The cost of a baby: Hospital edition

In late December while I was waiting for Natalie's arrival I compiled stats from the spreadsheet I was keeping of all the baby-related spending we were doing. I called it The cost of a baby, but I knew I'd have to give updates over time. I noted how during my entire pregnancy, including my advance payment for labor and delivery charges, we only paid $175 to bring Natalie into this world, $100 of which covered the labor and delivery insurance co-pay.

I distinctly remember having a phone conversation with a billing representative through our health insurance company just a couple weeks before Natalie's birth. I was calling about something unrelated, and when the man asked if I had any more questions I said, "Yes, actually. I've paid my $100 insurance co-pay for labor and delivery hospital charges. Am I going to get charged anything further associated with my daughter's delivery?" He said, "Yes, there could be other charges." Uh-oh, I thought, this is what I was afraid of -- it all had been sounding too good to be true. I braced for the bad news that I'd have to pay several thousand dollars in some kind of hidden expenses no one had ever mentioned.

When I pressed him to get more specific about these other potential charges, he said, "If you order some special food off the hospital menu or you make a long-distance call from your hospital room, you could be charged for those services." I asked him what else I could get charged for, and he struggled to come up with anything else. I asked if there were any medical procedures I could get charged for. I didn't want any surprise $10,000 medical bills showing up weeks after her birth. He just reiterated the same list he'd already mentioned, reminding me that yes, I could get charged for something, but in my mind I was thinking, is this for real?

The answer is yes, this is very for real. Now over 14 weeks out from Natalie's birth, we are still getting bills in the mail, but fortunately they are all arriving with a $0 balance, having been paid off by our insurance.

How much did my labor and delivery cost, including c-section and extended hospital stay?
$17,818.81

How much did Natalie's one-week NICU stay cost?
$48,217.12

That's a grand total of $66,035.93

We got it all for $100.

Thank goodness this is very for real.

The cost of a baby

Financial concerns are some of the scariest things soon-to-be parents or anyone contemplating having a child in the future must consider. For our entire 5.5 year marriage thus far the cost of babies and children has been at the forefront of all the financial decisions Matt and I have made (so much so that you may recall my financial spreadsheet I made several years ago titled "Can we ever afford kids?", the answer being yes).

You've probably heard stories similar to this one on the Today Show about the lifetime costs associated with raising a child. As this story points out, the average American family spends $250,000 per child over of the course of its financially dependent lifetime. This figure excludes the costs associated with college, and let's be serious, by the time our daughter will be entering college a four-year institution will probably cost $250,000 on its own.

So, as I like to do, I've conducted a little experiment. I decided to save every receipt for every purchase related to bringing a baby into the world. I've also kept an elaborate spreadsheet that I've updated every time we brought something baby-related into the house. Here's the breakdown of what I found.

As of this writing, $8,348.97 has been spent on unborn Baby Awesomerod. The actual full-retail price total that has been spent is $9,436.94. This number includes only the lowest possible health care costs ($175), which, if we didn't have such amazing insurance, would add at least $10,825 to the bill, bringing the total to at least $20,261.94.

Matt and I have personally only spent $2,365.97. So, this number would be significantly higher if 1) we didn't have great health insurance, 2) we didn't have incredibly generous friends and family, and 3) I hadn't been using coupons, comparison shopping, accepting hand-me-downs and being as generally savvy as possible.

Now let me say, before I go any further, that a baby does not need $8,348.97 spent on it before it's born. In fact, a newborn baby needs very little in terms of the true necessities of life. Here is a post from Pregnant Chicken that highlights the few items a baby would actually need. Her items listed come to a total of $257, but she excludes a car seat, which I would add in at roughly $150, bringing her total [before borrowing anything from friends] to around $400. She excludes a stroller as well. She also assumes breastfeeding will work (and not involve any special care items for mom to help with breastfeeding), and therefore doesn't include the costs of formula either. Finally, her plan is that after the first pack of disposable diapers the parents will switch to cloth diapering. So, she really takes the term "necessities" about as far as it can be stretched, which is probably not realistic for most people.

I fully admit that Matt and I are not normal, that we do not live in the real world of people who survive paycheck to paycheck and worry about how they'll pay bills or get food on the table. We live an upper-middle class existence, and though we are not in the top 1% in terms of the Occupy movements (we are solidly part of the 99%), we are no doubt in the top 1% worldwide, just like no doubt most of my readers are as well.

All this said, the financial world our baby is about to enter is "normal" in the circles in which we orbit, so this post is directed toward that audience just to give you an idea of our experience as you may or may not anticipate your own.

How did I arrive at our baby cost figures? There were five areas I tracked: health care, nursery, maternity clothes, gifts, and baby clothes/gear we bought to fill in gaps after we received gifts.

