Health care reform is a subject that is near and dear to my heart because I am one of the millions of uninsured people in the US. Unless you are employed in a full time job with a decent salary, you just can’t afford health insurance and truthfully, I am also aware that you can’t afford not to have it. I cannot afford to pay over a third of my income for insurance so I don’t go to the doctor. If an emergency happens, I will just have to deal with it at the time.
Is the new bill a good thing? I have no idea. How can you form an opinion on a bill that is over 2000 pages long? How can you form an opinion on something that has so much mis-information floating around that it is impossible to tell fact from fiction?
My mother and I have this discussion every time we talk. She is against health care reform. The reasons that she cites are the exact ones that are supposedly debunked in the Top Five Lies About Obama’s Health Care Reform. This Newsweek article explains the top 5 objections to the Health Care Reform bill. If you believe that the bill will offer free coverage to illegal immigrants or cut benefits to the elderly, you should read this article.
On the flip side, CNN Money has an article on The 5 Key Freedoms You Will Lose. They write that you will eventually lose the right to choose your own coverage or to choose your own doctor. These are important choices that everyone should be able to make.
So which side is right? Is Health Care Reform inherently evil or the best thing since sliced bread? I don’t think that the average American can possibly make an informed decision on that. The debate is presented by lawyers and politicians who are paid to read the 2000 page bill that has been written in legalese and then interpret it in the way that is most beneficial to their side. I could sit down and read the bill and know as little when I finished as when I started.
What are the needs of people like me who cannot afford to pay the high costs of health insurance? I have found various estimates on the average cost of health insurance that range from $4000 per year to $7000 per year. This ranges from 40% of my income to 70% of my annual income. It’s not much of a choice. When I last checked into insurance, the monthly cost was approximately $300 per month and I am a healthy woman in her 50s. I don’t have any pre existing conditions. I don’t have diabetes, I have never had cancer, my heart is in great condition and while I am slightly overweight, my cholesteral is within normal limits. I have never had high blood pressure. My total health care costs over the last 5 years equal less than $500 and that includes doctors visits and prescriptions.
While I still view health insurance as a necessary evil, I can’t afford to pay more monthly for insurance than I would for a year of expenses. I would like to have a basic plan for major medical that would cover my hospital bills in the event of an emergency. I honestly don’t care if I can pick my own doctor or hospital. I don’t expect Cadillac service on a Yugo budget but I would be happy with some affordable options for hospitalization coverage.
I realize that this article has had more questions than answers. I think that is the general state of the health care debate now. I seriously doubt that anyone including the Congress has a clue about the impact of the WHOLE bill. And I think that because of the complexity of the situation, we should stop and quit trying to rush the solution. The health care system needs reform but I believe we should be approaching it in smaller, less complex steps instead of sweeping reform that is bound to fail.
I know, I know, there are thousands of people who save hundreds of dollars every month with coupons. Many of them faithfully clip coupons and search for deals, double coupons, etc. I think it’s great but it just doesn’t work for me. I have tried it. I have joined sites that are supposed to show you how to do it and save thousands of dollars. I have read ebooks on saving with coupons and that have systems that are supposed to make it work.
My biggest problem with coupons is that they are very rarely for the things that I buy on a regular basis. We buy very little prepared or convenience foods which are usually the coupons I find. I make biscuits for a few pennies with flour and baking soda. A large percentage of our vegetables are from our garden. If I want a pizza, I use homemade tomato sauce, garden vegetables and fresh cheese.
There are very few coupons for fresh meat or vegetables. I’m sure that they are out there but I just haven’t been able to find them, at least, not often enough to make it worth the time I have to spend searching. When I did take my coupons with me, I saved money on the food that I bought but it wasn’t food that I would normally have purchased. So while I saved money, it was money that I normally wouldn’t have spent.
