After being hospitalized in July for a few days, after receiving all reimbursements from my employer (in a very timely manor, I just need to get the request in early in the week on a vendor pay week not an employee pay week) except for one part.

On my bill I was assessed for a "NYS Surcharge" for $389, for which I was not reimbursed. I am supposed to have a $0 out-of-pocket expense for In-Patient hospital services. The HR department said it was a tax and they can't do anything about it directly. The insurance was no help because when I call the insurance they see a plan that does not reflect my actual benefits, so they denied it.

I just had a nice chat with our benefits coordinator stating I had spoke to some people that were hospitalized with the same insurance as me and were not charged that, but apparently the in-network facility I went to is billing as a separate line item. She is looking into it for me and stated it is not my employer's fault or my employer's 3rd party reimbursement agency as they can't pay a tax with pre-tax dollars. The hospital should have never charged it being it is included in the policy cost. I hope I am going to get reimbursed easily. I don't care if the employer cuts me a check and they go after the facility or if the facility cuts me a check directly. I don't care, as long I get the reimbursement I am owed.

I looked it up, the NYS Surcharge is fairly new, as so I am told, and it is to help fund the indigent care pool.

Zero dollars, means zero dollars, not zero dollars plus tax!

Our Auto Loan had a minor milestone of under the $3K mark! I did add $55 to principal only for that to happen. I get an "extra" paycheck extremely early in 2014, January to be exact, so a good chunk will most likely be going to the Auto Loan. Once it is down around $1300 is probably when a lump sum pay off will occur.

The Mortgage also had a minor milestone of under the $169K mark this month. Not much progress there at all besides regular payments. There is a home for sale a street over that is very similar in size and style to ours that is listed for $169K, so I will keep an eye on final sale price once and if it sells. I expect high $150's low $160's.

The reduction of Verizon services is already paying off, the first bill saw a savings of $61, so that works for me.

DW changed jobs, less hourly pay, less hours until January 1 and much less stress. After that, a raise and back to 30-35 hours instead of the current 25.5 hours. So the dept shovel has been reduced a bit, for the short term. However, the new job at the Dental office does provide opportunity for a monthly bonus of $500-$5,000, so in reality, the effective pay could be significantly more than her previous employer. There is also a yearly bonus on top. I just had to rework our budget schedule as she now gets paid weekly and not bi-weekly.

So today I called Verizon to downgrade our Triple Play bundle (FiOS Extreme TV [340+ channels], FiOS Quantam 50/25 Internet, and Unlimited Home Phone). We wanted the promotion that was being advertised for new customers for FiOS Double Play (FiOS Select TV [190+ channels] and FiOS 15/5 Internet, as our original intent was to drop the Home Phone. In order to downgrade AND drop the Home Phone, we would have encountered a $140 ETF.

I spoke to the customer service representative and she stated we could keep our Triple Play with the downgraded TV and Internet and that would be $79.99/ mo. I kindly told her that would not work for us and we would rather pay the $140 ETF, have my wife sign-up as a new customer to get the current promotion as the savings are $35/ mo. from what we currently pay and we would break even in 4 months. Of course she was not able to authorize the price, so I kindly mentioned I would like to cancel the service.

I was, as expected, transferred to the customer retention department where they were able to get us the Double Play at a rate of $79.99 - $10.00 monthly statement credit totaling the $69.99 price for the FiOS Select TV and FiOS 15/5 Internet for 24 months. The person was able to waive the ETF as we maintained service with them. Just a new 2-year agreement starts today, which is fine.

Out of all those channels we are "losing", there is only 1 channel we semi-frequent that we would be losing. In addition, those FiOS Quantam 50/25 Internet speeds are only good for wired connections, not wireless as I have called to complain such when I ran some diagnostic testing in the past and only coming up with 20/15 speeds via wireless connection. Much different than what is advertised on their commercials!

No ETF. Saving $35/ mo. = Win!

Next will be Verizon Wireless. We are in an old plan, I am still Unlimited Data, but we will save $20/ mo with a new Shared Plan as we never use more than 2GB of data combined a month.

I am estimating a $60/ mo. savings between the two, easily, as less costly product means less taxes!