Health care
Our total spending: $175 
Actual value: At least $11,000

Breakdown of expenses:
$50 for progesterone supplements co-pay during the first trimester
$100 for hospital delivery co-pay
$25 for private room preference at hospital

I am very aware of the fact that we are exceptionally fortunate to have outstanding health care. Not to get too political, but it is devastating to think about all the people out there who do not have health care and therefore have to pay for routine health care and urgent care costs out-of-pocket. According to this article from WebMD prenatal care can cost approximately $2,000 without insurance, and the hospital bill for an uncomplicated vaginal delivery costs approximately $9,000 without insurance (and $15,000 for an uncomplicated cesarean section without insurance).

The article does point out that another important prenatal health care expense is for prenatal vitamins, which I've been taking for so long I forgot to even include in my baby spending spreadsheet. If you're looking for the best deal on prenatal vitamins, not surprisingly your grocery store's generic brand is just as good as any expensive brand on the market (One a Day as an example of an expensive brands comes to mind). Although I took generics for a couple years, I wanted a vitamin containing DHA and started taking the Nature Made Prenatal Multi + DHA vitamins that Costco sells at $19.99 for 150 softgels. (This blows the Amazon price of $14.79 for 30 softgels out of the water.)

Nursery
Our total spending: $1,067.32
Actual value: $1670.90

I feel like I've written plenty about the nursery, but just to give you a sense of the quick budget breakdown...

Several items came to us as gifts. One major item, the dresser/changing table, thanks to its solid wood construction would have cost hundreds of dollars if we'd bought it new, but Matt snagged it for $40 on Craigslist and gave it lots of TLC. And, of course, I bought a lot of supplies on sale or using coupons.

Paint and paint supplies
Our total spending: $80.12
Actual value: $80.12

Dresser/changing table project
Our total spending: $93.78 ($40 for dresser; $53.78 for supplies to refinish dresser)
Actual value: $311.28

DIY curtains
Our actual spending: $129.11
Actual value: $250.95

The major price difference here happened thanks to the fact that I stumbled upon this fabric when it was 60% off, so I spent $100.74 on 6 yards of fabric instead of a whopping $215.

Furniture and other decor
Our actual spending: $748.93
Actual value: $953.93

Here's what fell into this category: crib, crib mattress, crib skirt materials (for DIY project), chair, ottoman, bookcase, trash can/diaper pail, decal, and framed art work. The major price difference here is again thanks to receiving a few nursery items as gifts.

Storage solutions
Our actual spending: $15.38
Actual value: $74.62

We paid for the iron-on patches; the rest of the items we got through our Container Store gift card.

Maternity clothes
Our total spending: $586.08
Actual value: $769.87

I've written several times about trying to minimize my maternity clothes spending. I think I succeeded. I received several items as gifts and one item as a hand-me-down. I also bought most of the shirts I purchased on sale (though I never seem to find pants of sale normally, and this again applied when shopping for maternity clothes). My obvious maternity splurge was my expensive jeans for $200, but at 39 weeks and 6 days pregnant I stand by that purchase and the fact that they have gotten me through my pregnancy and they will continue to get me through the postpartum period as well (news flash: you're about 6 months pregnant looking after you deliver, and it doesn't go away over night).


I've posted this before here in my ultimate baby to-do list, but I thought for convenience I'd repost below everything that went into the maternity spending category:

• BeBand 
• bra extender 
• three pairs of work pants (black, gray and khaki) -- my favorite pair of work pants wound up being the $30 gray pants I got at Motherhood Maternity
• one pair of nice jeans (Citizens of Humanity Dita Petite Secret Fit Belly Maternity Boot Cut Jeans)
• two pairs of maternity leggings (black and gray)
• two maternity dresses
• one jean skirt (specifically this one from Old Navy that I highly recommend, but remember to order it one or two sizes smaller than your normal size because it runs large)
• one nicer skirt
• four long-sleeve maternity shirts
• eight short-sleeve maternity shirts (tip: scour the sale rack of Target's maternity section as well as Gap Maternity [located inside some Baby Gap stores])
• one nursing bra
• one nursing tank

I will add that I am fortunate that 1) as a teacher the expectations regarding how fancy I look at work are pretty low, so I didn't need to buy anything particularly formal such as a suit and 2) this has been a really mild fall and winter, so I got away with not needing to buy particularly heavy winter clothing, which is typically more expensive than summer clothes.

Gifts
Our total spending: $0
Actual value: $5983

OK, so this is the one category where the actual value is an estimate, but I think it's a pretty darn accurate estimate. A lot of the gifts we received came from our registry, so that is easy to track, and a lot of other items, such as books and clothes, are fairly easy to track. Specifically, our baby's wardrobe is keeping Carter's in business, so maybe it's worth it to invest in some Carter's stock.