My third problem with coupons is that I don’t go shopping often enough to really spend so much time planning it. While we plan out our meals and make a grocery list, we purchase things when they are on sale and we shop at specific stores for specific items. One of the small local grocery stores has 5 lbs of sausage for $5, 5 lbs of bacon for $5 and 5 ls of Bologna for $5 so when we are in that town, we will stop by to stock up on those items. We stash it in the freezer and it generally last us for a couple months.
Another store, about 25 miles in the opposite direction, has excellent buys on great quality meats. When we are in that town, we stop and purchase as much meat as we can afford. They run weekly sales so we might end up with 10 pounds of chicken or 4 to 5 Chuck roasts. It may not be the most practical way to shop but it does keep our grocery costs for the two of us under $200 per month.
I am writing this for the people like me who have found very little benefit from clipping coupons. I have often felt a little guilty for not doing a better job of it but I have finally decided that it just isn’t for me. We all have to use the savings methods that work the best for our own situation and trying to make someone else’s method just may not work for us. So if you save tons of money with coupons, I applaud you but I will stick to what works for me.
Have you seen those television ads for two pairs of glasses for $69 from America’s Best Contacts and Eye Glasses? They are on tv every other hour here. I finally gave into temptation and a very dire need to get new glasses and made an appointment. I went to their website and read all of the fine print and all of the FAQs.
Now to be fair, I knew I was going to have to have bifocals which would bump the price up to $99 for two pairs. I have also had progressive or no line lens in the past and would prefer them to the lined bifocals. They do not list the cost for progressive lens on the website so I figured I would ask when I got there. And this would be where the problem started.
America’s Best was very clean and neat. It is laid out very well and the people were very friendly. I had made an appointment online early that morning and was a little dismayed that they had no record of my appointment when I got there. I filled out the forms and was asked to wait. It seems that the doctors were both out to lunch because they didn’t have any appointments scheduled. It wasn’t a long wait and they took me back for the pre-exam.
Once the pre exam was over, I waited about 5 minutes to be seen by the doctor. He was thorough and pleasant. So far, so good. After the eye exam, I was told to go out and shop for glasses.
Being on a pretty tight budget, while glasses are a necessity, they also take a pretty hefty bite out of the monthly budget. I picked out a couple of their least expensive frames and took them to the counter. On the counter was a placemat that explained their pricing packages or so I thought.
It was pretty simple. I was looking at their basic package for multi focal lenses which according to the place mat included the bi focal lenses, a one year warranty, a sun or vanity tint and UV protection. The price for two pairs of lined bi focals was listed as $99. The price for unlined (progressive) lens was $138. Ok, so I can live with that price. It was $39 higher than the lined bi-focals but worth it.
The girl took the measurements and my preferences for tinting one pair as sun glasses. She put it all in the computer and …. the grand total was $249. So I said, wait a second, what happened to the $138??? Oh, that price is just for the lens, you still have to buy the frames. Ummmm, that’s not what you advertised. So I told her to go ahead and take off the progressive lens. The total came down to $209.
Ok, so now I am getting a little angry. I pointed out that their website advertised two pair of multi focal glasses for $99. The girl told me that they didn’t. She ended up calling the manager over who told me that it was because she had included the warranty and the tinting. I pointed to the place mat with the prices and which clearly listed the warranty, and the tinting for $99 or $138.
The manager actually snatched it out of my hands and put it behind her back. She told me that that a package price and was just for the lenses and did not include the frames. By now, I am more than a little angry and I specifically asked her what exactly did the advertised Two Pair for $99 include? Was it the frames with no lenses or the lenses with no frame? She told me that I could get the tinting for $15. So if I do the math according to what she was telling me, the frames were $49.95 each and the tinting was $15 for each pair. The price advertised for the “package” was $99 for the lined bifocal lenses plus the 49.95 for each for the frames would bring the total package price for the two pair of glasses to $198.90. Without the package price, the cost would be $99 plus the $15 for the tinting for a total of $114. This means that you are paying $84.90 for a year’s warranty.
