The beginning of a new healthcare year and the high deductibles are yanking money out of my wallet like a creek on flash flood steroids.
This is why I keep a piece(about half)of what I save in my yearly Savings Challenge in the month of December and don't put it into the Savings Challenge totals for that year.
I saved $3323.77 last December from our various incomes that month but only put $1548.21 toward the Savings Challenge, reserving $1775.56 of what we didn't spend in December to put toward medical bill deductibles in 2016.
We got to February 9th and we have already racked up over $3K medical charges for 2016.
And for once it is NOT all me! lolz
Hubs has an issue and the dr. ordered a whole battery of bloodwork tests for some pretty pricey and offbeat issues it might be, just to narrow down some causes.
8 tests that cost $2,761.
EEK!
Our insurance got a discount so we only owe $1,510.27 of that.
Gee, I feel soooo much better now! haha!!
And of course those tests didn't turn anything up which makes me even happier to shell out that kind of cash. not. (Though I am happy Hubs doesn't have any of these medical problems.)
So that $1775.56 will cover these medical tests plus a little leftover to cover what the February regular income won't.
I know we have plenty of cash in the bank/invested to cover the $3K in deductibles we wouldn't be able to cash flow with regular monthly income. But being as these medical bills all came in the first 5 weeks of the year there is more medical bills than money that has come in in the first 5 weeks of 2016.
Add in that in March I have real estate taxes due as well. 8-(
Not having that $1775.56 set aside would have severely bolloxed up our cash flow for February, March and April, making me have negative cash flow and I would have had to have pulled money out of the Savings Challenge rather than put money into it, until sometime in March or April.
I just hate my cash flowing being screwed with, that's all. ;-)
And on the lighter side of things I ran into Weis(PMITA)Markets yesterday afternoon and did a Deal twice.........
The last 2 weeks they had a deal when you buy 3 Gorton's fish products you get an instant $2 off, plus all the Gorton's has been 50% off reg. retail price.
There are/were assorted $1/1 Gorton's IPQs on coupons dotcom so I printed 6 out and got 6 items, these 3 x 2.
They all totaled $59.94 and 50% off brought them down to $29.97.
$6 off in Qs and $4 off in Instant Discounts got all 6 down to $19.97(which is 2/3rds off) or $3.32 for each package. Not bad for shrimp that is reg. $10.99 a box!
That fish is sold at Walmart for $5.08 locally so that price was jacked up at $7.99 but with the deal and Qs it was still $1.76 less with this Weis Deal.
So I've spent $19.97 so far this week on groceries, taking my February spending to $269.25 so I am over my $250 target and have passed into the "I can spend an extra $50 this month if there are good deals" territory. I'd call 6 boxes/bags of fish deal worthy. I've got $30.75 left to spend on food this month and about 11 days left.
Gonna be tight but do-able.
Sluggy
