Category Archive

I came to this state in January and have been driving around on my parents insurance with the car registered in my home state.  I’m not certain that my coverage was legit–my dad’s name is on the title and registration with mine, but it is pretty much only my car and I haven’t been a dependent of theirs for almost two years.  I didn’t crash into anyone, so we didn’t find out whether or not the arrangement was legitimate.  Whew.

I got online in January and ran the numbers and proceeded to wait until this past Monday to pull the trigger and pay $505 for six months of coverage (including collision).   My car is probably only worth $3000, so the collision was debatable, but I decided worth it.  I have been stashing some money in short term savings to cover insurance, so this really isn’t a blow, but it still isn’t a fun way to spend half a grand.

My dad ever so kindly took it into the DMV for me, which was a huge help.  The DMVs are open one puny Saturday a month and there aren’t any conveniently located near my workplace.  He got a smog check ($4 and got the new plates and registration ($90) and possibly fixed my taillight (but I think he forgot).  I will, of course, have to pay for this.

My car cost me $643 this month.  Plus gas.  OOOOOUCH.  I really miss living in a city with world class public transportation.  Hong Kong was six months of car free bliss.  And bliss in so many other ways.  It is amazing how much fun I had for so little money, even in a supposedly very expensive city.  Maybe I need to move back, expat life has always appealed to me….

Also, I really really need a hair cut.  I found a place that charges $25 for first time customers (plus $20 if I want them to blow dry it!).  I’m brave and not picky about hair, so I’ll give them a try.  I also have pretty simple straight hair.  I want to dye it back to its natural color as well.  I hope to get out of there for less than $60, but that is unlikely if I get it professionally colored.

Again, I hate this April.  Except for mini-eggs.  And the new episode of the Office on tonight!  And Grey’s later this month!  It isn’t all bad, but this month has been painful on my pocketbook.  (And my knee.  I think I’m self-banned from running and restricted to ellipticals for awhile.)

If you are a nitpicker, you would notice that no health care costs are included in my budget. I have $70 pretax taken out of each check for my Health Savings Account (HSA) and my employer contributes about $30. I’d be shocked if I spend it all, and I pay for all health care costs with that money, which I sort of ignore in my budget. But today, I want to address my most expensive health care cost: preventing my body from spontaneously creating a new life.

I’ve never liked the idea of taking a pill, particularly a finicky one that insists I take it at the same time every day if I want it to really work. I know I can be spacey about that kind of thing whenever my routine is adjusted, and the NuvaRing sounded so nice an convenient at once a month. I signed up and have used it off and on for years. I don’t remember the original cost, but I got them for a reasonable price through the student pharmacy at my college, in the $20 range. Last year, I was paying around $42/mo (pre-tax money) for the NuvaRing. This past week, i noticed it had increased to $52. Really, I’ve had enough! I looked online to try to score a better deal, but no dice, even ordering from Canada (which may or may not be legit).

Part of this is my own choice of health plans, but let’s just leave that aside for now. I really don’t understand why birth control isn’t covered as a preventative drug. It prevents pregnancy, an arguably expensive condition (that results in an even more expensive child)! Probably because it would cost the insurance companies too much money to cover something that many women are almost required to take on a daily basis (or risk children they are not ready for).

What about condoms? They are cheap, right? Well, not cheap, but I’ll just admit that we have never spent $50/mo on condoms! Condoms are less effective, and T is hyper concerned about pregnancy. Using condoms as our sole form of protection really doesn’t appeal to me either. I have a nephew that resulted from that method!

The NuvaRing is becoming an unjustifiable expense in my budget and condoms do not provide enough protection (at least to ease my mind). What about the obvious answer, the Pill? Despite the annoyance of having to take it every day and be really diligent, I may end up switching to this less desirable (to me) method because of cost. But what is the cost? I don’t know yet. I estimate I can get at least some brand for $25/mo or so. Even with my income, planned parenthood will give them to me for about that. Walmart has a few brands for $4 or $9 (!) but that deal is not applicable for residents of some states, including mine. Besides, the walmarts around here are extra sketchy (so I’ve heard).

What about those student discounts? In the fall I will be getting a student ID (legitimately, as a part-time grad student), so can’t I get those discounts again? Nope! Turns out that trend is over. I can imagine this is impacting many young females on college campuses around the country.