Oh no, I could get the Two Pair for $99 without the warranty and the tint. With Progressive lenses it would have been $199. Well, FINALLY!! I paid for my glasses which will be in about 7 days from now. I must admit that I am still not sure that I didn’t get railroaded out of the progressive lenses but I did finally get the lined bifocals for the advertised price.
My problems with this are many. Anyone who just went in for the advertised two pair would have probably gotten pressured into paying over twice as much. I have nothing against upselling but start at the advertised price and up sell me. Don’t try to tell me that it wasn’t what they were advertising or just upsell me without even mentioning the lower option. The girl who waited on me didn’t even know there WAS a lower option.
I left and I am still not sure that I was charged the right price. It’s a shame because other than the price difficulties it was a pleasant experience. Have you tried America’s Best Contacts and Eyeglasses? How was your experience?
Tags: review
With the arctic cold blanketing the US and even Florida down in the 30s, the cost of heating your home is probably skyrocketing. I know when I had electric heat, I could go out and see the electric meter spin faster and faster when my furnace turned on. There was no way that I could replace my furnace but there are some really easy ways that you can save money on your heating and cooling costs.
- Calk the exterior of your home. Chances are that if you walk around the outside of your home and look, you will find old, cracked or missing calk. These gaps around doors, windows and corners, let cold air in and warm air out. Calking these areas is easy and inexpensive and will save you $$ on your bill.
- If you haven’t already switched to compact fluorescent lights, try them. Not only do they last longer but they burn a fraction of the electricity. They are making different styles now so you don’t have to have the spiral ones in your ceiling fans or decorative lighting.
- Weather stripping – check the weather stripping around doors and windows. Make sure that when your door is shut there isn’t cold air leaking in under and around them. You can buy weather stripping and door sweeps at your local hardware store and they will help stop those cold drafts.
- Check for Drafts. You can use a stick of incense to check for drafts. Simply light it and move it slowly around your walls. (Avoid drapes and curtains) When the smoke swirls and blows, you have found a draft. These are often found around water pipes and places where pipes or wires come from the outside. These are generally under cabinets, in closets, etc. You can insulate around them or use calking to stop leaks.
- Change your Filter. Your furnace is probably doing double time right now. In order for it to run the most efficiently, the filters need to allow air to move through them. Check your filter every 30 days at a minimum but during heavy usage, you might need to change it more often.
- Don’t Heat It. If you aren’t using it, don’t heat it. Turn off heat or shut off vents in unused parts of the house. We have one bedroom that we don’t use. We keep the vent closed in that room and the door closed so that we don’t need to heat that room.
- Insulate electric outlets and switches. If you hold your hand up against an electric socket on an exterior wall, you will often notice a drastic difference in temperature. You can buy foam insulating gaskets for these. You simply take off the cover, install the gasket and screw the cover back on. (Don’t Stuff these Full Of Insulation. This is a fire hazard. )
- Use Solar - Open the drapes or blinds on your south and west facing windows during the day. The sun will help warm your home during the day. Close these during the evening and night to help insulate the window.
- Turn it Down – Turn your thermostat down during the winter. Turn it up in the summer. Our thermostat stays at 72 all winter. The only time we really feel cool is when we are sitting around watching TV in the evening. You can put on a sweater or get up and sweep the floor. Both will warm you up.
- Turn It Off and Unplug It – Make it a habit to turn off and then unplug small appliances. If you add up all the small appliances in your house and combine the usage when they are in stand by mode, you will find that they use a surprisingly large amount of electricity.
Do you have any additional cheap and easy ways to save energy? How are you keeping warm in the arctic blast?
This post has been included in the Carnival of Personal Finance. Stop by and check out the other great posts at Darwin’s Finance.
The latest Personal Finance Carnival was posted yesterday at The Financial Blogger. These are just a few of my favorite posts from the carnival. Stop by The Financial Blogger and find your favorites.
Get Rich Slowly says that it is more important to be happy than it is to be rich. I so agree with this statement. I also believe that if we were happier with what we have it would be easier to save money. I try to spend some time each day thinking about all the things that I am thankful for and when I think about it, I am thankful for quite a bit.
