Keeping an eye on the budget

Keeping en eye on the budget means that I have to be very careful with the income, bills, and costs that can disrupt the budget.


I have received four notices in the mail regarding the new homeowner insurance coverage for our new house. This was paid for the year when I closed on December 8th. I called the company three times and stated that the cost for the first year was paid in full at the time of closing and I had the paperwork from closing in front of me that showed exactly how the closing costs were distributed to the various folks.

After I received the fourth notice I called the company again for the fourth time and requested a receipt from them to be emailed to me stating that they did indeed receive and credit the payment to my account. This has finally been sent to me along with a letter stating that they did receive the payment and that this has been cleared up on their end.

If I didn't question the bill and the costs I would of paid 350 dollars to the insurance company. We are currently looking into changing homeowner insurance back to State Farm who we had while owning in Virginia. We have an appointment with them on January 9th.

Our mental health doc sent everyone's prescriptions to the 90 day mail order. I was hesitant to do this with my husband since he also has medicare and presciption coverage through CVS. I was paying 20 dollars a month for each of his prescriptions through CVS. My mail order came through and was delivered today for my husband's lithium prescription. He got a 90 day supply (450 tablets) for 10 dollars. I couldn't believe it. I am going to cancel his prescription coverage through CVS. His prescription coverage through CVS cost 34 dollars a month not including the 20 dollar co pay for each medication. He takes five maintenance meds for his schizophrenia.  I am waiting to see how much the rest of his medications are going to cost through the mail order.

I am not sure how much money this will save us. I am hoping to have an amount after I get his prescriptions delivered and look over the receipts.

Yesterday we received the final cable bill from our rental. We had cable and internet through Comcast. We disconnected the cable on December 8th when we closed for the rental. I got a bill in the mail for mid December to mid January for the rental. I had my husband call the cable company last night because the bill was for 160 dollars. We transferred our contract to the new house and only opted to get the internet since we do not watch much television. The internet bill is about 50 dollars a month. Comcast told my husband last night that the person who placed the order in the computer at Comcast did not place the order correctly and added us as a new customer instead of transferring the contract to our new house. I was going to be charged 200 dollars for breaking the contract in addition to a years worth of cable bills.

The comcast folks were very helpful last night on the phone. The order was adjusted and edited stating that we transferred the contract and service to our new home. The bill for 160 dollars and the 200 hundred dollar fee has been waived and I am no longer responsible for the bill. I paid the last bill for the internet and cable at the rental a few weeks ago. Our new bill for internet only is going to be about 54 dollars a month.

I am very thankful that I am questioning unusual bills that we have received in the past few weeks.