Tired of paying too much?

We had had it with traditional insurance once we had to pay on our own when my husband switched jobs.  His prior job covered our whole family completely for insurance costs.  Once we were on our own, it seemed our rates continued to climb.  Quite frankly we could hardly afford it so we settled on major medical insurance for $400 for a family of 4 at the time with a $10,000 deductible.  We knew this was foolish as insurance would not kick in until we paid $10,000 out of pocket.  This drove us to pray and ask others what they were doing.  We switched to Samaritans Ministries four years ago, which I detail here.  We pay $405 a month for a family of 6.  We have paid $0 to have two babies and $0 for two other medical needs.  If you are unfamiliar with healthcare sharing, stick with me.  I try to detail it out below.  Feel free to ask me any questions as well!


Samaritan Ministries Philosophy of Health
We believe Jesus Christ is the Ultimate Provider for all of life’s needs. Individuals and families have the primary responsibility for their own health and decisions related to seeking health care. When they have burdens that are greater than they can bear, we firmly believe that the body of Christ, at the local church level first, and then in a broad corporate sense, should bear one another’s burdens to fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).




How does with all work?
Health care sharing can be difficult for us to understand because we are so used to thinking in terms of insurance.  Instead of having a premium, we send a certain amount of money also called a share along with a note of encouragement directly to a family with a medical need 11 months out of the year.  As a family of 6 we send $405 a month to an assigned family by the 15th of the month.  The other month, the anniversary month that we joined, we send to the office for administrative purposes.  Typically less than 10 percent of the members have a need in a given month and are receiving shares.  New members also send a start up fee of $200 to the office along with their first month's share. 


What kinds of needs do members share?  What does our monthly share pay for?
Qualified medical needs that are detailed here in the guidelines are all covered.  In a nutshell, qualified needs include needs for injuries or illnesses resulting in visits to medical doctors, emergency rooms, hospitals, etc.  They are shared on a per person, per incident basis. 


What type of needs to members NOT share?
We as members are responsible for our well care and routine visits.  Thus, we pay for yearly well visits and preventative labs.  Most needs that existed before a member joined are NOT covered as well as most optical, audiological, and dental.  However, if one of those categories becomes a burden, Samaritan's Special Prayer Needs ministries may be able to provide assistance by publishing your need in the newsletter and giving members an opportunity to send a gift of money to alleviate some of the financial burden. 


What happens if I have a need?
When a member has a health care need over $300, he receives health care treatment from a provider of his choice, collects the bills, and sends them to Samaritan Ministries. Samaritan Ministries then verifies that the need meets the Guidelines, which you can see detailed here. Once the need is cleared, Samaritan Ministries randomly directs some members to send their shares to the member with the need through the monthly newsletter. The member with the need receives the shares to pay his health care bills.

With more than 50,000 member households (more than 165,000 people) participating in the ministry, there is about $15 million available each month to meet health care needs.

What is the cost?

Currently, the monthly share amounts for the four primary levels of household participation are as follows: a one-person membership shares $180; a two-person membership shares $360 (two members of the same nuclear family); a three or more persons family membership shares $405; and a widowed or divorced parent with children shares $250.

The monthly share is reduced for heads of household age 25 or younger. Those amounts are as follows: a one-person membership shares $140; a two-person membership shares $280 (two members of the same nuclear family); a three or more persons family membership shares $355; and a widowed or divorced parent with children shares $200.

A sponsorship program exists to provide for those whose financial situation might otherwise hinder their ability to participate.

What about the new federal health care law?
This approach satisfies the federal health care law’s (Affordable Care Act, U.S. Public Law 111-148) requirement that you have insurance or pay a penalty-tax (see 26 United States Code Section 5000A, (d), (2), (B)). Members of health care sharing ministries demonstrate their exemption by using IRS form 8965 when filing their tax return.  If you are not required to file a tax return, you do not need to do anything to prove your exemption.

What does this look like practically for us?
Since we joined Samaritans we have truly learned what it means to own our own health.  We no longer go to the doctor as soon as illness strikes like we use to.  We treat illnesses at home, which I detail here.  Not only do we save tons of money this way, but we avoid unnecessary antibiotics, etc. We have learned the power of what Hippocrates said, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."  We have seen first hand the power of herbs, essential oils, fruits, veggies, and real food in both the prevention of illness and the treatment of illness. 