The baby gifts fell into the following categories:
Registry purchases: $2,433.85 -- This includes a lot of the big-ticket baby items such as our car seat, stroller, high chair, Ergo baby carrier, baby monitor, Pack n' Play, exersaucer, infant gym, safety gate, diaper bag, bouncer seat and lots of cloth diapers.
Clothes: $1,107.91 -- We also received several sets of clothing on loan, and the value of those are not included because they do not belong to us
Other (off-registry toys, books, gift cards, cash, etc.): $2,441.24 -- We received several baby gear items as hand-me-downs that we'll be keeping, so I did include the retail value of the infant tub, Bumbo seat, infant swing, and Snap N Go stroller frame in this total. We even got some of our friends' leftover infant disposable diapers since their son has already outgrown them.

As you can see, when I wrote about all the showers (part 1 and 2) thrown in Baby Awesomerod's honor, I was not using hyperbole when I said we are truly wowed and grateful for all the generosity that's been shown our family.

Baby clothes/gear we purchased
Our total spending: $537.57
Actual value: $838.17

This is the category in which I really went bargain hunting and cashed in on sales, clearances, online shopping, and lots of coupons and store credits.

All along I've wanted to purchase clothing for our daughter myself, so I've picked up 22 clothing items, all but two of which I found on sale during trips to Target or Old Navy or bought at TJMaxx, which tends to have great infant clothes selection at highly discounted prices.

The other items that fell into this category I primarily purchased after my first shower. Several of my friends who've already had babies told me that after their main shower they received few if any gifts off their registries. This proved true for us as well. So, there were a number of items no one bought us that I'd consider necessities (such as infant nail clippers or a few baby bottles) and a number of registry items that aren't necessities but I knew I wanted for the future (such as the Stokke Tripp Trapp infant rail or more of the aden + anais muslin burpy bibs). You'll notice that items such as the ones listed above I got entirely through Amazon. A lot of the prices have changed since I made the purchases, another interesting aspect of dealing with Amazon -- if you see a really low price, act fast because that price could change in a matter of hours.

In addition to clothing and registry completion items, this category of spending covers a bunch of small baby purchases such as our first packs of baby wipes and Vaseline. It even covers the five cloth diapers I bought recently at a discount.

Now that so much spending has taken place our daughter will not need much to get her through many months ahead, so we're looking forward to going back to some more normal spending habits.

Forcing ourselves to save

Money has been on my mind a lot in the last few months, so I figured it was about time to blog about it. Way back in January I blogged about my semi-obsession with Mint.com and its budget tools. Now that I've been using Mint for almost a year and a half to track our household spending and set realistic monthly budgets, I am happy to report the way in which this site has fundamentally changed our habits. We are saving more than ever before.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me clarify one huge point: Matt and I are saving more than ever before, even though we are currently making the same salaries we've been making for the past three years. Our district has frozen pay increases for teachers. Determined, though, to not let this dampen our financial futures, I decided to give us a "raise" by saving more each year than we did the year before.

A quick diversion...look how well our plant on the deck is doing in November! Talk about longevity.

So, in the last few months, I have been over our budget on Mint with a fine-tooth comb. I've looked at our spending trends and found areas where we were spending too much. This is where I really examined our budget dollar by dollar and decided, for example, to cut down our Netflix account from two movies at a time plus unlimited streaming (for about $14/month) to one movie at a time plus unlimited streaming (for about $9/month). Five dollars a month is only $60 per year, which obviously isn't going to change our lifestyle, but by examining and adjusting each budget accordingly, I have been able to triple the amount of money we save each month between 2008 and today. That's right -- right now, we're saving three times what we saved two years ago, and we didn't get raises or even cost-of-living adjustments.

It's also important to note that we would not be doing such a stellar job of saving if we did not have an automatic savings plan in place, so that almost as soon as our paychecks clear our checking account we whisk away a big chunk of money into our savings account, never to be touched.

Here's what our monthly budget looks like:

Monthly spending:

• Mortgage -- high (in an effort to keep some things personal, I'll keep the dollar amount out here)
• Savings -- second highest "expense," which I have automatically direct deposited into our savings account each month
• Groceries -- $600 allocated, though we've never spent that much. In October, we spent $500.
• Bills and utilities -- $450 allocated, average cost is around $400 for Internet, cable, cell phones, gas, electric
• Restaurants -- $250 allocated, and we always spend this much. This is one of the main areas where we've cut down in the last year or two. Any prepared food we buy goes into this category, whether it's a sit-down meal at a nice restaurant or grabbing a sandwich from Potbelly.
• Gas -- $175 allocated, which is almost always what we spend.
• Homeowners Association dues -- $101, never changes.
• Auto/home insurance -- $95, never changes.
• Home furnishings/supplies -- $75 allocated, and I have this budget carry over from one month to the next to account for months when I spend a lot versus months when I spend little to no money on our home.
• Clothing -- $75 allocated, and this is another budget that carries over from month to month to account for the fact that I usually buy several items of clothing at once. Take, for instance, today: I had only bought one clothing item in three months until I bought six items this afternoon!
• Health and fitness -- $60 allocated, which includes gym memberships, pharmacy purchases, doctor's visits.
• Pet food and supplies -- $50 allocated
• Cosmetics/toiletries -- $25 allocated, another carry-over budget. I formed this one out of shear curiosity, not because we spend much money in this area. It's a way for me to see if I can continue to justify more expensive hair product purchases. I think I can.
• Education -- $15 allocated for classroom supplies/books we might buy for ourselves. We try not to do this, though sometimes it's inevitable.
• Newspapers/magazines -- $15 allocated. Matt reads a lot.
• Movies -- $10 allocated, Netflix.
• Coffee shops -- $10 allocated, for those times when we haven't been gifted with a Starbucks card.

