Someday A Goat

2009 Christmas budget: making it jolly

Working on my wreath last year. I spent about $11.08 on all these materials and made a simple wreath.

Decorations, cards, postage, gifts for each other: $80

This includes anything for the house, holiday cards and postage, and what's left over gets divvyed up between the two of us for presents. I've already spent $56.61, so I'll probably hold off on any other decorations until the sales after the holidays. That leaves us only $23.29 for presents for each other. Looks like we'll end up over budget, but not by much.

Holiday cards

I was planning on using any holiday card I have around, but I found a good compromise using a VistaPrint deal for free postcards. I paid shipping and adding color to the back side of the card. The service was pretty easy to use, although the quality isn't the greatest. They were super cheap, though, and I'd hate to kill more trees by sending them back to be reprinted. I'll send longer letters to a couple of family members. I probably wouldn't have done cards last year, but I got a holiday bonus, so I had a little extra money. It was mid-December, so we sent cards with a happy new year message, which we're doing again this year, which has the added benefit of giving me more time to address the cards.

• $26.60 stamps (book of 20 regular rate, 3 books of 20 postcard rate, $1 shipping)
• $14.10 holiday postcards (100)

Decorations

I've bought a few ornaments, but I really don't need much. Last year I spent $11.08 to make a nice wreath for the front door. We'll reuse that, and probably get real garland for the top of the entertainment center again. The cats destroyed the inexpensive tree skirt I bought last year, so I'm not sure what to do about that, I'll probably make something. I also like to fill various vases and hurricane lamps with inexpensive ornaments and LED tea light. We keep it pretty simple.

• $5.12 ornaments and small present at Pottery Barn -- used a $50 gift card, and all items were free shipping. I linked through Upromise, so I'll earn a bit of extra money. We like to have a wide variety of ornaments that don't all match, so I get a few nice ones each year.

Random

I recently used a couple of credits to order prints from Kodak Gallery to send to friends and various holiday projects. I got about $45 worth of pictures for just over @$10.

• $4.86 Kodak Gallery shipping to use $20 bonus credit for photos for family members
• $6.03 Kodak Gallery shipping, used $15 credit to order prints and a photo ornament. I used Ebates, but stupid me, clicked though on the rebate, not the reduced shipping plus rebate. Could have spent even less!

We don't have a lot of holiday expenses for hostess gifts or children's parties. Usually, if we're invited to a party where I feel obligated to bring a hostess gift, we pick up an inexpensive bottle of wine and this comes out of the regular food/beverage budget. We do the same with any meals we make for guests around the holidays. When we hosted a big holiday dinner for our parents last year, my mom bought the prime rib, so everything else was very doable in terms of budget. A potluck holiday dinner could save even more.

TIPS

• Pare down the holiday card -- don't do photo cards, or if you do, look for good deals on prints. Unless you get fancy with the cards, postage will most likely be your biggest expense, so start early when looking at your mailing list so you are prepared. Order stamps from USPS -- pay only $1 over the face value of stamps to save a trip to the post office and make sure that you get the fun holiday stamps you want (many post offices will run out). Spending a dollar to save a last-minute trip to the post office during the holidays is a deal indeed.

• Start with a special and basic ornament collection, add a few each year. You can always say you're going for simple elegance.

• Don't buy a big tree, or get a real one. It's easier to decorate (and store) a smaller tree, and artificial trees have improved drastically in the past few years and can be reused.

• Start stockpiling pantry items like cream soups, sugar, flour -- any non-perishable food and baking supplies that you tend to use every year. If you're keeping a grocery book (link), make a list of items you know you'll need and the prices you want to pay, and keep that in your wallet so you can instantly spot check a good deal.

2009 Christmas Budget Series

Introduction

Presents

2009 Christmas budget: presents

Presents: $165

• 5 siblings (3 on each side, including in-laws): $15 each

Having a smaller budget forces creativity. Our families are generous at the holidays, so I try to put a lot of thought into our small-budget presents. This year, I'm thinking social calling cards for a recently moved sibling, a cute photo album and photo-printing credit to the sibling that just got back from abroad, possibly a small craft project including ticket stubs from the very early 90s for a music-loving sibling. The two that are living somewhere in the Indian Ocean, they're the hard ones.
$90 total

• Parents (only 3 living): $10 each

They might say they don't need anything, but it's easy to be thoughtful with parental presents. Usually, if you involve photos already printed, you're golden.
$30 total

• My gift exchange at work: $25

I work for a small, close-knit company, and we draw names for holiday presents. There's no rule on amount, and some spend more than others, but $20 to $25 is the general guideline. Last year, I spent $20 and felt cheap. Granted, money was tight, and I sewed an adorable little pouch to enclose the gift card, but I can do $25 this year.Even if it is the single largest line-item present in our budget.

