Will medical bills end my plan to get out of debt

The calendar has only clicked off 17 days but so far it's been a medical year. My visit to the emergency department rolled into surgery just before midnight on New Years Eve. My daughter hit the same hospital ER before I was discharged. We both made trips to the pharmacy. Then, most of the members of our household caught the stomach flu.

Our medical bills are racking up this month. This doesn't include other tests, follow up visits and a regularly scheduled visit with my regular doctor. Our new insurance plan kicked in on January 1, so I'm still checking out coverage.

Being sick is expensive. Everyone knows that expensive care can bankrupt a family. Two major questions are rattling around in my brain. The first is trying to figure out what the insurance will cover and what it won't. The next question is in wondering if medical bills will end my plan to get out of debt.

Bills will be arriving soon. Only then will we be able to gauge what the impact going to be. If anything ends our carefully laid plans, then this will be it. Our highest hopes are that the medical bills will be manageable. Right now we're bracing for the worst but hoping for the best.

Opening up room in our budget may be a huge part in handling the medical expenses. We have had success with preplanning and using daily deal sites in other areas of our plan to get out of debt.  I'm planning on putting those same skills to work for us now. My theory is that it can't hurt.

Moving and unpacking budget blues

We're still unpacking from our recent move and the amount we're spending still has me in shock. None of the windows had curtains. We couldn't find any to fit at the thrift shop so that meant purchasing new ones – and rods.

The least expensive rods were .97. That doesn't sound like much until you consider that we're covering 8 windows, need to additional rods and two extensions. The inexpensive curtain panels cost $5 each. We needed 14 panels. Plus, we needed two full sets for the kitchen.

Then it's hardware, cleaning supplies (ours weren't up to tackling sulfur water), meals out because appliances still don't work and the list goes on. We are finding ways to cut back on expenses and save money on what we need.

For example, there are several areas where we need throw rugs. With searching, we were able to find new pretty ones on clearance. These were only $7 each.

I'm going to be making rugs from scrap materials and old clothing for the other areas. These are low traffic right now so there's a little time before rugs in these areas are needed.

Everything continues to add up. Will all the unpacking after moving my writing is falling behind. This is a huge challenge. It's given me new insight on what it means to live frugally. I'm behind the learning curve but I'm catching up.

Our move nearly blew our budget

Our moving nearly blew our budget. I've not been online much lately because of the time vacuum called moving. The truck was covered by Hubby's job so we didn't have to worry about that. I've been shocked at all of the extra expenses that have come along with the move.

Just when we think we had that under control I got slammed by a physical issue. Sometimes it seems that we can't win for losing. But, I'm not giving in to that attitude. When you're hit by extra bills or life in general don't give up. It's counterproductive and will drag you down.

Granted, we've not done so well financially for the past two weeks. Tape, boxes (or gas used in finding them), meals out, gas for trips to the dump and to Goodwill have all added up. I've tried to compensate by doing some extra writing but finding the time to get that done has been difficult. 

Funds from the writring will all be in by the end of July. We'll see how everything stands then. In the meantime, I'll be writing and unpacking but not necessarily in that order.

Any amount is a step forward. We paid off a couple of bills last month. What we would be making in payments and the internet writing will help offset these extra expenses. That's pretty encouraging to me. :)

My online writing bought my netbook

Many thanks to help from readers who bring traffic to this blog and some extra writing work! I'm happy to say that the newest debt has been retired! Yippee! The new Asus EEE PC is now mine.

It's a really good feeling to have this paid off. No one likes to have unexpected expenses. When my old netbook passed away suddenly the problem looked like another impossible debt. Now, it's another debt that has been laid to rest.

We had to use our credit to get the computer. That meant making some hard choices on how to pay the credit card off. Extra writing means sacrificing family time. Plus, unless it was for the blog or work my family ate inexpensive meals at home instead of eating out. These choices aren't anyone's idea of fun.

My daughter came home from college last weekend. It would have been nice to have spent extra time shopping before coming home instead of working to pay off the credit card. Instead of buying things, we meandered through Shenandoah National Park and stood on the Appalachian Trail.

I'm learning that managing debt means making a trade off. Yes, paying off the credit card is important. Should it come at the expense of family time? Or, is there a way to balance extra work hours with family time? I'm learning that not only is it possible to balance both but it can be freeing to do so.

One of my choices involved choosing a netbook. Passing up on the super cool Asus made me feel like a failure for a few days. Instead of being happy about the new purchase I was unhappy that it wasn't my dream model.

