Cutting Costs - Insurance Options

My husband has been in and out of many sales jobs with the cycling of the economy.  We were able to get into a nice home while he was making good money. Then when the economy was challenged we were barely able to make our mortgage payment from my income and with help from our family, and our kids qualified for free school lunch. 

One of the best money management tips I have used is really looking at expenses and cutting or reducing those that give you little return. I consider insurance one of those thing we need but hope we never use.
My family is fairly healthy with only having a few colds throughout the year. While we were unemployed/under employed with no health benefits, I became aware of accident insurance available through our school district. For a one-time payment of less than $100 per student, we were able to get full time basic coverage for accidents and dental injuries 24 hours per day until school started again. This policy was available from the day the check was written to the first day of the next school year. This policy covers kids at camp, at home, at school, and weekend sports. If they get hurt and needed an xray, stitches, or cast, this policy would help with the costs.  This is also an option when your insurance has a very high deductible.  There may also be some tax advantages from paying your own premium. Our local Utah schools have information, and claim forms if you stop by and ask for the Student Assurance information.  We have done this for a couple years and have only used it once for a sprained thumb. The bill at the urgent care was about $300, I paid nothing out of pocket. This helped me have some peace of mind when sending my child out to play.

Secondly, we had talked about looking at our car insurance rates as our teenagers started driving. We wanted to be let them have freedom to drive and yet the insurance costs were causing our budget to bleed red. I got a recommendation from a friend and decided to check out an independent insurance agent and see what they could do for us. I was very pleased when they helped me save $150 a year on my house insurance. I was ecstatic when the agent came back with a 40% savings on our cars, with double the coverage and adding another vehicle. Instead of paying almost $400 per month for car insurance, we now pay only $220.

These suggestions help me feel like I have some choices and am wisely using the resources God has granted me in the best way to protect my family from a financial catastrophe. These options should be widely available and the motivation to be frugal is helping me be a good steward of the income we have currently.