• Prized nephew: $20

I made him an awesome toy last year, spent $16.37, and I'm not sure what to do this year, especially since it's our second in a row  at home, which is not where he lives. Regardless, he gets the most money allocated of any family.

Inexpensive present ideas

• Homemade ornaments, look to CraftyPod for ideas.
• A letter saying why you love that particular person and favorite memories of them.
• Scan in old photos and send prints to everyone in pictures.
• Wine stopper
• A Do-It-Yourself Christmas, from Get Rich Slowly in 2008

Ghost of Christmas Past

Last year, I budgeted $210 and spent $278.61.

• $80 for 4 adults and 1 child on my side, spent $99.68
• $110 for 7 adults, spent $114.49
• Didn't budget for each other, spent $36.87
• Didn't budget for wrapping presents, spent $7.57
• $20 secret santa at my work

Totals do not include significant gift card usage from cards I had saved throughout the year, but I have included shipping costs.

Update 11/19/09: Lifehacker has an awesome spreadsheet gift planner. Check it out!

2009 Holiday Budget main post

2009 Holiday Budget: making it jolly

2009 Christmas budget

 

Our holiday budget is $245, everything included: presents, holiday cards and postage, and decorations. That's all I could wrangle out of our budget. Isn't bad, considering the first contribution toward $245 came out of a 10/30/09 paycheck. Eventually these weddings have to slow down, and we'll be able to start saving for the holidays earlier in the year. If I get a holiday bonus, a little may go to bolster the budget, but most will go to debt, with 20% to the emergency fund. Resisting the urge to buy a new camera. Resisting, resisting, resisting.....

Quick & Dirty

• Presents: $165
• Everything Else: $80

Last year was the first we came close to realistic about how much money we could spend on the holidays. I worked my rear off to get somewhat nice presents on a very small budget, and decorate my house to host a holiday family celebration for the first time. At least I remember working my rear off. I realized when I recently started looking for my notes about last year that I had notes scattered and a bit incoherent. I had to pull a Quicken report to figure out exactly how much I spent.

Our planned holiday budget was actually a little higher last year: $255. I said above that we came close to realistic, which is laughable, since we ended up spending $382.32, which is $127.32 over budget. However, compared to what we spent in previous years, it's progress. We spent $62.25 on decorations, $41.46 on holiday cards, and $278.61 on presents. I'll break this down in future posts to look at each category, and see where the weaknesses were.

Tips for setting a holiday budget

• Once Halloween starts showing up in stores, start thinking about a budget and presents. Ideally, this would happen throughout the year, but who's perfect? Get started around Halloween and you should be fine.

• Sit down early with a schedule of paychecks and bills through the end of the year and find where you can make some room for holiday expenditures. It's not a bad idea to extend the schedule through the first or second paycheck of January. We're lucky that my husband gets paid biweekly, and I budget for just two paychecks for him per month. October is usually a 3-paycheck month, so the money gets divvyed up between the holidays and debt paydown.

• When you're making progress on paying down debt, it's hard to not feel guilty about spending money on the holidays, but we're human and winter celebrations are important. You don't have to spend a lot of money, you could still have a joyful holiday on $40 or $50. It may take a lot of creativity and time, but it's worth it. Even just writing a letter to your loved ones, telling them what you've appreciated about them in the past year, is a simple and inexpensive way to show you care.

• Use store coupon's from retailers like Michael's to slowly purchase decorations over a couple of weeks and keep it simple.

• Use programs like Ebates or Upromise to get cash back for your expenditures from online retailers. Research shipping codes to or plan purchases to get free shipping.

• Plan, plan, plan. If you know what you're up against, it's not nearly as stressful.

Simple Mom has a great series about breaking up holiday tasks to manageable chunks. She started in early October with the "12 Weeks to a Peaceful Christmas" series, and each post is full of great ideas. She starts with setting a budget, so make sure to check it out.

