Mommy Diary 2: Total costs of delivery at Mount AlverniaHospital &Aedan's 1st Month!

It has been Sooo long since my last post. Most of my time has been devoted to taking care of Aedan. 

Aedan is currently in his 8th week. 

I'm a full time milk feeder now as I'm breastfeeding exclusively & fully on direct latch. I was initially quite worried about Aedan not feeding enough as I'm not able to gauge his intake. Moreover, his reflux is making him split/vomit after every feeds. However, during his last doctor visit on his 5th week, doctor measured his weight & commented that his weight is on the 97th percentile! 'Solid baby'

I have also celebrated his one month (sharing photos!) & brought him out more often. 

Today, I will be sharing with you the total costs of the delivery. During my pregnancy, I tried to find out more about what are the possible total hospital costs and have been reading many others' blogs. However, very few blogged about the costs or show their hospital bills so I don't really have a good sense of the bill costs. My total hospital bill turn out to costs $10k. I'm sharing my hospital bill here. 

I had an assisted delivery with epidural.

Mommy' hospital plus doctors' charges 

Baby's hospital plus doctor's charges

The maternity package plus mommy single bedded ward & baby nursery for 2 days added up to be equivalent to $3390 ($1166 + $1594 + $200 + $430) which is the price b4 GST of maternity package for St Michael ward. St Michael ward is newly opened in Aug so the package price is slightly higher than the normal single bedded room. 

My husband has stayed over with me through out so there's companion charges. 

There are also doctors' procedure/ operation fees from the Gynae & anesthesiologist. Moreover, there's gynae attendance fees for doctor's visits during delivery plus my 2 days stay (frankly, Gynae only came for less than 5 mins per session to check on the stitches during the 2 days & charges $200 plus per session). There are also attendance fees from PD for baby routine check up. I have opt for metabolic test which cost additional $100++.

In my previous blog post on my delivery experience, I mentioned that I was put on glucose drip from the very beginning. Moreover, due to drop in fetal heartbeat, I had used oxygen masks during the final pushing. 

Hence, there are additional costs on the use of equipment, medications & oxygen masks. 

After the delivery, the nurses have given me 3 types of pain killers which are charged under pharmacy. 

I was shock when I saw the final bill added up to $10K. After medisave deduction of about $2.7K, the cash portion is about $7K++. Although the whole delivery costs more than expected, on the bright side, it's worth it since my baby is safely delivered into this world. :)

I'm overall glad with the service and whole experience which I was given a lot of care from the doctor and nurses. I will still choose to deliver at Mount Alvernia given a choice again. 

Hope this article will be useful for those delivering soon and wish to have a rough gauge of the bill. 

Lastly I'm going to spam my baby shower photos. ^_^

We had a simple baby shower at our clubhouse and done up the decoration all by ourselves. Had received lots of blessing from friends and family on the day. 

The baby banner is made by me. ✌️

My hubby and I made this standing ballon column 😊

Share if you like!

Like Twentysixoctober fb page to follow our stories as it's where we connect with our readers. :)

Happy reading,

Twentysixoctober 

Saving Tips: 4 Essential Money Skills

It has been some time since my last update.

Today is the 14th day without physical companion of my hubby "tear". My hubby has been posted overseas to work for 3 months. Though it has been only 14 days, I am starting to miss him. Since the day we started dating (more than 6 years), we have not been separated for more than one month.  Currently, we are trying to keep in contact through FaceTime, WhatsApp and Viber calls. While he is away, I have more time alone and this give me time to reflect on many things in life. I shall blog more about this the next time.  

Today, I’ll like to share with you some saving tips!

I was from a family where I used to fear daily whether there is food on the table and had less than 10 dollars in my bank account. I experienced power outage one day before my A level examination because we did not pay our electricity bill. It was a life with in which I was uncertain about my future and money had always been a concern. 

I used to do many part time jobs during my school time to help out in our family finances, to pay for my JC school fees and my own daily expenses. Hence since young, my family situation has trained me to be self-dependent. Being the finance controller in my family, I have learnt to manage my own finances and have cultivated some good money sense. , I derive skills of saving and making good use of every single cent.

Here I am sharing some of my essential skills. There are 4 essential skills when it comes to money: value it, control it, save it, invest it. 

1. Value it

For people who have not been through hard times where money is a daily concern, you may not value money as much.

"Money is like women, the more you value it, the more it will stay with you. Else, you may lose it."

In order to accumulate money, first you have to value it. Before you easily let loose of each dollar, think of how this one dollar may be a key to a person’s survival in Africa. 

2. Control it

There are always people who earn high annual salaries but still complain about having not enough money. This is because these people lack control over their finances and would just let money flow out of their hands. The fact is you do not need to have a lot to gain financial stability.

A critical step in attaining personal financial stability is to have intrinsic control over your money and it means knowing the inflow and outflow of your money at your fingertips. I personally suggest doing personal accounting, a simple balance sheet of your assets and liabilities.

