Saturday, January 3, 2015

Saving Money Step by Step

Our big plan to be debt free in the next few years is starting with a bang in 2015!  After dropping down a level with our satellite provider and cancelling Netflix we are already saving almost $200 in the next year.  It might not be a life-changing chunk of change but it's only the start and we have a few other ideas up our sleeves still!
Bug had a much-needed surgery this past September and unfortunately our insurance provider never informed us that even though her doctor was in-network (as listed on their website) the office he does his surgeries out of is NOT in-network.  So after a crying phone call only to listen to them tsk tsk at me and say I should have known to check about the office (which, excuse my language, is bullshit, you're always told to check the doctor's status), and then another crying phone call to the surgery center's billing department (who told me that I'm not the first one this insurance company has screwed over), I was finally told that if we pay $300 a month for 12 months then we won't have to incur interest and her bill will be paid.  Okay, not near as good as the 80/20 our insurance was supposed to pay, but it's alot better than the $6,000 bill we were originally sent.
The good news out of all of this is that the 12 month no interest plan doesn't start until our insurance confers with them and that is supposed to be no earlier than this coming September.  So we are already paying a little bit at a time to help cut that bill down and not have to find an extra $300 every month.
I have to admit something.  I am a Keurig addict.  My parents gave me their machine (so at least I didn't have to shell out the big bucks for it) and I use it at least once every day.  My favorite is Cappuccino and I also like to drink plain Folger's coffee.  Their Keurig came to me with a reusable filter so that I can use my own coffee grounds and not have to buy the more expensive k-cups.  Instead of 50 cents a day I bought a $10 giant package of Folger's and it should last me the whole month at least.  With Cappuccino's I dropped down from drinking around five a week to maybe one or two.  My $30 a month coffee splurge is now at around $20.

Monthly Savings:
Monthly satellite fee-  $8/month and $96/year
Netflix cancellation-  $8/month and $88/year (it doesn't officially get cancelled until next billing cycle at end of January so might as well not even count one month)
Coffee-  $10/month and $120/year

Total savings:   $306 in 2015

No comments:

Post a Comment