2009 Christmas Budget Series

Presents

Making it Jolly

Finally received our state tax refund

We just received our state tax refund in mid-July. Since we had paid one quarter's estimated taxes last year, which turned out to be unnecessary, it was quite substantial -- $1,120. I had many plans for that money. I'd been making lists ever since we received the return from the accountant. Big chunks to the credit cards, big chunks to savings, lots of little necessary chunks for various household projects.

Once the check was deposited, I felt like we had a little breathing room. For about 2 days. Then I started to panic that we would just spend it all, as we always do when we get a windfall amount like this. So I hit my list of plans for the money and got busy prioritizing and transferring to savings.

Where it went and will it stay there?

Budgeting is always about priorities, and planning ahead means that priorities are much more likely to be met. We mainly focused on sending some money to the credit cards, and taking care of a lot of little things.

Debt: Just over $300 went to the cards. The stupid tax lives on.

Garden: We desperately needed some weed-killer for the lawn, which was pretty and green when we bought the house and has been devolving ever since. We also set aside funds in the garden ING account for future expenditures: lawnmower service, mulch, whatever comes up this fall.

House: The garbage disposal has been leaking badly. We priced them a few months ago, and decided that the bowl catching the leak was a better solution than a cheap replacement. We've set aside $150 to offset the cost and now need to start researching models and how to replace the unit. We also set aside $125 toward an eventual guest half-bath remodel. Initially, we were going to do the whole project with the refund, but decided that there were more pressing matters. I'm still on the fence as to whether this was a good choice, I may transfer it to another priority as nothing in the bathroom is actually broken. It's just depressingly ugly.

Misc.: My passport expired in May and we have family out of the country, including a grandmother. Renewing the passport was a must for this refund. My car hasn't been washed since August 2007, so it's getting detailed. The E Fund contribution was reduced to $10 from $100, which was sad.

Fun: We rarely eat a dinner out that costs more than $30 or $35 on the high end for the two of us. As in we've been eating Chick-fil-A and the like way more often than spending on eating out like we used to, although most dinners have been cooked by my husband in the past year. So we went to one of our favorite restaurants and splurged on a $55 meal, which included a big tip. Another $50 went to a bachelor party, and $50 saved toward our trip to Napa for a wedding.

What didn't make the priority cut

What I thought was a ton of money didn't go very far, and I had to cut some low-priority expenditures. The good thing about planning is that I didn't end up spending the money on the below items only to end up not having the money for things like a stinky, leaky garbage disposal that's older than some of my coworkers.

• Health club dues -- if we were serious about working out, we'd go on a walk, use our on-demand fitness options on the TV or play tennis at nearby courts.
• New deck fund -- our deck needs to be replaced, probably next summer. I only wanted to put $10 toward starting a fund, but couldn't make it work.
• Tree service -- a couple smaller dead trees in our yard need to be removed. Since it's unlikely that anything would be harmed if they fell, this came off the list.
• Pest control -- we have a termite bond that requires an annual payment, but I wanted to start quarterly pest control inside service. We didn't have a lot of bugs inside this year, so it went on the back burner.
• Cats -- I had planned on taking the cats in for an annual checkup, but it's going to have to wait a little while until we can pay for it out of a paycheck.

Jeremy at Generation X Finance posted today about starting small when it comes to building savings, and that's exactly what we've been doing for the past year. A lot of our little allocations won't be spent right away, they're sitting in category-specific ING accounts until we need the money. It may be only $10 going to the E Fund when we're able, but it's something and each time I'm able to transfer that money, I feel a little bit encouraged that we can really do this.

Stopping the bad car habits

I’ve been bad about car maintenance. My car was due for an oil change last fall, and with the furnace debacle, a Thanksgiving trip back home to see my family and Christmas, I just didn’t get it done. It’s been on my to-do list week after week, and I just ignored it. I finally called last week, and came to find out my last oil change was long enough ago that I don’t want to admit how long it’s been, and that I was due for my 40,000 mile service.

 We dropped off the car last night, and I had been antsy all morning, wondering what problems might crop up. At 38,000 miles, this is the point where the car is no longer new and needs a close eye to keep expensive bills at bay. Since I didn’t work for about a year of the time that I’ve had the car, the mileage is pretty low for more than four years of ownership. I hope to stay in this car for at least four more years, but at the very least until the credit card debt is paid off and we have enough cash for a significant down payment. Both of us drove our previous cars until they basically were no longer driveable, so depending on how well I take care of the car, I may even get more than a decade out of it.

