Blogging Away Debt

Very Nice News Was Received in the Mail Today

When we got home from shopping, my son got the mail from the mailbox and I saw the familiar logo of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan on a white envelope. That’s who we are getting our health insurance from.

My first thought was “Oh no” because they really processed our application quickly. They said it would take 4 to 6 weeks and it hasn’t been that long yet. It’s only been about two weeks since I mailed in the application.

Since Blue Cross/Blue Shield doesn’t really reject people, I wasn’t worried about it being a decline letter. I knew it was a bill. I opened the bill when we got in the house and my eyes scanned it so fast looking for the “Due Date.”

January 7, 2007

YES! I was so happy that I almost did a little dance. They were not utilizing auto pay for the first payment and I have until the new year to pay it! That is excellent news because we have a few more paychecks before the due date to have the money ready for it and we will not be as squeezed for cash.

While I tried not to worry about it too much, it was still a relief to now know when that bill was due. Sometimes, the unknown really bothers me since I am very much a planner type of person.

There was a little bit of bad news with the bill, though. The cost of the insurance per month was higher than what ehealthinsurance.com quoted me. Instead of around $330/month it is a little over $350/month. With looking at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s website…the price did go up since earlier this month. After my husband and I turn 30 early next year, we are looking at $400/month to cover the both of us.

I’m not going to focus on the negative which is the escalating costs of healthcare. I am going to focus on the positive that we will be able to pay this bill and when the time comes we will be able to pay future bills. As of December 1st, we now have health insurance after being without it since 2001. We now will have some peace of mind knowing that we will not be destroyed financially if something health-related should happen to one of us.

Next step is to finalize life insurance and look into disability insurance. Which, by the way, makingourway did a nice post on disability insurance not too long ago if you are interested.

When I Tried to use my Credit Card…I Couldn’t

by Tricia

I’ve mentioned a few times that we do still use our credit cards. I have a designated card to use for online purchases and we used one during our recent trip. The “rule” is that we can only charge what we can turn around and pay immediately. So far, that has been going great and we’ve been sticking to it.

Today, we decided to go shopping with my son so he could make his list for Santa. It turns out that today was a one-day sale at the one store and they had some nice deals still available. I took a notebook with me and wrote down what my son wanted as well as the price. Since I had an idea on the price for a few things from looking on the internet, it was just a matter of checking out the prices among the local stores.

A few things that he picked out I knew I wouldn’t be able to find somewhere else at a lower price. One thing was on clearance for 50% off and it was the last one available. The other thing was 30% off for the one-day sale.

My husband took our son over to a different section of the store and I grabbed up the two items. Along the way I see that there is a coupon for $3.00 off any toy when you purchase two packs of batteries. What a good deal! I couldn’t pass that up, so the batteries were stacked on top of the other goodies. The total amount was now at $70 (OUCH).

My order was rung up and I took my credit card out of my wallet. I knew I couldn’t turn around and pay that card immediately. I have my home repair to pay for next week and I didn’t know when my health insurance would be due. I had to save our money until I knew more. I could probably pay it off before any finance charges were accessed, but there was a little shadow of doubt looming above on that.

I felt horrible swiping it since I was breaking the rules I had established for myself. As I hit the “Ok” button for the amount…there was no going back.

Until…the card was denied!

Perhaps a little bit of fate intervened right then and there because the card I had in my wallet was an expired card! I didn’t put the new card in my wallet.

I felt my whole face turn red probably out of embarassment of having my card decline and for trying to break my rule. I told the cashier that I have another card that I can run (my debit).

And with that…I was forced to pay with CASH for the purchase.

I could have put the items away, but they were things that were going on his list to Santa and they were at great prices. I was nervous to use the money in our checking account, but part of me wanted to do it just to teach myself a lesson! And that lesson is NOT to use the credit cards unless we have the money to turn around and pay the card immediately.

When we got home, there was some great news in the mail. More on that in a little bit…