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To anyone who just completed “year end enrollment” in their employer’s health insurance plan, and anyone who’s paying for their own medical insurance, it’s clear that costs are only going up. According to the National Coalition on Health Care, Americans spend $6,700 per person annually on health care.

So it makes sense to try to cut costs wherever you can without putting your health at risk. Here are 10 ways to reduce your medical costs while keeping yourself healthy.

At the Doctor’s Office

1. Ask for generic drugs. Generic drugs are cheaper than name brands. Busy doctors forget about alternatives, so don’t hesitate to ask. Check out Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s list of top prescription drugs and their generic equivalents. For pain medicine, find out if there’s an over-the-counter instead.
2. Avoid unnecessary tests and visits. If you move or change doctors, take copies of test results with you. Always talk to your doctor first, but some follow-up visits and tests are unnecessary-like annual EKGs. Call instead.
3. Barter for services. You could trade plumbing, legal advice, or tax preparation, etc. in exchange for medical services. A hospital in Brooklyn has a program that barters for medical care. Craigslist also has ads offering bartered medical services.
4. Get free samples. Doctors, dentists, and optometrists get tons of samples from manufacturers hoping to increase brand awareness. Ask your doctor for some instead of paying for prescriptions.
5. Negotiate. Some hospitals waive or reduce certain fees. Others will reduce the bill in exchange for cash upfront. Be sure you ask for explanations of costs if you don’t understand them. You wouldn’t overpay for something at Target, so don’t do it at the doctor’s office.

At Home

1. Outsource common tests. Independent labs can screen for cancer, run drug tests, and analyze blood and urine. Some even offer secure online access to your medical information. Check out myMedLab, PrivateMD, and PrivateLabTesting.
2. Personal Bills Tracking You can deduct expenses if the itemized total is more than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. This includes expenses from acupuncture, artificial teeth, hearing aids, eye surgery, psychiatric care, and even weight-loss programs. Read the IRS’s Publication 502 for more information on tax breaks and which medical expenses are deductible.

You can use Mint.com to easily for your personal bills tracking and medical expenses incurred at all your health care providers, pharmacies, online services, etc, across all the accounts you have added to Mint.com. Mint automatically categorizes some expenses as Medical, and you can recategorize and/or label transactions to get an full and accurate picture of your total spending and to see if you qualify for tax breaks.

Show Me How

3. Fill prescriptions online. This is the cheapest option for people who take drugs daily. Make sure any company you use is FDA approved, has a physical address, privacy policy, and a secure Web site. They should also be a fully-licensed pharmacy or should fulfill orders from a fully-licensed pharmacy. Check out FrugalMed, MedBasket, and DrugsPark.

In the Future

1. Review your insurance plan. Meet with a professional if necessary. Don’t focus solely on the monthly premium-consider the total cost, including out-of-pocket expenses. If you can afford a higher deductible, lowering premiums will offer immediate savings. A younger person in good health might consider switching to a Health Savings Account (HSA). HSAs allow you to pay for current health expenses while saving for future medical expenses, tax-free.
2. Live a healthier lifestyle. Ok, we had to say it. Fulfill your new year’s resolutions to exercise more, eliminate stress, stop smoking, get plenty of sleep, get regular check-ups, drink 8 glasses of water per day, avoid red meat, and eat lots of organic fruits, vegetables and fish. You’ll lower your health care costs, and possibly your life insurance costs. So, it’s a smart financial decision to invest in good health.

Have you found a smart way to save on health care costs? We’d like to hear about it. Comments welcome.

personal expenses management is something that we care about here at Mint. Learn more with great expense management tips in our blog article index.

Any Mint reader who finds themselves stuck under a mountain of consumer or credit card debt understands the anxiety involved with owing money. Over half of American families with credit cards report having at least some debt due to poor personal expenses management, so what can you do to lift that weight off your shoulders?

You may be surprise to hear this, but axing that debt is actually a very simple thing to do (it’s just not always easy).

Step #1 – Spend Less Money Than You Earn

This sounds trivial, but step number one in getting out of debt is pure mental discipline to spend less money than you earn. The minute your income exceeds your expenses is the minute you have money left over to pay towards your financial debt. It’s surprisingly easy to neglect, so don’t make the mistake of overlooking a month here and there or “just letting that last bill slide.” Taking charge of your debt means taking charge of your spending life.

Creating a Budget: You make $1,000. You spend only $500. You now have $500 left to apply towards your debt.

Once you master the discipline on personal expenses management, you’ll find that the rest of the steps are easy in comparison!