Infrequent spending:
We also have budgets in place for those items we pay every other month, every three months or even  once a year. Mint calculates these items as budgets we're saving for a little every month so we don't have to tempt ourselves to draw from our savings for infrequent expenses.

• Auto maintenance/repair -- $33/month (spend ~$100 every three months between our two cars)
• Pet medication -- $25/month (spend $50 every other month)
• Veterinary -- $50/month (because we spend a ridiculous amount each year that I don't even want to think about)
• Water -- $26/month (billed every three months)
• Heating/AC maintenance -- $23/month paid once a year to fulfill a yearly contract to service our HVAC
• AAA membership -- $7/month, paid once a year

This exercise in meticulous budgeting has helped me maintain my sanity when I get worried about the lack of raises in our foreseeable future. Rather than feeling overwhelmed, I've taken control of our finances, our savings and therefore some of our happiness as well. If you haven't tried this out with your family's budget, now would be a great time to look at your trends to get you off to a fresh start as the new year approaches!

Tip 66: Stop paying for text messaging

At the end of August I sent out one of those classic emails with this subject line: New number. I hadn't done that since 2003 when I graduated from college, became financially independent, and therefore took myself off my parents' cell phone bill. I thought I would take that 2003 cell number to my grave, but then I discovered a new trick, thanks to Matt, my tech guru. I told my friends I would later explain via blog, so, here goes...

Tip 66: If you have a smartphone, sign up for Google Voice. The primary benefit? You can stop paying for text messaging today.

Matt took the plunge with Google Voice well before me, participating in a little experiment that got us to where we are today. At first I didn't get the point of Google Voice. The way Matt used it, it seemed like nothing more than a way to get transcripts of your voicemails, and these transcripts are comically poor. Then Matt told me there was a way to save money with Google Voice. I was all ears when he suggested we cancel our texting plan.

Google Voice shows up on the Droid as a program with an icon, just like all other applications.

Of course, there is a downside, and in order to use Google Voice to replace text messaging on your phone you have to change your phone number. So, as I did at the end of August, you have to email your contacts, letting them know you have a new number.

To counter this one obvious drawback, though, there are plenty of benefits:

1) Google Voice groups all texts from one conversation together, much like the default texting program on the Droid. This makes your texts read more like an IM chat than a series of separate texts.

2) Recordings of voicemails show up in the Google Voice program as well, and all you have to do is click on the play button beneath the transcript of the voicemail. This cuts out a couple steps normally required to access your voicemails in the Droid.

3) You can also access Google Voice from your computer. You can make calls and send texts through the Google Voice website. It gives you one more way to be in touch if you're away from your phone.

4) Even though the Google Voice voicemail transcripts are notoriously shoddy, you have the option to allow them to show up in your email. So, if you're like me and you often don't have your phone in front of you during the day, you can kill two birds with one stone when you check your email only to discover that you also have a new voicemail waiting for you.

5) You can use your Google Voice account to bring together your various phone numbers and program which ones operate at different locations at different times or based on the person who is calling. Although this is not something I've tried because I really only have one phone number, it might be something worth trying if you're like many of my friends who carry around their personal cell phones and their work Blackberries everywhere they go.

Once I had a few weeks to try out Google Voice and see that I was still receiving my texts and voicemails, Matt and I finally canceled our texting plans. We don't actually text that much, so we had plans that accounted for 200 texts each per month -- the least amount we could get -- and I know I only send about 30 texts a month. Not paying for texts only saves us $10 per month, but when I consider that we're saving $120 per year, it makes that email I sent in August seem like a small price to pay. Plus, this is one more way that I am keeping Verizon in check and continuing my quest to stop getting ripped off.

Correct me if I'm wrong: cable companies

So, these "free premium channels" that cable companies will throw at you sometimes are never, ever truly free, right? Never free, because they'll make you pay for it one way or another, most likely tacking those charges onto your bill and thinking you won't notice. Chalk this one up to Matt having more faith/trust in others than I do, and therefore agreeing to the "free" channels (that we never watched) in the first place.

Looks like this is another battle we're going to have to fight. Is it just me, or does it always feel like customer service -- particularly at cable companies -- never, ever get it right?

