An Evolving (Revolving?) Budget

It’s almost midday now; I’ve watered the lawns and the garden, harvested another tomato and bell pepper, fixed breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen, handled a medical billing issue, and done a load of laundry. Now to deal with today’s topic, Our Budget.

Our finances are in lockdown. That means that we are not eating out as often as we used to, nor are we ‘blowing’ money on unnecessary items. The reason for this is to save for an upcoming major purchase that will be costly but will make Hubbin’s and my life easier.

But going back to ‘unnecessary items.” No extra fees, definitely no late fees, and now, removing fees on medical charges that have been billed incorrectly. I’ve been placing monthly calls to the insurance company and the doctor’s billing department to get resolution on some medical payments my insurance made that the doc’s office says they never received. Isn’t this a bit crazy that I am right smack in the middle of these two entities, trying to get each of them to do their jobs correctly? And there is truly nothing I know to do to get these bills corrected and resolved, And yes, the word is “Bill-S” is plural, since there is more than one that has an issue!

Having said that, our budget is not set in stone and gets a revision just about every month because some expenses are fluid, and some are fixed. The fixed ones can be set on an automatic payment schedule, but one utility biller has been crazy with its ups and downs and is well-known for incorrectly charging many residents. I cannot have the utility company’s form of crazy affect my bank account! Just so you know, we’re not talking a couple pennies here; we’re talking THOUSANDS of dollars per MONTH! That would kill any budget I hope to maintain! So today I plan to review the current billing against last month’s, make sure all is tracking, and then get them paid for another month. I’ll be able to breathe a sigh of relief once again.

Bill paying is right up there with grocery shopping on my list of things I detest.