A testimony from Jessica
Our “We Paid Cash” victory this past year came in the form of a baby!
I know, it’s a little odd for a “We Paid Cash” story, but as many other moms know, having a baby can be expensive! With no health insurance, and as a stay-at-home mom, we knew from the beginning that our 4th baby would be a stretch for us financially.
We were able to utilize a health discount program available in our state, with the only contingency being that all fees (doctor, hospital, lab work, etc.) were paid in advance. This meant that we needed to come up with roughly $5000 for my 4th c-section, in just 9 months, on an already very tight budget!
Here’s how we did it:
We continued to stick to our budget.
We worked hard at keeping our eating-out down, our spending minimal, and our grocery bill at $350/month for our family of 5.
I did a lot of freezer cooking and stock piled great deals from my local grocery stores.
I sold stuff.
I sold old books and children’s clothing on Craigslist and eBay. While it didn’t amount to a ton, it was something!
My husband took on extra jobs.
My husband was able to perform about 2 weddings each month. This money went straight to the hospital, and also gave us some built-in date nights as we celebrated with the lovely couples getting married!
Swagbucks.
I used Swagbucks to earn Amazon gift cards to pay for diapers, which freed up my diaper budget to go towards the new baby.
We sold our second car.
With my husband working 5 minutes from home, and with me homeschooling our children, we figured we didn’t presently need to be a two-car family.
This sale gave us cash in hand, as well as cut our monthly car insurance bill by $25.
My husband sold a guitar.
Sigh. This one was a little harder… BUT, the day after he decided he would sell his guitar to help pay for the baby, he was gifted another one that he really loves!
By the time our fourth child was born, we had paid off the doctor, the surgical assistant, the anesthesiologist, the hospital, all lab fees, two unexpected hospital visits, and the pediatrician!
The financial freedom after our little Levi was born was SO nice, and now we get to enjoy and love on the very best thing we could’ve ever “paid cash” for… our son!
Jessica is a wife and homeschooling mom of four children under 7. She blogs regularly about parenting, homeschooling, crafts, DIY, and yummy recipes at Mothering With Creativity.
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Wow. I cannot believe how expensive it is to have a child in America. I live in Ireland and I know at the moment we are going through some hard but having my baby was free. I didnt have to pay for any hospital appointments, his delivery anything. Even though our economy is in a bad way, I feel blessed that I am living here and I am able to go to hospital if I need and not worry about how much it will cost me.
We do not have insurance but belong to a Christian medical sharing plan called Samaritan Ministries. My $20,000 emergency appendectomy cost us $300. If I had another child it would cost us $300 too. I have high risk pregnancies. We really like the our monthly payment goes to a fellow Christian and that we are prayed for all month.
Thanks for the perspective! We have apparently great health insurance, where my entire OB co-pay is $50 for the entire pregnancy. That includes delivery. It does not include ultrasounds or extra testing, but those are only $15 co-pays. Reading through these multiple $thousands in birth costs really makes me appreciate what we have.
When I read things like this I am so thankful to be Canadian! My friend just had her second baby and you know what the hospital bill was? Nothing. The hospital bill for my MRI and 2 months of rehab? Zero dollars.
When I was pregnant with my twins, my husband was between jobs. We paid a fortune for “cobra” coverage…which is why we’re still financially solvent today.
The pregnancy was complicated with preterm labor, hospital bed rest for me, and a lengthy NICU stay for each of the twins. The bill for all three of us? Almost $900,000.
I’m all for saving up and paying cash…even for babies…but please only do it if you have some kind of catastrophic insurance plan in place! We would have lost everything if we didn’t have health insurance.
I’ve been a full time stay at home mom for years and only recently become a part time insurance agent. Even though its been said above I can’t stress enough how important insurance is. For those families that are finding their employer provided health insurance to be too expensive to cover dependents you should look into private health insurance. With the new healthcare law rates are competitive and quotes are always free 🙂
Congratulations! On your son and paying cash for his delivery!
We have 4 kids 4 and under and decent insurance. Our network has a thing called uncompensated care. Based on ur income they take what the insurance pays and then u pay the rest. This birth we were blessed to be covered 100 percent because of our income. I’m sure there are programs for folks who don’t have insurance like this too. Blessings on ur bundle and congrats. We are working on being debt free and can’t wait to pay like you did!!!
What a wonderful thing – the best thing, I think – to pay cash for! We do have insurance, but recently switched to a High Deductible Plan. Thankfully, I found out my work was switching our plan shortly after we discovered we were pregnant. I began cashing all my checks from teaching piano lessons and putting them away in a “delivery money” envelope. The baby’s due next month and I have all the money set aside. What a blessing indeed!
Great job! Putting away money from all the “little” things certainly adds up over time! Congratulations!
Congratulations! As a mom of 4 boys – 4 years and under – I know how the expenses can add up!
I am a stay-at-home mom and fortunately my husband has awesome insurance through his job that we have never had to pay for any of my deliveries. We have a $100 deductible for the entire family (which is usually used up early in the year) and the rest of our medical is covered.
That was amazing since my last pregnancy turned out to be twins – who both decided to flip breach half way through – so we had a lot of ultrasounds, non-stress tests, and ended up with a c-section.
We are now working on finishing our basement to add an extra bedroom, which will all be done in cash!
You had some great ideas which I can use in addition to what we currently do to help build our funds even faster. Thanks for the great post!
Wow! I am impressed! Four boys under 4 us incredible. Go you! And what great insurance you have. What a blessing!
