Money items

One of our monthly bills is water/sewer.  Last summer the city raised the rate and we went from about $60/mo to about $72/mo average.  Summer months over $100, with watering our lawn and plants/flowers. When we build our  home we will be on well water and septic system, so I won't have that monthly bill any more. That will save over $1000 a year.

Will the health insurance ever go down some? I'm watching Idaho with interest, as they are soon allowing insurance companies to issue policies that don't follow all the Obamacare guidelines. Supposedly in the next month or so. Interesting to see what rates the plans will be, though an article I read said Blue Cross/Idaho's new plans they are going to offer show them at quite a bit cheaper. Interesting to see if the Fed gov't will do anything about it or let them go ahead with it.

Remember DH's buddy, who's wife keeps her money separate from him (but not his separate from her) and he pays some bills and she pays others? One of his bills is their auto insurance. He told DH he is paying $4500 a YEAR for 3 cars! They must have the highest coverage on each vehicle. None of their 3 cars are new either. Two are older and one is a newer used car they bought last summer. The most I ever paid when we had 3 cars and 3 drivers insured was like $3300 a year. He told DH he can't afford it anymore and had to cut down on their coverage. Well, ya...duh.  We have 2 cars/drivers insured right now. Full coverage on my car (but not at the highest levels or lowest deductible amount) and collision on DH's truck (that sits in the garage 99% of the time anyway).  I pay less than $1000 a year.

We're been really good about not going out to eat lately. It's tempting, especially since I get so darn tired of cooking, and that nice restaurant in the next town over has such good food, but going there is $50. We used to go about once a month, but haven't been for 6 or 7 weeks, since we took our neighbor friends across the street out for a birthday dinner. I shouldn't even talk about it.  The fresh warm french bread and butter is making my mouth water just thinking about it.  I get to make tuna casserole for dinner tonight instead. Oh yay!

I'm saving a few dollars a month by ordering my dog food and treats to be delivered once a month by Chewy.com. Plus saves a trip to the feed store in the city. 

I ordered a few food items from Target.com yesterday and then looked at Walmart.com to see if prices were still high. It appears (at least for the regular items I used to purchase through them) that they got smart and put their prices back down. I'm sure a lot of people stopped ordering when many of item prices almost doubled! I still see some prices too high, but overall it looks much better.  But, since I started ordering from Target, I'm a bit happier anyway. I get an additional 5% off with my Red Card, shipping is free and takes about 2 days. One order it got here the very next day! Here! In Timbuktu!