All this complaining is making me think that perhaps I chose the wrong path in life. Perhaps my calling is in consumer protection. Or, maybe I should have come up with the idea for the book Stop Getting Ripped Off. Either way, this just strengthens my determination to cancel cable -- a real money pit, if you ask me. Now I just need my tech-savvy husband to keep investigating our options and maybe prepare to make a switch this holiday season when cable-free contraptions go on sale...

In the meantime, I will continue to hate Verizon.

Gas meters: Ask and you shall receive

Remember back in the spring when we got hit by the worst gas bill in history coupled by the worst customer service experience ever? Hyperbole aside, I was pretty annoyed, and because my gas company refused to do much to proactively fix the meter-reading problem to avoid future difficulties, I started reading my own gas meter and double checking the company's numbers.

Fast forward to Saturday, when I come home from a super successful Target clothes shopping experience, only to find this on our door:

That's right, a man from Washington Gas wanted to install a little device on our meter so that our meter could be read electronically (read: accurate every time!). Fortunately, his truck was still parked across the street from our house when I saw the note, so Matt and I went into super stalker mode and tracked him down in the neighborhood and brought him back to our house. He installed this little device:

The slightly-larger-than-before little plastic case around the meter may not be much, but if it means never getting a really expensive bill and hugely inaccurate meter reading again, I will take it!

Also, it was like our lucky week in the world of utilities, because on Monday someone from the power company stopped by and installed this little gray box above our AC unit outside:

Every few months our electricity company sends us a notice telling us we can go green by, you know, paying more every month for our power. You know I love to be green when within reason, but the budget is tight and I can't exactly pay more for roughly the same service. So, when I got a flyer in the mail encouraging me to sign up for a Smart Cooling Rewards program that saves me money and is a green initiative, I was on board. Specifically, this little device will turn off our AC during the peak hours (from roughly 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.) during peak days of service. Seeing as we set our AC to 78 during the day, I figure we won't be missing much since our AC doesn't have to come on often. Additionally, by participating we get refunded $40 every year, and we become part of a system that encourages further green practices. Win, win.

Now, if only we'll have as much success at tonight's HOA meeting! Wish me luck! Details to follow...

Question the cable company

A few weeks ago when we got a letter from Verizon telling us that our Fios television bill was about to go up by $30 a month, I immediately handed it to Matt and asked him to take care of it when he had a minute. After all, this technically falls under his "communicate with service people" duty in our division of labor task menu, and $30 more a month is a steep hike.

Matt called and got passed around to multiple customer service reps, mostly because we don't have a home phone number and this apparently confuses people at a telephone company. When Matt finally spoke to the right person, the conversation went something like this:

Matt: "Hi, I'm calling because I wanted to inquire regarding the additional $30 charge scheduled to be added to our Fios bill beginning July 1."

Verizon customer service rep: "OK, here's what I can do for you. I can reduce your bill to $4 a month less than what you currently pay, and I can give you all the premium movie channels for 3 months. Does that sound OK?"

Matt, slightly shocked: "Sure, that sounds fine."

I have to say, I don't think we've ever had an easier negotiation. Matt didn't even threaten to stop our Fios service and switch over to Direct TV, as he has said before, and he didn't even have a chance to ask for a smaller bill. The woman just said that instead of charging us $30 extra, she'd charge us $4 less, meaning we won back essentially $34 every month. I could do without the premium movie channels; I know the cable company throws that in because they assume we'll forget to shut it off on September 1, but we can promise them we won't forget.

Whether you get a letter about a $30 increase to your monthly cable bill or not, it's always a good idea to call your company periodically and ask for a better deal. Matt does this once or twice every year, and he always does his research before he calls so he can know what the other companies have to offer. Actually, I think there must be a notation on our account that reads, "Give these people what they want" because it was just too easy for Matt to negotiate down that latest bill hike.

Worst customer service ever: gas bill

I had a comical customer service experience this afternoon. I had contacted our gas company, Washington Gas, 12 days ago (and I know because I kept the email, of course) regarding an exceptionally high gas bill issued in mid-April for the month of March. I knew it was high because it was almost $100 higher than our bill that covered the month of February, and I knew that right on March 15 we turned off our heat, therefore thinking we'd save some money (and be green) because our heat is gas-powered.

Twelve days later, I hadn't heard back from the gas people (shocking, I know), so I made today my time to call.

I reach this lady, after having already entered my account number into the phone:

Incompetent lady: Washington Gas, how may I help you?

Me: Hi, I was calling because I entered a request on your website 12 days ago regarding an exceptionally high bill, and I never received a response, and I was hoping you could help me out.

Incompetent lady: Could you give me your full name?

Me: [name]

Incompetent lady: [silence, for more than a minute, to the point that I say...]

Me: Hello?

Incompetent lady: Yes. [more silence for another minute] What was your question?

