February 25, 2011
Our federal tax refund is back! That was quick. And it will be spent just as quickly, since we have decided to apply it toward the Visa bill. It will almost pay that off. We have decided this is the best use of this money. Even though it’s not our smallest bill, it is the one that is the most aggravating, in that we never seem to be able to get it under control. Applying the tax refund will reduce this bill to the point that it will be manageable, and I plan to pay the rest of it off within a few more weeks.
Our federal tax refund is back! That was quick. And it will be spent just as quickly, since we have decided to apply it toward the Visa bill. It will almost pay that off. We have decided this is the best use of this money. Even though it’s not our smallest bill, it is the one that is the most aggravating, in that we never seem to be able to get it under control. Applying the tax refund will reduce this bill to the point that it will be manageable, and I plan to pay the rest of it off within a few more weeks.
Federal Tax refund: $2913.00
Part-time income: 163.94
Total: 3076.94
Expenditures: $2900.00 Visa
8.80 postage stamps
22.80 misc. household
10.53 fast food (road trip)
58.86 groceries
20.00 cash (incidentals)
10.01 gasoline
13.62 furnace filters
15.00 Boy Scout dues
(Struggle Jr.)
Total: $3059.62
Unfortunately, I also received two medical bills this week, for the mammogram call-back. One for the mammogram itself, and the other for the radiologist who read the x-rays, for a total of $327. Of course, neither is covered by our health insurance, as they were coded “diagnostic,” which is just a loophole the insurance company uses to deny the claim, in my opinion. Since there was no cancer found, obviously there was nothing to be “diagnosed.” I think I need to find a mammography clinic that can take decent pictures at the first visit, as this is the second time they have called me back out of four or five mammograms over the past decade. Not a great success record, is it? And it certainly didn’t help my opinion of this “non-profit” medical conglomerate to see the local newspaper reporting the multi-million dollar bonuses just paid to their CEO and their other executives. Disgusting!
I put these two medical bills aside for now, so as not to sidetrack our plan for paying off Visa. We plan to pay these medical bills in two weeks, from the next full-time paycheck. Of course, this will slow us down in reaching our savings goals, but there’s no alternative. It does make me think twice about going for any routine medical tests, though. I’m actually in a very low-risk category for breast-cancer and only went for the mammogram because it is recommended annually at my age. I have put off going for a screening colonoscopy, for fear of something more financially drastic happening. We struggled last year to pay $1600 in “out-patient surgery” bills, for the removal of polyps found during Mr. Struggle’s colonoscopy. Again, our insurance classified this as “diagnostic” and wouldn’t pay because we hadn’t met our $3000 deductible. These policies don’t exactly encourage you to have these tests done, do they? I’m not sure I’ll ever go for another mammogram, after the psychological stress I went through, and now the financial consequences.
How about you? Have you received call-backs for medical testing that you felt was frivolous, costly and unnecessarily stressful?
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