer's market-if it is something we eat or drink it gets recorded in the grocery category.
Especially when we began eating closer to Paleo I knew groceries were going to cost us more. I also knew the cost of groceries went up. I'm happy to report that I saved an average of $15 per month in 2014 vs. 2013.
Ram and I had a long discussion about our grocery budget in January. We decided to set the grocery budget the same as we spent in 2014 with a few differences. I have kept track of how much I spent on food and how much sales tax on food cost me separately. This is because we get a $100 tax credit per person in our house because we have sales tax on food. I was curious if we spent more than $500 a year on sales tax. In 2014 we spent $444 on sales tax on food. So we "made" $56 from the state of ID. This made me think if we could spend less on groceries we would spend less on sales tax and we could "make" even more money on this.
So my grocery budget for 2015 is the same as we spent last year but will include sales tax this year. If we spent the same as last year I would have $37 less a month even though the amount is the same as we spent last year.
I don't want to blog how much my amount is. It is quite large each month because I want to have dollars budgeted when I buy meat from Zaycon or when the entire health food side of the grocery store is 25% off (usually twice a year) or when Costco has something on sale that we use often and could stock up on. Many of my friends in the Midwest would think the amount is way too high. But we no longer get many food gifts from members. We don't have a garden here. We pay more for groceries here than we did in the Midwest too.
Ram and I decided that I am not ever allowed to go over my monthly budget since it is so large. What I do not spend in that month is not rolled over to the next month. So I do need to watch my monthly budget closely especially if I want to buy Zaycon that month. If I do spend the entire amount then we will eat out of the pantry until the beginning of the next month.
Each quarter we are going to total how much I was under budget and donate that to charity. This is a big incentive to me to stay under budget. At the end of 2014 I wanted to donate to several LCMS missionaries that are our friends. In January I was $59 under budget so that will be given to charity.
I am going to need to watch my budget closely in February. Lent suppers begin and our preschool fundraiser is this month. I know I will buy Zaycon chicken this month. Today I did grocery shopping and spent almost 1/4 of this month's budget.
I know everyone does their budgets differently. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I didn't have a budget for my first 13 years of marriage. So far our 2015 plan is working very well for us.
When we moved here we are so close to Costco that it is not unusual to go to Costco every week or two. Thankfully those trips are usually under $30 since we go so often. I'm so close to stores that each week I usually shop at two different stores to get the best prices. I began in 2013 keeping track of what we spend. I didn't have a budget during 2013 or 2014, just kept track of what we actually spent.
I broke down what we spend into specific categories. The grocery category is just for what we eat and drink. It does not include items used in the bathroom (toilet paper, soap etc.), items used for cleaning (laundry soap, dishwasher soap, etc.) or items like baggies. It does include food I buy to take to church potlucks or church fundraisers which is often some parts of the year (Advent and Lent). It does include berries and produce for canning even though I give most of that jam away as gifts. It does include treats like candy for the Lambs and when I occasionally buy pop to have with homemade pizza. If I ever participate in rebates those are subtracted from what we spend. Usually we end up using our yearly Costco rebate from American Express on food, but I do not subtract that from the total-I'm looking to see how much we spent on food. It does not matter where we purchase the food-whether I buy it at the grocery store or farmer's market-if it is something we eat or drink it gets recorded in the grocery category.
Especially when we began eating closer to Paleo I knew groceries were going to cost us more. I also knew the cost of groceries went up. I'm happy to report that I saved an average of $15 per month in 2014 vs. 2013.
Ram and I had a long discussion about our grocery budget in January. We decided to set the grocery budget the same as we spent in 2014 with a few differences. I have kept track of how much I spent on food and how much sales tax on food cost me separately. This is because we get a $100 tax credit per person in our house because we have sales tax on food. I was curious if we spent more than $500 a year on sales tax. In 2014 we spent $444 on sales tax on food. So we "made" $56 from the state of ID. This made me think if we could spend less on groceries we would spend less on sales tax and we could "make" even more money on this.
