It has been four weeks since my husband had his surgery and one week since we got the bill for it. Well, we only got the hospital bill, not the doctor or anesthesiologist bill yet.
The total bill from the hospital for four days of stay was $19,000. Add to that the doctor charge for performing surgery and follow up appointments and whatever the anesthesiologist kicks in and we are looking at more than $2,000 in out of pocket just for this event. All in all we are looking at around $5,000 in medical expenses this year. This assuming nothing major happens between now and the end of the year. My youngest is supposed to have a small procedure in July but that’s already accounted for. That’s $5,000 from our own pocket. Have I mentioned to you that we are a single income family? Sigh.
At the beginning of the year we set our Health Savings Account to accumulate over the year around $3,200. Because we have realized that we will be short when we compare what we put aside to what we will end up paying, we are increasing our contributions to this account for this month only. Since this is the month my husband gets three paychecks, he has adjusted them to contribute to his HSA an additional $600 per paycheck.
So I went back to the drawing board, adjusted our budget and it seems we may make it without touching any savings. I can’t even count on the tax rebate money because that’s all accounted for.
So, let’s let this post serve as our financial update for the past month and the month forward. In summary:
- The medical bills are killing us. Need to increase contributions to HSA.
- Plans of saving in a Roth IRA for my husband started, but saving only half of what I initially wanted.
- Cash savings during the month of May halted, but will be resumed in June. Savings in 529s continue. Savings for the down payment of a car continue.
- Here are the good news: our house payment is going down since the mortgage company overshot it’s escrow calculation last year. No debt has been incurred. I am making small money using coupons, this helps our monthly budget.
Coming: The demons in my head: should I go back to work?
