Lab update

So I finally finished calling around for lab tests. Labcorp by far is the cheapest I can find. They are charging about half of what Community charges. Quest gives a 30% discount which isn't too bad either.

Back to school specials

Saveathomemommy has a great chart to get the best back to school deals. Check it out here.

medical/dental savings

I am continuing on my quest to find affordable medical/dental health care. Here are some new things I discovered recently. Remember when we went to the dental school at UCSF? We got a price quote of $800 to pull 3 teeth. I thought that didn't sound too bad. My husband put off doing it until recently. He recently was in such pain it became an emergency. Since it was an emergency we decided to try to figure out how to do it here. First I had him call the local UCSF dental clinic. They told us they have no relationship with the dental school and would not take his xrays that were already done. Seriously! I have to say that just floored me. Then we called the Poverello house which I heard will pull teeth for free. Their services are very limited and they require you to call every day at 1pm to find out if they have a dentist available that day. They didn't the day my husband needed it so that was out. I remembered my friend had her tooth pulled at a clinic down the street from my house for $100. That sounded good to me. We called the Tower dental clinic and they agreed to see my husband and use his own xrays. Sounded good to me. They quoted us $370 for all 3 teeth. Well that was considerably less than the $800 the dental school quoted us. It turned out to be $520 since they ran into a problem pulling the wisdom tooth but still. almost a $300 savings without the expense of the drive. I recently found out that there are two local programs that you can use on a sliding scale for a doctor. Clinica Sierra Vista and United Health Centers. It says on the internet United Health does dental as well. I'm going to check that out asap. There have also been major changes to healthcare coverage so you might try checking out this site.  www.coverageforall.org  I recently was told by my doctor to get some lab tests. I started calling around to see what the charge would be and if I could get a discount for cash. You would not believe the price differences so it really pays to call around. I haven't figured it out yet, other than to determine that community hospital is charging way too much money. They wanted double the amount the independent lab wanted  to do the test and only give a mere 10% for cash. Astounding considering the complaints they have of not getting enough reimbursement from the state from medi-cal or for the indigents from the county. Here they have a cash paying customer and they want to charge me double? All I can say is wow! I have a couple more calls to make and then I will post who was the cheapest.

Black Friday at Target in July?

Apparently Target will be doing some sort of Black Friday type sale this friday online only. It says stuff will be 50% off. I really need a new air mattress so maybe I will wait till Friday and see what happens. Here is the link. Thanks to stretchingabuck for this post.  

Free Movie Tickets

There is a new subscription service for movies. It's called Weekly Cinema. It's a subscription service for movie tickets. If you join now, you get a free ticket. You'll pay $14.95 for four tickets! Each month after, you'll receive 3 tickets for $14.99. You can see any movie that accepts Fandango with these tickets, including 3-D. After subscribing, you'll receive coupon codes that you can redeem at Fandango for up to $15 per ticket. You can cancel at any time. The tickets arrive at the beginning of the month. Check to see which theaters in your area accept Fandango tickets. If you go to the movies once a month, this is a great deal. I don't go that often but that is because it's so expensive. Seriously considering this one. I love going to the movie theater, but hate the expense.

Grocery challenge

I am now 3 weeks in to the grocery challenge. It has been much harder than I thought it would be. The money part was easy. I can do it with my eyes closed. Keeping it healthy and creative has been very challenging. The biggest challenge I have found is when the day goes badly I am not prepared. My husband has worked a lot lately and so have I, making it very difficult to get dinner on the table in a timely manner. One thing I have definitely learned about myself is that I tend to rely on takeout during emergencies rather than my own groceries. I could still get dinner on the table quick and easy using unhealthy foods, but healthy is another thing. Healthy takes time and planning. I need to figure out how to be able to throw something healthy together in a hurry. I can pull fish sticks out of the freezer no problem. One lady said she puts leftovers into single serving portions to make her own frozen dinners. I have the freezer space so it is a possibility. Not sure what to use to freeze them with though. I'll have to think about that one. To me, healthy is fresh ingredients. Something that is difficult to stockpile. I'm going to research this a little today. I'll let you know the results.

Free slurpee day tomorrow 7/11/10

Free slurpee day at 7-11. It's hot! I know what I'll be doing.....

kmart doubles

KMart will double health and beauty coupons in a lot of stores July 4 - 10. (Clovis is one of them) You have to have the KMart Shoppers card. Limit 5 coupons per day, up to $2 face value. I'm totally shocked. I never thought Clovis would do it again. Whoo Hoo!!!!!!