Frugal Hacks

How to negotiate a discount on medical bills

kimc — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:28:20 +0000

When I submitted my upcoming medical need to Samaritan Ministries*** I received a list of tips on how to negotiate a discount on hospital or other medical bills.

These tips can be used by anyone, regardless of whether they are members of Samaritan Ministries, so I'm sharing them here.

Suggested Procedure for Negotiating a Reduction in Medical Bills

Pray that God will help you to be a witness with each call you make, and that the bills will be reduced for His glory and the good of His Kingdom.
Ask for the supervisor in the Patients Accounts office for each provider. You must speak to the peron who has the authority to make the decision to reduce the bill. Don't be dismayed when the first person you talk to says, "We don't give discounts." If you can negotiate the price of a new or used car, you can negotiate the price of a medical bill.
Be sure that the provider understands you do not have insurance; you are a "self-pay" patient.
Many hospitals have a sliding fee scale based on your income level. Be sure to ask about this.
If you are a Christian worker, ask if the doctor or hospital has an automatic discount for clergy and Christian workers. Many do.
Say to them, "By what percentage would you consider reducing this bill?" Then wait for them to respond. There are no high-pressure tactics needed. Just simply ask.
If they still have not given a discount, they might if they're offered cash. Hospital and doctors often give discounts of up to 30% if the bills are paid promptly in cash.
Say to them, "If we can arrange to get 70% of this bill to you in cash within 30 days, will you accept that as payment in full?" Again, just wait for them to respond.
If you are still refused a discount, politely ask for that person's supervisor and repeat steps 1-8 with that supervisor. If you move up the chain of authority far enough and are politely persistent, the chances are very good that you will get a discount.

There are also services that will help you negotiate a discount on larger bills. Samaritan recommends The Karis Group, which seems to be a free service. The Karis Group has also partnered with Christian Financial Ministries to provide a service which is not free, but is guaranteed to save you significant money on larger bills, making it very worthwhile. We have no experience with either service, but Dave Ramsey thinks highly of them and his recommendation means a lot to money-smart people.

***Would you like to know more about Samaritan Ministries? We have been happy members for years. You can read about our experiences with Samaritan on my personal blog. If you decide to join Samaritan Ministries, please tell them KimC sent you.

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Leafy Greens Are A Rip-Off

Emily @ A Fine Collection of Lint and Fuzz — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:51:50 +0000

I wrote a while back on my old blog about how flour-based products are a rip-off. They are fairly easy to make ourselves and the ingredients are cheaper than the store-bought version, so if someone has the time, there is no reason to pay others to make them for us. I'm getting the same impression about leafy greens.

We live in Maine in an apartment. There is no yard to plant a garden, yet we have been having fresh salads this winter without paying outrageous prices for out-of-season leafy greens. Leafy greens are always in season in my kitchen.

Here's how I grow them.

Take a coffee can and make drainage holes in the bottom using nails. I use 34.5 ounce cans, but have used cans as small as baby formula cans with success.
Put an inch or tow of "stones" in the bottom for easy drainage. I use packing peanuts or broken up pieces of styrofoam, since styrofoam cannot by put in the recycling bin.
Fill with soil.
Plant seed and place near window. Water.

It's that simple! In 6-8 weeks, depending on variety, you'll have your salad. If you plant enough, depending on your salad needs, you'll never have to buy leafy greens again, even in the winter.

We recently got all fancy and switched over to self-watering planters, so I have no pics at the moment, but we usually don't eat the whole plant at once. We pull a bit off here and there for tacos and sandwiches, then pull a small handfull off of each plant when we want a big salad. More leaves grow in as long as you keep it happy. We've noticed the yield goes down eventually, and then we eat the rest of the greens and replant.

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Leaving the Frugal Life Behind

DL — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:31:48 +0000

Recently, my husband and I were given a gift certificate to dine at a lovely, expensive restaurant. Our dinner was delicious (of course, we ordered “the special“) and a delightful evening was put into our memory bank. However, I couldn’t seem to leave the frugal life behind.

Taking a brisk winter walk before arriving at our destination - remember this is South Texas “brisk” - I was a bit chilly and declined giving my coat to the Maitre d’. Little did I know how wise this would be! Pleased to be attired in some “new” clothes, I panicked for a moment as I have been known to forget to remove those plastic thrift shop tags! Thankfully though, this was not the case and we quickly took our seats in preparation for a scrumptious meal.

The place was crowded with conventioneers who seemed to have nary a thought to the expensive menu. With some chagrin, I must admit, after seeing a patron’s convention identification tag, I did hope his expense account wasn’t being paid by my tax dollars!

Thoughts seemed to continue down a frugal lane. I will confess, I doubted if anyone in this restaurant was doing their “debt snowball.” And I hoped that all those dining were now “living like no one else” because they had “lived like no one else before.” As we were leaving, I happened to see the Maitre d’ assist another patron with her coat. Honest, I wasn’t staring, I just happened to see her give him a $10.00 tip! He smiled and I gulped - only three more coats and this Maitre ’d would match a well-known blogger’s weekly grocery budget!

