Cost of living and Crohn's

 Are you finding yourselves always struggling with the cost of living? How do you think it effects your life and how does it make you feel about life?

I find that when I try to cut back on one thing there is always something else that goes up in price .Weather it be food, heat, taxes,just about anything a person might put a dollar into.

I feel that it would be a great thing to at least not have to strecth a dollar 50 times and come out with the same old coin. Not being able to work for many years has made me feel like I'am always trying to do the impossible. Sometimes the old light bulb in my brain is a little more then worn .lol gail

The cost of living index that they use and keep pointing out how low its increases are does not include food or fuel. Just what do they think we spend most of our money on???

The cost of the co-pay on my prescription and my overall insurance premium are going up this year. We did not get a cost of living adjustment at work due to budgetary concerns I am grateful to have the insurance but wish that medical offices and companies would understand that it's hard for people to pay so much just to have basic care.

Oh yes, it's hard. Add in the special allergen-free foods (dairy free, gluten free, whatever), which tend to be much more expensive than regular foods.

And then there are all those extra, incidental expenses: taxis on those days when you are too sick to walk or drive; extra heating / cooling because were are sensitive to fluctuations in temperature; silly little things like you buy some food to cook for the freezer, then go into a flare and are unable to cook it, meaning that the food goes to waste, etc...

I'm so glad to hear you say that, Fitzy. I was nervous about writing about food, and was expecting people to criticise me for being slack and wasteful. Me, I've just wasted 1.5kg of mince. I bought it, went into a fibro flare, got muddled with dates, and when I finally mustered the energy to cook it, discovered that it had gone off :-(

I have the same problem with buying food then being unable to eat it.

I was fortunate in being able to participate in a study recently that charted the amount of money that Crohn's people spent because of their illness over a 3 or 6 month period. It was quite startling to see it all on paper - some weeks I'd spend $200 on my illness alone!

How about we start some threads going on managing food. Low cost food tips. Cheaper viamins or at least best buy. Maybe a thread on give up something like pepper for a example or just ways to save a buck. lol gail

lol i nearly cried when i forgot to put soem frozen food into the freezer.....found it like 3 days later.....it was meant to be meals for my week....like 4 days of food gone,i was so embrassed,gah it still annoys me,i find flares tend to save me muney,most of the stuff i buy dsnt go off lol,but money is my biggest stress,still learning how to balance bills im xcited bout the price of petrol has gone dwn 60c here......YAY

That happens to me all the time too, I finally feel good enough to go grocery shopping starting with a nearly empty kitchen.  I power shop 'cause who knows when i will get there again ( i should know better than to shop while hungry).  I totally fill the cart up, go to pay (ouch), and end up in a flare, kiss all of the fresh veggies and fruits good bye. Thats how it works for me.  I did start making soups and chillis in large amounts and freezing them.  Im vegetarian, and the cost of fresh veggies and fruits can be a strain.  I do alot of frozen veggies, i keep them on hand since they keep for a long while.  What us crohnies go thru huh?

If I plan on doing any cooking, I'll usually go and buy the stuff I need and then go home and cook that day. Then I eat what I want, save a little in the fridge for the next couple of days, and then freeze the rest. I've got an odd collection of things in there now lol. There have been too many times that I've thrown stuff away because I bought the ingredients, and didn't do the cooking right away. It really is a shame and a wate of money to do that. I for one can't afford it, and I hate to see money go down the drain.

On the topic of budgeting, my work offers a Flexible spending account along with my regular health insurance. I was calculating what I'd think I need on the flex account next year, and it floored me how much money I spend on medications alone, on top of doctor co-pays, deductibles, supplements, and OTC meds. I knew that I had undershot my flex account this year by quite a bit. After doing the math, I ended up tripling my contribution for next year, and that was UNDERESTIMATING and hoping for the best, because what I don't spend doesn't get refunded it just disappears into someone else's pockets.

LOL Sniper re: freezing the doctor bills... what a great idea!!

Gail, your diet sounds a lot like mine... other options are too expensive... and with at least 3 different issues going on at once (Pap test follow-ups, colonoscopy coming in spring, and needing to see dermatologist about a cyst), I can only imagine the mountain of bills... but like everything else, I guess they can only be handled one at a time.

So much for health...

Well my hubby and I had one of our cheap Indian box meals that we love but we picked a new kind to try and it was super spicey! But he already made it and we already paid for it so I sucked it up and ate it. I am sure I will pay later for this.

yeah, it is totally costing me more. now i see naturopath docs and they dont take insurance. also my food bill has tripled to quadrupled since i began the makers diet. however since the quality of my life has dramatically increased by making these two changes, i guess i cant complain too much.