When I bought the car in March 2005, I went ahead and bought the car care service plan. I know these things can often result in paying a lot more for service than necessary, but my mom offered to pay for it, and it’s been a blessing ever since. As bad as I am about car maintenance, I can’t even imagine how bad I would be without the majority of my service appointments being prepaid over the past four years.

 With the service plan, the 40K maintenance will cost more than I had set aside, but still only around $200. What will cost a pretty penny, however, is the other services that need to be done. I talked to the service manager around 11 am this morning, and my back brake pads and rotors need to be replaced, my brake fluid flushed and new wiper blades.

 I could thank them for figuring out what needed to be done, pay for the maintenance, then take my car to a cheap brake place, buy wipers at autozone and skip the brake fluid flush. But honestly, I’ve had a great experience with this service department, they have fixed very expensive items at no charge AFTER my warranty expired, and I have a foreign make of car with a specialized engine and I feel more comfortable with the dealership service. Plus the logistics of locating another shop and transporting my car there, dealing with getting to and from work in the meantime and wondering if I’m getting good service, it is simply worth the money to me. Knowing my luck, my brakes would fail on the way there.

Maybe when I’m perfect and plan and research maintenance and schedule things ahead of time, I’ll be able to do things the “right” way. I have to find a way to be more responsible about something with so much effect on my bottom line (as an asset and in its importance in my ability to earn money).

But for now, I’ll just cringe at the large chunk of change that I’m putting into my car. I’d rather pay a little more now and have the peace of mind that I won’t have to deal with brake failure while traveling at 75 mph on the highway and approaching a traffic jam.

A turning point within sight

My husband and I are just getting to the break-even point, our net salaries are finally about to cover our monthly expenses, barring emergencies. I received a raise in February, and signs are pointing toward getting a bonus at the end of March. He finds out this week whether he will receive a raise and a bonus. It’s been a long couple of months since we bought the house and the cost of a roof over our heads went up 60% in terms of rent/mortgage payment alone.

When we bought the house, we knew that there would be a period of time where our expenses would pretty much outstrip our net take-home pay, but like most things in life, we didn’t realize that it would be this hard. Every day I try to be thankful that both of us are still employed and this isn’t anything compared to what others are experiencing, but some days I just want to stomp my foot and give up.

Making small changes one by one

On one hand, we’ve been making GREAT progress on escrowing our irregular expenses. We have four payments for our car insurance policies, the first is due March 3 and the last should be due around May 22. The first and last payments will be completely covered out of the insurance escrow account, and at least half of the second and third payments will be covered. This time last year I had to pull money out of the stock market in order to meet those payments, and I think that I might have even put one payment on a credit card. By this time next year, I hope to have a fully stocked insurance escrow account that will cover all payments in full.

I’ve been trying to remind myself that all these baby steps will get us ahead eventually. I can now pay the bills when they arrive in the mailbox instead of hastily sending a check right before it is due. We’re regularly saving money from each paycheck above and beyond our 401K contributions. We’ve started saving cash for a trip to New Orleans in late April (fingers crossed for bonuses – we might be able to go all-cash on this trip). We haven’t made great progress on the credit card debt, but we’re going in the right direction. We haven’t taken money out of the stock market to meet bills since June – not that it would do a whole lot of good these days. We’ve been able to rely upon our pantry and freezer to feed us when the budget is tight, which is extremely satisfying.

On the other hand, I really want to the debt and car loan to be gone, and have at least three month’s expenses in savings, but with these slim margins between net income and expense, it will be years before we can do that. We can’t cut expenses much more without selling our house, so we’ll focus on income. And not stomping our feet.

Escrow + new savings account = win

Back in early September, I talked about setting up personal escrow accounts to help me save for big expenses that come along every couple of months: car insurance, pest control, car service, ad valorem taxes on the cars, travel and a general emergency fund. Inspired by J.D.'s post at Get Rich Slowly, I added up all the expenses, divided into monthly amounts, and figured out where I could make room in each paycheck. The total amount right now isn't enough to completely cover each individual expense, but it's working a lot better than our previous method (ignoring things until they came due).

