Acres of Diamonds

If you've never read this, it's definitely worth a read. It deals with everything from appreciating what you have to starting your own business. It has some Christian religious overtones, but it certainly does not rely on them. Enjoy!

Acres of Diamonds

Saving on prescription medicine

Fortunately, I am blessed both with good health and with health insurance. Hubby, however, has a few medications he takes every month. Even with insurance, the costs of these medicines can start to add up, so I use a variety of strategies to try to reduce the cost of these prescriptions over time.

Generics

If a medicine is not among the newest on the market, chances are there’s a generic version. With most health insurance, the difference is about $20 between a brand name and a generic. Without health insurance, it could be close to $100. Now, with Target and Walmart offering many generic drugs for $5, the distinction is greater than it’s ever been.

Generally, if there’s a generic available, your pharmacist will ask if that’s what you prefer. If not, talk to your doctor. Often they will prescribe the newest drug on the market because that’s what they think patients want. Sometimes there’s an older drug that will work as well for you.

Coupons

For those drugs that we do buy brand name, I sign up for mailing lists from the drug companies for coupons and rebates. Do a google search for the name of the medicine you’re on, and chances are you will find the drug company’s website. Incentives can range from $5 to $25, to a voucher for free medicine. Keep on top of this, and remember to check prices. When one of our medicines went generic, it was cheaper to get it that way even with the $10 coupon off the brand name.

Gift card offers

Many national pharmacies (notably CVS, Target and Savon) offer gift cards for new or transferred prescriptions. If you have insurance, often the gift card amount can be greater than your copay, so you’ll actually be making money by doing this. If not, at least you are helping to offset the price of the drug. Look for the pharmacy coupons in weekly circulars, home mailers, and online. If you’re not on the pharmacy mailing list, figure out how to get on.

Some people like to transfer their prescriptions around regularly to maximize these deals, but I don’t recommend it. It’s important to have all your prescriptions at the same pharmacy, so the pharmacist can check for drug interactions.

Pharmacy Discount Cards?

I’ve never used one of these, but if you do a websearch, you will find about a hundred versions of this. They are cards you can purchase if you are uninsured that purport to give you a discount on many prescription drugs. If anyone knows more about them, please leave a comment.

Free Samples

When we got married, hubby was temporarily uninsured. Before he lost his insurance, he went to his doctor and explained and asked if they had any free samples available of the drugs he takes. The doctor called around to all the offices in the building and sent us home with a huge bag of sample packs that lasted us well past the one month. (By the way: I in no way endorse being uninsured if you can at all help it! If you are uninsured because of employment issues and not financial issues, go online and get yourself at least some major medical coverage. If you are young and it is temporary, you can get this very cheaply. It is downright terrifying to be without insurance.)


Drug companies load doctors down with this stuff. Whenever you get a new drug, and maybe even just periodically while you’re on one, ask your doctor if he or she has any free samples available. They’ll probably be more than glad to give you one.

Carnival of Personal Finance at Blogging Away Debt

If you haven't already, check out this week's Carnival of Personal Finance at Blogging Away Debt. Tricia does a great job at hosting what is once again an enormous carnival.

I particularly liked the article on Priorities for recent grads at Money and Values. This fits in well with what I believe about aligning your money with your core beliefs. Give it a read.

Break Even Week 3 - Vacation week update

So, I pretty much took the week off while we were visiting family for vacation. Because of the way I account for my earnings, though, I did manage to bring in a little money this week. I had some payments roll in from Associated Content, many of which were disappointingly lower than I expected them to be.

I also spent a total of 2.5 hours working on a presentation for my part time job that I had to give the day I came back (that was a little stressful when I was in the airport overnight, let me tell you). My boss told me she would pay me $50 an hour for my prep time, so I chalked up some money that way.

Because we were with family who really wanted to feed us, we hardly spent any money on food this week. We did spend money on entertainment but, since we were at home where we grew up, our money went a lot further. We spent money on 20 cent games of ski ball, $1 smoothies from the convenience store, Ice cream on the boardwalk, subs for lunch, and cake at the diner at midnight. It was as if we’d fallen back into a place in our lives where that seemed like a lot of money. Our total entertainment spending was $20 for the week, for which it seemed like we went out every night.

Totals for the week:
Break even number $420
Grocery spending -$50
Entertainment -$5
Associated Content Payments -$24.98
Prep Hours -$125
Surveys - $12
Movies sold - $16
Deficit $187

Totals for the summer 719 deficit
Each week is getting better, but I still am digging myself pretty deep. I’m going to keep up this, but I’m not feeling very optimistic right now about breaking even by the end of the summer.

Money anxiety

Moreso than an actual need for money for basic goods, I am motivated by money anxiety. I have a constant stream of what ifs in my head. What if we don't ever have enough money to retire? What if one of us lost a job? What if we had an emergency? In essence, a lot of my financial plans are motivated by fear.

The more I talk to people about money, and the more I participate in the pfblogging community, the more I start to think that a lot of us do plan our lives around this fear and anxiety. I talked to a friend the other day who has a ridiculous salary, a great portfolio of investments, an emergency fund, fully funded retirement plans, and no debt except his house. Do you know what he said? "I have to work overtime. I still don't have enough money. What if something happened?"

This made me realize that, although I am not in nearly that position, I probably sound very much the same to the people around me. It's not that I don't have enough money to meet my needs, or even my wants, it's just that I don't have "enough". Enough, that magic amount of money that will suddenly make me feel safe, make me feel that I don't have anything to worry about. I don't think that there is really such an amount of money.

So, while I am still going to work on the money issues, I'm also going to try to pay more attention to the fear. What are the things in my life that bring up anxiety? How can I plan for those things so that they aren't actually dangers for me? And, of course, how much money really is "enough"?