Me: My bill was really high for the month of March, especially as compared to the month of February, and I don't know how that's possible because had our heat on for all of February but we only had the heat on for half of March.

Incompetent lady: [more silence, another minute]

Me: Hello?

Incompetent lady: Could you give me your full name?

Me: [this time I spell it, realllly slooooowwwly]

Incompetent lady: It shows you owe $218.07. Will that be all?

Me: I'm sorry, did you not hear me before? I'm calling because I want to dispute this high bill.

Incompetent lady: Could you give me your full name?

Me: You know what, can I please speak to a manager?

Incompetent lady: One moment please, I will see if anyone is available. [comes back a minute later] I'm sorry, no one is available. Can I have your phone number and someone will call you?

Me: I don't believe that anyone's going to call me, but here's my number anyway...

I wish I was making this up, but I think Washington Gas just won a special award for the worst customer service I've ever experienced.

So, of course, I waited a few minutes and called back again. I work by the philosophy that in the world of customer service, after you deal with incompetence, you must be blessed with someone who has some idea what he or she is doing. Fortunately, that happened, and the new guy said to me, "Yeah, apparently your January and February bills were estimates, but your March bill is supposed to be an actual reading. But I have a hard time believing that actual reading actually happened, so I am going to send someone over tomorrow to do a real reading of your meter, and then we'll adjust your bill accordingly." I found his honesty and problem-solving ability a breath of fresh air.

Then, I was probably pressing my luck, but I asked if Washington Gas could send me those old-fashioned meter-reading cards so I could do the meter reading myself every month (here's some info on reading your own meter from the Ohio Public Utilities Commission if you have no idea what I'm talking about). I remember when I was a kid my mom would do a meter reading every month, probably because she wanted to save money and she has trust issues when it comes to people who take her money, so that's something we have in common. The Washington Gas guy said no, they don't do this anyone. Personally, I find this hard to believe, so I will ask again when I call again.

After tomorrow's reading I have to call back on Friday to find out the results and get a readjusted bill issued. Wish me luck!

In the meantime, do any of you read your own meters?

Book review: Stop Getting Ripped Off

So, I'm hosting book club tonight at my house, and as the host we appear to have a trend going where I have the last say on the book selection. Being the nerd that I am, this month I picked a financial literacy book for my group. All of us are pretty savvy ladies, so none of us "need" this book, but I heard good things about it before I picked it up, and it did teach me some nice tricks along the way. Here's the scoop.

Title: "Stop Getting Ripped Off: Why Consumers Get Screwed, and How You Can Always Get a Fair Deal"
Author: Bob Sullivan
Publication year: 2009
Now in paperback for $10.20 at Amazon

Why I liked this book:

• It is well organized. Clearly this is going to resonate with me. There are three parts -- part 1, an overview; part 2 chapters about how you can "stop getting ripped off, one deal at a time," where each chapter focuses on a different aspect of our daily lives; part 3: how to implement your financial dreams by following the "pitfall-proof pyramid."

• The book is filled with practical, clear advance. This is another huge plus for me. I love how-to books that are straight to the point. There is lots of information you can start implementing tomorrow.

• The author's goals. Sullivan does not claim to have a perfect solution for everyone. This book is not about how to get rich quick. This is not even a book about how to get rich. Instead, he's trying to show how, in both big and small ways, we can all make sure that we're looking out for our financial selves. And you can pat yourself on the back for already doing so many of the strategies he outlines.

Some of the highlights:
Here's the wisdom Sullivan shares that I am happy to pass along. I have not applied this wisdom myself, but these practices may be adopted over here at some point.

• Get an allowance checking account with no overdraft protection. This is his solution for anyone who shares a joint checking account. Sullivan recommends that there be one joint checking account from which you pay all the bills, and then each individual gets a certain amount of money each month in a separate account to spend as he or she chooses. Sullivan emphasizes the importance of making sure these accounts do not have overdraft protection, because then the possibility of high fees (even one time) defeats the purpose of using an account like this to avoid poor banking practices.

• Get rid of cable. Growing up, it seemed like a few times a year my parents talked about the possibility of cutting cable because we were "poor," yet we always managed to keep this "necessity." Now cable seems like it's becoming less and less of a necessity. Case in point: "In 2009, complete episodes of nine in ten prime-time network-television shows and roughly 20 percent of cable shows were available online" (169). Most of us probably have friends who have cut cable -- I know I do. Check out CancelCable.com if you're interested in checking out this movement.

• Raise your auto insurance deductible. Sullivan claims that raising it from "$200 to $1,000 will save you about 40 percent on the cost of comprehensive insurance" (186), and he believes in a little something he calls self-insurance, meaning you set aside money in an account (and I assume clearly labeled as well) that would cover the cost of your higher deductible if and when you need it.

• Or you could straight up drop comprehensive and collision coverage. He says you should just be sure you have a savings account worth the value of your car so you could replace it. He is talking about those of us, like me, who have cars that aren't worth much anymore so that if  faced with the choice between a major, multi-thousand dollar repair, or a new car, we might opt for the new car (190).

