Just when I was starting to get all confident in my ability to budget and save money I got sick. Really sick.
If I didn't have FlexSpending money put away from every paycheck this illness would have set me back well over $100. I don't have $100 worth of flexibility any month. I saw the Urgent Care doc which was $20. I bought all the herbal supplements he recommended- $70. I saw my primary care doctor for a copay of $10. I bought all the medicine he recommended- $35. Luckily I have good health insurance at an HMO which does everything in-house, so all my lab test to check for serious illness didn't cost me anything.
Three thing set me ahead of other people who live paycheck to paycheck: good health insurance from my federal government job, decent credit, and FlexSpending. I seriously think that had I not set aside money for my health I can't honestly say if I would chose to spend it. I know right away that the herbal supplements would be out.
This is a little disturbing. When I zoom out I see that I already cut spending on food. I cut it on health care by not dedicating the mere $20 it would take to joint the company gym. I would further cut on health care if I didn't have Flex. What less essential things can I cut? Maybe I have to drop my cell phone plan. Maybe I sit down and do a hard analysis of the cost of gas versus the bus. By the end of the month I will have eaten out twice. Maybe that's got to go to zero.
I am not going to expound on the need for health care reform. This isn't a political blog. But I am getting a taste of what it is like to think about health and nutrition as someone who is poor. If there's not money for it I don't get it. If I do need it, I have to go into more debt to get it.
Which leads me to...bald tires. I was pleased with myself for having the connections to get my tires rotated, my brakes checked, my bike rack removed, and my clutch adjusted by a friend of a friend for a nice bottle of tequila. I thought this sort of cleverness was a very recessionista thing to do. I was even more pleased when, upon checking the brakes, the keeper of the Cuervo discovered they do not need to have the pads replaced. Also I was glad when he said I could get a chip in my windshield replaced and paid for by car insurance. Saving yours truly about $70.- $100.
Unfortunately the mechanic/acquaintance is a decent, upstanding and Subaru-savvy guy and he told me I would need 4 new tires before winter or the car would be too dangerous to drive. Fab. Also in 25,000 miles (not as far as it sounds) I need to do 100,000 mile maintenance which my good friend with the wrench assured me will cost around $2,000.
Recessionista reality check: $2,000 is the total debt I am painstakingly trying to pay off by next July. It was accumulated all over a period of years' worth of thoughtless spending and immature budgeting abilities. Not all in one day at a single auto shop.
I am wracking my brains trying to think of what I can sell in order to keep my car. What job can I do that will make me $2,000 before the end of the year? I don't even know how I am going to buy tires without going into more debt so this 100K maintenance is staring me down like a fire breathing dragon.
And my throat still hurts making me feel like a fire breathing dragon...guess that's another $20 visit to urgent care.
What's a recessionista to do?
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