The cost of prescription medications is alarmingly high, as is the number of Americans who aren’t treating their condition because they can’t afford the medicine.
Whether you’re under-insured or uninsured, there are ways you can save money on prescription medication. You can even get the medicine for free, if you meet certain guidelines.
Are you a member of AAA (American Automobile Association)?
They provide benefits such as roadside assistance, towing service, flat-tire service, battery service, and more for a registered driver. But did you know that AAA provides tons of great discounts as well?
We’ve had AAA now for years. I had heard that AAA offered discounts and every now and then I’d check the site out. Not sure why but I kept forgetting about their discounts. Well no more! I’ve been checking their discount page often recently. Every time we plan to take the family to an attraction I’ll check the AAA discount page (this brings you to the NY page) first to see what discounts they offer. Recently we’ve saved on Bronx Zoo and Intrepid tickets and we’re looking into Sesame Place discounts too!
What a wealth of culture and learning we have here in NYC!
The only thing holding us back from taking in all of the museums, gardens, zoos, and whatnot is time and money. We’ve been trying to make the time to take the kids out and do things with them whenever we can.
That leaves money!
It’s expensive taking a family out these days. Well, it was a most pleasant surprise to learn that Bank of America was extending it’s Museums on Us program. Not only did they extend it but they added museums and states that the program takes part in.
We already know the importance of adequate savings don’t we? Well here’s an additional benefit for having savings – You can save on your car insurance!
You know about your car insurance deductible? This is the amount you have to pay on an insurance claim before your insurance kicks in to pick up the repairs. Say you have a $500 deductible. You get into a fender bender and file a claim to have your bumper repaired. An estimate for the repairs is $1500. You have to pay $500 and insurance picks up the $1000. If your deductible were $1000 then you pay $1000 and insurance covers $500. Get it?
So why not make the deductible as low as possible?
Sounds reasonable. You would rather your insurance pay more and you pay less. Things is though, the lower your deductible the higher your premium is! You pay more on your plan when your deductible is low. This is the insurance company’s way of getting that extra cash layout back before an accident. The opposite is true too. The higher you make your deductible the lower your premium payments are.Continue Reading
So you’re expecting? Congratulations! A new baby is an exciting event in one’s life (how’s that for understatement of the year!). In preparing for the little one’s arrival you’ll start to think of all of the things you are going to need for the baby as well as the costs! But it doesn’t have to always be expensive.
Places like BJ’s, Costco, and Sam’s Club will be your friend when it comes to shopping for your baby. We love the big boxes of diapers and wipes that we get at BJ’s. They also have great deals on car seats and strollers from time to time. Do your homework on what you expect prices to be of course, but we find that things like diapers are always worth getting at a wholesale store.
If you know anyone else who had a baby before you then talk to them about what they have. Not only can they give you some practical advice on what they bought but odds are they have a ton of stuff that’s relatively new that they would be happy to give you! Baby stuff takes up space and parents love to clear out the clutter. We’ve gotten tons of clothes (it’s great when you can be clothing kids close to free), toys, bassinet, high chair, swing, and much more from friends and family. Sometimes it was to keep while others said just give it back when we’re done. Understand that many items will be used for a baby for a few weeks or months and will still be like new! Heck, there was a time when we had to rush to put our little guy in clothes before he outgrew them. Seriously, reach out to friends, family, and co-workers!
Remember my point above about parents wanting to get rid of clutter? Same idea here. A parent buys X for their baby, uses it for a couple of months, and now it sits in the garage practically new. We picked up a huge toy chest for $25 that originally cost about $75. It looked like new and the Mom was more than happy to have us take it off her hands. Bargains like that are all over the place! You want to be careful with something like a crib or anything that the baby would be supported in to make sure it’s fully intact and has all the parts. Safety first! Bargains second! (Car seats may not be a good idea to get used as they wear out over time).
This one is a personal choice for sure. But by breastfeeding you don’t have to buy formula! Plus it’s natural and better for your baby. But what about a pump? First, you may not need one, it depends on your situation. Second, you could rent them out if needed or possibly you may have a friend that doesn’t need theirs anymore. My wife bought her pump when her daughter was born. It was well worth the money as it was used for our son and will be used for the little one on the way.
