$3800+ at the dentist

While I hope to get a chunk of that reimbursed through my dental insurance and some of the rest of it covered via my FSA, that still hurts.

What I'm hoping for...

$1195 reimbursed from dental insurance

$1979.28 to drain my FSA (damn, should have contributed more.)

Leaves me to cover: $625.72

I hope, if it all works that well.

I'm so done with all major dental work this year.

February Net Worth

is posted here. Not great, but not as bad as it looks. The tax refund helps, but the pending reimbursement for my dental work means the dental work is showing on my credit card balance because the one check I've received has not posted and I'm expecting a mid-month direct deposit of the rest, which means the dental work will be paid off before the bill is due. But in the mean time, they show in my credit card balances. I suppose it will balance out because my dental work Wednesday will then be on the card until I get reimbursed. Insurance reasonably speedy so I can't complain, too much.

Now that my paycheck has been right I can see the difference in my FSA. Last year's election: 200, this year's, 3000. Total difference in 2x/month paycheck? $50 or $1200/year. I think that works out well in my favor. It also makes paying for the dental work far less painful. Further, the fact that I'll use the bulk of my FSA combined with my 2K dental insurance limit on dental work scares me. 

Back on track...

I think... Or at least back to actual time to read and post. I checked the balance of my dental claims and realized I had ~$600 unused that I can't roll over. Without any trouble, I was able to get the paperwork for an August root canal that I hadn't submitted because I was "saving" the insurance reimbursement for the planned crown. Since all will happen after January 1, this wasn't an issue. So this should be good. 

I have to turn in my FSA form tomorrow and I think I've decided the contribution amount. Or I thought I had until I started re-obsessing over it today. I have an idea that I should put in $3300 and somehow split the crown payments between the card connected with my FSA and my credit card. Therefore I can be reimbursed by insurance for some without fully burning through my FSA funds. I'm afraid to fund the FSA with the full estimated cost of three crowns in the event that it doesn't end up that hight -- but then on the other hand I know the odds of my escaping a year without some other dental treatment is slim to none.

Decisions, Decisions....

FSA Open Enrollment

Yeah I've been bad, both posting and spending. Or bad about not spending. 

Cancun was fabulous and I actually came in way under budget there, which was good. Yay. Christmas shopping is over budget and I'm not done. Since I have extra in the "Cancun fund", I may put that money towards it since it's not earmarked for anything else. I also payed an extra $110+ toward the principle for my student loan, woohoo. Baby steps.

We had a presentation this morning from our benefits reps and I found it to be worthwile. The main reason I haven't used up my FSA contributions is apparently that I didn't realise how it could be used i.e. co-pays and uncovered medical/dental expenses. So now that I know that, and I know what the dental bills I'm facing are (more on that in the next post), I think I've worked out how much I'm going to contribute. I found this calculator to be great for breakdown of what the tax savings, etc. will be.

Plus they announced today the grace period until March 2009 to use 2008 monies, which makes me happy. I was not looking forward to stock piling OTC meds to use up the monies.

FSA: Open Enrollment

This post over at fivecentnickel got me thinking...

This year I deliberately under-funded my FSA, or so I thought, because I was only eligible from June 1 and didn't want to leave money on the table. However it's November 15th and I've only used $70.45 and that's with recent over the counter cold-medicine purchases. I suspect I'll have to go on an OTC spree at the end of December to use this money up because even the two remianing co-pays on prescription aren't going to use it up.

That gives me no idea whatsoever on how to fund it for next year. I've found that I can't use it for dental treatment because there's never enough in the account to pay it via the Mastercard that's connected to the account and I'm uncomfortable with paying the pill and then hoping to submit it to the FSA when there is enough in the account.

I've spent $4,310 on dental care since June, and there was more earlier in the ear pre-Mint. There's also more to come via Crowns. $1120 of that was later re-imbursed via insurance but that's not a good measure as I hope not to need three root canals and two crowns next year either.

So In short, I have no idea what to do but I need to figure it out. Oy.

Toilet paper and FSAs...

As soon as I paid full price because I needed it and none were on sale, Walgreens has Charmin 6 double rolls 2/$7. 

Murphy's Law...

Luckily, they were out of stock so I got a rain check. Will get to use it before 30 days are up because I only bought a 4-pack

Also on a non-coupon note, why are cold meds never on sale when you're sick?!?

*Cough*Sniffle*Sneeze*