One final option I’m going to discuss with my doctor is an IUD. It is non-hormonal and you put it in once and you are good for 10 years. You can take it out if you change your mind. There are some undesirable side effects and reasons they don’t recommend them for childless people, but this is not a women’s health blog, so you can find those elsewhere. I once heard the cost of insertion is $300, but I suspect it will be higher. (On a separate issue, I’ve found it really difficult to begin to select a doctor. I can get a list of doctors, but how do I know if I’ll like them? And do I need an OB-GYN or just a regular MD?) I know for sure that I don’t plan on having kids until T is done with grad school (at the earliest!) so that means at least 3 more years. It is something to consider, and I like the non-hormonal part. I was surprised that just 1.3% of women in the U.S. use it, while it is the most popular method in the world. I really like this idea, but I have a feeling that my doctor will talk me out of it, or the up front cost will be high.

To sum it up, here are the options I’ve come up with so far, all in pre-tax dollars:

• Condoms: Maybe $150/yr, but not enough protection
• NuvaRing: $600/yr
• The Pill: Estimated $300/yr
• IUD: ??? One time (per 10 yrs) cost of $300+
• Abstinence: $0, but perhaps my happiness and/or my boyfriend

Gosh we women get ripped off. . . (Although any male paying $50/mo for condoms has my sympathy too.) Also, why aren’t feminine hygiene products eligible for my HSA spending but band-aids are? The sort of do the same thing. Ok, not at all, but still! I consider them a necessary health product but I guess they aren’t.

I missing any options regarding birth control expenses? What do you pay per a month?

I asked for advice on purchasing glasses, but I didn’t follow much of it.  I didn’t purchase direct from my optometrist (the selection was not very good), but did go to Lens Crafters.  I didn’t shop around beyond that.  I didn’t go to Costco (not a member) or Walmart (quite far from my apartment).  I was too chicken to purchase online, and wasn’t encouraged by this negative post at My Two Dollars about $39 glasses.

The advice I received was totally sensible and applies to almost everything–shop around for a good deal.  I only shopped at two places.

What kind of deal did I get?  My frames were about $220 and the lenses were a whopping $310 because they recommended polycarbonate lightweight lenses and a scratch resistant coating.  I did not get the thinnest lenses and I did not get anti-glare.  For being an AAA member (thanks mom and dad!) I got a 30% discount to bring it down to $370.  My insurance will cover $100 towards lenses and $70 towards frames.  So that leaves me to cover $200 out of my health savings account (pre tax dollars).

Did I get ripped off?  My last pair of glasses were from Walmart and I had them a whopping 8 years.  I never loved them, even when I first got them.  These ones, I love.  I better love them, right?

I think the trouble is, I need to start better tracking my Health Savings account money.  Since it comes out of my paycheck before I ever see it, it doesn’t feel like a big hit to spend $200 of it.  However, once it gets to a certain balance, i can cut back on the contributions significantly.  It is, quite obviously, real money, but I haven’t been treating it as such.  Hmmm….

I’ve been doing some research on car insurance, now that I’m finally getting myself off of my parents policy. Yeah, I know, I’m a mooch! I originally budgeted $100/month for auto and rental insurance policies. Depending on the coverage i get, this may be too high or too low… But it seems close to right on. I’ve been pricing it out at Geico for now, and once I’ve firmed up the level of coverage I want to pay for, I’ll price shop with other companies. Perhaps there is a discount through my new employer. My cousin also sells insurance, so I’ll be sure to get a quote from her.

Here is a chart of the different prices I was quoted for different options from Geico. (BI = Bodily Injury, PD = Property Damage, MED = Midical, UI = Uninsured motorist, COMP = comprehensive and COLL = Collision). The BI and UI went to higher levels, but Geico told me that I had requested too many quotes before I could fill in the whole chart!

Most people are probably pretty familiar with auto insurance terms. I am not. I’ve never shopped for insurance and had no idea what 15/30/5 meant. Luckily, all the insurance sites did a good job of explaining these terms, and there was also a nice article at the Smart Money site that covers the basics.

To determine the level I need, I checked out emunds.com, which recommends:

General recommendations for liability limits are $50,000 bodily injury liability for one person injured in an accident, $100,000 for all people injured in an accident and $25,000 property damage liability (that is, 50/100/25) given that half of the cars on the road are worth more than $20,000. Here again, though, let your financial situation be your guide. If you have no assets, don’t buy excess coverage.

