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Skruffy
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How Has Your Life Changed Financially?
Skruffy
member
We have never been loaded but we've done ok. Until we had our baby who required a LOT of medical attention. So it seems like every spare penny we have had for the last 3 years has gone to medical bills. I feel like our lives would have been so different had my daughter not been born with a congenital heart defect. How have you dealt with the financial aspect of having a child who requires a lot of medical care and other expenses that other families don't have?
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Re: How Has Your Life Changed Financially?
It was a hard adjustment at first. We've pretty much written off nice family vacations or a new car or a big TV. We manage the day to day expenses but we know any luxury purchases are not possible and may never be.
Friends and family don't get it. And I've had to turn down a lot of invitations and travel plans because we simply can't afford to visit when they want us to.
I try not to make a big deal about it but it hurts to hear about other families going to Hawaii every winter- and they don't even need to save to do that.
No family vacations in the past year and a half. Can't afford the extra luxuries most people have. We were able to afford buying a new van, as both our past cars were over 10 years old and compact-not good or safe for hauling two little ones around.
Thankfully some of our financial burdens have lightened up a bit with our ds new insurance policy. Hopefully, we will rid of most of that debt that we have accrued for past medical bills when we get our tax returns back in the spring.
Dramatically, I'd say....going from 2 solid incomes to just 1 (and even that has been shaky due to the recession - H is a contractor). With all the therapies I just could not stay working unfortunately, although I liked being a working mom.
I am hoping to get back to work next year, though and get us back on our feet. Also hoping to have most of our OOP stuff behind us...but since this experience I've learned not to count on much, so we'll see.
Ugh, I don't even know where to start. I feel we are very blessed, because in general we can "afford" (i.e. we can come up with the money for) the therapy that DS needs. However, I really feel like it comes at a cost, particularly for DS #2. A lot of DS#1's therapy is covered by insurance or the school system and I've been trying to sort out what we are potentially looking at down the road, but it could be $0 or tens of thousands of dollars. Virtually impossible to plan for.
I think kids are expensive and parents will usually spend the absolute most they can afford on education, child care, etc. I think our issues just stretch that budget more than we would normally feel comfortable. I do try to remember that the most important thing is to save for our own retirement. It won't do any of us, any good for our kids to be trying to support us because we spent all our money on schools and therapists and now have no where to live. At least if we have a roof over our heads and a small income we can always take care of them. Its very hard.
Just before our LO was born, we purchased a house... last year... before the world went to financial hell and before 1/3 of my income was slashed (I'm scheduled for another slash in the New Year).
If we were still renting, we would be able to manage the medical bills better, but with the increase in home maintenance and the medical bills, I don't know what to do. DS came home a month ago, and I haven't even seen the bills from the hospital stay. I'm still struggling with the NICU bills.
How am I dealing..? I don't have a freakin' clue.