If your employer has this option you can set up flexible spending money to be taken out of your paycheck pre-tax for child care expenses. If you already have a plan but re having an additional child you can make flexible spending account changes to account for costs on the additional child. You then apply with a receipt to get the money back. The benefit here is this money isn’t taxed! The limit is $5000/year when I last checked. That’s a lot to not be taxed.
Same idea as dependent care but this can be used for things such as prescription medication and doctor’s visit co-pays. Check with your employer for the contribution limit.
A 529 plan doesn’t only save for college in the future. Many states offer tax benefits now for money you contribute to a 529 plan.
I’ve heard parents-to-be say that they don’t want a baby shower; that they don’t like the idea of a registry. But the truth is this is one even in your life that people genuinely want to help you start off on the right foot and want to contribute to your child’s well-being! You don’t know who may be planning a surprise shower for you or who wants to send you a gift. One thing they’ll ask about is a registry to get you something you need. You don’t have to get a baby registry. But it could also leave with a TON of onesies, bibs, and clothes as gifts rather than items you really need (nothing wrong with onesies, bibs, and clothes, but there comes a point where it too much). Maybe your aunts and uncles will chip in to get you a crib? Perhaps your college roommates will get together to buy you a car seat? You don’t know! Give them the option. Also, most places that have a registry make it very easy to return gifts. You’re going to find that you have extras you don’t need or items you thought you needed but don’t use. We had a registry and were still fortunate to get two car seats! We returned many a bib that we never used too.
If I’m making a big purchase I scour the web for product reviews! I want to know what everyone is saying. I’ll try to get as much information as I can. I want to know the pros and cons of an item from people who are not salespeople in the store. There are a ton of choices out there for expecting parents and it can be a daunting task trying to figure out what is best. Do your research! You may find that for some items spending a little more will save you in the long run. I’m thinking about products like strollers which take a lot of abuse. Amazon Bonus: They now have a program called Amazon Mom that offers discounts and free Amazon Prime for a time.
photo credit: lepiaf.geo
Let me tell you why:
I just checked the interest rate on my savings with the bank I do my checking with.
Ready? 0.20% APY!
It used to be that banks would offer a decent interest rate on savings to get you store your money with them; not quite the case anymore!
I use 360 Savings for my online savings. Currently they are offering 2.4% APY on their savings accounts. No, you won’t be Bill Gates rich with that rate but it is MUCH better than what the average brick and mortar bank offers. For me that’s 2.2% better than the bank where I do checking!!
If you do a little research you’ll find banks with higher interest on their online savings than 360 Savings. Let me tell you, that interest adds up! I love seeing how much I’ve earned every month and at the end of the year.
Most online banks will let you set up automatic savings. What this does is pull a set amount at whatever time you set up to be pulled into your online savings account. This could be from your checking account or even from your paycheck if it’s direct deposit.
Why automatic savings? So you don’t have the opportunity to spend the money first then try to save! Even if it’s a small amount it will add up over time (and that money earns interest and so on…).
Some online banks offer the ability to pay your bills from the site. Another option is using your routing and account numbers to set your account up to pay from on the site you have a bill with. For instance, we set up our car payment to pull from our online savings account. This way we don’t have to worry about having enough in our checking to cover the bill every month (we have more than enough in our savings to cover this).
Yes, you can do this from a checking account as well but the money you need to keep there won’t be earning interest in the meantime.
In a lot of brick and mortar accounts your checking and savings are accessible from an ATM. Falling short of funds in checking? Pull it outta savings. I don’t have access to my online savings at an ATM. As a result I don’t have that money staring at me every time I need an ATM.
My savings stays saved!
So I can’t pull my savings from an ATM. That’s ok. If I should ever need it then I can have my money transferred to my checking in a few days or so. The money is still pretty easy to get should I need it but not so easy that I could take the savings for an impulse buy!
With 360 Savings you can set up multiple accounts under one customer number.
