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By David on October 28th, 2009

Comparing Prescription Prices To Save Myself A Ton Of Money.

Within a few weeks, I will be without insurance for the first time in my adult. Why? Well, a few reasons. The biggest reason, and the one I have not mentioned here yet, is that my wife and I are divorcing and I have been on her group insurance plan. She has amazing insurance (one advantage to being a teacher, I suppose) that I will no longer have access to as soon as the divorce is final, unfortunately. And to continue with COBRA under her plan, it would cost me over $500 a month – an expense I cannot incur at this time. The second reason, and why I cannot get insurance on my own, is actually two-fold:

1. I am self-employed, so I need to buy private insurance
2. I cannot get private insurance because I had cancer last year

So, I will be without health insurance until this country joins the rest of the civilized world in offering a government-sponsored health plan for people like myself, I get a job at Starbucks, or I get married to someone in a group plan. Fantastic! Anyway, that’s not my main point of writing this post and I will cover this more in-depth in a future one. For now, I just wanted to talk about buying prescriptions when you don’t have insurance. Did you know that the “no insurance” price for medication varies by quite a bit depending on where you buy it? Even if a Target and a Walmart are right next door to each other, their prices can vary. And since I am on a medication that I take every morning (and need to continue taking), I had to start shopping for the cheapest place to buy my medicine from. I was honestly surprised by what I found out, and I imagine there are a ton of people paying way more than they need to for their daily meds. Some pharmacies discount for supplies longer than 30 days, but some don’t, so I am basing this on a per-month basis.

  • Local pharmacy here in Taos – $17.50 per month
  • Target in Denver – $28.99 per month
  • Walmart in Denver – $23.00 per month (although even if they were free, I wouldn’t get them here)
  • Costco – $12.56 per month (90 day only $23!)
  • Walgreens in Denver – $29.99 per month

The clear winner? Costco, by a long shot. They are $5 less per month than the next cheapest, my current pharmacy for the 9 days I have left in New Mexico. And if I get 90 days at a time from Costco, the price drops to $7.66 per month, which is crazy amount of savings over the regular pharmacies. The best part? You don’t need to be a member of Costco to use their pharmacy! Since I will be a single guy once again, I don’t have much need for bulk amounts of milk from the store, so it’s good that I don’t need a membership to get my discounted drugs.

prescription Comparing Prescription Prices To Save Myself A Ton Of Money.

So for those of you who might not have insurance (or not very good insurance, at least) might want to call up all the local pharmacies in your area and ask them how much your meds cost. I am so glad I did, as it looks like it is going to save me quite a bit of money each and every month. Now if Costco could just offer me health insurance, I would be all set…

Photo from Shutterstock

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By David on October 27th, 2009

Listening To Financial And Life Advice From Our Elders.

My grandmother has some amazing anecdotes about live and living that I always enjoy hearing. Since she was born in 1918, she has lived through some amazing times in our history, especially the Great Depression. After hearing what she went through back then, my life seems like a walk in the park in comparison. But truthfully, we really can learn a ton by listening to those who came before us and have experienced many different things that we might not have gone through yet. For those of you don’t have any elders who like to dole out advice, one credit union in Georgia has put together a 5-minute video called A Century of Good Advice, featuring seniors who share financial and life advice from their experience over the generations, intermixed with children from the Boys & Girls Club who talk about the advice they receive from their elders about how to be smart with money and in life. It is in honor of the 100th anniversary of credit unions in U.S., and I know many of you are big fans of credit unions over big banks. (I myself, after being with BofA since what seems like the beginning of time, will probably be switching to a credit union once I finish my move to Denver) Check it out, you might learn something:

And while your elders are still living, make sure you ask them for advice – most of the time, they know best!

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By David on October 27th, 2009

UK Government Promoting More Work/Life Balance.

This is definitely something that we here in the United States need to learn from. It’s not about how many hours a day you work, it’s about how well you work during the hours that you do work. For example, when Best Buy switched their work policy to judge performance on output instead of hours worked, efficiency skyrocketed for the company. This is something I learned a lot about when I used to travel to Europe for work several times a year – they really get just how important a work/life balance is. In this country we put in more hours than ever, and our efficiency is actually trending downwards. It’s not a healthy way for us to live, as it leads to more time away from home and more health problems. Is killing yourself at work really worth a few extra bucks? For me it’s not. From The Guardian:

Employers will be expected to offer more part-time jobs for working parents under a major shift in government thinking on family life. The move is likely to provoke an outcry from business and accusations that ministers are not taking into account the financial burden of extending workers’ rights during a recession.

The UK government is actually stepping in to try to help promote even more work/life balance for its citizens. It’s unfortunate that anywhere in the world there is a “live to work” mentality instead of a “work so you can live”, but I am not sure that the government stepping in to help people is a good thing. It would never fly in the U.S. (and this concept probably won’t in the UK either), but I am glad to see how other countries value the “life” of a person rather than just how much they can create/build/bill for. That much I can be happy about, and some people I personally know could benefit from being told to spend more time at home! You guys all know which side of the political spectrum I stand on by now, but in this case I am not sure that a government needs to get involved and force employers to follow this new idea. I would think that we the citizens and employees could demand it on our own if we so chose. I have chosen to follow a more balanced work/life balance on my own time, so I don’t know if I could go back to work for someone who told me what time to arrive and what time to go home.

What do you think? Do we need more work/life balance in this country? The average worker in the US receives, and uses, way less vacation time than most in the industrialized world. Has our work taken priority over what should probably be the most important thing to us, our free time and family?

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