So my grocery budget for 2015 is the same as we spent last year but will include sales tax this year. If we spent the same as last year I would have $37 less a month even though the amount is the same as we spent last year.
I don't want to blog how much my amount is. It is quite large each month because I want to have dollars budgeted when I buy meat from Zaycon or when the entire health food side of the grocery store is 25% off (usually twice a year) or when Costco has something on sale that we use often and could stock up on. Many of my friends in the Midwest would think the amount is way too high. But we no longer get many food gifts from members. We don't have a garden here. We pay more for groceries here than we did in the Midwest too.
Ram and I decided that I am not ever allowed to go over my monthly budget since it is so large. What I do not spend in that month is not rolled over to the next month. So I do need to watch my monthly budget closely especially if I want to buy Zaycon that month. If I do spend the entire amount then we will eat out of the pantry until the beginning of the next month.
Each quarter we are going to total how much I was under budget and donate that to charity. This is a big incentive to me to stay under budget. At the end of 2014 I wanted to donate to several LCMS missionaries that are our friends. In January I was $59 under budget so that will be given to charity.
I am going to need to watch my budget closely in February. Lent suppers begin and our preschool fundraiser is this month. I know I will buy Zaycon chicken this month. Today I did grocery shopping and spent almost 1/4 of this month's budget.
I know everyone does their budgets differently. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I didn't have a budget for my first 13 years of marriage. So far our 2015 plan is working very well for us.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
It is worth asking questions
When Ram had his major surgery in 2010, Ram's dad gave us the advice to never pay a medical bill until we also had a statement from the insurance company that matched that amount.
Recently a lot of blogs I read have talked about little ways to save money. I was reminded of this advice from Ram's dad as another way to save money. We met our deductible last year in March because of Lamb 2's therapy. Almost all doctor visits should have been completely free for our family from April-December. Once January began we started receiving bills from hospitals and doctors a few times a week. Each time I receive one of these bills we call the doctor or insurance about it. So far we haven't owed for any of these bills. Either the doctor didn't file it with insurance, didn't file the correct number with insurance, or didn't wait long enough for insurance to pay it.
The one exception is a bill from October 2013 that I did receive a statement that insurance would not pay it so I paid it. The doctor says that the insurance told her they would pay it. Since it became so confusing the doctor refunded half of my money I paid. If insurance pays it I will get more of a refund. I don't think insurance is going to pay it though. In this case I took the time to write a letter to the doctor's office about what was happening. The doctor considered my case and refunded half of my money which was better than none.
I have learned it is worth the time to make that phone call to either the doctor or insurance or both. Don't automatically pay medical bills. If you do and you deserve a refund, it will take a long time to get that refund. And if you don't make that phone call and it wasn't filed with insurance correctly, they won't even know if it was incorrect.
Also, don't panic when you receive an $800 bill. Call and ask about it before trying to figure out how you are going to get money to pay that bill. Ask all your questions when you make that phone call instead of getting stressed. (Of course I'm telling you about this as an example, not that I would get stressed out about an $800 ER bill for Lamb 1!)
If you find out that you really do owe for that bill after talking to insurance, be sure to pay the bill promptly or you will owe more. If you are unable to pay the full bill talk to the billing office. I have found hospitals bend over backwards to help you make your payments. When I knew that we were going to have a lot of bills for Lamb 2's OT and speech therapy, I talked to the finance office before 2014 began. Lamb 2 and 3 ended up getting a scholarship for their therapy. This was another time that a phone call and filling out some forms paid off.
While we are on this topic, I kept track of every medical mile we had last year for tax purposes. One round trip to vision therapy was only 4.6 miles but times $0.235 times 90 VT sessions equals almost $100. That's only VT, not speech or OT or other routine doctor visits. It took discipline to record this each doctor visit and time to type it up at the end of the year. I will continue this even though we don't have nearly the amount of therapy as we did last year. Every little bits helps!
