Unmotivated to Save

I haven't been feeling very motivated to write lately. Money is still a bit tighter than I would like, and we've continued to splurge on (small) items. 

The car insurance bill for our second vehicle arrived today. Six months ago, it was $320. This time around, it's just shy of $400. That's a HUGE increase, percentage-wise. A state-mandated increase accounted for a small portion of it, but the rest was just due to the insurance company hiking premiums (our credit scores haven't changed, we haven't had any tickets or accidents, etc.). Between both vehicles, we've had to pay $150 extra this month... and that's going to be a recurring charge, every six months. For now, we're just going to pay the bill - but Hubby is going to shop around to a few other places and see if we can bring the bill back down to something more reasonable. 

We went out for a nice dinner last night, $52. Then we stopped for dessert afterwards, $15. 

Today we went bowling and then out for pizza, $30. We also picked up a new pair of bowling shoes on clearance for me, $22. Hubby is still deciding which pair of shoes he likes best, but his will likely be around $50, since they didn't have any of his size on clearance. Even so, at $3 to rent bowling shoes, it definitely makes sense to own rather then rent (and if you ask me, the concept of renting shoes is just rather gross). 

Car Insurance

Car insurance in Michigan tends to be rather expensive, in large part because it's a no-fault state. 

The "Catastrophic Claims Premium" (a mandatory state-wide fee on all auto insurance policies), which covers unlimited lifetime medical benefits for those seriously injured in car crashes, was increased by $20/vehicle/year.  

And general rates increased as well, for a plethora of unknown reasons (insurance risk score, credit score, regional score, etc). My 6-month premium, which had been about $450, increased to just shy of $500. 

I've also been thinking about adding underinsured motorist coverage to our policy, so that if we're injured by someone else who just carries the minimum, we would be entitled to recoup damages from our own policy. I'm not sure how much that will cost, but since so many people in the area have cut back the liability limits on their policies to save money (or cancelled insurance altogether, albeit illegally), it worries me that we could get into a serious accident and then only be able to recoup the equivalent of a few months' salary... 

Upcoming Expenses

The next six weeks are going to have a few major expenses. I've known about some for awhile, and I've tried to budget for them, but I suspect there will be a few indulgent purchases too.

The boring stuff: 

There's an insurance bill sitting on the kitchen table, waiting to be paid, for almost $200. I think we have another two weeks before it's technically due, but I really ought to write a check and send it out. 

And we have a home repair that needs to be taken care of. It's been an issue for the past year, and I've pushed it off about as long as I can. I had a few estimates done last fall, and it was going to run about $1000. I'm not sure if it'll still be that much, if we'll be able to get a discounted rate because of the economy, or if it'll cost more because it's the "peak" season. I'm going to call around after the 4th of July to get updated estimates, and then we'll hopefully get it taken care of later next month. 

And now for the fun stuff: 

The latest Apple iPhone 3GS comes out tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure that we're going to upgrade and get one. It'll be a couple hundred dollars up front ($199 + tax + AT&T activation fee), plus our monthly cell phone bill will go up. And of course there will be the requisite accessory purchases - a new cell phone case, a clear screen protector, some spiffy applications from the iTunes store. 

I'm taking a mini-vacation next month with some friends, and it'll be at least $100. I haven't decided whether to drive or take public transit, and I'm sure we'll try to keep it cheap for dining and entertainment, but the absolute bare-bones cost would be $100.