Wanna save for a new car? Create another account just for that purpose. Wanna show your child about the power of saving and compound interest? Set up an account for her to put gift money in.
In fact you can set up automatic savings for any account as well. When my wife and I were engaged we set up an account to help save up for the wedding. The options are limitless!
Some might say online savings isn’t liquid enough for emergency savings. I say it depends. For us it’s a great place to stash emergency funds which will also earn interest!
This one depends on who you use for your accounts. Again, we have been using Capital One’s 360 Savings for their high-yield savings for years.
Every time I’ve called I’ve gotten friendly, helpful people who were able to answer my questions and handle my needs without any problems. That’s a huge reason why we haven’t switched our account somewhere else with slightly higher rates. Knowing that my bank can handle any issue I have without being on hold for half an hour is important to me.
That’s just nine reasons. I’m sure there will be many more in the comments!
Click here to get started with the online savings account we’ve been using – 360 Savings.
A high-yield savings account can be a great instrument if you are serious about building up your savings. Make sure you check the fine print for any account you plan before you sign up. Know what fees and money limits are involved and any penalties you might incur for taking your money out. Check online to see how well people like the bank’s service.
My wife was getting sick of the cable bill.
It’s gone up recently to the point where we had to question whether it was worth keeping or not.
I mean, remember when TV was free?
Now to get reception you have to pay (at least until the digital boxes take effect in February).
So my wife said it was time to get rid of cable!
Whoa! I gotta admit, I’m an addict. I’ve been glued to the TV since I was a wee little pea. I know that’s not the best thing but I wasn’t ready to go cold turkey just yet. But I also understand that we’re spending way too much money for the privilege of watching a ton of commercials on shows we mostly don’t care too much about.
I told my wife to let me take a shot at calling the cable company to see what they can do for us.
So I grabbed our latest bill, a pen, and some paper and gave them a call.
I got a friendly woman who asked how she can help me. I asked her what can be done to lower the bill as the rates have gotten real high and we were ready to drop cable if the rates continued as they were.
Immediately she said they had a 12 month promotion that would save us $25!
Oh yeah!
I checked with the Mrs to see if this was acceptable (we’re cool like that in that we clear money issues with each other). I got the yes nod and told the woman we’d take it.
Just like that we saved roughly $25 a month on our cable!
I took the person’s name and company number in case any issues arise on the next bill. I also wrote the details down so I can refer to then when the next bill comes in.
Some things to keep in mind if you’re calling to change your cable bill:
Do you have any other tips? Let me know what’s worked for you!
So I got a new computer recently. The last one went back to the turn of the century and the screen finally died (the battery had already gone). Anyway for all of the great programs on my new computer I didn’t have a good spreadsheet or writing program. Of course the industry standard is Microsoft Office. Office 2008 for the Mac on Amazon is going for a little over $100. Pretty good but still expensive after already buying a computer! I found out I could get a pretty good discount through work but a discount still means I’m paying for it. That’s when I remembered an article 9 Tips to Save Money on your Next Computer which mentioned OpenOffice.org!
I was a little skeptical of OpenOffice.org at first. I mean, it’s touted as a free alternative to MS Office. Could it really be as good if it’s free? I’ve used another alternative, Google Docs, a bunch of times. Google Docs is also free and is nice in that you can access your docs on any computer where you can get Google. It’s got good programs but falls behind in what MS Office offers.
OpenOffice.org , on the other hand functions almost exactly like MS Office!! So here’s our story: Last week my daughter had a science project due. In true fashion we all waited to just about the last minute. I hadn’t bought MS Office and didn’t use OpenOffice.org yet. We needed to print out her project, titles, and a graph of her research. Uh-oh! So I went to the OpenOffice site and downloaded thier suite which includes Writer (Word), Calc (Excell), Impress, Draw, and Base. I gotta tell you. I was surprised to see that it looked and operated just like MS Office would! I am sold! On top of the great programs you can also download templates and extensions to help you further.
Here’s the welcome page when you first open it:
Here’s what a spreadsheet looks like:
Looks an awful lot like Excel, no?