Recently a lot of blogs I read have talked about little ways to save money. I was reminded of this advice from Ram's dad as another way to save money. We met our deductible last year in March because of Lamb 2's therapy. Almost all doctor visits should have been completely free for our family from April-December. Once January began we started receiving bills from hospitals and doctors a few times a week. Each time I receive one of these bills we call the doctor or insurance about it. So far we haven't owed for any of these bills. Either the doctor didn't file it with insurance, didn't file the correct number with insurance, or didn't wait long enough for insurance to pay it.
The one exception is a bill from October 2013 that I did receive a statement that insurance would not pay it so I paid it. The doctor says that the insurance told her they would pay it. Since it became so confusing the doctor refunded half of my money I paid. If insurance pays it I will get more of a refund. I don't think insurance is going to pay it though. In this case I took the time to write a letter to the doctor's office about what was happening. The doctor considered my case and refunded half of my money which was better than none.
I have learned it is worth the time to make that phone call to either the doctor or insurance or both. Don't automatically pay medical bills. If you do and you deserve a refund, it will take a long time to get that refund. And if you don't make that phone call and it wasn't filed with insurance correctly, they won't even know if it was incorrect.
Also, don't panic when you receive an $800 bill. Call and ask about it before trying to figure out how you are going to get money to pay that bill. Ask all your questions when you make that phone call instead of getting stressed. (Of course I'm telling you about this as an example, not that I would get stressed out about an $800 ER bill for Lamb 1!)
If you find out that you really do owe for that bill after talking to insurance, be sure to pay the bill promptly or you will owe more. If you are unable to pay the full bill talk to the billing office. I have found hospitals bend over backwards to help you make your payments. When I knew that we were going to have a lot of bills for Lamb 2's OT and speech therapy, I talked to the finance office before 2014 began. Lamb 2 and 3 ended up getting a scholarship for their therapy. This was another time that a phone call and filling out some forms paid off.
While we are on this topic, I kept track of every medical mile we had last year for tax purposes. One round trip to vision therapy was only 4.6 miles but times $0.235 times 90 VT sessions equals almost $100. That's only VT, not speech or OT or other routine doctor visits. It took discipline to record this each doctor visit and time to type it up at the end of the year. I will continue this even though we don't have nearly the amount of therapy as we did last year. Every little bits helps!
Friday, January 9, 2015
Problem Solving
Ram and I have had to deal with one problem after another for the last few months. It started with my key stuck in the ignition of our old minivan. We had our old minivan for 4 years. First we had to get the ignition fixed and we chose to have dents removed from a parking lot fender bender. Car repairs and car shopping to trade in the minivan was highly stressful for me and I was so relieved when the check was written and we drove off the lot with a new minivan. Ram wanted to get me a personalized license plate and that has turned into a mess because we were due to get new tags in January but I purchased the new plate in December. They decided to not put the order in until January so I didn't get charged for an extra month. So I now have temporary plates and hope they send my new ones before February. I can't wait to show you a picture of my new plate!
We had to make decisions regarding doctor appointments because we had met our deductible last year and we wanted to make the most of it. We figured out how to have Lamb 2 graduate from all his therapies and have nose surgery and fit the rest of all our routine doctor appointments in 2014. I was especially proud that we all saw a naturopath chiropractor that I really liked for a couple of appointments while insurance was paying for it. Today we had to deal with a bill from one of those appointments that wasn't billed to insurance correctly. We'll see how many more phone calls it takes to resolve that.
I am still dealing with a bill for a doctor that Lamb 2 saw in October of 2013. I finally got so disgusted that I paid the bill a few months ago. Then in December I found out that they rebilled insurance and insurance paid for that visit. So now I'm waiting for my refund for paying that bill.
Then the back door lock wasn't working correctly and I thought we should call a handyman and get it fixed correctly. Ram made a trip to Home Depot and fixed it himself when I was gone one day. I was so glad to have that done.
