March 20th, 2008 - The frugality of being sick
Since the past two weeks (plus a bit) was consumed with being sick, I thought it would be interesting to comment on some of the things we did while sick that either helped save money or how we spent more than usual.
Saving money/being frugal
- We didn’t go the grocery store except for quick trips because we had no energy. We most ate what was in the house.
- The only other shopping we did was for medications, so no money was spent on household stuff either.
Frankly, when you are sick, you usually aren’t very frugal:
Spending more money/not being frugal
- We bought dozens of bagels because it was easy to buy and easy to eat. Honestly, we didn’t have energy to come up with what to fix for meals and Eric often ate nothing but bagels all day. They aren’t too expensive (about $7/dozen) and they lasted about 3 days/dozen.
- Medications! Luckily, we have a good prescription plan. However, we spent about $50 for cough drops, cough syrup, antibiotics, codeine cough syrup, and whatever else was prescribed. In just two weeks! And that doesn’t count the Tylenol and decongestants we used that were purchased before.
- I turned the heat up to 67 every day I was home, compared to the 65 it’s normally at. Except when it went up to 68 or 69 on a couple days when we were at our worst.
- I spent about $10 on parking at work. ($20 if you count the fact that I used up my old 5x use pass and bought two more.) The first week, I took the car twice but I parked on the street as it was only a few hours. The next week, I took the care at least three times because I took Maggie to/from preschool as Eric was too sick to do so (he was on the codeine at the time). I’d swear I drove more than that, but can’t remember now.
- During a sale the week we got sick, I ordered a music book. It came in the day I came down sick and I figured I’d just go the next day before the sale ended. It took me two weeks. So I didn’t get the free book I could have if I’d gone in during the sale. [I did, however, remember to use the gift card to purchase this one. Forgot for the books I actually bought during the sale.]
- I got stressed out about things that didn’t get done. For instance, the week I got sick I realized that there was just over a month until the wedding and I couldn’t get my dress altered until I had shoes and a bra. I got the shoes the day before getting sick. Then I had to wait 2 weeks before I could go bra shopping. Drove me nuts that I had to put it off. If I hadn’t gotten sick, I wouldn’t have gotten stressed. (Or, if I’d done this as soon as the dress came in instead of forgetting about it.)