Here’s what Writer looks like:
Very similar to Word!
And here’s the templates and extensions screen:
There are a ton of great templates to chose from!
I mean, whats more frugal than free?!? And with the functionality of MS Office products it’s really a no-brainer! Although I haven’t gotten to use it too much yet I’m really liking it so far!
If you are looking for a spreadsheet, document, or presentation program I really think you should give OpenOffice.org a shot before you go out and buy anything!
Have you used it? What do you think?
As you know we are living off of one income now. It’s been a bit different but I think we’re doing well so far. One thing we’ve done to help stretch my paycheck is to cut back eating out so often. I didn’t think we ate out too much before the income switch but now I can see that we had a budget leak that could have been more savings for us. And we’ve discovered there are more benefits than saving money!
We were already in the habit of making dinner at home and having family time together. It was the weekends when we usually ate out. Saturdays were probably the worst culprits. We would get up and go to our favorite diner for breakfast. Then as we’d go and take care of things during the day we’d find lunch somewhere. This would also tend to be pretty unhealthy. I’m talking mall food here. Afterward we’d be too beat to make dinner so we go out for dinner or order in. Three meals may not seem like a lot but it would drain my wallet pretty quick! I would usually go to the bank on Friday to take money out for the weekend and often I’d find that I was broke by Sunday!
And that was just eating out on Saturday! I didn’t even get to eating out on Sunday or during the week. Sundays would usually be breakfast and lunch out again. During the week we usually ate in but if we were tired we would easily get food out!
Overall we’re really happy with the fact that we have been eating at home more.
It’s a shame it took our going to one income to take advantage of all of these benefits! Imagine what we could have been saving when we had two incomes?!? Or how much healthier we would have been eating?
We haven’t completely given up eating out. We still have the occasional pizza night. And we’ll get together with friends every now and then at a nice restaurant. But eating out less has definitely benefited our family in more ways than we would have thought!
Some years ago we got into a car accident.
Fortunately I called the police and had the officer file a car accident report. As a result, a full report of the accident was on file for my insurance company to use in their case against the person who hit us. If we didn’t have a report on what caused the accident, the other driver, then we would have been responsible for the deductible.
Not calling the police would have cost us $1000!
How is that possible? The other driver rear ended us putting the fault of the accident on him. Without that police report stating what happened, and that the other driver got a summons for driving too close, then we would have shared the blame in the accident. That would have meant we’d have to pay our $1,000 deductible.
A little while after we repaired the car from the accident we got a check in the mail from the car insurance company for $1,000.
Whew! Everything worked as it was supposed to and we got our insurance deductible back.
Our insurance company paid for all of the repairs but we had to pay $1,000 of the repairs out of pocket. I was afraid everything would drag out and it would take even longer to get the deductible back. Or even worse, something would happen and we wouldn’t get it back. In fact the collision company that fixed our car stressed that we should firmly follow up with our insurance since some companies keep the deductible. You always hear about some paperwork SNAFU that causes you to not get your insurance money. Thankfully our insurance was great and they paid us back without any problems.
So you understand, our insurance takes all of the information about the accident and basically sues the other driver’s insurance company for the damages. The success of the case determined whether we got our deductible back. If our insurance couldn’t win it back then we wouldn’t get it back either. Fortunately that wasn’t the case. A big part of that was having a police report saying the other driver rear-ended us.
Some of you might wonder why our deductible was so high?
I set it up that way with my insurance so I would have lower payments. Since we had the $1,000 socked away we could afford to have a high deductible. A higher insurance deductible is a great way to save on your car insurance.
This is a great example of why it’s important to have adequate savings! If I couldn’t back up the deductible I’d be paying higher insurance OR I might have to find the money somewhere else such as a credit card. That would not have been good.
If you are going the higher deductible route to save on your car insurance make sure you have that deductible handy in savings.
So to recap: Make sure you have the police at a car accident. And raise your car insurance deductible as much as you can afford in order to get lower car insurance payments. Also have enough savings to cover your deductible should you ever need to pay it.
photo credit: curly_exp( l)osure
