How We Are Saving Over $500 a Month on Our Budget

Oh budget… How I love and hate you at the same time. How I love and hate to know exactly where our money is going… and that I have a problem with spending money on food. That is my problem. Really nothing else when it comes to money.. well maybe my desire to buy seeds for the garden.

One area that we knew we had to change was our health insurance. See, I have a wonderful part time job that was a full time job with benefits. But when baby girl came along we decided that I should stay home, at least part time for now. So bye bye wonderful insurance. We got a good health insurance plan that was $780 a month, which was about the same as it was going to cost to put baby girl on my insurance at work. Although my work plan was better,  here’s the kicker, starting January 1st that same plan was now going to cost us $1100 a month. For reals? How is that ok?

We had been throwing around the idea of a christian medical share before baby girl was born, but we were too nervous to jump in. My hubby sells insurance (supplemental and life) and is all about insurance of all kinds, so when I brought him the idea to switch to a medical share that really isn’t insurance, you have to ease into it. You know…. plant the seed, water it, and wait until it’s his idea (that’s what my mom always says). 

We were debating between two companies: Samaritan and Christian Healthcare Ministries. We hemmed and hawed over this for months and ultimately decided to go with Samaritan. Why we chose them you ask? Because we had multiple friends who use them with great success. Within a year one of our friends had a baby, her husband had knee surgery, and they had to pay nothing out of pocket. Also, the hubby has pre-existing condition and Samaritan doesn’t consider it a pre-existing condition if you have been symptom free for over 12 months. There are a lot of stipulations with these plans. They make very clear they are not insurance, so do your research to see if this is right for you. Also, they are a Christian based so you have to take an oath stating you refrain from unbiblical principles.

So we went from paying $780 a month (soon to be $1100 a month) to $405 a month plus a yearly fee for Save to Share (for needs above the $250,000 maximum publishable amounts). Although we have not had any publishable needs at this time, I’m confident when we do.

Kitchen Stewardship has a great post on the 3 most popular medical shares.

So what are we going to do with our extra moolah? Put it towards debt and then start saving for a farm (cough cough). I mean a new car for me eventually and our next house.

Have you thought about switching to a medical share? Or what has your experience been with a medical share?

Please do your own research to decide if this type of insurance is right for you, it may not be right for everyone. We are not responsible for any experience you may have with any medical share.