• You need life insurance when you have children. You've probably heard this before. I've heard it too, but I never really thought much more about it. Now I know about this Web site Sullivan suggests -- LifeHappens.org, which provides a tool for you to calculate how much insurance you should have should you die. (Can you imagine being a life insurance salesperson?) Also something I never thought of: the older you get, the less life insurance you need. It's totally intuitive now that I know it, but for some reason I always thought of it in reverse (as you get older, you're more likely to die, so you should need more insurance...WRONG!)

• Find out what you're worth. As a teacher and government employee whose income is posted online for anyone to see, I always wonder about everyone else. What are they making? Here's a site that could at least fulfill my morbid curiosity: salary.com (simple, right?). So if you're looking to change careers you can get a realistic sense of what to expect, and if you're looking to negotiate a raise at your current job (except for us government employees) check it out.

• Examine the annual fees associated with your investment accounts. I admit, here's an area where I am a bit of a financial idiot. All I know is that the numbers in this book are shocking when you see how much of your money can go to annual fees, and how in many cases if you have high-fee accounts you would be better off putting your money in a high-interest savings account (see pages 276-277).

There is also an entire chapter about paying for college. I shared it with my students. I think it made them depressed, but I am not sure. I hope it just made them realize that when they're the age of their hip journalism/English teacher, they would be really happy if they were debt-free like me. I hope they will listen.

Next up...a detailed look at how to tile (I know, I've been putting this longer post off, but it's been a busy week!)

Tip 33: Reduce your bill (mail)

First of all, I realize this is the latest I have ever blogged in the day (and I bet some of you were thinking, "Maybe today will be the day she breaks her blogging streak!"). Well folks, this post is primarily late because I just got home from my monthly book club (yes, I am a huge proponent of organized activities, obviously, and I will blog about its evolution later).

I wish I could tell you how to reduce the number of bills you receive in a month and how to reduce the amount you owe each month, but the only thing I can say is ask for special deals, especially any perks you may get through your employer, and/or threaten to switch to a different service (we're mostly talking about TV, cell phones, Internet...good luck negotiating with the power companies, though I am sure someone succeeds here). At most, though, this knocks $10 or maybe $15, $20 off your monthly bills, but not enough to retire at 35 (my dream). What I can say, though, is that if you haven't already....

Tip 33: To further reduce the amount of paper that comes into your house, your need for shredding and recycling, and to reduce your chances of a late payment, conduct all of your bill pay online.

Up until a year ago I was still holding on to doing some of my bill pay through snail mail, namely for our mortgage. I don't know why I stuck to this. I think it was partially because I didn't trust online bill pay for everything (but still did for most things), and partially because our mortgage company would charge an incredibly high fee for every mortgage paid through their site. It made no sense. Then Matt said, "Why don't you use our bank's Web site for online bill pay?" Why didn't I think of that? Setting it up takes about two minutes, and the payoff (in time) is huge.

Here's how our monthly bills work:

1) As teachers we get paid once a month, on the last work day of the month. Some of my non-teacher friends think this is outrageous and don't know how we cope. The answer is, it's very easy: your bills are due once a month.

2) I manage all the daily household finances. Matt knows way more than me about the stock market and the intricacies of loans, so I let him handle that, but I'm more type A and never miss a payment, so this is my strength.

3) The only paper bills we receive in the mail each month are: 1) mortgage statements, which I file into a special binder only for mortgage documents and 2) the water bill, which we get once every three months and the company will not do e-bill. I love e-bill. I try only to keep one copy of the most recent water bill on file and shred the rest.

4) We pay the following bills through these means each month:

• The mortgage is due the start of each month, so that's set up through online bill pay. I don't do automatic pay for this because it's such a huge amount and I want to see it go through (though I realize I could set up automatic pay).
• The credit card #1 is paid online through the card's site at the start of each month. I do this manually. Also, we charge almost all of our everyday expenses mostly to keep track of all purchases and our budget, but we pay the card off in full every month (and we save a lot of money each month, too).
• Homeowner's association dues are automatic bill pay at the start of each month.
• Auto and home insurance (one charge) is automatic bill pay at the start of each month.
• Electricity is automatic bill pay at the middle of each month.
• Gas is something I pay manually through the company's site at the middle of each month.
• TV/Internet/cell phone (one charge) is automatic bill pay at the end of each month.
• Water is every three months, and I pay this manually through bill pay.
• Credit card #2 has occasional small charges, so we pay that off through the company's site as needed.

5) For the smaller items that are not set up for automatic bill pay (gas, credit card #2, water) I pay those bills as soon as I receive the e-bill email notification. For the larger items that are not set up for automatic bill pay (mortgage, credit card #1), I pay those bills at the end of each month on pay day. It's fun to have (what seems like) a lot of money in our account for about 8 hours.

