I posted back on July 3rd that our family was planning to do a “Low Buy July” due to the fact that we had a one-two punch of my husband’s work slowing down as a result of the Port of Baltimore tragedy and Jack breaking his arm and needing emergency surgery. With a stampede of bills around the bend, we decided to tighten the reins and cut back as much as possible.
While it wasn’t a full spending freeze, we did make a few adjustments for the month, including: avoiding our trigger stores where money just gets sucked out of our wallets, ignoring all those ‘sale’ emails unless we really truly needed something, eating at home more often (no lunches out at work, coffee stops or random ice cream treats), and trying to eat through our current supply in the fridge/freezer/pantry. In addition to this list, we also made sure not to re-order things until we are FULLY out of them (rather than stocking up on low beauty supplies, home needs, etc). I also paused a couple of our non-essential subscriptions, such as my Peloton app.
While it wasn’t the most fun month, we did a pretty darn good job! However, those hospital bills keep coming. We have received 6 bills so far for everything from emergency room fees, surgery, anesthesia, and more. Thankfully, most of them offer interest free payment plans, so I’ve divided the payments into three months to help with cash flow. We are also hoping my husband’s work picks back up soon, which would be really helpful.
One more big bill is around the bend – I see it in my Carefirst EOB list, but haven’t gotten the invoice yet – so that’s like a shark just stalking me until it shows up at my door. All in all, it looks like an extra $6,000 in medical bills that we were not expecting this summer.
Which means… we are doing Low Buy August too.
And yes, we have medical insurance (thankfully!), but with a high deductible plan… hence, the $6,000 in out of pocket payments.
This is very inspiring (though sorry it was necessary!)! We’ve had to dip into savings more often than I’d like this year, and a low-spend month or two sounds perfect to help build that back up. I wouldn’t have thought about pausing subscriptions…we have way too many streaming channels right now, so that’s an easy save right off the bat! Thank you!
Thank you Jen, I’m glad you found it useful! I feel like it’s nice to do a little re-calibration every so often with a Low Spend month to help me make more mindful money decisions. =)