Yea! I’m back on line after being down for a few days. Technical computer problems give me a rash, but luckily there wasn’t anything I needed to do. Bluehost was down, and I just had to wait for them to come back up. So now I can write to my heart’s content about the stuff that’s been swirling around in my head.
Our credit card billing cycle ended yesterday, and I’m stoked about how we did. Our goal is always to be under $1000/month on our credit card. We put just about all of our expenses on that card, so it’s a good measure of how well we’re keeping spending under control. (the only stuff that doesn’t go on that card are utility bills that can’t be paid by credit card, and Costco purchases which go on AmEx).
Our total bill is $2436 this month. But $1200 of that is for my husband’s MRI, which is being paid with HSA money. I’ve already transferred the money out of the HSA and into our HELOC, where it will sit until the credit card bill is due. We had already accounted for taking $3000 out of our HSA this month to cover his knee treatment, so all is good there. We’ll have to take out the other $1800 when he has his surgery in a few weeks.
So that leaves $1236 in actual spending for the Dec 10th – Jan 10th cycle.
Last week we had to renew my husband’s gym membership. We’ve consistently used the gym at least four times a week for almost four years now, so I’d say it’s a good use of money for us. My membership is free with my library job, but we pay $350/year for him. It would be more expensive if we paid monthly, so we always just pay for a year at a time. We think it’s money well spent.
So that means we spent $886 on other stuff. All our expenses – including Christmas dinner that we made for my family – came in well under our $1000 budget for the month. I’m excited to see how low we can keep our credit card this month, since we won’t have Christmas or the gym membership renewal to deal with. My plan is to put $2000 into the HSA this month, since maxing it out is our first goal for 2008. I’m going to do that as soon as we get paid next week, and then we’ll just have to make do with what’s left. I get three paychecks from the library this month, so that will help.
Anyway, I’m feeling good about how well we did in December, and inspired to do even better this month. Putting $2k into the HSA next week is going to put a strain on the budget, but it will put us a lot closer to achieving our goals, so it’s worth it. I’ll let you know how we do.
M- says
If you husband is getting his knee fixed, maybe ask the doctor to write a prescription to the gym. You can use you health savings account at gym so long as it is accompanied with a doctors note. Since you already paid for the membership, just take your receipt to have the money refunded to your account. Thus, you pay for your gym membership tax free.