Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Benefits Re-enrolment time...

And this time I'm going to be smart about it.  What does that mean exactly?  Well this time I will actually spend the time to go over the different benefit packages and will coordinate my work benefits plan with DH's.  When I first started working here, I just signed up for the highest level of benefits.  After getting married, I should have looked at what benefits DH had and adjusted mine accordingly, but instead I just kept them at the highest level.  I never looked at the actual numbers to see how much I was actually paying each payday towards my benefits.

I finally looked at the numbers and they don't look good.
A total of $92.91 is deducted is deducted from each payday (semi-monthly), which equals $2229.84 a year!!!  For benefits... that I probably don't even use!  How ridiculous is that!  That number really surprised me.  So this time, I'm going to be smart because really I can't afford to not be smart.  And there's no need for the highest level of benefits.

Tax returns should be mailed out later this week, and a portion of that money will go towards the wedding trip fund for next year, with the remaining balance being put into the emergency fund.  It will be nice to see some increase in the EF.

Last week I had a couple days of weakness regarding healthy eating and money.  I didn't want to eat my packed lunch and so I ended up going out for lunch twice last week, not good for my healthy eating plan or my wallet because the two lunches ended up costing a total of $35!  I realize now the poor choices that I made and am looking forward to bringing and eating a packed lunch.

Spending money this past weekend was out of control.  DH, the kids and I went out to eat a few times and I haven't added up all the numbers but I'm sure we spent over $100 on food.  Worse part?  As we ate at the restaurant and food court mall, I knew that I was more than capable of preparing better meals at home at a fraction of the cost.  This weekend I'm looking forward to making breakfast at home.  It's Mother's day on Sunday but I'm going to insist that we have a nice quiet breakfast at home with a home cooked meal.  I'm actually looking forward to that.

Once I've completed my benefits re-enrolment, I'll let you all know how much I saved.

UPDATE:

So I just went through the enrolment and I must admit it was difficult to opt-out of some benefits.  But I think I made some very good choices.  Updated cost?  $1062.18 <-- that's over 50% less that what I was paying.  Payday deductions are now $44.26, instead of $92.91, that's a savings of $48.65!  If I take that $48.65 and put it away in a savings plan at the end of 2012, I would have approx $583!  How exciting!    At first when I saw the savings, I thought "So what's the big deal with saving $48.65 each payday?"  The big deal is $583 saved in 6 months (benefit updates start on July 1).

1 comment:

  1. Hi, very interesting post thanks for sharing. Can I contact your through your email. Thanks!

    Randy
    randydavis387 at gmail.com

    ReplyDelete