J at Budgets Are Sexy writes about left over money. He is pretty candid about what he used to do in a financial crisis. Do you even know if you have any left over money?? Do you know what you spend your money on?
Building Credit Without Credit Cards is another one of my favorites because I often hear that used as an excuse to get credit cards. It’s wrong. You can also get a small personal loan at your local bank. Make the payments on time and you will be so much better off.
It is the time of year for receiving gift cards. Sweating the Big Stuff has some great tips for getting the most out of gift cards.
And finally, it’s time to start thinking about taxes again. Here are some end of the year tax tips from Christian PF.
I hope you enjoy these articles and will stop by the Carnival of Personal Finance to find your favorites.
Cash
I was reading an article at Fire Finance about the number of people who live without a bank account. Fire Finance was stunned to find that 17 million Americans have no bank accounts. I was not so surprised. Having worked in various situations with low income people, it is common among them not to have a bank account.
With 13 to 17 percent of the population living at or below the Federal Poverty guidelines, it’s not surprising that few of them have checking or savings accounts. They generally have income once a month or no regular income at all. They cash their checks at the closest available place and what cash doesn’t go to pay the monthly living expenses, they keep the little remaining cash close at hand.
Life on A Cash Basis
While I am not one of the 17 million Americans without a bank account, we do live life on primarily a cash basis. We have a checking account and a savings account. Our checking account is used solely for paying monthly bills. We do not use it for shopping at the grocery store or for gas or daily incidentals. Our savings account is online and it is used solely for an emergency fund. It is linked to the bank account for easy transfers in and out of checking. We ordinarily keep a $5 balance in the checking account.
I know that we are not the norm for Americans because we pay for most things with cash, good old American greenbacks! We don’t use credit cards as a matter of fact, neither of us even own a credit card. We also do not routinely use our debit card. We do own one of those but generally, it is only used to check the balance if necessary when the bank is closed.
Like most Americans that Fire Finance classifies as underbanked, we don’t have a great deal of income. We generally are living off of less than a thousand dollars a month. While this is well below the poverty level, it doesn’t feel like we are ‘poor’. I can’t think of a many things that we want that we don’t have. I can’t actually think of many things that I had when I was earning over sixty thousand per year that I don’t have now except for bills.
While many people will find this a shockingly low income, we live quite comfortably on it most of the time. We don’t have any real debt other than a small loan on the farm so what cash we have goes to the daily essentials of living. Neither of us want to go into debt so we don’t even consider buying and financing a car. Quite simply if we can’t pay for it, we don’t get it.
If there is something that we want which we can’t afford to pay for with cash, we do one of two things; we either save up for it or we make a plan to make enough money to pay for it. For example, we seriously need a tractor. There are just some things that it is difficult for two people to do on a farm without one such as moving 800 lb hay bales or plowing our large garden and mowing 19 acres of pasture.
Even a small tractor is a large expense usually costing between 5,000 and 10,000 dollars so we do not have the cash on hand to purchase even a used one. Our plan is two fold rather than getting a loan, we will save as much money as we can to put towards the tractor and we will also start selling some things to pay for the rest of it. The final and probably hardest part is being patient. We will wait until we have saved up enough money and then wait to find a really good deal on a used tractor before we purchase it. While we wait, I will research the prices so that when we find one, we will know what it is worth. I expect that it will take us a year to save enough money but if we financed it, we would be paying for it for five to seven years.
In the past we would have borrowed the money without a second thought and because of that we would have ended up not getting a very good deal. We would not only have paid too much for the tractor, we also would have been paying interest on it for years. Now we are forced to do our homework and so will get a better deal. We will also have the bargaining chip of paying cash when we find it.
