Average Jane Pays Bills

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Over the past couple of months, I’d been rather shocked to find out how much I had to pay out of pocket for my endoscopy and its related expenses. Basically, my insurance company bargained the providers down and then said, "Here you go." Damned deductible.

Those bills had been piling up, but with the huge utility bills we’ve had this winter, I couldn’t imagine how or when I’d be able to pay them.

My husband had the very logical suggestion that we sell our extra car, a 1996 Ford Probe which had spent the entire winter parked in the driveway with a dead battery. With a prominent dent on one quarter panel and almost 200,000 miles on it, it didn’t bring very much, but at least it’ll ensure that I won’t be getting any more handwritten notes from the GI specialist’s office, designed to make me feel guilty about being a deadbeat.

My earlier plans to scale back our household expenses never went anywhere, but I’m eyeing the enormous cable bill again and I may just decide that I’ll survive if I have to wait for my favorite HBO shows to come out on DVD.

There are lots of ways I could cut my spending. I know if I ever got serious about tracking my daily expenses, I’d be appalled at how much money I waste. However, since I’m the sort of person who has gone more than a decade without balancing her checkbook, I think we can all predict that I’ll never get organized enough to find out the real numbers.

For now, I’ll begin by buying my Red Bull in bulk so I don’t have to get it out of the machine at work for $2.25 a can. That’s a good start, right?

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8 responses to “Average Jane Pays Bills”

March 30, 2006

Huts

We don’t have any of the movie channels, when we did we didn’t watch them and if we really want to see a show that is on them, we just wait for DVD. That hasn’t happened yet. I also recently removed call waiting and line backer from our phone, it won’t amount to much but we never used either, so it is probably $100 a year. I need to look into getting rid of other things, but haven’t found much yet. That and I don’t want to cut some things.

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March 30, 2006

Jane

Huts – I know how you feel. I don’t really want to cut things either. If my gas and electric bills hadn’t skyrocketed so much this winter, I’d probably be okay, but as it is I keep getting behind on one or the other until I’m stuck paying $400 to $500 all at once.

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March 30, 2006

blaugra

I feel your pain! My daily tracking of expenses I recently implemented lasted about 10 days before I got frustrated by not being able to buy anything. So I just do a monthly checking account reconcilation to make sure I’m not “missing” any money. I’m now back to a daily latte because it makes me happy, but I’ve cut down on other frivolous impulse purchases. If you’re used to having HBO it will be hard to give it up to wait for the DVDs! I’m planning a yard sale to make a couple hundred from “stuff”, but this is a lot of work too.

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March 30, 2006

AWE

I have every movie channel that I can get. It costs me out the butt, but I hate commercial tv.
I really need to cut back. I could save alot of money if I would start bringing my food with me to work. I am just to lazy to start.

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March 30, 2006

Joy

I’ve thought about making some adjustments to my cable bill to cut down costs, but I really don’t get that many movie channels…only HBO. There are some series (Sopranos, etc.) that I love, but I guess I could just wait for the DVD’s to come out. I’ve already streamlined my phone bill and my gas bill as best as I can. I’m still looking…

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March 30, 2006

cagey

Our biggest expense is eating out – we love to try new restaurants.
I would have much difficulty giving up HBO and the satellite bill – after all, it keeps us at HOME, instead of out and about spending money. At least that is how I have “worked it out” in my head.

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March 30, 2006

Suzanne

Tracking one’s daily expenses is a pain in the neck. I do it by trying to keep all receipts which I regularly input into my accounting program. It really helps me be aware of my at-times frivolous spending. I don’t carry much cash which also helps.
Every time I pay our cable bill I question whether we get our money’s worth! And we already wait for our favorite HBO shows to come out on DVD. 🙂

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March 31, 2006

mAz

Yes I can Identify with you!

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