January
January is normally the most expensive month for us because our annual car insurance and home and content insurance is due. This year it was 1,288.45 in total. We had to change car insurer because the old one went up too much. We also almost change the home and content too but when we called them they said that they have been sending clients the wrong quotes and reduced ours to a more reasonable amount (by over $100). Dodgy bugger! I have a feeling they would have never changed it if we didn’t call them. And for some reason this year they sent the quotes really late, we only had a week to pay for it, normally in the past they would sent it over a month earlier. I wonder how many people they screwed over.
January spending looked like this:
Mortgage - $1,218
Living Expenses (including the above insurance expenses) - $2,495.29
DH did a certification study (including materials and online exam) - $332.52
Other - $288.48 (Office supplies, camping items, plants, exercise tubes, 1 year fishing licenses for both of us and other small household items).
TOTAL = $4,334.29
February
Normally February is one of the lower spending month.
Mortgage - $1,218
Living Expenses - $1,128.02
We bought a New Mattress - $287.99 (got this online and was very surprise at the price because we been looking around in the shops and the cheapest we could find for the same kind was $800).
We went away for a weekend of camping and fishing - $65.80 (this included the fee for the camping site, food and bait for fishing – such an inexpensive weekend away and we caught a fish).
Other - $169.85
The 'other' expenses includes getting a laminator, 3 sets of cooking pots, garden supplies – pot plants and soil, and eco clothes washer from Aldi. The washer was about half the price than getting it at a camping store. DH and I has been talking about going away camping for few weeks, the washer would come handy.
TOTAL = $2,869.66
Recap
March 2nd, 2015 at 06:05 am
March 2nd, 2015 at 07:09 am 1425280162
I believe that there is a 30 day 'grace' period so you can pay within 30 days and still keep the policy up-to-date. Please check for that in your specific policy. It's a mean trick to send out incorrect quotes and only adjust the sum when called by the client. Isn't that illegal? That would be enough for me to write to the Ombudsman or State Licensing Commissioner for Insurance outlining the details of your experience for pricing with billing for payment in such a restricted time frame.
Most ethical insurance companies offer a discount in rates for clients who carry more than one policy like auto and home. I'd ask agent/agency for their best price and discount information.
Has your house had a huge increase in value? Have rates increased because of giant claims in your community? On the other hand, has your car depreciated this year? What is it's KBB value? If something goes awry and you have a claim, insurance will barely cover KBB value after a lot of argument.
March 2nd, 2015 at 07:58 am 1425283089
It was actually cheaper to go with 2 different companies. Maybe next year it will be different.