Hubs and I are both self-employed, so health insurance is a big expense for us
(
more than our mortgage actually).
We have had the same insurance for many years and for a long time the rates stayed the same unless one of us had one of those big birthdays, but the last couple years the rates have increased at random times.
Sooo, a couple months ago we received an increase notice ...
again ... and I called them to see if they had any comparable but less expensive plans and long story short (actually longer story long) I switched us to a cheaper policy with a $1000 deductible - my thinking was that we would be saving $1200 and had rarely had any medical expenses (
other than a few biggies last year that would not be repeated) and even if we did - we would still be saving money
and in theory this was all true.
But in actuality, what happened was that the very month I switched the insurance hubby spent the night in the hospital which cost $9500 - yes, you read that right - one night in the hospital with tests = $9500.
(
no jacuzzi, turn down service or chocolate on his pillow either)
My decision to switch policies which looked like a no brainer cost us $1000 in one month rather than $1200 over 12 months which would have been easier to budget, create money to pay for, create time to shop around for something better ....
and well, just stomach.
This kind of thing has happened to me before. Switch cell phone plans to save money and end up paying more somehow, buy a slightly cheaper whoseewhatsee to save a couple dollars and it never works as well, take plastic bottles to the cash recycling center to make 20 bucks instead of putting them out at the curb and get into a car accident (not my fault) with an uninsured driver that costs me out of pocket my $500 deductible.
I could go on and on.
Whenever I set out to do something solely as a way to
save money it almost always backfires on me.
Now, I am not sure it works this way for everyone. I think different people are here to learn different things (some people
need to learn to save money or to spend less).
The lesson for me which life has been hitting me over the head with for years is to trust that the money will be there to pay for the things I need to pay for and to value myself in the process.
I didn't come from a family that said, "you can do it, if you believe you can", "buy quality", yada, yada.
My mother was more pragmatic - she always told me that I wanted too much, that I was headed for disappointment, that I needed to love what I already had (
not something to be discounted by the way), to buy the lower priced items so you could get
more.
It was the kind of scarcity mindset that she took away from her own life story and although this wasn't my story
these are the lessons encoded in my maternal DNA and there is always that little voice
(
who do you think you are?)
when I really
go for it telling me to be
careful - "are you really going to buy that - shouldn't you check around first for a better price? do you really need all these cell phone minutes? those maple cabinets? why are you paying someone to do that when you can do that
yourself?"
Maybe the reason the little steps to save pennies don't work is that we are applying scarcity thinking when we have already adapted an abundance mindset. We can not truly believe that life is supportive of us and then be willing to fight each other to our deaths over a $2.00 waffle maker.
(although I have been known to throw it down over a $2.00
waffle - this family really needs to learn to let go of my Eggo).
