Posts from — January 2008

I always thought that a really beautiful gift to give to a grandparent, parent or other relative would be a handmade family tree like this one from Martha Stewart’s website. She has instructions on how to make this family tree on her site along with templates to these other designs.

To make this project look best I would buy a quality sheet of paper for printing or hand writing your tree onto and then have it framed for the best presentation. Most Sunday newspapers’ include circulars for Micheal’s or Joann’s with 40% off coupons, a great place for affordable frames that sometimes even include a matte. A gift like this could cost under twenty dollars and be really special gift for someone.

This weekend boyfriend and I stopped at Whole Foods to look for some produce.  I picked up two Bosc pears that looked good for using in the Apple Pear Crisp from Barefoot Contessa I was going to make.  Boyfriend picked up a small cup of decaf coffee and we got on line.  The girl behind the counter said $6.10 and I gave her a $20 bill.  After getting my change back I stood there looking at it in my hand and it occurred to me … I just paid $4.60 for two pears!  Given they were organic, but still, that is the most expensive pear I have ever bought.  I didn’t pay attention to the price when I picked them up because I never would have guessed they were $2 a piece!  They weren’t even the ripest pears I have ever had.  What a rip.

Last week I talked about how bummed I was about the ridiculous amount of money I was going to have to spend on the oral surgeon. I found out that pulling impacted wisdom teeth is not cheap and I was pretty worried where I was going to get the cash to pay for it (I still haven’t started an emergency fund but that is whole other problem). Well, luck struck me twice in one day Monday.

1. Always go to a doctor/dentist that is in-network.
The oral surgeon that was recommended to me from my dentist was out-of-network so on the suggestion of my boyfriend, I decided to seek another opinion from an in-network surgeon . While my insurance pays out the same percentage for in-network and out-of-network dentists, they give me a larger cap on what they will cover for in-network doctors. I didn’t think it was a big deal until I saw that $1600 bill and decided to get a second opinion from an in-network surgeon. I called my dentist and asked for some more recommendations. Good thing I did.

2. Give dentist ALL of your insurance info up front.
When I called to make the appointment they took down my medical and dental coverage info over the phone. After having the consultation with the doctor, and him telling me exactly the same thing as I told the previous guy, I met with the financial planner. She is the one that tells me what I will owe and bills the insurance. She had already contacted both my medical and dental insurance companies. Turns out that my medical coverage pays for 100% of oral surgery on partially or fully impacted wisdom teeth, since it is a necessary surgery. That meant that two of my teeth would come out for free and that the anesthesia was free. The last surgeons office never even called my medical insurance to see if some dental was covered.

3. Always call your insurance company prior to any visits with a doctor to see what is covered. This way when you get the estimate from the doctor you  if it is being billed correctly.
This was the advice that the financial planner gave me when I told her what my last dentist had quoted. She was shocked and said it merely was an issue of doing all of your homework.  She also never charged me for ice packs and it was cheaper there for pulling the two teeth that I had to pay out for. Which brings me to my next rule…

4. Get a second opinion if the price seems to high. Sometimes it is actually cheaper to go to someone else.
I didn’t think there was much of a difference in what one doctor charged versus another but apparently that is not true.  Different offices do have a price difference on certain procedures.  So if the first surgeon had pulled my teeth I would have paid a minimum of $420 of the $1600 bill after insurance. My bill now is $160 after paying deductibles and fees. That is a pretty big difference.

5. Always listen to your boyfriend when it comes to financial advice.
Well, this rule really only applies to me I guess. But if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be saving so much.

I just updated my post about the no!no! with some of my thoughts on how the treatments are going so far.  If you were thinking about purchasing one you can check out my comments here.

On the one hand I have done a great job lately saving money… on the other I found out that I have some big expenses coming up. We just finished painting the kitchen and living room of our house. It was a cheap, do-it-ourselves project that made the house look a thousand times better. My boyfriend signed up for an Amex card offer where they gave out $250 in rewards points for signing. He kept it long enough for us to redeem our points for a Home Depot gift card and then cancelled the card. The last thing we needed was another credit card with an annual fee. I DON’T suggest anyone with rough credit do this. But it did get me a new paint job. We still have $100 left on the card!

On top of that I finally cashed in some MyPoints Rewards points and had a $10 Target gift card and a $10 Home Depot card sent to my house. If you haven’t signed up since I wrote my post on this… sign up now! There is no gimmicks, no scams… I didn’t buy anything. The only catch is that you get a lot of email from them.  My house/wedding savings is up to $770.21.  O.K yes, this has been amended to include a wedding. No I am not engaged…. you can stop crying now Mom. My boyfriend and I have talked about getting married within the next couple of years and I would like to have a nice sized wedding. We both have pretty big families! But I would rather a wedding not leave me homeless and begging on the side of the road for food. So I am saving slowly. Clearly, I am nowhere near affording it now but I figure anything I get as wedding gifts can go back into the house fund. This is all a little premature, I know, since I am not engaged.

So the bad news is that I need my wisdom teeth removed… after I just had a bunch of dental work paid off. They are not cheap to pull. $400 a tooth times 4! Then they have the guts to charge $15 for an ice pack. I told them to take it off the bill and I will bring one of my own. The icing on the cake is that my jaw has been killing me lately, which I thought was just a side effect of the crap wisdom teeth. But apparently I have TMJ or some other issue so the oral surgeon wants me to do a CT scan. That is another $35. Yeah. It seems sometimes that as soon as one costly problem is solved another just rears it’s ugly head. Too bad I can’t pay for dental services with gift cards.