Step #2 – Distinguish Between Bad Debt & “Okay” Debt

An okay debt has an interest rate well under 10%, which generally means around 3-6%. Mortgages and student loans are examples of an okay debt. Auto loans are a bit on the borderline, because even though auto loans have fairly low interest rate, the car’s value will depreciate quickly.

What would be a bad debt?

Everything else! Your platinum credit card at 16%, 19%, 21% interest rate, for one, and your financed furniture or television for another.

Now that you have distinguished between bad debt and okay debt, it’s time to do something about the bad debts!

Step #3 – Pay More than the Minimum

Gather up all the bad debt, your credit card, bill statements and line them all up. Add up all the minimum payments for the amounts owed and pledge to pay the overall minimum and an extra chunk to one single account. Important note: If you don’t pay more than the minimum payment, you will not be able to get rid of these debts within a reasonable time frame.

Extreme Example: Let’s say you have $8,000 in credit card debt on an account with 16% APR and your minimum payment is 2.5% of the balance ($200 for a balance of $8,000). If you only pay the minimum payment base on balance, it would take you over 26 years to pay off your balance! During this time frame, you would pay over $8,800 in interest!

What happens if you apply a fixed payment of $300 to the balance every month instead? It would take you about 3 years to pay off the balance, and it would only cost you about $2,000 in interest. Definitely quite a difference.

Step #4 – Tackling the Worse Among the Bad Debt

From your lined up bills, find from your statement the interest rates for each of these accounts.

Personal Expenses Management: You may have $2,000 at 13% APR; $6,000 at 16%; $3,000 at 19%; and $400 at 14%.

Put the extra chunk toward the highest rated debt first, which is the $3,000 account at 19%. If you wish, you can also start off by paying any low amount accounts, such as the $400 account — even if its interest rates are lower. Doing this will get one account out of the way, and it would be a good boost to your confidence in getting rid of your debt.

Continue to pay the minimum payment for the rest of the accounts, and apply the extra chunk to the highest interest rate account. Keep going at it month to month; once you’re done paying off one account, head towards the next highest interest rate account. Rinse and repeat until the very last bad debt goes bye-bye!

Step #5 – Ask For a Lower Rate

As you are paying off the debt on your various accounts, take a moment to do this one final step: ask for a lower rate! Look for any account over 14% in interest rate, and call that company to ask them to lower your interest rate to 11-12% (or even lower if possible).

Tell them that you have received offers from other companies for a much lower rate, and that out of simplicity (or loyalty) you want to stay with them. This might not be a very fun thing to do, and you may feel uncomfortable in asking for a reduction in your rates, but you may be surprise to find that many credit card companies will be willing to lower your rates if you just ask.

Remember this, you are a source of revenue for these companies; at the end, most of them would rather lower your rate than lose you as a customer. Don’t be afraid to close your account and transfer your balances if you can’t get the rates reduced.

Related Resources: Tips to balance transfer correctly!

Getting Rid of Your Debt Check-List

1. Spend less money than you make.
2. Differentiate between bad and okay debt.
3. Pay more than the minimum.
4. Pay the highest interests rate debt first, and then tackle the second highest rate debt and so forth.
5. Ask for a lower rate to current high interest rate debt!
6. Creating a budget and sticking with it!

The concepts to paying off your debt are simple, but it certainly isn’t an easy thing to do. It takes discipline, consistency, and patience to pay off your debt — and although it isn’t easy to get out of debt, it also isn’t impossible.

You will find that many people have also faced the challenge of paying off their debt. The ones that succeed in eliminating their debt are the ones that persevere under the challenge.

And that’s the key point, to keep at it! To consistently spend less than you make, pay more than the minimum, and before you know it, you will be well on your way to becoming debt free.

Further Reading on the Topic:

Personal Expenses Management

Creating a Budget

Expense Management

Expense management is something that we care about here at Mint.
Learn more with great expense management tips in our blog article index.

Bills pilling up? Paying for charges you don’t even recall making? It may be time to look at your expense management.

Why bother? Well, massive debt aside… it’s always nice to have extra money when you really need it. Here are some suggestions on ways to cut and reduce your expenses.

Bank for free? Why, thank you!