Now, it really isn‘t my place to decide how other people spend their money. And that is not my point. As we left the restaurant, the realization came to me that living frugally has taught me to evaluate and appreciate the choices I make. Special evenings can be a lavish treat, yet, while grateful for this fine dining experience, I have no desire to leave the frugal life behind. How about you?

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Shopping To Feed A Crowd

MerchantShips — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:48:02 +0000

Last week we discussed feeding a crowd for less. But before you can cook, you must shop. Is Sam's Club always the cheapest alternative?

Most of my quantity cookbooks list ingredients in bulk sizes: a #10 can, a quart of sugar, etc. The only way to compare apples to apples is to check the unit price.

TOTAL COST / NUMBER OF OUNCES = PRICE PER OUNCE

You know this, but it bears repeating. In some cases, the bulk size is no bargain. It's simply a timesaver.

When I'm cooking for a crowd, I try to shop like a business. Restaurants don't buy disposable pans at Kroger, so I stocked up on a variety of sizes at GFS Marketplace. (A smart reader pointed out that Sam's Club also sells half-sheet pans, 30 for $9.)

Frugal Hacks editor Kim C. realized her family was eating 30 pounds of bananas a week--a lightbulb moment. She began buying wholesale quantities from a produce terminal for a fraction of the price. I always wonder why the Duggar family, of TLC's 19 and Counting, doesn't adopt the same approach. (They make mega trips to discount grocer Aldi instead.)

I usually end up splitting my shopping for a crowd in two: half goes to seasonal produce and sale items at the regular grocery, and half to those bulk purchases which truly save time and money. When I saw how little frozen hashbrowns cost at GFS, for example, there was no way I'd sacrifice an afternoon to peeling potatoes!

Pick and choose your focus. Few caterers make everything from scratch. If cakes are your thing, start piping! If not, consider warehouse clubs, where big desserts have small prices. I was amazed that Costco's half-sheet cake feeds 48 for only $16.99. Muffins for a crowd, on the other hand, are cheaper to bake at home, especially if you use a make-ahead batter like this one.

Net your biggest savings by doing the entree yourself--even if you're only warming a spiral-cut ham with your special gourmet glaze. Pound per pound, meats and casseroles prepared at home cost less than their frozen or deli counterparts. If you do outsource, the cheapest meats are usually fried chicken (from Walmart) and pulled pork barbecue (from a local favorite.)

There's no simple answer to shopping for a crowd. You have to weigh time, money, and storage capacity to determine a formula that works for you. If you have any tried-and-true quantity strategies, we would love to hear them in the comments below!

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New on the Frugal Blogroll for 3/6

kimc — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:45:21 +0000

New members of the Frugal Blogroll for the week of March 6:

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Saving Money Isn’t Always Frugal

DeputyHeadmistress — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:45:34 +0000

Living frugal is about more than just a few tips on saving money here and there. It's about changing the way you think about things, adjusting your thinking about wants versus needs, and revising both a sense of entitlement (which doesn't do us any good), and our ideas about deprivation.

Several years ago I started subscribing to a paper so I could get the sales fliers so I would know what all the 'deals' were. After a couple of months we dropped it, as I realized that having those sales fliers actually brought more stuff to my attention, and then into my house, stuff I never knew existed without those ads, stuff I suddenly saw a need for-and-it-was-on-sale so I would save money. I saved more money not buying those things at all than buying stuff I'd never even heard of before just because it was on sale- even when it was a very good sale. I do still use the grocery sales papers- those are important, but I borrow them from my mother.

Staying home is where the real savings come from.

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Renter’s insurance: got it? get it.

kimc — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:37:26 +0000

I'm grateful for sponsors on Frugal Hacks for more than one reason. Yes, the occasional income is nice, but there's more to it than just money. I don't accept every sponsor. I choose them carefully, and for the most part I think they choose Frugal Hacks carefully.

Because of that our sponsors are a good fit for the topic of frugal living, and so they often remind me of worthwhile topics. We have a new sponsor this week in our Recommended Links area, and the website reminded me of our own experience (or lack thereof) with renter's insurance.

OUR STORY

My husband and I rented a home for the first 5 years of our marriage. We knew nothing about renter's insurance. To the best of my knowledge, nobody ever suggested it to us, and of course we didn't go looking for what we didn't know existed.

After 5 years and 3 children, we bought our first house and carried regular homeowner's insurance as required by the bank. We even used it once or twice, and were pleasantly surprised to learn that unlike auto insurance, you are not automatically hit with a rate hike when you place a claim. If those incidents had occurred while we were renting, we would have been out of luck.

After another 5 years and 3 more children, we decided to try our hand at life as landlords. We did some research, looking at plenty of sample leases. We quickly learned that many landlords strongly recommend or even require their tenants to carry something called renter's insurance.

