Everyday Cheapskate

Dear Mary: I am reading your book, "Debt-Proof Living," and have begun tracking my expenses. I have a home-based business. Should I include business expenses or just personal expenses in the tracking? — Lucy, Vermont

Dear Lucy: You should keep your personal and business finances completely separate. As a business owner, you have to think of yourself as two people: 1) Employer and 2) Employee. You the Employer should be tracking all of your business expenses and income separately, in a business-like manner. And You the Employee should be doing the same with your personal finances. You'll thank me one day when you get audited (you will, sooner or later) that you've been diligent to keep your business completely separate from your personal finances.

Dear Mary: Your advice to stock up on sugar during the holidays was a great tip, as well as purchasing peanut butter last fall before the prices went up. Are you aware if there is anything now, post-Christmas, in the supermarket we should be buying to "hedge" against imminent price increases? — Elaine, email

Dear Elaine: I don't have specific knowledge of anything on the horizon as I did when I reported on the coming peanut butter price hikes last fall, but I would suggest that all food prices are creeping up with no end in sight. That being said, if you have money available to invest in non-perishables, stock up on rice, canned protein (tuna, chicken, corned beef) and evaporated milk as they come on sale.

Dear Mary: My daughter is covered by my health insurance. She got married last year and recently found out she's pregnant. We also just found out that the insurance does not cover maternity. We have called several insurance companies to get supplemental maternity or a "rider," but everyone has said to cancel her current insurance and get her own coverage. That just sounds like a stupid solution. — Lynda, Missouri

Dear Lynda: I am not an insurance professional. That, plus the fact that I have so little information on your daughter's current coverage, makes it impossible for me to give you any kind of advice. However, in that her pregnancy is now a pre-existing condition, I can only imagine that if there is such a rider as you suggest, it is probably more expensive than what it would cost her to get her own coverage as "everyone" is advising.

Even then, she and her husband might be better off forgetting about insurance and instead finding a doctor and hospital that will give them a substantial discount for cash payment. And by the way, congratulations! You are going to be a grandma, and that's a wonderful thing.

Do you have a question for Mary? Email her at mary@everydaycheapskate.com, or write to Everyday Cheapskate, P.O. Box 2099, Cypress, CA 90630. Mary Hunt is the founder of www.DebtProofLiving.com, a personal finance member website and the author of "7 Money Rules for Life," released in January 2012. To find out more about Mary and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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