I Got An Email With $102 In It!

Seriously - I really did - and it's awesome.

You see, we get our car insurance policy renewal information by email and I got our bill for our next 6 month premium that is $102 less than we paid last August! I have no idea why it went down and they clearly state that our next premium will be what we previously paid - but I am happy for the relief to our budget - even if only temporary.

Actually, I believe that shopping around for insurance is one of the best ways to reduce your monthly budget. "Because, as every housewife knows, the first check you write is for the mortgage, but the second is for the insurance." (If you can name that movie we are GREAT friends :))

Anyway, I personally shop around and compare our insurance rates about once a year - or when I'm feeling strapped for cash. I can't do much about our mortgage payment (though I can tell you the going interest rate because I always keep track in case it would be a benefit to me) but I can save on insurance.

I know that some people love their insurance company - and truthfully - if all costs were equal we would go back to State Farm in a heartbeat because we love our agent (he still provides some of our life insurance and our ring policy) and they have great response times in emergencies (we flooded our basement twice and had a fender bender so we can speak from experience). But rates aren't equal and we have saved several hundred dollars a year by switching.

I have no loyalty to an insurance company - I have a loyalty to the hard earned money we have and how it affects my families bottom line. This was actually a really difficult lesson to learn - because I felt a sense of loyalty to an agent or a sense of responsible to help him keep making money. I felt that it was connected to friendship and insurance has always been a loaded relationship for me. But - I finally decided - to get loyal to my family and our finances.

So I shop around - often - I do the work to switch when the savings are great enough. And I love getting an email meaning I have $102 more to spend in February - maybe we will eat out after all!