As for well visits and sick visits, we have found a medical doctor in our area that actually is a member of Samaritan ministries.  He is therefore very friendly to self pay patients.   He also allows his self pay patients (which you are if you have Samaritans) to pay up front for labs saving sometimes 50% or more on lab bills.  We are in the process of switching our children to his doctor as prices are roughly $50 less per visit.  


In the past four years that we have been members, we have had four needs.  We have had two pregnancies where we paid $0 due to the discounts we received.  One son had chronic diarrhea that was covered at 100% because of the discounts we received.  I also had to have two moles removed and this was also covered at 100% due to discounts obtained.  If you receive profound discounts which a lot of times are automatic since you are self pay, Samaritans will wave you paying the first $300 toward a need. 


Why did we choose Samaritans over similar options such as Medishare? 


Honestly, our answer is quite simple- word of mouth.  Some friends of ours who had similar values and lifestyles were part of Samaritans.  We were at a point where we were tired of paying $400 a month at the time for insurance that would only kick in after $10,000 spent out of pocket for a family of 4 and we needed another option.  We prayed.  We sat these said friends down and asked questions and listened.  We joined!

Looking back over the past four years,  it has been such a joy to bless the persons we are assigned to by prayer, money to help meet their needs, and letters to offer encouragement.  We also think of the ways we have been blessed through money and letters sent our way when we had our four qualifying needs.  Samaritans truly is like no other healthcare.  They are for you.  I remember so many times calling the office of our insurance company and most times I was just a number.  When you call Samaritans, they pray for you.  They seek to minister to you.  Radically different on all fronts.  We cannot recommend it enough!

10 Ways We Save Money

From the time I was in college, I was an intense saver.  I did not waste money and I was quite proud of myself.  I had been taught well by my parents to live under my means.  I saved for unexpected expenses, gave to the church 10% plus, and saved for the future.  While much of my living on the outside was wise, the root system was very sick.  I saw myself as my own provider.  I knew theologically that God was my provider, but in my core I did not believe it nor live it out.  I detail our story of loosing our earthly security in the following posts here, here, and here.  Looking back, I see that season as intense schooling, but I also refer to it has my prison cell.  It was exactly what we needed, but the last thing I wanted.  We did it right- this could not happen to us.  You see I was trying to live to please the father because that meant he owed me a comfortable and pain free life.  This is essentially the story of the two brothers told in Luke 15 .  The older brother lived to please the father so that the father owed him.  When the younger brother who deserved nothing came home and got a party which he did not deserve, the older brother then revealed his true cards of why he obeyed and stayed loyal and faithful all those years.  It was not because he knew the father loved him and he loved the father.  It was because he loved himself and he calculated how to use the father to get the prosperous life he wanted.  On the outside, it looked religious, holy, and godly, but in reality it wasn't a heart that had received grace- it was a heart trying to earn grace...thus very ugly .  Hence, I believed that right living = deserved outward blessing.  I, too, like the older brother was trying to use the father and earn righteousness.  There are three ways to live: to please myself, to please God, or to live free because God is already pleased with me because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to me.   I am a work in progress and ever so slowly learning to live free because He is already pleased with me. 

With all that said and our security blanket taken, we have to rely on the father to provide for what he thinks we need.   We pray for little things.  We pray for big things.  We pray when we enter a store.  We have story after story of provision. 

We are a family of 6 living on my husband's teacher's salary.  As we learn to live on little, we are slowly majoring in finding deals and want to pass on what we are learning.   

Groceries for a family of 6- 5 months out of the year our grocery budget is right around $350 a month when we have deer meat.  When we run out of deer meat, our budget consistently stays at $500 a month.  I detail how we do this here. 

Treating illness at home- We use herbs, whole foods, homeopathy, essential oils, and many things I make at home.  I spend about $200 a year on supplies.  Many of the supplies have a long shelf life.  One year, I may pay a lot for supplies and the next year not so much.  I detail how we do this here.  By God's grace I have been able to treat all things at home (with the exception of a prescription a nurse called in for a pink eye infection I could not seem to kick on my own).  Thus, I have avoided paying for sick visits and prescriptions for five years. 

Healthcare- We found a gospel-centered, body-of- Christ focused approach to healthcare that we love- Samaritan Ministries.  I detail how we stumbled upon this here.  We pay $405 a month. 

Cars-  We drive old cars.  Chad drives the car he got in college.  Since we have four kiddos, I upgraded from my college Honda to a minivan three years ago.  My husband is very handy and changes our oil and does car maintenance that doesn't require heavy training.  For the big stuff, the Lord has provided friends and/or friends of friends that work on our car on the side saving us 60-70% what we would pay in a shop.  A lot of leg work is involved for my husband such as finding parts, etc. but with what we save, he would say it is well worth it. 

