Budget Brilliance

We have private health insurance and have had it for the past few years. It costs us approximately $3500 after the government rebate. We barely ever make use of it aside from when my wife has another amazing child. Even when we do have another child, we still need to outlay nearly $3000 for the obstetrician so it is not exactly cheap.

Australia has an incredibly public health system. There is obviously huge improvements that could be made, but by global standards, we rank pretty high.

Now you know by now that I love to save, so why on earth would I choose to pay for private health insurance? The answer- If my wife is having a baby, she gets to choose where she has it and who her obstetrician is.

To be honest I’m not entirely sure we will keep the health insurance once our family size has met its quota. It is a sizeable cost each month. We did use the hospital cover once when my wife had severe pneumonia. She had spent an agonising week going back and forth between doctors who prescribed her various medicines and told her to come back again in a few days. This went on until she could endure no more and we paid the $300 to be seen by the hospital. In this situation, private health was invaluable.

A few pros for private health insurance:

You can sometimes select your doctors.
You usually receive a private room.
It could be argued that you receive a higher standard of care with doctors and nurses checking on your welfare more regularly.
You get the care you need when you need it.
A few cons for private health insurance:

It is expensive.
You still need to pay for extras.
The difference between public and private might not be worthwhile.
Either way, the choice is yours. I have witnessed a few friends needing surgery who had to wait a long, long time as they kept receiving phone calls notifying them that they had been bumped down the list.

One alternative to most forms of insurance is to pool the money you would have paid into an interest earning account. When you need the money, you just redraw it from the pool. For example 3 years of my health insurance would equate to $10,500 of available funds.

See which method works best for you and the ones you love, which method helps you sleep the most soundly and which bears the least mental cost.

Here’s a real simple solution to save you money- Try cutting your own hair!

Some of you instantly hear alarm bells at this post and will see visions of yourself with shaved bald patches at the side, a mullet at the back and a sea of people pointing and whispering about the hack job you did to yourself.

I have been cutting my own hair for years. At first it wasn’t to save money, but more for convenience. I have a slight OCD tendency which prompts me to freak out at random points because my hair is too long at the sides. I don’t know when this freak out will occur exactly, but once it takes hold I am doomed to be irritated by this 7 millimetre protrusion above my ears until it is trimmed. My wife has learned to live with this deformity in my character and is accustomed to hearing the clippers going at erratic times throughout the day.

I used to love going to an upmarket hairdresser that knew me by name, never kept me waiting, had my favourite magazines on hand and served me lattés as I reclined in the massaging chair. That was about 10 years ago now. Back then it cost me $35 and would only look good for a fortnight. If I had continued at this pace of haircuts it would now have amounted to $9100 over 10 years! That’s a huge amount you could save!

When I moved to the country the drive began to seem ridiculous and I began cutting my own hair with a $40 pair of clippers. I don’t do anything too fancy but my technique involves interchanging between 4 comb lengths.

I would say that there is nothing complex about cutting your own hair. Try watching an hour of YouTube videos and be conservative in the lengths you cut at first. It may even be worthwhile to train up a family member or friend so you can help each other out. Hayley checks the back of my head for me but it can be easy enough for you to do yourself.

You then just vacuum it up, jump straight in the shower and you are done in a third the time it would take you to get to the hairdresser and back.

For those who don’t like your God-given hair colour, you can successfully dye your own hair too with a little practise. Hayley did try to train me but has now succeeded in doing it solo after a few of my bad attempts.

At the end of the day it is just hair. Some of you love the experience and the $9100 (approx.) is a therapy that keeps you sane. Others may have gasped at the sheer amount that could be saved and will be immediately running for the Remington’s.