Insurance Elections

My husband had quite a few options for medical insurance through his new employer, as well as dental, vision, and supplemental life insurance. He receives a $350 monthly allowance to go towards his monthly premiums, but unfortunately most of the insurance plans are still pricey (after the allowance). His company only employs about 7o people, which is why the premiums are so high. After reading through everything, and weighing our options, we decided to go with the following:

PPO plan
$540 per month - $350 = $190 out of pocket (this covers our family of four)
$750 deductible (for my husband AND myself) = $1,500 deductible
$4,500 maximum yearly (for my husband AND myself) = $9,000 maximum yearly
$45 office visit copay for the first 12 visits, then 45% of the cost after
$15 copay for generic prescriptions only, brand name prescriptions are not covered

This definitely is not nearly as good as the insurance benefits we had through my husband's previous employer, and it is costing us about $40 more per month (plus he is making $15,000 per year less now). Because of this we decided to not get the dental, vision and supplemental life insurance; I'm just not sure we can afford it right now. The dental would have been an additional $120 per month for three of us, and vision was $20 per month for my husband and myself. The yearly enrollment period is in June so if it looks like we can afford to add dental, vision and/or life at that time we will. I would just like to see how we do making less and paying more for the medical for now.

Falling Behind

Ack! It has been more than a week and a half since I have posted, and things just don't seem to be slowing down.

We have made a decision regarding medical, dental and vision insurance and I promise to post about it tomorrow when I have the numbers in front of me.

My Husband Has Started Working Again!

My husband started his new job Monday and it seems to be going well for him so far, although his manager has called in sick both days so he has yet to work with him. One really great perk that my husband is excited about is the dress code, which is basically anything goes (with the exception of vulgar or otherwise offensive language or pictures, or dirty clothes). He gets to wear jeans and t-shirts everyday, and shorts and flip-flops during the summer...how cool is that?!

He has already gotten signed up for direct deposit, and payday is the 15th and the 30th of every month. I really prefer (and am used to) getting paid every other Friday, so this may take a little getting used to.

As far as benefits go we need to decide which health option we want, and there are quite a few. The company gives him a monthly allowance of $350 towards his health, dental and vision premiums which is awesome, but the premiums are pretty high since this is a small company (only around 70-80 employees). I also need to figure out if the dental plan is worth the cost, for our family it will be $120 per month (plus co-pay and deductible when it applies). Vision is pretty cheap (around $15 per month if I remember correctly) so we will probably go ahead and do that.

We have had a lot of things change for us over the past three months since my husband was laid-off. I am just so thankful that he has a job again, we have a place to live, and food on the table!

We Moved!

This has all happened really fast, and I will just give you the short of it for now then try to fill you in on some of the details in later posts.

We rented a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath townhouse earlier this week for $899 per month. We have a month-to-month lease, and this will be short-term for us because we have also rented a 3 bed, 2 bath house. The only reason we did not move straight into the house is that the owner, who is currently living in it, had some kind of hold-up with his financing on his new house and therefore will not be able to move out as quickly as he had originally told us. We are not unpacking anything other than our day to day necessities, so that when our rent house is ready we will be ready to move into it.

My husband starts work at his new job on Monday! He is apprehensive (this is not the job he wanted, but it is the only one that made him an offer so what can he do?), and I REALLY hope it goes better than he is expecting.

Budget Review: 01/16/09 - 02/12/09

I am a month late in posting this, with all that has been going on this past month I just haven't had the time to get to it until now. Anyway, here is how we did last month...

Rent $1,400, Actual $1,400
Renter's Insurance $25.23, Actual $25.23
Repairs/Maintenance $10, Actual $5.45
Groceries $200, Actual $347.73 = $147.73 over budget
Restaurants $40, Actual $65.03 = $25.03 over budget
Car Payment $307, Actual $307
Gas and Oil $200, Actual $195.98
Repairs/Tires $290, Actual $290
Kids Clothing $30, Actual $22.50
Prescriptions $15.04, Actual $17.62 = $2.58 over budget
Doctor $40, Actual $20
Kids Classes (Ballet/Tap) $39, Actual $39
Miscellaneous $50, Actual $50.23 = $0.23 over budget
Kids Allowance $8, Actual $8
Gifts $15, Actual $15
Hair Care $20, Actual $20.95 = $0.95 over budget
Blow Money $10, Actual $10
Cleaning Supplies $50, Actual $50.56 = $0.56 over budget
Toiletries $150, Actual $113.78
Entertainment $30, Actual $39.07 = $9.07 over budget
Electricity $85, Actual $74.26
Water $75, Actual $76.23 = $1.23 over budget
Gas $275, Actual $243.58
Cell Phone $85, Actual $87.27 = $2.27 over budget
Land Line & Internet $85, Actual $85
Trash $44, Actual $44
Cable $45.34, Actual $45.34
Visa #1 $124, Actual $0
Visa #2 $95, Actual $95
Store Card #1 $50, Actual $54
Store Card #2 $21, Actual $62
Student Loan $241.45, Actual $241.45
Medical Bill $144.62, Actual $144.62

I am much happier with the way we handled this month's budget vs. last month! All that red may make it look like we didn't do very well, but in most categories we only went over by a few cents or dollars. The worst categories for us were all food related, which we know is our weak spot. Not an excuse, just an acknowledgment that we know what areas we need to work on!

Free Formula!

A friend found this formula for a fraction of the cost at a local discount store (local to her, not me) and bought it for me. She wouldn't let me pay her, so we got all this formula for free! The big can of Good Start would have cost us around $25 alone! Unfortunately our daughter refused to drink the Nutramigen, a chemical based formula for colicky babies, so I am going to sell the two unopened cans and give the money back to my friend.

The Cost Of Formula

Our baby was fully weaned to formula at around eight months, and it didn't dawn on me that we were not budgeting for buying formula full time until a few weeks ago. My husband and I were going over last months budget, and our new one for this month, and it just hit me that formula is the main reason we have been going over budget on groceries by more than $100 each month. For the next three months (until our daughter turns one) we will have to continue spending between $100 - $125 per month on formula. I'm just glad it is only for three more months!

Family Time Budget A Bust

Today (a week after getting back) I finally had a chance to sit down and add up what we spent while visiting family last week. We had a budget of $10 per day for food and whatever activities we wanted to do. We ended up spending $146.06 on food, or $18.26 per day, so almost double our budget. I am disappointed in myself for not doing a better job of sticking with the budget.

Other than food we only did one thing that cost money, we played putt-putt for $4.50. We did stay home several times when the family went out, which saved us from spending even more, but I'm sure we could have done better. One big pitfall was that Starbucks was pretty much the only place we could get a wireless connection, and we ended up spending a lot of time there so that my husband could apply for jobs. Who can go sit in Starbucks and not get something to eat and/or drink? I'm afraid not I!