You may choose to compute your balance sheet at the month’s end to keep track of your asset’s growth. For a more detailed analysis, you may choose to do a profit and loss statement to monitor and find out the reasons for any increase or decrease in expenses. So the next time when you complain about having no money, you will know exactly what the cause is and choose to resolve it if need be. 

3. Save it

Without elaboration, I guessed everyone knows the importance of saving.

Wealth can never be accumulated if you don’t save. It is critical to first start saving a reserve fund for rainy days – usually about 6 months of your monthly income.

After which, you may set up different accounts to save for different purposes. 

You may refer to my previous post: Saving Tips: Top 3 Saving / Current Account in Singapore

• Insurance fund
• Deposit for purpose of 1^st property
• Renovation fund
• Investment fund
• Operating fund for daily usage

Many people like to save whatever that is left after spending. However, the better way to do it is to save first and spend the rest. 

4. Invest it 

Like I have mentioned in point 3, it is good to set an investment fund account, to set aside a proportion of your savings for investment.

With yearly inflation, the value of your money depreciates over time. Hence, it is important to make good investments to fight inflation. The minimum return of your investment should be 2-5% to fight inflation.

Frankly, I am still learning how to be a good investor. Hopefully, I will be able to share some good investment tips in the future when I see my returns.

So let’s value, control, save & invest!

Ciao,

Evelyn

Saving Tips: Top 3 Saving / Current Account in Singapore

Do you know that our local banks are only giving us 0.05% p.a. interest on the money we deposit in their saving accounts? 

On the other hand, MAS expects average inflation in Singapore to be between 2.5% - 3.0 % in 2013 and 2.0% - 3.0% in 2014 (reference from FocusEconomics)

In the current market where property and stocks are not performing well, people may park most of their cash in banks. Thus consumers should aim to get the best deals with higher return interest on those hard earn money we saved. 

I personally recommend the following higher interest saving/current/fixed deposit accounts: 

1. CIMB Star Saver (saving) account

Interest: 0.8%
Minimum average balance: $1,000

How to enjoy 0.8% interest? 

To enjoy 0.8% p.a. on the entire account balance, simply top up the month-end balance of your CIMB StarSaver (Savings) by: 

• Maintaining an increasing balance with monthly deposits of a minimum amount $100; OR
• Placing periodic lump sum deposits that will automatically convert by CIMB Bank into equal portions for your account.

Which mean we may place $ 10,000 and enjoy 0.8% p.a. interest for the whole $10,000 for the next few years. 

Even if you are not able to save too much to meet their tabulated increase in account balance, you may still enjoy 0.5% interest which is 10 times more than other normal saving accounts. 

The disadvantage of this account is that there are only 2 CIMB branches (Orchard and Raffles) in Singapore which allow you to withdraw cash. Alternatively, you may perform inter-bank transfer to get the cash out of the bank. 

This disadvantage can be beneficial to those who wants to save and prevent themselves from easy access to the cash. 

When I recommended this account to my friends, most of them asked "Is it safe? What if the bank closed down (which is highly unlikely)?" 
This account is under Deposit Insurance Scheme which insured up to $50,000 in aggregate per Scheme member by Singapore law. Therefore, if you are saving less than $50,000, you are basically well protected. 

To read more about the fall below fee and other terms and condition, you may visit the website: CLICK HERE

2. Standard Chartered Bonus$aver Current Account 

Interest: 1.88%
Minimum Average Balance: $3,000

How to enjoy 1.88% p.a. interest? 

To enjoy 1.88% p.a. on your savings up to a $25,000 balance, simply spend $500 on the bonus$aver credit/debit card each month based on transactions posting date(s).

Do note that there is a annual credit/debit card annual fee which is waived for 2 years only.

The disadvantage is that you will have to make sure that you spend $500 on card each month. However, I believe that in our current society where living expenses are high, it is not too difficult to clock the $500 per month. 
If you are not a big spender, you can choose to offer to pay first on your credit card whenever you dine out with your friends and get them to pay you by cash. This will help you to clock your $500 per month. 

To read more about the fall below fee and other terms and condition, you may visit the website: CLICK HERE

3. OCBC High-Interest Deposit Account (Bonus+)

Effective Interest: 0.69% p.a.
Minimum initial deposit: $10,000

This saving account is a little more complicated than the previous 2 accounts. 
To enjoy 0.45% p.a. interest, there should be no withdrawal in the 1st month and 2nd month. On the 3rd month, if there is no withdrawal, there will be interest of 1.18% p.a. on the quarter month. The resulted effective interest p.a. if there no withdrawal made is 0.69% p.a. 

Complicated? You may take a look at the following illustration taken from their website. 

To read more about the fall below fee and other terms and condition, you may visit the website: CLICK HERE

4. Fixed Deposit (FD)

Fixed Deposit is another safe avenue to park your spare cash with some returns.

If you are able to set aside cash for 12 months, you can place your money in FD that gives good interest return.

On and off, you may also find promotional Fixed Deposit accounts that give interest of more than 1% . 

Currently, there are a few FDs that give quite good interest:

UOB

CIMB
Promotional 1.1% interest FD for 12 months tenor

Save smart for rainy days!

With love,  

Evelyn