We got our truck the same way. I spent months researching prices and searching online for a truck that we could both afford and that would meet our needs. While I searched, we sold our old truck and saved enough money to purchase the newer truck. When I found the truck of our dreams on craigslist, it was about 200 miles away and we bargained over the phone for a lower cash price. We saved $500 off of his advertised price because we could come that same afternoon and we were bringing cash. We saved an additional $1000 over what we had found the same truck priced for locally. We saved 8 percent by not having to pay interest on a loan.
Even smaller purchases sometimes come with a savings if you pay cash. Several of the local gas stations give a discount on gas if you pay in cash. It makes sense for them since merchants pay 1 – 3 percent on credit card transactions. It’s nice of them to pass the savings along to their customers.
Even though we don’t have a lot of income, we live a pretty good life. We grow most of our own food and we generally have enough to share with friends and family. We don’t go out to the movies often but then we do spend quite a bit of time with our extended families playing cards or just socializing. The food we eat is generally homegrown and fresher than store bought. It doesn’t contain all of the pesticides and chemicals of processed foods.
There are some sacrifices when dealing only with cash. There are times when we do without some things because we don’t have the cash to pay for them right then. There are times when we miss a really good deal on something because we are unwilling to borrow money but overall, the money we might have saved by buying it right then we would have spent on interest on the debt.
For me, our lifestyle is based on cash. I can see it, touch it, count it and know exactly how much we have and what we need to spend it on. It is more of a different mindset than putting all of it in the bank and using my debit card to pay for things. It is much more difficult for me to visualize and keep track of our finances when I used my debit card and checks to pay for things. I have always been a visual learner but I can tell you that watching our cash dwindle physically is the best way that I have found to stay on a budget. For the most part, we are pretty happy with what we have and don’t miss too much of what we don’t have.
Happy New Year!! It seems that many of our traditions here in the south are marked by food but none more so than the traditional New Year’s dinner. While many holiday dinners are made up of foods to show that we have plenty, the New Year’s meal is made up of foods that are traditionally thought to bring luck, prosperity and wisdom.
Black Eyed Peas - There are several different opinions on why these dried beans are a New Year’s staple. I have heard that the eye in the pea looks ahead and will give you wisdom in the coming year. I have also read that the dried beans are used because they swell during cooking which symbolizes the swelling of your purse through the year. Whichever reason you believe, I cook a pot of these with fat back and onions. We purchase a bag of dried peas and I put them in water to soak on New Year’s eve. This morning I rinsed and added the smoked fat back and onions to the pot for seasoning and will simmer them all day. They really are delicious.
Greens – Greens are another food that symbolizes prosperity. Most believe that it is because they resemble folded money. I can’t really see the resemblance myself but they are green so I suppose they will do. We barter for collard greens and I think we get the best part of the deal. We have a man who comes and cleans out our barn for the manure to put on his garden. He brings us collards a couple times a year. We not only get fresh collards but we also get the barn cleaned out for free. He gets free fertilizer for his garden. It’s a win win situation.
The collards are also cooked with a piece of fat back for flavoring. They are washed, chopped and cooked most of the day along with the black eyed peas. Collards are one of the cold weather vegetables that grow on into the winter here in Virginia.
Hog Jowl - This seasoned bacon like meat also symbolizes prosperity in the coming year. There are many opinions on why hog jowl symbolizes prosperity. Some believe that it’s because the pig roots for it’s food and so it’s nose is always pointed to the future. There is also a belief that the pig grows fat from eating the leftover scraps of food from the family. When everyone had a family pig, all leftovers were put into a slop bucket and fed to the pig daily. When it was butchered, every part of the pig is used for something, even the feet and tail are traditionally cooked or pickled. I must admit that I have never tried either and don’t really plan on it.
R fries the hog jowl like bacon and I must admit that it is delicious. I will most likely make biscuits to eat it. Hopefully with all this New Year’s luck, 2010 will be a bountiful year and our finances will take a turn for the better. Maybe we can bring the country and economy along with us.
What are your New Year’s Traditions?