• These days, paying fees for a bank account should only happen if you’re getting awesome (and necessary) service. If your checking or savings account has a fee, it may be time to move on. Many checking accounts from national chains will waive monthly fee if you set up direct deposits. Many more local credit unions will let you open a maintenance-free account for as little as $5.
• Get rid of cards with annual fees. Finding a credit card without an annual fee is as easy as finding a college student with a stash of “goodies” in their closet. If you have a credit card with an annual fee, it better give some benefits that easily offset them. (Free companion tickets for those that are frequent flyer, large perks and bonuses at frequent spending locations, etc.)
• Avoid silly fees. Keeping track of your checking account will limit silly expenses such as overdraft fees. The same applies for your credit card’s credit limit. Keeping it in check = less over-limit fees. Don’t forget to pay the bills on time and you won’t be hit with late fees. These days, it’s incredibly simple to set up automatic payments via online accounts. Use these features!
• Hit with a fee? Bounced a check? Ask the bank man nicely and they may reverse it. Of course, don’t expect them to be nice if you’re a repeat offender.
• Tired of $.01 interest a month from your bank? Consider these high-yield online savings account which currently offer up to 5.00% APY: HSBC Direct, ING Direct, and Emigrant Direct.
• Consider paying electronically. You’ll save time and you’ll save money on ordering new checks and paying for stamps. Most checking accounts these days have free Bill Pay options. Use them. Your checking account doesn’t have one? Get a free one that does. Remember, it’s to the bank’s advantage to make it as easy as possible for you to pay off your bills.

Entertainment for cheap? Don’t mind if I do!

• Use a library for “free” books. Spending more than you care to admit at Barnes and Noble? Check out your local library. Today’s modern library is vastly different than those of decades ago. Many of them share their inventory with local neighboring libraries within the same county. Most now have an online catalog to browse from (and to request books or renew your rentals). You’ll find that many also stock the latest DVDs, and a new collection of audio books. You’re paying taxes for these libraries, so use them!
• Renting more than once at the local national chain? Consider cheaper alternatives such as Netflix (or a good torrent tracker — just kidding); or find that local $1 DVD rental shop. Just remember to return your rentals on-time. Extra-Bonus: You can request movies online at most libraries, now you can have your own free movie rental store.
• Drink-in instead of drinking out. Although it’s always fun to have a few rounds with the pals at the local bar, it can be just as fun when you have a go with buds at a friends house. The cost of a few bottles shared between friends will always be less expensive than a night out at the bar.
• Movie theater lover? Check out resources such as Fatwallet’s free moving screening post for the latest free moving screening deals.
• Local parks, anyone? You don’t always have to exercise at the gym. Find a nice local park, rekindle your love for b-ball and remind yourself why you can’t dunk.

Auto saving? Yes please!

• The easiest way to save fuel on gas is to keep your tires inflated properly. Look for your proper tire pressure level on the driver-side door frame, or check your car’s manual.
• Besides making sure your fuel economy isn’t affected, keeping tires inflated properly will also prevent premature tire wear and prevent unnecessary cost in replacing tires. Regularly checking your tires alignment and balance will also prevent a quick tire life span.
• Don’t drive around your closet. If you get rid of unnecessary items from the trunk, that reduced weight will offer better fuel economy. For every 250 pounds you haul around, your car loses about a mile per gallon.
• Buy the proper octane/grade of gasoline for your car. If your car manual says 87, pump 87. If your car manual says 91, pump 91. Check out GasBuddy.com for the cheapest gas places in your area.
• Don’t drive like Speed Racer. Pedal to the metal at every stop light? Braking hard for no reason? The more the engine speed fluctuates, the more you’re overexerting the engine and the more fuel you’re using.
• Drive at a reasonable speed. Fuel economy, in most cars, will vastly improve if you just drive a bit slower. Plus, you can avoid those silly traffic tickets.
• Commute smartly. If you have to drive to a certain place everyday, find the cheapest route if possible. You’ll be surprise how much time and money you can save if you don’t sit on a congested highway all day long (and it’ll lower your blood pressure, too).
• Put some time into finding your auto insurance. Compare from at least three different companies, and compare the rates again once every year. Check your health insurance to see if you’re already covered for certain accident so you can forgo personal injury protection and avoid duplicated insurance.
• Buy a practical car. In fact, buy a practical used car. Craigslist, Yahoo Autos, eBay and Auto Trader are great places to find deals.
• Don’t let the dealer tack on unnecessary add-ons when it comes time to sign for the car. Be aware of your credit score and the interest rate you can obtain before you head into a financing office. Better yet, obtain alternate financing or cash beforehand to see if other dealers can match or beat rates.

Got some simple tips expense management? Feel free to share so we can all save some extra dough.

This post was written by Cap of StopBuyingCrap.com.

Further Reading on Expense Management

• Expense Tracking and Planner
• Create a Personal Budget Online
• Free Online Financial Calculator