It may seem like a lot to manage, but it's actually not. Here's my formula: I see a lot of money in my bank account = sign it's time to hand some money over. I get an email notification = time to pay a smaller bill. Everything else is taken care of for me. If you're a control freak like me and you're worried your automatic bill pay won't go through on time, never fear: it is more reliable than you are.

Lastly, just the other day I experienced one of the negative side effects of having paper bills laying around. Because we always get paper copies of the water bill in the mail, and this month was water month, I was looking at this month's bill the other day and thought I had not paid it. Then I realized if I had not paid it, it was overdue. Then I logged onto bill pay and realized that I had, of course, paid it the day it arrived in the mail, but my heart raced a tiny bit when I thought I would have to pay a $3.50 late fee and tarnish my perfect record.

Even though junkmail and bills are yucky, there are some better sides to mail, too. Let's start looking at some of those tomorrow!

Tip 10: Mint.com

Big post...now we've hit the double-digit tips! Welcome to technology week!

Last Saturday I posted about Saturday routines. Another Saturday routine I did not share before has to do with checking in on all my finances. For this purpose, lately I've consolidated all my online finances into one site by following...

Tip 10: Use Mint.com to create a budget and track your spending.

When I tell my friends about this Web site, I get looks of skepticism. I know a lot of people are afraid of financial Web sites such as Mint.com, fearing breeches of security and whatnot, but if you already use online banking or online bill pay or view your credit card statements online, then this is same idea and same level of security. And this isn't just my opinion...I researched online newspapers to find out what financial experts had to say about this site. I have a healthy fear of identity theft (and healthy fear of a lot of other things, no doubt), but I feel as confident in Mint.com as I can in any web tool out there. Of course, do some research yourself and see what you dig up.

Why do I love Mint.com? It's got everything a super-organized person could want:

• Cost: It's free.
• Time: It takes little time to set up, and the payoff is significant. When you sign up, you link to your online accounts, and each time you log in the information from each account is automatically updated within minutes. It's one place to see your checking and savings accounts, credit card transactions, investments, loans, properties and whatever else you might like to add.
• Put everything in a category: After signing up, a Transactions tab allows you to categorize all your purchases. Mint already knows how to categorize most of the chains out there, so it will, for example, know that your credit card purchase from Gap was for Clothing. But, if you happened to buy that item as a Gift, you can manually change it to that category, too. For local and lesser-known establishments, you have to manually change the Transaction category once, but for every time after that, Mint changes it automatically. So, for example, the first time a charge from my favorite restaurant, Coastal Flats, appeared in Mint, it came up as Uncategorized, but after I labeled it as Restaurant, it has been automatically labeled for me ever since (and there have been quite a few trips to Coastal Flats in the past six months).
• Budgets: You can create a budget for anything and everything. In my Mint budget, I include fixed costs (mortgage, cable/Internet/cell phone bill, HOA dues, car insurance, gym dues, newspaper subscriptions) as well as more flexible costs (gas and electric bills, clothing, home goods, entertainment, restaurants, gifts, even groceries). After tracking our spending for a few months, I was able to make spending goals for our family that are fairly precise. When you look at the Planning tab on Mint, you see all your budgets. When your budget is colored green, it means you are in the clear; yellow means you are close to meeting the budget; and red means you have exceeded your budget for that month. Budgets can start fresh each month, or you can choose to roll them over into the next month. So, for example, I keep our grocery budget on a month-by-month basis, but I allow the clothing budget to roll over each month (this is good in months where I spend little on clothing, but bad in months like January when technically I won't be allowed to buy clothes again until March thanks to my incredible January spending!).
• Budget for less-frequent purchases: You can also budget for items you do not buy on a monthly basis. For example, though small, our water bill arrives once every three months. Even though I don't need to put money aside to pay that $80 seasonal bill (we will still be able to eat), I still have it set up in Mint because I like to remember what I need to pay and when. I also create budgets for pet medications which we buy one every few months (always more expensive than it should be), and car maintenance that we have to do a couple times a year.
• Sign up for e-mail or mobile alerts: When you first sign on to Mint, you get a list of alerts: your credit card bill is due next week, you exceeded your budget for clothing (sigh, again), your checking account is getting low...whatever. If you're the kind of person who might not sign in to Mint regularly, you can also opt to receive such alerts over e-mail or your mobile device. If you opt for it, Mint will also send you an e-mail weekly financial summary that highlights your biggest purchases that week.
• CHARTS! DIAGRAMS! GRAPHS! You can do all these things with a click of the button. Click on the Trends tab in Mint to see a pie chart showing you how your spending from that month breaks down in every category. You really get a sense of where your money is going. And that's just the start of all the visuals Mint provides....this is both exciting and at times scary.

So, if you want to create a budget, or you don't care about budgets but just want a quick, easy and free way to track your money, give this a try.

Next up...Google calendar.