Braces

Well, despite the fact that my husband and I both have very straight teeth and have never had braces, looks like both of my older daughters will need braces.

Daughter Number 1 needs them asap. The work begins in March. Luckily we have dental insurance that is going to pay $2,000 toward the braces, leaving us with $2,300 to pay out of pocket.

They set it up so that you pay $100 a month for 2 years. I asked if there was a discount for paying in full up front and she said it would only be a 5% discount.

I have budgeted for this but - next month we are very tight with the budget. We would need to take everything out of savings except for our $1,000 Emergency Fund in order to prepay for the braces. We would most likely be able to replenish the savings (for vacation/sister's destination wedding, and to replace our furnace this summer) in the next few months (large commissions expected as well as large tax return expected). This is how I have planned our budget but now I'm starting to wonder if this is really the best thing to do. Even if next month wasn't tight, is paying for the braces up front the best thing to do? Would we be better off putting more money to our debts? 5% is a pretty small discount, we would earn almost as much by putting the money in savings.

Not sure what to do . . .