House- We live in a small house, 1300 square feet to be exact, that we bought at 50% of it's value.  The house was a foreclosure.   Our electric bill is small.  Our mortgage is small.  Our house has a well so our water bill is nothing. 

Garbage- We take our own trash to the dump twice a week which saves us $20-30 a month. 

Clothes- Hand-me-downs, Good Will, & Consignment stores are the way we role.   I pray before each season asking the Lord for hand-me-downs.  When I enter a store, I pray for deals. 

Cell phones- $10 per phone for unlimited talk and text with Republic Wireless.  We pay a total of $20 a month.

Date nights- We get creative.  We don't pay for sitters because it doesn't fit in our budget.  Thankfully, we do have family in town.  We also have dear friends that step in so we can get an occasional night out together. 

Schooling- Right now we are homeschooling.  After years and years of spending too much money and freaking out over curriculum, I stumbled upon this.  I use a free Christian site that is awesome and cannot recommend enough.  Thus, I do not pay for curriculum.  http://allinonehomeschool.com/

While the particulars of finding deals and saving money may look different for each person, the bottom line is God is a gracious father who takes care of his children. 

From Farm or Ocean to Your Table

Another great money saving surprise we found fall of 2012 is Zaycon.  In the midst of us 'leaving no stones unturned' in trying to save money in our grocery budget, we were shocked to stumble upon a fresh, direct from the farm alternative to purchasing meat at much lower prices thanks to a good friend!

Zaycon has a variety of meat that they offer at wholesale prices. The chicken breasts are currently $1.89 lb. The bacon is currently $3.79 lb. The meaty back ribs are $3.99lb. In fact, it is never frozen, which is unlike a lot of the meat from supermarkets.

        
Zaycon's website has a plethora of information about the way they do things, so I will let them speak for themselves. Here is a blurb taken directly from their website. See below:

"For FAMILIES, we represent the GREATEST VALUE in the food industry. Here is why: ..."

1\) COMBINED BUYING POWER	2) DIRECT FARM-TO- CONSUMER	3) SOLD BY THE CASE	4) SELECT PRODUCTS	5) SALES EVENT MODEL
We combine the buying power of many families together, enabling us to negotiate huge savings on food purchases for your family	We bring products direct from the farm / processor (or as nearly as direct as possible). The products are as fresh as if you had your own farm, but without all the chores	We sell food products only by the case. No extra costs for handling. And no more empty shelves in your pantry	We sell only what we eat ourselves—high quality, healthy food. Our focus is on a select number of commonly consumed food items such as fresh meats like chicken, beef, turkey, pork and fish	Our unique sales event approach turns traditional food purchasing on its ear. Convenient, quick, organized—about 2 minutes and you never even need to get out of your car

So how does it work? First, you have to register online:  Click Here (my referral link) if you want to register.  Once you register, you wait for a sale in your area and order online. Zaycon trucks deliver all over the United States, so check and see if they deliver in your area. On pick up day, you drive to the location set, pop your trunk, and a team places your order directly in your car.

What else is beneficial to know? Well, you have to do some work. For example, if you buy chicken, it comes in big bags within a large box weighing 40 lbs. Unless you plan on eating 40 lbs of chicken right away, you will need room in your freezer to freeze the chicken.  On a side note, we highly recommend getting a deep freezer.  Craigslist is a great place to get a used one for a steal! You will also probably want to trim the chicken. Two of the ways that Zaycon saves their customers money is that they buy in bulk and the breasts are not nicely trimmed as they would be in a grocery store.

What do we do? Currently, we buy our fish from Zacon.  Zacon is currently offering a GREAT sale for WILD Alaskan sockeye salmon at $6.99lb for a 25lb case. Many times when one buys salmon it is farm raised. Google the benefits of wild caught vs. farm raised and you will be amazed. This is a great deal!  •Contains no dyes
•Boneless, skin on one side
•Sold by the case — 25 lbs in each case (11.34 kg)
•Case dimensions—19 in wide x 13 in deep x 8 in tall
•Wild caught in the icy cold waters between Canada and Alaska
•Each fillet is approximately 2lbs and individually vacuum sealed and quick frozen, ready for the freezer

Don't Think You Can Afford to Eat Healthy Whole Foods, Think Again!

What's included?

