Wednesday, 7. July 2010
In our last article we focused on a few ways to save money. This time, you’ll find a few more ways to save money and maybe a couple that you didn’t think of. As always, it’s not my intention to make you a cheapskate, but rather to give you the choice of where to spend your money instead of wondering where it went.
I mentioned this in the previous article but it’s so important that I have to repeat this again.
The first thing you should do after reading this article is grab a notebook, PDA or some other way to keep track and start recording your spending. Write down every purchase you make, even a soda or snack from a vending machine. Keep it up for at least a month and then look at where your money goes. You may start to see a trend that you want to stop before the month is over and by all means, change it. You may also want to do this more than once. It’s a great way to keep from falling back into or developing new bad spending habits.
Here’s a pet peeve of mine, ATM fees. Not only do you pay 1-3 bucks for the ATM you’re using but another 1-3 bucks to your bank. If you stop at the wrong ATM for $20 for dinner then you may be paying $26. Take a look at your bank statement and see how much you could’ve saved by planning over the last month. Personally, I saved almost $100 when I stopped using other ATMs.
Bank fees Depending on your bank, you may have free checking or pay a fee each month. If you’re paying a fee, then you really should think about how much it is and if it’s worth changing banks. You should pick a bank that has a lot of ATMs that are convenient to you and free checking. If you pick the correct bank, you can easily cut down the number of ATM fees that you incur simply by having your bank’s ATMs on the way to your destination.
Gas prices Use a search site like Gasbuddy.com Prices can vary by as much as 25 cents a gallon in the same city. It’s not worth your time to drive across town for a penny a gallon but if you can detour a few blocks for 10 cents a gallon then it’s worth it.
Prescription drugs According to a recent study, the prices can vary widely between pharmacies so unless you have drug coverage from your insurance, you should call around to different stores and check. You can also use a mail order pharmacy but be careful on those.
Pay down your mortgage Unless you have a loan that doesn’t allow this, you can over pay each month and that money goes directly to principle. Depending on your loan and the amount you over pay, you may save thousands over the life of the loan. Incidentally, some auto loans also allow this.
Pay your bills on time. A little known bit of fine print in many credit contracts allow unrelated companies to increase your rate just because you were late on a different account. Not only that but some companies will raise your rate to 29-31% interest if you’re 1 day late.
Free cycle is a group of people that choose to give away items instead of throwing them away. Not only does it save the receiver money but it keeps it out of the landfill. Do a search for your area and see if there’s a group in place.
Brian Baldwin is an entrepreneur who enjoys saving people money by offering some of the best products and services available today. Brian invites you to visit http://www.southerntechservices.com to compare our rates.
If you’d like to read the previous article, please visit stservices.powerfulintentions.com/library
Posted in Articles by Prescription Savings -
Friday, 28. May 2010
okay, so here is the deal, with all this healthcare talk all over the place it got me thinking. My husband and I own our own business, and therefore to buy personal health insurance for our family, the amount is outrageous! for a family of 4 for a decent plan, it cost us 650 dollars a month, plus a 25 dollar copay each time we go, and if anything major happens, we have to meet a 5000 deductible first. Prescriptions however only cost us 10 dollars, no matter what it is. However, we are a fairly healthy family. My children only go for their yearly checkups, and if they get an infection that just will not go away on its own. I only go once a year to the girly doctor. My husband goes once a year for a checkup. So, about 6 years ago, we dropped our insurance, we have not had insurance for 6 years! and this is why. for one year, we stuck our 650 a month into a savings..and when it came time for us to need something medical, we took it out of that savings and paid out of pocket. We called around to all the doctors in our area and within a 20 mile radius, and found one who understood we were paying cash from our own pockets and therefore, he gives us a discounted price for your normal basic run of the mill things..checkups, call in prescrips, etc. As for dental, it was way to expensive to begin with, we in turn also called around to dentists for our children at first only, so they could have a yearly check up. Why did we do this? because we never ever went to the doctors! our 650 was being wasted because we never barely used it! we were astonished to see that after a year we had saved up roughly 7800 dollars, and only used 1000 of it, which meant a savings of 6800 dollars…now after 6 years? we have about 30,000 saved…and we have not had to use it for any major health problems. With dropping our insurance we knew we had to insure our health, and that of our childrens..so we began to eat healthier, and we made sure our children as well as ourselves took very very good care of our teeth. We buckled down on our excercising and eating right, dropping all bad habits, smoking, drinking, sugary sweets (we still have the occasional sweets) and that also saved us money..at the time cigs were only 2 dollars a pack..but it does add up! so here is my question..what if everyone did this? what if everyone in america…dropped their healthcare? and only paid the doctors who worked for decent prices out of pocket in cash? and if we began eating healthier and diminished bad things? what would happen then? what would the health insurance agencies do? what would the other medical doctors who charge and arm and a leg do? Just something to think about is all I’m saying. Right now..my husband and I are only 29 and 33…if we continue as we are, we stand to save 204,000 dollars by the time he’s 63 and I’m 59..add the interest rate to it that our bank gives us, and we have decent amount of money. We have talked about if something big pops up, like broken bones, and such, or illness, but our doctor has assured us that he can guide us in those situations, what to do, where to go if need be. My point is …if a good percentage of people did this, especially those who are well off? and could afford to do it this way? would the prices not come down? to make it more affordable for everyone? I can tell you in six years, we have not had a huge problem. We had the birth of our 2 year old, I went to a midwife, the whole thing cost us 10k, alot yes…but we had it saved already, midwife is not the most common pick today..but I can tell you my experience was equal to that of the birth of my 8 year old in the hospital, in fact it was a bit better, more comforting really. Not for everyone..but again..what if a large enough percentage of people followed along?
rrm….what coverage is that? and how does it work? I haven’t seen something like that, but then again, we haven’t gone searching for any in the time being. Any info you could give me on would be appreciated. Like, what does it cover? and are their deductibles, only certain hospitals to go to? etc. Thanks for the info!
michel, not to mean honey, at all…but that is kind of one of my points on the buckling down issue, we do have to be more vigilant about ourselves, more aware of our surroundings, it causes us to be that way when we have no coverage..which would mean…I would never ever, under any circumstances, pour hot oil into any container..doesn’t mean I’ll never have an accident, it just means I am much much more vigilant about me and my children.
Posted in Answers by Prescription Savings -