I didn't really get things set up until December, but am I ever on a roll now. It's like once the ING account was opened, saving and budgeting has become easier. Well, it's not really saving, more like delayed spending, but forward progress nonetheless. Subaccounts are my new, dear friend. Now that we have specific places to put money away for various things, both of us are finding it easier to try to come in under weekly budgeted amounts, so that we can put a little extra away beyond the standard escrow amounts. Only part to the extra is going to escrow, some goes to debt. All of it should go to debt in a perfect world, but in our world, we do the best we can.

Insurance
For most of September and October, all of this money went to actual car insurance payments, both of our policies are due within a month. This escrow category also went toward replenishing our savings account in November. We have less than 3 months until the first premium comes due, but we're making progress.

Pest Control
Haven't really made much progress on this front, despite the fact our termite bond payment is due at the beginning of April. It's only $300, so I'm planning to save that amount before it is due.

Car service/ad valorem taxes
We've only pulled $10 into this account, but we have until summer before the first bill is due. I'll need an oil change before then, so this category needs improvement.

Travel
this is one of the best motivators, we're planning our first non-essential trip* in April, and we already have a couple hundred dollars saved. I don't have a specific target, but I would like to at least save up enough to cover our lodging. I'm hoping to save enough to pay for the entire trip.

General emergency fund
Our new emergency fund online account is in addition to our joint savings and other various accounts that comprise our emergency fund. The money is a little spread out, and it's hardly an efficient system, but we have enough saved to focus energy on budgeting and planned spending. I received a bonus for opening the account, which is about all I have in there at the moment. Eventually I'd like to have at least 6 months expenses under general emergency fund. Such a long road to reach that amount.  

* Pretty much all travel is non-essential, but for us, it's important that we be there for sick/injured relatives, wedding-related events of good friends and holidays with family. It's not like we can just put these events off until we have money, so we haven't taken a vacation that doesn't fall under the earlier categories since July 2005. We've made an executive decision to take an early 3rd anniversary trip at the end of April this year. We're both really excited and it has increased our motivation to live more frugally, in order to take this trip but to also live within our means, so it's a good thing.

Download Suze Orman's 2009 action plan for free

You have until January 15 (11:59 pm CT) to download a free copy of Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan. Not only am I a fan of free stuff, I also really like Suze Orman.

Link to download Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan

2009 goals

I feel like I have 2,009 resolutions, but really they're just my goals for the year. I've never been big on resolutions, but inspired by Madison's post about execution and organization over at My Dollar Plan, I couldn't help but make a few. Or a lot. I had already set a few goals -- merely setting in stone a few habits I was already working on. I have the exact same problem as Madison -- extreme organization to the point of non-action. Her post tripped me into action, and many resolution posts across the internet inspired me. So goals are below, with a theme of sorts each month, and a few actions that I'll take for each area. I'll develop further actions each month -- I don't want to get too involved in early research and take no action. I'm going to make sure my goals are achievable. 

January: email
I still have emails from 2004 in my inbox of several accounts. Maybe even earlier. This needs to change.

• backup old messages, be more choosy about which emails to save, clear out all inboxes across many accounts, increase security of accounts, set schedule for maintenance/catch-up so I don't end up getting overwhelmed

February: garden
We are pretty good about edge-of-chaos maintenance in our rather large yard, but want to be more deliberate about our landscaping.

• plan schedule for the year, decide on veggies to grow, detail larger necessary projects, maintenance schedule, budget

March: household management
Having the home truly in order is an ultimate dream for me. A home the runs almost effortlessly, and nothing that is not either useful or beautiful. We really don't have a lot of clutter, but I need to change my approach when it comes to keeping unnecessary things. I'm reading a wonderful book about housekeeping, and I already have a lot of ideas.

• massive decluttering, garage sale, filing system, backup systems on multiple fronts, emergency binder, insurance needs, wills/trusts, research safes for valuables, master schedule for cleaning and irregular household maintenance

April: correspondence
I used to write numerous letters every month, and I would love to get back to that. Moreover, I need to improve the way I keep in touch with people. With so many wonderful friends and family, I'd be stupid not to make this an area of improvement.

• unify address books, backup contact info, correspondence log, schedule for keeping in touch

May and June: pictures
This is a huge project. I've slowly been trying to organize, but I have a lot of pictures. So I'm giving it 2 months and hoping for the best.