Congrats! I did want to point out that under the ACA now ALL insurance plans have to cover maternity (not just Obamacare plans). We have an individual policy that is crazy expansive and we paid extra for the maternity rider. I’m 30 weeks pregnant now and having a ton of genetic complications that I didn’t have with my first pregnancy. If it wasn’t for the insurance, we would be looking at bankruptcy. Right now I sit at $100,000 in prenatal care alone and am looking at another $100,000 in treatments before she ever gets here. Add on intensive care, etc….it will likely be. $500,000 in total. But, our super expensive insurance is worth it. We pay a $5,000 deductible and they have picked up 100% of every penny after that. Don’t want to scare anyone, but if someone is considering going without insurance, I hope my story will make them weigh the pros and cons…
Amen to this Amy! I’m pregnant with my third and after two uncomplicated pregnancies/deliveries this time I’ve been diagnosed with complete placenta previa and accretia. Any spotting or bleeding is a multi-day hospital stay, and I’ve hit the point–with 12 weeks to go–where any additional issues likely mean in hospital bed rest through delivery, and best case scenario for baby is c-section a month early. There’s a strong possibility delivery will be even earlier with accompanying NICU stay. We would be bankrupt if we had to deal with this situation without insurance.
Insurance IS really great if you have something catastrophic! I’m so glad you have that for your little one on the way! I pray that she gets here safely 🙂
We would LOVE to have insurance, but there’s simply nothing we can afford right now. It’s unfortunate. I’m so, so, thankful for our discount plan though!
Congrats! With both my children we enrolled for health insurance through my employer (just for me) and my husband’s employer (for the entire family). Once the child was born, I cancelled my insurance (the more expensive insurance) during the 30 day period after the baby was born. Sure I had to pay monthly premium for several months (baby was born in the spring) but it was MUCH cheaper (and before tax) than paying $5000 plus out-of-pocket. We paid zero out-of-pocket cost. I had my c-sections at a Boston hospital so the costs were very high to start off with.
Zero out of pocket costs sounds amazing! Even when we had (expensive) insurance, we actually paid MORE than without it (we paid $5500 with each of our first 3 babies with insurance)! So crazy!
The part about your husbands gutair made me smile! God is so good and provides in amazing ways for the ‘wants’ in addition to the needs.
I thought the same thing! I’m sure his music is a blessing to your family. 🙂
It was a HUGE blessing for sure! And I totally agree- I’m always amazed at how God does provide for some of our “wants” in the middle of our “needs”, too.
heartwarming, uplifting & inspiring…thank you for sharing!
Congrats!
Many hospitals offer an additional discount if you pay in cash or immediately upon receiving the bill in full.
My mom saved a bundle on cancer tests last year by paying them in person as soon as the bills came. She didn’t know she got a discount for it but was she excited when she found out. (She has insurance but a high deductible and ratio.)
It never hurts to ask.
We have done this in the past when we’ve had insurance, Tina. You’re right, it never hurts to ask, and most do discount! Since this was already discounted 70%, we couldn’t get an additional discount on it. But even so, we still saved a TON of money!
wow thats a good deal! With insurance I paid over $4,000 for my first child and my other little boy due in April is going to be $6,000 (i have high deductible the low deductible would cost me $8,000 after baby is born), I sorta pay cash as well, I put tax free money every paycheck into my HSA account and i take my taxes every year and fill it back up so medical bills wont create a financial burden through out the year. I have over $5,000 in there now but come April thats going to be gone so we are taking this years taxes and filling it up again. Also make sure you look at the back of your hospital bill for a number! I never knew it but the hospital I go to has a amazing financial aid system for middle class families, you have to not be benefiting from goverment assistence and you cant be high class they usually take 40% off your bill just by calling! It’s so nice thats the only hospital we go to now and a huge plus is its one of the top maternity hospitals in the US always get the best care there 🙂
We paid $5500 per child when we had insurance, too! In those instances, though, we were able to get a discount for paying in full because it was through insurance and not a discount. The way the program we are a part of works is that they make deals with the hospitals and doctors for these huge discounts (about 70%) and we just have to pay it up front and not carry a bill of any sort. It’s already discounted, so we can’t get any other discounts on top of that. I hope that makes sense!
But yes, it never hurts to ask! And one of our bills this time around actually was not contracted with our discount company, and so they did give us a 50% discount for paying in full right away!
Congrats!!! that was amazing how you were able to save money but I have to ask one question how come you don’t have health insurance; I mean if your employer doesn’t provide can’t you get Medicaid?
Thank you, Ang! We don’t financially qualify for medicaid insurance. So, we joined a program in our state called Access to Healthcare. They work with the hospitals and doctors to secure rates at about 70% in most cases AS LONG AS you pay it all upfront. That’s what we did with this pregnancy.
We do have health insurance, but it doesn’t cover maternity. We paid cash for our last baby and will be for this one as well.
Fortunatly, I have so far had low risk pregnancies that allow me to birth at my local birthing center instead of the hospital. A midwife attends the birth instead of a doctor. It is not an option for everyone, but it saved us 50% compared to a similar hospital delivery. And we got to go home 2 hours after the birth!
Congrats on figuring out a way to pay for a C-section! And especially on your new baby boy!
A lot of people are self-employed and don’t qualify for group plans through employers. Individual plans are very expensive, and do not include maternity care in a standard package. You can get maternity, but it is a “rider” and much more expensive. Additionally, you often have to carry maternity insurance for a period of months to a year before the company will pay for services. So you end up paying quite a lot for maternity insurance, and sometimes it’s just not worth it. I’ve had my children without maternity coverage, because it was not cost effective to pay the insurance. We used a midwife which is 1/3 the cost of a hospital delivery in my state.