7 tips to successfully feeing our family on a budget of $300-350 a month

A few of our favorite meals

Some keys to avoiding preservatives from The Pantry Principle by Mira Dessy

“Necessity truly is the mother of invention.”   Recently, in the last few years, we have really pared down all categories of our spending.    We keep track of everything we spend making sure we do not go over a certain category. 

As for our food budget, I am the one responsible for feeding our family, so I have had had to get really creative and learn ways to make healthy, yummy meals with a small budget.   I feed a family of 5 plus my grandmother most nights on a grocery budget of $300-350 a month.  There are some months that I may spend an extra $25-$50; however, I have learned to “work the system” and still stay in budget.  When I know I need to go over my budget, I use our credit card reward points to buy a gift card to Wal-Mart or Whole Foods to cover that cost so our budget is not affected.  Our grocery budget just includes food.  It does not include personal care, household supplies, etc.  I tell you these numbers only to say that you can eat WELL on a really small budget!  I pray each time I shop that the Lord would help me find deals.  I shop mainly with the kids, and it is neat to hear them pray as well asking for God to help us find deals.   As our oldest is learning to read and understand numbers and money more, he will say, "Mama, I think I spotted a deal."  Sometimes he is right, and sometimes way off.  Nonetheless, it makes me smile and cracks me up at the same time! I mainly shop at Aldi, watch sales so that I can cater my menu to the sales, buy in bulk, shop at Deal Mart and Trador Joes.  I also shop at Costco for some things as well as Whole Foods, and I am starting to order some things from Azure Standard. 

We decided to make a choice to thrive and choose thankfulness on whatever means we have.   Do we do this perfectly?  Absolutely not, but our hearts' desire truly is to be thankful always! As a result, we now have a better set of eyes to observe what the Lord is doing.  In a nutshell, what I have learned is that whatever means we have, whether that is plentiful or not so much, it truly is the Lord providing.  The Lord is not providing any more now than he did a few years ago, it just looks different, and we have different lenses to look through.  We truly have always had all we needed, both then and now.  A wise man named Ray once said to my husband, “all I need is Jesus and what He has chosen to give me right now.” We have so many stories of ways the Lord has provided that I could fill a book! One story, I will share briefly.  When we made the change to avoid preservatives and eat whole foods 70-80% of the time, I cried my way through the first month.  I had no idea how to eat “well” and stay within budget.  God provided a friend who was a step ahead of me, who was a huge coach and her name is Mary.  She has been a coach in many areas whether it be herbs or how to eat well on little.  She feeds her family of five soon to be 6 on $80 a week, which comes to about $320 a month.  She has been an inspiration to our family!

7 Tips to Successfully Feeding our Family on a Budget of $300-350 a Month

1) Plan meals in two week increments.  This makes it is easy to stay in budget.  Yep, that means all meals- breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

2) Make meals from scratch.  This not only cuts out a lot of preservatives, but also cuts down cost and adds nutrition.   I have the kids help me.  It makes a huge mess, but we have fun. 

3) Choose one thing at a time, master that, and then move on.  It really does get easier as you go.  It starts out overwhelming, but truly, it has become like the back of my hand for the most part.

4) Eat some meatless meals.  We do this often.  This helps cut cost.  I put beans in a lot of things, and it is actually quite tasty and satisfying when you season it.  I use to HATE beans until I learned how to season them.  Ask my family! My kids have seconds on many things. 

5) Resource others.  There is a great group on Facebook that my friend Mary started that I encourage you to join called Dinner, Outside the Box.  The group posts great ideas of yummy meals made with little to no preservatives.  I utilize this site all the time. 

6) Shop little!  The more I go to the store, the more I spend.  I shop twice a month.  I buy food for two weeks at a time.  We eat the fresh veggies first and then toward the end we are eating frozen. 

7) Know your prices.  When there is a good price, buy more for later.  When the price is high on an item, don’t buy it.  We have a deep freezer as well as a special pantry for when I stock up on good deals. 

A Few of our Favorite Meals 

Ingredients: I use organic when I can afford it.  I also try to use local produce.  I look at labels and make sure I understand each word….I want the simplest ingredients. 

1) Jamie Oliver's Chicken Drumsticks with oven roasted broccoli (3 dinners)
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/food-allergy-mums-chicken-drumsticks/#BjD70j34whVtMkva.97

2) Chicken and marinade

The Inside Tract- Your Good Gut Guide to Great Digestive Health by Gerard Mullen

slice chicken length wise- so that is skinny

marinate in freezer bag and place in freezer

Ingredients: 1/4 cup lime juice or lemon juice (whatever you have), 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp. fresh cilantro or two tbsp. dried cilantro, 1/4 tsp cumin, sea salt and pepper to taste (make sure well mixed before placing chicken in mixture)

When you are ready to eat it, thaw, and grill!