• backup all photos, inflow systems, update all online albums, order wedding album, print other albums, archival system, scan in old photos, send duplicates to friends

July: genealogy
This is an old interest of mine that I haven't done much with in the past few years. I can't wait to see what changes technology has allowed.

• update Ancestry.com trees, plan for further searches, copies of verified info to relatives

August: crafts
I really love to sew and quilt. I'd like to improve my skills when it comes to sewing, especially design.

• what I’d like to make for xmas presents, work on expanding range of skills in various crafts

September: French
I was fluent. I will be again.

October: holiday prep
I really would like to have another wonderful holiday, and preparation will be key.

• schedule and start intensive prep so that all holiday stuff is done by Thanksgiving and 30th birthday

November: life goals
I'll be turning 30, so I might as well do a big review of what I want out of life and how I want to spend the next 30 years.

December: tax and investing planning
I don't want to overburden the month, so this will be the culmination month of all the improvements from 2009 in the areas of personal finance. I want to be proactive about taking care of things by year-end so that leftover goals don't get pushed to 2010.

• do annual review

There’s also a few smaller goals:

• date night every Wednesday night – cook something new/newish together, no chores besides cooking and cleaning up afterward
• be on-time more often
• eat more fruit and veggies – shoot for one a day extra (split snack)
• drink 2 extra glasses of water per day
• walk 5 days a week

Finance Goals

• establish regular savings for annual/semi-annual bills and expenses
• increase retirement savings
• increase net worth (which includes making more progress to eliminating debt)

Basically, I just want to feel less crazy. 

Dealing with insurance can be maddening

We've been trying to get our dental insurer to cover my husband's periodontal maintenance for more than 3 years, with no success.

We've been paying out of pocket for almost all of his dental work, to the tune of several thousand dollars over the years, and not only has it added to our credit card debt, we can't really afford to continue.

This is maintenance that should be covered under our plan, and it feels like the insurance company is doing anything it can to avoid covering his periodontal work. It seems illogical, because if he doesn't have regular periodontal maintenance, he will likely need much more expensive work in the future.

Today I had to send off an appeal on a benefit determination (via certified mail, of course). Here are some tips for communicating with insurance companies.

• Keep good records. I have a folder for all dental insurance paperwork, and when I'm dealing with issues, I carry it with me so I have what I need on hand should I call the insurance company.

• Note it all. When you make a phone call, make sure to write down the date, time and the person you spoke with, and include any details from the call you need to remember. I often do this straight on the bill or explanation of benefits—less paper to file and keep track of. Because I could look back over phone records, EOBs, emails, faxes and notes, complete with date and time, it was a lot less frustrating to write an appeal of a benefit determination. I always make sure to print a report when I fax something important so I have a date and time and that the transmission was successful.

• Always keep a copy of all documents. Finding a copier before heading to the post office might seem like a huge pain, but dealing with the insurance company "losing" your only copy will be worse. 

• Don't procrastinate. If we had taken care of this when he first started his job in early 2005, we could have avoided A LOT of wasting time and money on this. Part of the problem was that for the periodontal maintenance to be covered, the insurance company basically needed evidence that it was necessary, in the form of a specific periodontal procedure. Well, my husband had that procedure years before he started working at his current job. Fast forward to last winter, and he actually needs the procedure again. He calls beforehand to make sure it will be covered, but didn't do a formal precertification. We get the EOB, and it says nothing will be covered. I cry. We left to go overseas for his brother's wedding two days later, and got caught up in life after the holidays. Since then, it's been back and forth with the insurance company, his periodontal maintenance wasn't covered again in May, and he has an appointment next week. There are also specific time limits in which one must file a claim after the service is provided.

• Send important documents via certified mail. It's simple to do, and the best way to have a paper trail of communication. I note on the letter itself that it had been sent certified mail.

Now that someone at the insurance company must sit down and review the claims file, and our very detailed letter, there is a glimmer of hope that this will work out and he will start receiving coverage. Our budget could sorely use the relief. Otherwise, we might start contributing to his flexible spending account, if we're going to pay out-of-pocket, we might as well use pretax money. Forgoing the extra periodontal maintenance on top of regular cleanings is not an option at this point. Because he takes good care of his teeth and gums, and is proactive about the maintenance, he'll hopefully avoid more expensive dental work in the future. I guess it's a good thing our insurance plan is under open enrollment.