by Carrie on January 18, 2010
I want to make sure that my muscles don’t atrophy during this time I have cancer so I need to make sure to get in some light exercise on a regular basis. Ideally I’d love to take a yoga class but my white blood cell counts and thus my ability to fight infection is extremely low and exposing myself to any foreign germs in a class environment isn’t right for me at this time.
I’ve decide to get a Wii and Wii Fit. Wikipedia notes that, in addition to being the second best selling console video game ever, it’s used in physiotherapy settings for rehabilitation and in nursing homes for gentle exercise which is exactly what I need right now.
$200 for the Wii and another $100 for the Wii Fit is a hefty chunk of change though. I can’t fit a $300 splurge in my January budget so I’ve decided to wait until February for the purchase.
Even though we’re only about halfway through January, waiting to make a large purchase has already proven to be worthwhile. I’ve already got almost $75 in Amazon credit saved up thanks to Swagbucks, my credit card rewards, and winning a prize for participating in a user survey at Smart Family Tips. I’m also expecting another $10 to $15 in Amazon credit from Swagbucks by the end of the month. (Swagbucks is a search engine that gives you points for searching, 45 points are redeemable for a $5 Amazon gift card. In my first month, I earned enough points for one $5 giftcard and each month since I’ve been earning points even faster. Try it out.)
Having a good third of the expense covered by giftcards is really going to help my February budget since I’m hoping to be on disability leave come February and my income will be reduced by about a third and the Wii Fit will give me a way to keep active even while staying home.
Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links and I will receive a small percentage if you make a purchase after clicking through them. All products and services I recommend in this post are for things that I already use or plan to purchase at full price myself.
by Carrie on January 15, 2010
It’s been a hard week. On Monday I underwent my third chemotherapy treatment and am now halfway through the scheduled chemo treatments (after six they’ll repeat all the tests and possibly switch to radiation therapy).
I only made it to work two days this week and both of those days I went home a few hours early. Food is no longer appetizing which makes it hard to eat at all. Taking a shower and walking up and down the stairs have become strenuous activities. And my temperature has been about 100 degrees all week.
I’m debating disability leave. Last week, my doctor and the nurses were all shocked that I was still working and I didn’t understand why. This week, I understand.
On the California state disability plan, I’d continue to receive about two-thirds of my current income. My job and thus my ability to continue to get health insurance would also be preserved (and I’m fairly confident that no one else would be as good at my job as I am so they’d want me back anyway).
I expect to be undergoing treatment for a minimum of two more months and the side effects will be getting worse with each treatment. So I’d be away from work for at least two months and I’m expecting to need at least a bit of time to recover after the treatments are complete, I won’t be instantly back to perfect health.
For the past several years, I’ve been building my emergency fund by $100 with each paycheck so it’s quite a sizable amount now and I wouldn’t have to worry about the loss of one-third of my income for a couple months when it comes time to pay my bills. I’m also eating less, driving less, and not supposed to go to stores at busy times thus shopping less so I could easily cut quite a bit out of my budget.
I do worry about it affecting my long-term financial goals, that’s one-third of my income each month that I’m not saving towards buying a house some day. I also worry about the small company that I work for where I’m the only person that does my job, how would my work get done? But then again, the point of being on disability leave would be so that I don’t have to worry about work while I also have the cancer and side effects to be worrying about.
On one hand I feel like if I have this perfectly acceptable reason to take time off work I should take it and on the other hand I feel guilty about wanting to be away from work.
by Carrie on January 4, 2010
Mint’s having that issue again where transfers between my own accounts (i.e. money I’m saving) is showing up as an expense on my budget so my budget chart is all messed up this month.
I came in under budget again in December which is great. In October I started using the everything else category for my budget for everything expect totally fixed expenses like rent and insurance. This system is working out fabulously for me. It really encourages me to save in any area that I can find a way to save in and those savings allow me to splurge on more wants regardless of what area they are in.
The real proof that this new system is working is in this Net Income chart. Net Income being what money came in vs. what money went out. Before October I was tapping into savings a bit, October on I’ve got several hundred going into savings each month.
by Carrie on January 1, 2010
- Switch to buying all organic meat, dairy, and produce (except for the clean fifteen).
- Switch from regular white flour to white whole wheat (taking one step in the whole wheat direction at a time).
- Come in under budget each and every month in 2010. Utilize extra roll over cash from prior months to pay larger purchases.
- Add one new piece of quality furniture that will last a lifetime to my home (I’m thinking a pair of nightstands – yeah that counts as one piece – or a big comfy chair to create a perfect reading nook).
- Don’t let cardboard boxes pile up in the garage. Cut them down and put them out with the recycling on a weekly basis.
- Take a nice relaxing and fun vacation with my best friend after she graduates law school and passes the bar and I am cancer free (hopefully both of those will happen this summer).
by Carrie on December 30, 2009
December 2nd I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. More than 60% of US bankruptcies are due to medical debt and I’m very, very fortunate that I won’t be headed in that direction for two reasons:
- I have fantastic insurance through work. I pay a $15 copay for prescriptions, doctor’s office visits, and hospital visits. Everything else is 100% covered.
- Work is continuing to pay me as if I were working my normal full time schedule. We’re technically only allotted 4 sick days per year and I’m well past that but they’re not making me tap into my vacation time even when I’m out for check ups, tests, treatment, or just need extra time for rest and recovery and I’m still receiving my full salary.
I first noticed something was wrong during the last week of November and spent $15 for a check up with my regular doctor, $15 to check into the hospital for my biopsy, and $13 for post biopsy pain medication. November totaled $43 in medical expenses and I received my diagnosis 2 days later.
In December I spent $105 on 10 different prescription medications (to manage pain and side effects as needed) and $75 on doctor’s visits. At no additional cost I underwent a slew of scans and tests and two chemotherapy treatments.
Total spent on medical bills related to the cancer at this point: $223.
I also spent $80 getting my long, beautiful hair cut into a bob so that I’ll be less traumatized when it falls out. A good portion of that $80 was a hefty tip for the stylist who had many wise and soothing words related to the issue of hair loss.
And after attending the free Look Good, Feel Better class a few weeks ago, I made a $100 donation back to the program.
Total spent on not medically necessary cancer related expenses: $180.
Total spent on cancer so far: $430.
I’ll be updating this Cost of Cancer series towards the end of each month until I am cancer free.