I'm not sure I would recommend getting into the rental property business - we lost a huge amount of money when our town imploded - but I do heartily recommend renter's insurance to anyone who rents their home.

Renter's insurance typically covers personal belongings damaged due to theft, vandalism, lightening, hail, wind, power surges, water-related damage from home utilities, and much more. We had sewer pipes back up into our home not once, but twice, in the space of less than 3 years. Two different houses. Once resulted in toilet water and shower water from the couple upstairs flowing out of my shower drain, flooding my bathroom and creeping out onto my bedroom floor. That was bad enough, but the other was far more dramatic. These things happen.

BOTTOM LINE:

We all know that there's nothing frugal about being over-insured. Don't pay for more coverage than you need. But please consider fitting renter's insurance into your budget. Coverage starts at about $10/month, and in our experience it's worth the risk.

And if you're going to look into it, consider giving our sponsor a click to search 6 of the best-known insurance companies at once.

YOUR TURN:

If you rent, do you carry renter's insurance? Do you know about renter's insurance? Have you ever made a claim with homeowner's or renter's insurance, or been in a situation where you could have used the coverage?

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Cheap and Easy Kid’s Room Art

Emily @ A Fine Collection of Lint and Fuzz — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:35:15 +0000

I'm in the middle of redoing my boys' bedroom. I had a farm theme previously and am now (slowly) changing it out for a transportation theme.

My boys love Lightning McQueen (a race car) and Thomas and Friends (trains). I don't know how long this love will last, but I've heard it could last for several more years. Even though they rarely watch the show or any movies, anything with Thomas or Lightning gets squeals from both my eighteen-month old and three-and-a-half-year old, so I knew these characters would have to be displayed.

At first I thought I would create a custom art piece, one that my kids would be awed by, but then thought of how we don't really know how long this love will last. And, I wanted to do something they could help with.

So I did a swagsearch of images with Thomas, and another for images with Lightning. Finally, I revised the search for coloring pages with Thomas and Lightning. I blew up the coloring pages using a simple paint document. I made it large enough so that it printed in four page, but you could enlarge them to 6 or 8, or even larger for a mural.

I am mounting them on scrap wood, painted black, but you could also do it on cardboard, or just whatever is on hand.

My oldest helped to paint the black background on the wood and helped with some of the bigger patches of color. My younger son "helped" while the paint was drying, so now Thomas has some purple patches, a creative twist on the traditional blue and red Thomas.

I used this same idea for the old farm theme, except I painted all the animals black, so that they were all silhouettes.

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Food Spoilage Table: how old is too old?

kimc — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:24:33 +0000

You probably realize just how un-frugal it is to let food rot in your fridge. No matter how good the price was, you waste money when you waste food.

When it comes to leftovers, we usually draw the line at 1 week or when it doesn't taste or smell quite right - whichever comes first.

With primary ingredients, it can be a little more complicated. Sometimes it's hard to know just when to call it a loss and toss it in the trash or compost. I found this helpful table at The HomeMaker's Mentor, where you are sure to find many other useful articles.

FOOD SPOILAGE TABLE

EGGS
When something starts pecking its way out of the shell, the egg is probably past its prime.

DAIRY PRODUCTS
Milk is spoiled when it starts to look like yogurt. Yogurt is spoiled when it starts to look like cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is spoiled when it starts to look like regular cheese. Regular cheese is nothing but spoiled milk anyway and can't get any more spoiled than it is already.

MAYONNAISE
If it makes you violently ill after you eat it, the mayonnaise is spoiled.

MEAT
If opening the refrigerator door causes stray animals from a three-block radius to congregate outside your house, the meat is spoiled.

LETTUCE
Bibb lettuce is spoiled when you can't get it off the bottom of the vegetable crisper without Comet.

CARROTS
A carrot that you can tie a clove hitch knot with it is not fresh.

CHIP DIP:
If you can take it out of its container and bounce it on the floor, it has gone bad.

GENERAL RULE OF THUMB - if you can't find it on this list:
Most food cannot be kept longer than the average life span of a hamster. Keep a hamster in your refrigerator to gauge this.

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Winners: H&R Block giveaway

kimc — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:20:07 +0000

Wow - we only had 23 entries on last week's giveaway for 3 copies of H&R Block's tax software or $50 discounts for taxes online. Maybe all you frugal people out there already did your taxes, unlike me.

Those are some pretty good odds for the people who did enter.

Here are the 3 happy winners, chosen by Random.org:

Alice Says: linked to my facebook page!
February 21st, 2010 at 9:31 pm

Vicki Says: I’ve used both TurboTax and TaxAct, whichever saves me the most. I’ll see how HR Block stacks up this year.
February 21st, 2010 at 5:34 am

Pamela T Says: I became a fan on Facebook, wahoo!
February 21st, 2010 at 2:21 pm

Congrats to the winners! May your refund be swift and generous. :)

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