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Do you need to save some money? |
You must ask for what you want
Rumi
At 2 a.m. on March 13, we found out that Silent Sam was
unemployed. We found out via an email that SS read because he could not sleep. He
had been with the company for 35 years but the creditors had had enough and
decided to close the firm.
We sat in shock and separately wondered what was going to
happen now. Together we tallied up the
points in our favor. We had some savings and we could both go out to find new
positions. We split up the day’s needed activities. SS had to go on the
computer and learn about filing for unemployment and I would go on and find out
about getting health insurance.
In the days to come, we discovered that we were lucky in two
other ways. The company SS worked for had two pay day schedules. One week, the
hourly employees were paid and the next week the salaried employees were
paid. There had been a glitch with the
hourly employee’s checks the week before and they were given checks rather than
having their pay direct deposited into their accounts. It seemed that if they
didn’t deposit the checks fast enough that the checks bounced once the company
was put into bankruptcy. Many of the hourly employees then lost 3 week’s pay
when the company was closed. SS as a salaried employee did not get paid but we
only lost 2 week’s pay.
Worse than that in some ways was that the health insurance
was retroactively cancelled.
Yes, that can happen. Soon employees started getting bills
from doctors and hospitals that they owed a balance because they were effectively
uninsured for the last few months. Because
we may have been a bit remiss in going to the doctor, we did not get caught up
in this issue.
So, there were a lot of people who were very unhappy,
unemployed and having financial difficulties.
While we had talked about doing some cutting back, we now
had to actually do the cutting.
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Once you start, it gets easier! |
This is where it got interesting. We decided that we could live
without cable TV. We bought inside antennas – one for upstairs and one for
downstairs. We could then get over the air (CBS, NBC, ABC, WGN, PBS, WFLD, and
more) stations. This saved $120 per month.
We then looked at our home phone service. We would have
cancelled it but I have a parent with dementia and that is the one phone number
that has stuck with him and I just could not cut it and confuse him. I did call
the phone company.
Now, I will tell you that this is completely out of my comfort
zone. I am not much of a bargainer. But
I steeled myself and called. When I got a customer service representative, I
said “I think my rate is too high and I am going to go to your competitor. Would
you like to lower my rate?” Within
minutes (and I am not exaggerating) they lowered my rate by one-fourth. I also
cut some of the “extras” on the bill and got it reduced in half. Yes, my bill
went from $88 per month to $44.
Based on that call, I called our alarm company. We had had
the alarm for 7 years and during that time the rate went up $3-$4 per year. That
call was even easier. I used the same line and virtually within seconds they
lowered the rate 31 percent.
I then called our wireless provider. Okay, I was not
terribly effective there. I did look at what we were using vs. what our plan
allowed and was able to lower the bill $10. That did not feel like much of a
win but hey, it was $10.
Are you wondering why I am telling you this story? And why
am I telling you this story on a blog that normally talks about diabetes? I guess that I want to tell you that -
It pays to ask.
You might get turned down but at least you tried. And if you
don’t get turned down, you have just helped yourself.
And realistically, when you are calling the phone company or
the cable company, the people you are talking to don’t care about you. They
either can help you or not; there is no emotion involved. So it is worth asking.
I am sure that you can think of things that you should ask
about but you hesitate to do it. I would suggest to you that if you have
insurance issues that you ask if your doctor might be open to work out some
sort of deal with you for payment. Also, I would check prices on the internet. My
eye doctor has suggested that I buy an over the counter product to use on my
eyes. When I purchased it at the local chain drug store, it was $25. I
subsequently found I could get it via the internet for $17.
Taking care of your financial situation will cause less
stress which can affect your health. Make it a game - see how much you can save!
Thanks for reading!
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If you read last week's post, (thank you!) the wedding went off beautifully! |
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