Then the microwave blew a fuse late one night. I don't care about the microwave, but that is the ventilation system for our stove. We have lived here and used the microwave for 3 years and it does not get as much use as an average family. We decided we needed a new microwave so ordered it so we could take it off our taxes in 2014 but chose to have it installed in January so we didn't have to deal with that around Christmas. The plan was to have an electrician out here to check that everything is ok before installing the microwave. We haven't had time to make that appointment with the electrician and the microwave will be installed next Friday. In the meantime I'm getting used to cooking without using the microwave at all. The Lambs are getting used to making breakfast without a microwave too.
This morning I put a CD in our MAC during school time and I couldn't get it to play nor could I get it to eject. Ram called to ask for help and got some other problems solved but not the CD out. He was on the phone for a long time and I'm afraid we may have gone over our cell phone minutes this month because of that phone call. We'll see. Our cell phone minutes reset tomorrow. Now we have to find time to take the MAC in and get the DVD player replaced. It frustrates me because we rarely use CDs in the MAC and it is less than 4 years old.
One of the presents that I gave my sister for Christmas arrived broken and so I spent several e-mails dealing with that until she took the present apart and fixed it.
We got a new treasurer at church and there has been some confusion about our HSA. I think it has been resolved but we have to wait for the money to be moved from the church account to our HSA account and then to be direct deposited in our account. It is such a relief to me to have this straightened out after bothering our treasurer about it for several months, but it doesn't help financially until that money is in our checking account. Because of this I have tried to watch our spending carefully recently, but that's not easy when we need a new microwave etc. and there are always lots of bills in January like Ram's taxes due. It will be wonderful to be reimbursed this money and try to get caught up financially again.
This post is not a complaint as much as I wanted to document what has happened to us recently so I can look back in a few months and see how everything was resolved and how everything worked out. I know that God is taking care of us, I just wish we didn't have to do so much work (especially phone calls) to get everything fixed! I am also so thankful that we had money in our emergency account for stuff like this.
We had a wonderful Christmas vacation and got back to homeschooling and routine this week. I'll blog about December and include lots of pictures beginning next week. Tonight I am going on a date with my beloved! We are going to take a break from problem solving tonight and enjoy dinner and a movie together.
We had to make decisions regarding doctor appointments because we had met our deductible last year and we wanted to make the most of it. We figured out how to have Lamb 2 graduate from all his therapies and have nose surgery and fit the rest of all our routine doctor appointments in 2014. I was especially proud that we all saw a naturopath chiropractor that I really liked for a couple of appointments while insurance was paying for it. Today we had to deal with a bill from one of those appointments that wasn't billed to insurance correctly. We'll see how many more phone calls it takes to resolve that.
I am still dealing with a bill for a doctor that Lamb 2 saw in October of 2013. I finally got so disgusted that I paid the bill a few months ago. Then in December I found out that they rebilled insurance and insurance paid for that visit. So now I'm waiting for my refund for paying that bill.
Then the back door lock wasn't working correctly and I thought we should call a handyman and get it fixed correctly. Ram made a trip to Home Depot and fixed it himself when I was gone one day. I was so glad to have that done.
Then the microwave blew a fuse late one night. I don't care about the microwave, but that is the ventilation system for our stove. We have lived here and used the microwave for 3 years and it does not get as much use as an average family. We decided we needed a new microwave so ordered it so we could take it off our taxes in 2014 but chose to have it installed in January so we didn't have to deal with that around Christmas. The plan was to have an electrician out here to check that everything is ok before installing the microwave. We haven't had time to make that appointment with the electrician and the microwave will be installed next Friday. In the meantime I'm getting used to cooking without using the microwave at all. The Lambs are getting used to making breakfast without a microwave too.
This morning I put a CD in our MAC during school time and I couldn't get it to play nor could I get it to eject. Ram called to ask for help and got some other problems solved but not the CD out. He was on the phone for a long time and I'm afraid we may have gone over our cell phone minutes this month because of that phone call. We'll see. Our cell phone minutes reset tomorrow. Now we have to find time to take the MAC in and get the DVD player replaced. It frustrates me because we rarely use CDs in the MAC and it is less than 4 years old.
