I feel like I spent my entire morning on the phone.\u00a0 It started with our health care provider\u2019s billing office because we received a bill which had not first been submitted to insurance.\u00a0 I was there with Jeff the day of his appointment where we completed all the insurance forms and they made copies of the insurance ID card.\u00a0 You would think that after the office\u2019s diligence in making sure they gathered that information it would be processed correctly.\u00a0 I suppose even with the help of technology, billing mistakes happen.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s just me, but it seems to happen especially when it comes to medical bills.\u00a0\u00a0 We kept receiving this one hospital bill for my son from the day he was born. \u00a0In the notation it stated the insurance denied it based on the fact that he wasn\u2019t on our policy.\u00a0 Time and again I would explain that he had been added to our policy and perhaps they were billing the wrong insurance provider.\u00a0 In fact, there were other bills from different departments for the same day that had all been paid through the same insurance provider.\u00a0 I would confirm the information with them over the phone and a few months later I would get the same bill all coming back with a denial from the insurance company.\u00a0 I even contacted the insurance company to see if they had record of the bill submission.\u00a0 Just as I suspected, they never had a record of the bill being submitted.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a few months since I received the last erroneous bill, so I\u2019m still crossing my fingers that it\u2019s finally been resolved.\u00a0 After all, we\u2019ll be celebrating Luke\u2019s 2^{nd<\/sup> birthday soon.<\/p>\n}

I also had to place a call to The Children\u2019s Place<\/em> today.\u00a0 Last night I was browsing through emails and noticed The Children\u2019s Place<\/em> was advertising a 30% discount.\u00a0 Luke really needs some winter wear, especially boots.\u00a0 I found a pair that would work and were on sale enough for me to feel like it was a good deal.\u00a0 The advertisement said the discount offer ends at midnight, so I quickly checked a few other retailers to search for deals on boots and found the ones at The Children\u2019s Place<\/em> to be the best for what I was looking at, even with shipping costs.\u00a0 (Which I hate to pay!)\u00a0 I placed my order.<\/p>\n

This morning I\u2019m browsing through emails and wouldn\u2019t you know they extended the offer with an even better discount and added free shipping on every order!\u00a0 What?!\u00a0\u00a0 I checked their website, found the customer service number and read their price adjustment policy which states that once an order is placed they will NOT adjust the pricing based on any sale or promotion unless it was a full-priced item.\u00a0 I thought maybe I would be out of luck on this one but I stayed on hold anyway to talk to a representative.\u00a0 Luckily, and maybe with the help of a few prayers I prayed while on hold, they were able to cancel my order since it had not shipped, allowing me to place a new one with the new promotion, saving me $10!<\/p>\n

The moral of my stories; it pays to pay attention.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s only $1 at Target making sure things ring up correctly or maybe it\u2019s hundreds of dollars in medical bills but taking the time to make sure that you are being charged the correct amount can save you money.<\/p>\n

I used to secretly giggle at Jeff whenever he would pour over our grocery receipt to make sure it was all correct.\u00a0 Now I pay attention to everything from hospital bills to grocery receipts.\u00a0\u00a0 If I see something amiss, I take action to get it resolved, even if there\u2019s a chance that it can\u2019t be reversed.\u00a0 I once noticed a subscription fee on my credit card statement for a software service I didn\u2019t use anymore but was still on an automatic annual renewal.\u00a0 I called the software company and explained I didn\u2019t use it anymore and asked for a refund.\u00a0 They gave it to me.<\/p>\n

As my mom used to tell me, \u201cIt never hurts to ask!\u201d\u00a0 Just in this last year, I\u2019ve saved at least $1200 by being aware, reviewing bills and asking questions.\u00a0 If you are like the way I used to be, not really giving things a second glance, start paying attention. \u00a0A good savings strategy begins with you holding onto more of your money!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I feel like I spent my entire morning on the phone.\u00a0 It started with our health care provider\u2019s billing office because we received a bill which had not first been submitted to insurance.\u00a0 I was there with Jeff the day of his appointment where we completed all the insurance forms and they made copies of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","sharing_disabled":false,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[15,26],"tags":[28,10,29,27],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9rIpx-5U","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahcarrfinancial.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahcarrfinancial.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahcarrfinancial.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahcarrfinancial.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahcarrfinancial.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sarahcarrfinancial.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":367,"href":"https:\/\/sarahcarrfinancial.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions\/367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahcarrfinancial.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahcarrfinancial.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahcarrfinancial.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}