Our personal fiscal cliff

[andy158]

The news has been spotlighting the country's fiscal cliff almost hourly, but what about everyone elses pending "fiscal cliffs"?

Our experience will not be a good one going into 2013. Ex.....

Property taxes have gone up 11% due to the construction and levy passage for a new school.

Health insurance has increased $18/pay with less coverage.

Copays have gone crazy. Office visit is now $30. Out of pocket as increased to $5000/year. After that it only covers 80%. ER visit is now $150. Prescription now only covers 30%. That is a big chunk for us. Wife and I are both on maintenance drugs.

Car insurance has increased just because. No claims, no accidents. Probably making up for losses from hurrican Sandy.

We now have to pay a city "Fire and Police Service" fee of $50/yr because the tax base from a major steel mill is no longer there.

Utilities are killing us even though we are right in the middle of the Marcellus Shale gas area and drilling is booming.

We can't avoid our cliff. I'm sure others are on the edge of their own as well.

[AngelinaCat]

We are too. I am paying $390 a month for catastrophic health care insurance. It goes up every year as more provisions of Obamacare are put into place. But we are on a fixed income which does not rise as the price of my insurance, and everything else, we must purchase does.

I have tried to get an increase in hours in my PT job, as well as applied for another FT job. But I know that because of my age, 60, I stand little or no chance of getting it. 'Hub at 68, likewise has very little option.

[helpmeout]

My rent is going up. Mainly because I am moving to the upstairs apartment which is bigger than the apartment I have now (and with two kids, I need the space). My health insurance hasn't increased in the last two years.

One year, it was because my employer was able to negotiate the same rate. This year, it is because my employer is absorbing the increase and not increasing the portion the employee pays. Oh, and this year, there is no vision coverage. Other than that, the co-pays went down and the rest of the coverage is the same. And is better than nothing.

I am hoping that the utilities in the new apartment isn't a lot more than what I pay now. But if it is, then money is going to be even tighter. And who knows how much summer camp is going to cost as I am not going back to the same one the kids were at last year. And since I refuse to leave an 11 year old and a 13 year old home alone all summer long, it's a necessity.

I'll be able to retire when I am 90.

[tobee43]

i know our electric has almost doubled. apparently progress energy gets raises and we don't.

our property taxes went down, i fought them and won. we now pay 1k less, but that will not last for long. most of this has to do with local situations and not national changes.

the people that are putting us or comprising our positions are the people voted into congress and the house. we did it, and now have to live with it. (me excluded LOL!)

this is why one needs to REALLY think with foresight as opposed to hind-sight, when voting their position. once again we are being held hostage by those running this government. can't complain when these people doing this to us were put there by the people of this country....

our co-pays are contractual, and our car insurance has gone up as well. when i called about it, they said the state of florida approved a hike....of course. just like the electric company. they all get increases, but we don't. we are broken. we try and save, but the costs keeps going higher and higher.

[GoingDown]

i know our electric has almost doubled. apparently progress energy gets raises and we don't.

.

My Salt River Project electric bill went way up since they put in a "smart meter" that reads my power usage through a wireless network. It no longer has any dials for me to verify whether what they are charging me is accurate. They're saying I used more power last month (when I wasn't even home) than I did one year ago during that same month!

I can only imagine what they are going to say I used this month!

I used to keep my thermostat set at 56 during the winter, but after spending a month or so in Oregon, where my family used a wood burning stove and kept it rather hot inside, I can't stand that low of setting anymore in Phoenix, so my heat pump runs a lot more than most winters. I am gradually trying to ween myself down to a lower setting.

I keep my food expenses down by walking over to the all-you-can-eat soup and salad buffet just down the street. That way I get to eat lots of fresh veggies and fruits, hot soups, and bread items for one low price, and then I don't eat much of anything else the rest of the day. I get coupons from them in the mail and by email that get the cost down to about $6 per day for food. Not bad.

[AngelinaCat]

We were just 'graced' with a smart meter. I tried to opt out of it, but was told that this would only delay the inevitable by a few weeks. We will see how it goes...

[tobee43]

My Salt River Project electric bill went way up since they put in a "smart meter" that reads my power usage through a wireless network. It no longer has any dials for me to verify whether what they are charging me is accurate. They're saying I used more power last month (when I wasn't even home) than I did one year ago during that same month!

I can only imagine what they are going to say I used this month!

I used to keep my thermostat set at 56 during the winter, but after spending a month or so in Oregon, where my family used a wood burning stove and kept it rather hot inside, I can't stand that low of setting anymore in Phoenix, so my heat pump runs a lot more than most winters. I am gradually trying to ween myself down to a lower setting.