One of the presents that I gave my sister for Christmas arrived broken and so I spent several e-mails dealing with that until she took the present apart and fixed it.
We got a new treasurer at church and there has been some confusion about our HSA. I think it has been resolved but we have to wait for the money to be moved from the church account to our HSA account and then to be direct deposited in our account. It is such a relief to me to have this straightened out after bothering our treasurer about it for several months, but it doesn't help financially until that money is in our checking account. Because of this I have tried to watch our spending carefully recently, but that's not easy when we need a new microwave etc. and there are always lots of bills in January like Ram's taxes due. It will be wonderful to be reimbursed this money and try to get caught up financially again.
This post is not a complaint as much as I wanted to document what has happened to us recently so I can look back in a few months and see how everything was resolved and how everything worked out. I know that God is taking care of us, I just wish we didn't have to do so much work (especially phone calls) to get everything fixed! I am also so thankful that we had money in our emergency account for stuff like this.
We had a wonderful Christmas vacation and got back to homeschooling and routine this week. I'll blog about December and include lots of pictures beginning next week. Tonight I am going on a date with my beloved! We are going to take a break from problem solving tonight and enjoy dinner and a movie together.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Crazy finance ideas
We've been plugging away at paying our mortgage for 2 1/2 years now. Recently our mortgage company has started sending us advertisements that we should take advantage of the low interest rates and the equity of our home. Never mind that we still have tons of money owed.
The advertisement says we could receive $50,000 to use for
*long overdue home improvements
*save towards a college fund
*buy a new car or truck
*consolidate all of our current debt.
The advertisement makes very clear that there will be closing costs but they would help us with the whole process. Notice that it is worded that we would receive $, not that we would be in debt that many more $.
All this seems absolutely crazy to me. We are making headway paying off our mortgage and we would go backwards another $50,000? I could understand if you really needed to make home improvements and had no other way. But our house was brand new when we moved in, we shouldn't need to do any major home improvements already. And why would I jeopardize the place that I live in order to have a new car or truck? Thankfully we don't have debt besides our mortgage so that one is out.
But what seems absolutely the worst for me is their suggestion to refinance to save towards college. Maybe if you needed to pay for your own college now, but to save for the future? Be more in debt so that you have dollars saved for college? And if you are doing this for your children that is even more crazy.
You hear stories on the news all the time that people just owed a few thousand more and lost their job or couldn't pay their taxes and lose their house. How would people feel if that happened after they did an offer like this years ago?
Add in that our taxes just increased which means our mortgage payment just went up. We are very close to having $10,000 of the principal that we borrowed paid off. I will celebrate when we get that far.
I've never taken any financial courses or read very many books on finances, but all these sorts of advertisements end up in our shredder.
The advertisement says we could receive $50,000 to use for
*long overdue home improvements
*save towards a college fund
*buy a new car or truck
*consolidate all of our current debt.
The advertisement makes very clear that there will be closing costs but they would help us with the whole process. Notice that it is worded that we would receive $, not that we would be in debt that many more $.
All this seems absolutely crazy to me. We are making headway paying off our mortgage and we would go backwards another $50,000? I could understand if you really needed to make home improvements and had no other way. But our house was brand new when we moved in, we shouldn't need to do any major home improvements already. And why would I jeopardize the place that I live in order to have a new car or truck? Thankfully we don't have debt besides our mortgage so that one is out.
But what seems absolutely the worst for me is their suggestion to refinance to save towards college. Maybe if you needed to pay for your own college now, but to save for the future? Be more in debt so that you have dollars saved for college? And if you are doing this for your children that is even more crazy.
You hear stories on the news all the time that people just owed a few thousand more and lost their job or couldn't pay their taxes and lose their house. How would people feel if that happened after they did an offer like this years ago?
Add in that our taxes just increased which means our mortgage payment just went up. We are very close to having $10,000 of the principal that we borrowed paid off. I will celebrate when we get that far.
I've never taken any financial courses or read very many books on finances, but all these sorts of advertisements end up in our shredder.
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