Tags: traditions
The ancient Babylonians are thought to be the first to make New Years Resolutions. They made them to find favor with the gods and breaking them was supposed to bring bad luck. Many of us continue to make New Years Resolutions every year and most of us fail to keep them. The Babylonians were careful to pick resolutions that they could keep through the year and we should be just as careful.
Every year I make the same New Year’s Resolutions and every year I fail to keep them. I might make some effort to keep them for a week or two but then other things become more important. I have really spent some time this year determining what I want to accomplish in the next year.
The Most Common Mistake
Most of us make a very common mistake when we are making our resolution. We make a resolution to do something to improve ourselves such as losing weight, quitting smoking, saving money, etc but we never really make a plan on how to do it. We think about it for a week or so but then just flounder because the reason we haven’t done it in the past is because we really don’t know how to go about it.
Making a plan to support our resolutions
One of my New Years resolutions is to put and keep money in my emergency fund. Well, that’s a pretty good resolution but it is non specific. I have to ask myself how much money should I have? How long should it stay there? Or even more important why haven’t I been able to keep money in the fund in the past? The easy answer is that I keep having emergencies but if I look closer, I really haven’t had but one emergency this year and that was when my father got sick in April. I have taken money out of the fund for groceries, to pay bills, and to do car repairs. All of these things should have been covered in my regular budget but our income for the month did not support the budget.
So if I make the resolution to keep money in my emergency fund, I am already setting myself up to fail if I don’t make some adjustments to my budget. This year, instead of putting all my savings into my emergency fund, I am going to start a second account to use as an operating account. Because our income varies drastically from month to month, I am going to start putting money aside specifically to be used to cover those months where our income is low. In the past, we have just tightened our belts and done without and then dipped into the emergency fund to cover the essentials.
My plan this year is simple, specific and measurable. I cannot take money out of our regular income for our emergency fund. We just don’t have enough income to support it unless the economy does a drastic turnaround. I do have irregular income that comes from my blog, some ebay and craigslist sales. This income is going to go into my emergency fund. Any boon in our regular income will go into a separate account to be used in the lean months.
Another Common Mistake
Another mistake I make every year is not looking at what didn’t work over the last year. The answer this year is easy, I didn’t work. I have made very few posts over the last 12 months. My focus has been on other things and I have made less than a decent effort to write or promote my websites or internet business. This is going to change this year and I am making a committment to write daily on this blog and several others that I maintain. I am going to set aside time each day to accomplish this.
My Plan
Increase my internet income to $100 per month for the first quarter.
For the second quarter, I would like to double that to $200 per month.
For the third and fourth quarter, I would like to be making $500 per month.
My How
eBay - I am going to start selling on eBay again. I pick up knick knacks and collectibles at thrift stores and yard sales and resell them on eBay. Historically, I have done pretty well at this, usually doubling my investment.
Blogs - I need to double my traffic on all of my blogs. It has dropped off simply because I have not been writing and I have lost quite a few of my readers. I have also not been promoting them. I will be writing at least three articles per week on each blog and promoting each article. I actually enjoy this because so much of blog promotion is just getting out and visiting other blogs. I learn quite a bit and make some great friends this way.
Guest Posts - I am going to be accepting guest posts on all my blogs on a weekly basis. I am also going to try to write some guest posts for other sites.
Results
My resolutions this year and goals are rather ambitious. It will take time and hard work to accomplish them but it is a labor of love and I will enjoy both the process and the results. I will keep you updated on how my financial goal is going over the months.
I have to admit that I hate to shop. I hate the holiday crowds, fighting for a parking space, standing in long check out lines. All of this is why I love shopping on online. I have found that I can save hundreds of dollars a year even with my limited holiday budget just by shopping online and this doesn’t include the gas to drive all over town.
Used Books
I read a lot. Most of my family reads as well so books are always a good choice for gift ideas. I purchase most of my books from Amazon. I buy the majority of them in good as new used condition from private sellers at a drastically reduced price.
