On Friday my hearing felt like I was in a tunnel.  That’s never a good sign.  Of course, I immediately thought I had an ear infection.  That night when I got home, I asked Mr. Money to put some naturopathic ear drops in my ear to help fight off any infection.  I hate taking any medicines that aren’t natural.  When I woke up on Saturday, I was feeling a little pain and my jaw was starting to hurt.  Uh oh.  Of course, being as weird as I am, I scoured the internet for home remedies for ear infections.  I wanted to treat it myself.

At 3 P.M. I decided I was going to go to the Urgent Care Clinic to have a doctor look at my ear.  There was no sense in me fooling with it any longer.  I was afraid I’d have permanent damage.   When I got to the clinic, I immediately asked them how my health insurance would cover it.  If I was going to have to pay the $100 ER copay, I needed to know.  They told me that my insurance would treat it as a specialist, so I’d have a $40 co pay.  Not too bad.  After waiting 45 minutes, the doctor came in, looked at my ear, tugged on it, asked me a couple questions, and then diagnosed me with a middle ear infection.  Great.  He wrote me a prescription, and I went on my merry way.

I went to the pharmacy I normally go to, they said it would be about 10 minutes, so I wandered around the store.  When I went to pick up my prescription, they told me the total was $50.  I was expecting it to be around $10, so of course I was shocked.  They told me that I hadn’t met my deductible yet (ugh) and that was the cost.  It was even a generic.

 I was bummed, but what could I do?  I had to have the medicine to clear up the infection.  I paid, and went home. $90 for a darn ear infection.  I was glad that I didn’t pick a high deductible health plan because I would have paid more!  Oh well, at least I’m going to feel better soon.

Are you happy with your health insurance coverage?

Posted under Money

Yesterday I wrote about my bargains I got at our local Goodwill. Today I decided that instead of holding onto junk in our basement and shed for the yard sale it looks like we’ll never have, I would take the items to Goodwill so I can get a tax write off and make a donation and hopefully help someone in need. After all, what goes around comes around. I want good karma!

I have been holding onto these items and it was a hard decision to just drop them off. I keep picturing the boxes and bags with big dollar signs on them, like I just did a very unfrugal thing by donating the items instead of trying to sell them. This was my thinking: I’ve been waiting all summer to have a yard sale, I haven’t had time, the stuff is taking up space driving me crazy, and most of the items I donated ranged from 10 cents to a dollar. Am I really going to miss that? Probably not.  The money that I would have made would probably not be worth my time sitting outside, haggling prices with people.

Many of the larger dollar items I kept: a dehumidifier, pictures, tables, etc.  I figure I can always list those on craigslist and make some money off those items because those are actually worth selling.  The other things probably wouldn’t sell on craigslist.  When we get back from vacation I’ll need to list those as soon as possible.

Do you think I made a good decision?

Posted under Money, Money Mistakes

It seems that fraud lately has just gotten out of hand. With the economy being in the toilet, people are now turning to stealing check card, credit card, and debit card numbers. The thieves have even gotten so high tech as to where they can now replicate the card with your number but “their” name on it. Scary, huh? I’ve seen a lot of this fraud happen lately to customers, and it’s sad to say, but you’ve got to be careful anywhere you use your card lately. If you follow these steps and use common sense you can do your best to minimize your risk of fraud.

Be observant any time you use your card. I just heard of a story where a friend’s husband when through the drive thru at a fast food restaurant and while the person at the window was waiting for an approval, the gentleman in the car was watching him on his cell phone. The worker was keying something in on his phone, and at the end, the customer realized that the last two numbers the person keyed in were the last two of his credit card! I am just amazed at people sometimes.

Be careful when you are shopping online. Obviously this is an important one, and one everyone should follow without saying. You may even want to think about purchasing a pre paid debit card to make purchases online. The only times I use my card to make purchases online are when I am paying bills or I know it is a legitimate company. Also, paypal may be a good option for businesses that take paypal.

Don’t use your card at a restaurant. I am so leary of people taking my card away and swiping it without me present. Who knows what they are doing with those numbers, and how secure is their system? There is a Mexican restaurant that was rumored to be selling credit and debit card numbers to criminals. Needless to say, I pay cash there.

Be very very careful at places like ATMs, Redbox, and other machines that swipe your debit card. There was an article about Redbox having thieves putting “skimmers” on the machines to steal your card information. Always inspect the machines before you put your card in.

As always, using common sense is the best rule of thumb. Of course, if you were a victim of theft, you would get your money back after filling out affidavits with the card issuer. Stay safe and shop smart! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Posted under Credit Cards, Money