Ok, simple. I don’t have much for assets, but to go from the state minimum of 15/30/5 to 25/50/25 was only about $40 over the course of six months, so i decided to buy up. In particular, the property damage liability was cheap to increase, so I did. There are a lot of expensive cars in this city, and $5000 wouldn’t begin to repair most of them. As my assets increase, I suppose my coverage levels also would have to increase. I threw in uninsured motorist coverage, just in case. I declined medical (i have medical insurance), roadside assistance and rental coverage.

Now it was time to look at the expensive stuff–collision and comprehensive. For $45 for six months, comprehensive seemed like a good bet. My parents car was stolen last year, and they were kicking themselves for not carrying comprehensive insurance. The next question I was faced with was the biggie: do I want collision insurance? My car is about 8 years old. It’s a Dodge Stratus with 80k miles on it. Oh, and it has a salvaged title. It’s not exactly a junky car, but it’s defintely not nice either. I looked up the Kelly Blue Book Value, and at most it is worth $3400. They won’t do an estimate for the salvage title, so it is defintely worth less than that. The cost of the highest deductible ($1000) is $144.00 for six months. For that I’d be getting about $2000 worth of coverage.

Reasons not to carry collision:

• I have an emergency fund that could buy a cheap car of similar (or better) value
• I put a line item in my 2008 budget for a new(er) car fund
• It isn’t recommended to buy collision/comprehensive if the premiums cost more than 10% of the amount of coverage you are getting (value of car - deductible)

Reasons to carry collision
-I’ve never driven in a city this large before, and I’m a little nervous about it
-I haven’t been in an accident since I was a teenager, but I’m not the worlds best driver
-I can afford it in my budget.

I decided that for the first six months to one year living here, I’m going to carry collision insurance. Then I’ll re-evaluate my options. At that point, if I’m still driving this car, I’d probably drop it. Also, the difference in price for $500 deductible versus a $1000 was almost negligible. Even though I’m generally a fan of higher deductibles (or rather, the lower premiums that come with them), I chose to go with the $500 deductible.

Now that I know exactly what I want, I’m going to see if I can get it for a better price. At first glance, Geico seems to have a really good price, but I want to check a few others before committing.

In my industry, tuition reimbursement is pretty common. My current job has it, and my new job actually pays the tuition up front for you.

The problem I’ve run into is that Spring semester starts next week, and I am still finalizing my start date for my new job (most likely, February 1st). There is a class I’d really like to take this semester, but I don’t want to pay for it out of my own pocket. I’ve been trying to get an answer from my new job about whether they will pay the bill for me (even some prorated ammount), or if I have to take a semester off from my distance learning program.

The cost for one class would be rough $1600. I could take this out of savings. Why would I do this, when employers typically pay for this cost? Well, I might do it in hopes that I can work something out with my new manager and get them to reimburse it. I might do it because the class sounds interesting and isn’t offered often. I might do it so it won’t take me even longer to finish my degree program. Since I have been unable to get an answer from the new job, I have seriously been contemplating paying for it out of pocket.

When it comes down to it though, $1600 is just too much money for me to spend. Here’s to hoping they get me an answer soon!

In other news, I purhcased my rental insurance from Geico last night, with a 5k deductable. The reason I’m getting rental insurance, despite the fact that the value of the things in my apartment is probably less than the deductable, is the liability issues. The general rule (for me at least) is to insure yourself against thigns you can’t afford to have happen. If my apartment burned down, I could afford to replace my belongings. That is why I have an e-fund. The policy also has some sort of “temporary living” terms that would help me out. What I couldn’t afford is if my apartment burned down and it was blamed on me and I was sued for damages. I chose a high deductable, but also high “liability” coverage. It was only $163 for the year, and it was close to $300 for a more “reasonable” deductable of $1000 or $500.

I’m a little ashamed, as a personal finance blogger, to admit that I have been living in my apartment for 1.5 years without renters insurance. It is so cheap, but I just never got around to buying it.

My new apartment manager has said “you need to have renters insurance”, which I’m not sure if she means it is a requirement or just strongly suggested. I’m going to take it as being required. Geico has given me the lowest quote so far, $163.00/year, primarily because I was able to adjust the deductable to $5000. Yes, this is a lot, but that is what an efund is for. I have to call the manager and find out the answer to a bunch of questions (construction type, distance to fire hydrant…) to get the most accurate quote, but I think I’ll go with it. Other Cali readers, what do you know about earthquake coverage? Do I really need it?

The next step is getting off my dad’s car insurance (yeah, I know…)

Along with a milllion other things I have to do in order to pull off this move! My last day at my current job is next Tuesday!