I keep my food expenses down by walking over to the all-you-can-eat soup and salad buffet just down the street. That way I get to eat lots of fresh veggies and fruits, hot soups, and bread items for one low price, and then I don't eat much of anything else the rest of the day. I get coupons from them in the mail and by email that get the cost down to about $6 per day for food. Not bad.

it sounds like the more we attempt to squeeze ourselves they find more ways to get more out of us. i know i'm squeezed out. it's funny i was thinking about it the other day when i stretched 2 hamburger patties i had in the freezer to about 3-4 meals for us by making them look like salisbury steak LOL!!! put a bit of gravy make mashed potatoes some whatever i could scrounge up veggies left in the ref...next day i turned the mash pot into pot pancakes....took the old apples in the frig made some applesauce, covered the meat with a different gravy and wah lah...another hearty meal one cannot recognize LOL! cost pennies really. i figured out each mean was less than 35 cents and i have frozen the rest of it since how many times can we eat it. really all from 2 hamburger patties from i hate to say came from last year LOL!

cat your lucky with the smart meter. we invested over 2k this year to insulate and assure we could lower the ele bill, only to find it's increased at least $100 a month. the company that did the work, which progress energy refer us to has been back out to see what is going on. these homes here in florida or from what i know and have seen have little to no insulation, so we figured it would help. NO WAY. so now the company who did a good job shoot there is over 18 inches of insulation up there, they are saying it's progress energy getting another raise...or course they keep getting them without us knowing!

we after moving to florida were told no one turns on their heat, but since we have been here we see or have seen weeks of freezing or below temps. we only turned on the heat once or twice and just use more clothing. it's easier for us since where we use to live at times would have wind chills of -30, now that's cold! we kept our heat which was oil on 65 but it still rain us over $600 and that was separate from our electric bill!

[pamkev]

We are keeping our heat at 66 degrees and as some of you know we live in a big old home here in Pa last months oil bill was over 700.00. Just got more oil and of course the price went up don't wanna see that bill. Going to warm up this week to around 50 degree's wish it stay that way or go higher till spring.

Pam

[Sammie]

We put ourselves on an electric budget last Aug., we are budgeted $180.00 a month for gas & electric. Next Aug. we will be reiewed with the usage we used for the year and it will be readjusted accoringly.

Our Dr. told my husband because of his family history he advised him to get the Shingles shot, even though he is not 60. Ins. denied (BCBS) and we were sent a bill for $267.00. We appealed and our Dr. sent a letter. They denied the appeal and we are responsible for paying this outrageous bill.

Pam your heating bill is just terrible. What would the cost be to switch to Natural Gas?

[tobee43]

i know where we lived sammie, which was right on a natural gas line, we couldn't get gas...and the conversion amount would not be half as bad as pam's would be, with that house she has. i think pam is doing pretty well if it's at $700 monthly as our house up there although 4500 sq feet was all shut off except 3 rooms and it still costs us $600 in oil monthly. it's really bad up there. one would have to use bottled gas as opposed to piping into a system in many of the areas there.

we found we can pay all our expenses for just what our utilities costs us up in nj. although the costs are climbing here, they still aren't as bad as there. seems like no matter were you go there is something. food costs are so much higher here than nj, no one believes that, but it's so very true. setting back to the natural gas thing, pam will most likely find the same problem as we did, it was just cost prohibited.

[pamkev]

Sammie,
NO natural gas around we are out in the sticks ans as Tobee said to get it bottled it would be cost prohibited

Tobee,
Our heating bill is over 6000.00 for the year which does not include electric.

[TheBajan]

Wow, Pam! That's awful! We have a pretty big house. Total heated square footage is about 5700 (some of that is basement). We use geothermal heat that runs off of our well. We have in-floor heat in the garages and the basement and then forced air throughout the house. We are on budget billing so it's the same year round at $208. That's our entire electric bill, not just the heat portion. Is that something that you could possibly convert to? For us, it has more than paid for itself several times over. Our neighbors and our tenants who live next door all have propane heat and they typically pay $800 every six weeks in the winter for heat. They still have their electric bills on top of that. It is pricey to install so I don't know but it has saved us a ton of money in heat bills.

[pamkev]

BJ,
Wish we could convert but we live in a very old home built in the late 1800's It has been in the family a long time. It used to be a hotel and bar which was convert to a two family home then convert to a single family dwelling. The home has some history although only to us. Downstairs in the cellar we still have the original hiding place's they hid the liquor during prohibition.
We have thought many times to sell it but it needs a lot of work and with the heating cost it would be very hard to do. It would also be hard to sell to a outsider as like I say been in the family forever.

Pam

[tobee43]

Sammie,
NO natural gas around we are out in the sticks ans as Tobee said to get it bottled it would be cost prohibited

Tobee,
Our heating bill is over 6000.00 for the year which does not include electric.

actually pam, i thought it would be more! ours ran a bit more than that. don't have a clue why. it was just awful. now our taxes mortgage and all utilities, insurance etc don't run us more than a total of maybe 10k a year! where as all expenses including oil and electric ran us 8k a month!

our electric runs a bit higher here in florida only because we have a pool and they don't close their pools in the winter months. and of course, it's important to keep the house in the family!

[pamkev]

actually pam, i thought it would be more! ours ran a bit more than that. don't have a clue why. it was just awful. now our taxes mortgage and all utilities, insurance etc don't run us more than a total of maybe 10k a year! where as all expenses including oil and electric ran us 8k a month!

our electric runs a bit higher here in florida only because we have a pool and they don't close their pools in the winter months. and of course, it's important to keep the house in the family!

Wow and I thought I was high. We just got one for 1030.00 for this month. Hoping it stays in the 50's lie it's supposed to this week will surely help.

Pam