Free Shipping
I get free two day shipping on quite a few items by signing up for Amazon Prime
Online Auctions
For those unique or hard to find gifts, you can often find them on ebay. I buy jeans for my son in law who wears a 40 inch inseam and they are almost impossible to find in stores. I have always been able to find them on ebay for a greatly reduced price. Other gifts I have found are new cowboy boots, some collector items for my mom, some gorgeous handmade wreaths for my daughter and of course, ebay is another outlet for books. I have purchased all of my laptops on eBay and always been happy with them. Be sure to check on the shipping price before you bid or buy on ebay as some shippers charge an exorbitant rate.
Comparison Shopping Sites
There are several websites that allow you to comparison shop by price.
Nextag
Shopzilla
Price Grabber
Smart Money rated different comparison shopping sites and Price Grabber came up on the top of the heap. You can see the whole list of comparison sites in their article.
Shop Locally
Ok, so what is shop local doing in an online shopping article? Some stores like Walmart and Sears offer the ability to purchase off of their website and have it delivered to the local store. This saves shipping on most items and you can stop off to pick them up when you are going by anyway.
Check for Coupon Codes
There are many online sites for coupon and discount codes for online shopping. Many of these codes are for major retailers such as Home Depot, Kohls, ToysRUs, etc. Here are just a few:
You can find more by googling coupon codes. Some sites have printable coupons that can be used at local retailers.
Holiday Sales
Just like brick and mortar stores, most online stores have holiday sales as well. Amazon is offering special Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals. You can also check to see if your favorite stores such as Walmart, Home Depot, or Target have a website and check it out for online sales. Many of the major retailers are offering free shipping.
Safety
Be sure to make sure that whatever site you order from has a secure order form. This means that your credit card information is encrypted in the same manner that banks use to send information. Do not send your credit card information through email. The safest way to shop online is to use prepaid credit cards as these are limited. In this way, you are not giving someone a link to your bank account or credit card.
Tags: Holiday, holiday shopping
Yesterday I wrote an article on prepaid debit cards, I wanted to highlight one of the best features of using a prepaid debit card, sticking to your budget!
I really like prepaid debit cards, because they’re “prepaid.” What that means is that you can auto-load your card each month with a set amount, and then you have to stick to that amount. There’s no cheating, because unlike a bank’s debit card, you can’t spend more than you actually have. The other benefit is you avoid ridiculous overdraft fees and you know exactly what your monthly fees will be.
Tips for Using A Prepaid Debit Card for Budgeting
In my budget I have categories and money for some categories has traditionally been put into my savings account. The problem is that this money often gets used for other things or it isn’t quickly available when I need it. This means that when the time comes to use the money for purchases in that category, it isn’t there and I end up blowing my budget.
With Christmas coming up, I am always looking for ways to stay in budget and a prepaid credit card that I could not only shop online with but also take with me so that when I see that perfect gift, I would have the means to purchase it.
Another budget category that I might use a prepaid card for is clothing purchases. I am definitely not a ‘clothes horse’ so my clothing purchases tend to be sporadic. If I put my clothing budget into my savings account, I either use it for something else or don’t have the funds immediately available when I see something that I really like.
Because we travel in our business, it is often inconvenient to use cash. I often have to make reservations at a hotel and without some kind of credit/debit card, it is almost impossible. I can put our budgeted amount onto our debit card and then make reservations with confidence. It’s also a true pain in the rear to have to prepay for gas. I have to estimate what it is going to cost to fill the tank, stand in line to pay the deposit and then stand in line again when I am done filling the tank. The prepaid card will make trips much easier.
You can also extend this to your family. For example, a prepaid debit card is perfect for a college student. Instead of giving them a credit card or cash for the entire semester, consider giving them a prepaid debit card that gets auto-loaded each month. That will force them to stay within their budget, and will also keep them from blowing through their money before the semester is over.
In short, prepaid cards are a tool that can be used to enhance your budget while forcing you to stay in a budget. You need to shop wisely for your card and be aware of any hidden charges and fees. As I have said before, I will never own another credit card so a prepaid card is very attractive to me.
Comments