That feeling changed when the Asus netbook arrived. It does what it needs to do without a hitch. Once the updates were loaded it was ready to go. That helped make me feel better.

What helped me feel better the most is knowing that a bill for the Asus netbook isn't coming at the end of the month. No netbook means no income. Not having one wasn't an option so we had to use credit. Paying off the credit card quickly was the only real alternative.

That's where the extra writing came into play. Boy, am I ever grateful for that and for those of you who visit my blogs. Take care now. Good luck paying off your credit card debt too. I know you can do it! :)

My new Asus 1001PXD netbook tops expectations

My new Asus 1001PXD Netbook tops the expectations that I had.  In my earlier post I wrote about getting the netbook I could afford but not the netbook that I wanted. The one that caught my eye had a 9.5 hour battery, extra memory and a few more bells and whistles.



My expectations for this Asus were low. After reading the online reviews my expectation was that this computer would be about as fast as a stampede of turtles. Instead, it's a peppy little machine that is suiting my needs perfectly. It probably wouldn't work for gaming but handles email and word processing just fine. Plus, it has the added bonus of being (almost) within my budget.



Money is always important. When you are trying to get out of debt you have to justify almost every dollar spent. It's tough to do that. We've been slammed with extra expenses these past few weeks. The last thing I needed was to purchase an expensive laptop.



The unexpected death of my previous netbook left me in a jam. For me, a computer isn't a luxury. It's a necessity. In addition to my blogs I write on Examiner, Yahoo Contributor Network and Factoidz. Without a computer I'm dead in the water.



But, justifying a cost and paying the bill can be two different things. I'm very fortunate to have found a computer for $250. Just as importantly, I'm lucky to have had extra writing come my way. It looks like the writing will pay for the Asus 1001 PXD netbook this month. Yay!



A little more dancing on the keyboard may help me pay another bill too. That's the plan anyway. The month is young and the sky is the limit. Let's see how high we can fly to help get rid of the debt, shall we?

No thanks on the Discover credit card

A friend read my blog and made a suggestion that surprised me. Her idea was for me to get a Discover credit card to help with my car repair bills. This sound great but would actually work against me.

We got into trouble before with a credit card and a car repair bill. What looked like an easy fix caused us much more in the long run. Sure, we can whip out a card and sign on the dotted line. When the bill comes due at the end of the month (or 30 days) it still has to be paid.

What happened then would probably happen if I got a Discover credit card. We put the car repair on it. Then, we got hit with another repair about the time the credit car bill came due. Our problem was that we had to pay the repair plus the work that we already had done. Plus, we had the interest.

A Discover card may be ideal for some people. For us, we're trying to eliminate all of our credit cards. I'm pretty sure that opening an account there, even with 0% APR for six months, will be counterproductive.

I know that she meant well. It's just that opening an account would go against what we need to do. Thanks for suggesting a Discover credit card though. I appreciate the thought.

Car repair tests my goal to get out of debt

We knew our good luck wouldn't last forever. It happened and we may have passed our first test (although not with flying colors). I'm talking about how my car repair tests my goal to get out of debt. 

I've found out that you can ignore the knock under the hood but it's harder to ignore a problem that almost leaves you stranded on I-75. After getting it started again we decided to head over to Midas in Knoxville. These guys can fix just about anything. 

Since the car repair would test my goal to get out debt we braced for impact. At 210,000+ miles the spark plugs and wires were well past their prime. Those were changed and a couple of sensors. Midas in Knoxville charged $433. Hubby called around to compare prices for this article. The guys did a great job and the price is good.

My PT Cruiser

The problem is that the car wasn't fixed. We wound up heading over to Jim Cogdill Dodge. I really felt that his car repair would test my goal to get out of debt now. Car repair bills from dealerships aren't cheap. We braced for more impact. Replacing a part near one of the sensors cost $220. 

I picked the car up, almost got stranded and headed back to the dealership. Kudos to the tech for finding the problem. One of the new sensors was bad. There was no additional charge to replace it and Midas gave our money back to us for the sensor repair. 

Our unexpected expense hit is $500. I've made about $200 in writing so far this month. The challenge will be to see if I can make the whole total. 

Hubby has some reimbursements coming from work that will help too. The hit is impacting my goal to get out of debt. We've done pretty well though. Now, to see how we do for the rest of the month. I'm taking Hubby's lunch to him as I head to the grocery store. Done more frequently, little things like that help too.