3) Vegetable soup with ground beef

http://casualcuisine.blogspot.com

brown 1 lb ground beef with 2 cloves garlic and set aside

in large pot (can use crock pot) combine: 28 oz chopped tomatoes, 28 oz homemade chicken stock or turkey stock, chicken or beef boullion (whatever 28 oz calls for-  make my own, but have found I don’t normally use it….tastes great without it....see below) and vegetables of your choice.  I use potatoes, carrots, zucchini, corn.  The amount of veggies I use depends on how thick I want the soup to be.  I sprinkle herb such as garlic powder, onion powder and celery powder, parsley, and basil (whatever I have).  I also add two more minced cloves of garlic and salt and pepper.  I then add noodles.  Cook on low until vegetables and pasta are soft or cook in a crock pot on low for a few hours.  Clearly, the soup always comes out different be/ I don't measure things, but really hard to mess up!

3) chicken bullion mix

http://angelaskitchen.com/2007/01/18/boullion-without-the-well-bull/
4) Tomato Basil Soup

http://casualcuisine.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-yummy-twist-on-tomato-soup-and.html

The author of this food blog is a dear friend of mine and I utilize her blog often!
*I do everything here except instead of using water and bullion cubes, I use homemade turkey stock or chicken stock and use the bullion recipe above. 

 Some Tips to Avoiding Preservatives and/or Eating Healthy from The Pantry Principle by Mira Dessy

All of the principles below are from a book that I read when I first started making changes.  I highly recommend The Pantry Principle by Mira Dessy. 

Stick to the perimeter of the store!   If it is in a box, can, or jar or has a label it is almost always processed. 

7 tips to avoid preservatives

            a) If you don’t know what it is, don’t eat it (ex. Butyl formate)

b) If it has a number, don’t eat it

c) If it has four or more syllables, don’t eat it

d) If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it

e) If an ingredient ends in a-t-e, don’t eat it.

f) If it says enriched, don’t eat it.

g) If an ingredient has all capital letters don’t eat it (ex. BHT)

The further up an ingredient is on the nutrition label, the more of that specific component is present in the package. 

Avoid too much added sugar (added sugar is sugar not found in nature…natural sugar would be in fruit)

a)      The average American eats 21 ts of added sugar a day.  The recommended amount is 6 ts for women and 9 ts for men!

b)      Some better sugars: maple syrup, raw honey, coconut sugar

c)      Sugar suppresses the immune system.

Budget Friendly Health Coverage

Two years ago my husband made a career change.  It was going to be outrageously expensive for us to get health insurance through his current work, so we opted to buy private insurance with a high deductible.  We searched and searched for two months to find something reasonable and settled on a plan with a 10,000 deductible for around $400 a month for just myself and two kids.  My husband was covered through his work.  Prior to this experience, we'd been blessed with incredible health coverage and paid very little out of pocket.   We quickly realized how foolish this high deductible plan was.  For one, if we had a true emergency, we'd be paying a heck of a lot of money out of our pockets and two it did not cover maternity.  We began to pray asking the Lord to lead us to the right insurance plan.  Ecclesiastes 3 reminded me that there is a time to search and a time to cease from searching.  It was time to stop and simply pray.  In the next month, the Lord brought about a conversation with some friends about maternity coverage, the high cost of insurance, etc.  This friend told me about Samaritan Ministries, a biblical non-insurance approach to health care needs.  The cost for our whole family would only be $355 no matter how many children we had.  Could this be true?  They covered maternity too!  We were ecstatic and skeptical because it seemed too good to be true.  My husband and I sat down to make our list of questions.  After compiling the list of questions, we set out to have our friends as well as Samaritan Ministries answer them.  We found that if we had a need fitting the guidelines, we would pay $300 and the rest would be paid by fellow believers.  We signed up November of 2011.  January 2012 we found out we were expecting and therefore had our first "need."  Samaritans covered our entire pregnancy and childbirth experience 100%.  We received letters and checks from other Samaritan members to cover all our bills.  I cannot tell you what a different experience this was having used traditional healthcare in the past.  I kept every letter we received as many of the prayers and notes were so rich and packed with scripture praying for our daughter.  Below is a link if you are interested in checking it out.

 

Samaritan Ministries... Health Care Sharing