Raising Money

ritacita · October 2014

I know everyone's situation is a little different, but I want to hear the ways that you saved/raised/made money for treatments. I'm just a tiny bit desperate at the moment and will try just about anything to get at least 6K by December...yikes, sounds worse when I type it out. Anyway, if you have any ideas please send them my way!

lisa89760 · October 2014

We've had to cut back because we are paying our IUI's with cash. We just put it in the budget so our entertainment budget went down.

LindseyM2012 · October 2014

I can certainly empathize with the money concerns. I started an unpaid internship last month so I can now only work part time. We cut expenses - our main one was lunches and dinners out. Delivery pizza became frozen or homemade pizza, boxed rice & cous cous became bulk white rice, etc.

I feel fortunate because my husband is also a professional poker player, aside from his 9-5 so he has upped his poker hours which makes us a lot of extra money.

ETA: @daydreamsam - How the heck do you only spend $250 a month on groceries? It is only my husband and I (and a dog) and we spend $400. Please share your strategy??

Shauntee · October 2014

Our community had a HUGE garage sale twice a year. The Octber one was last weekend. We put stuff our to sell. Also, like PP, we have cut back on our "luxuries" like eating out. We always make extra dinner so we have left overs for lunch the next day. That helps to save on the money we spend on lunch. We also carpool to work.

ritacita · October 2014

LindseyM2012 said:

ETA: @daydreamsam - How the heck do you only spend $250 a month on groceries? It is only my husband and I (and a dog) and we spend $400. Please share your strategy??

I second that @daydreamsam! My husband and I also spend about $400 on groceries a month, granted, we shop at Whole Foods, but still. Teach me your ways!

dancerspose · October 2014

@DaydreamSam that is impressive. We buy a lot of our groceries in bulk (frozen meats), which helps us contain our costs.

I don't really have anything to add since we're just starting to look at how much we'll need to save/what we're willing to spend, but I am learning from the tips. One thing I have been considering though is trying to use ebay to get rid of some of my hobbies that I spent a lot on but did not keep up with. For instance, I went through a big Stampin Up phased when DH was deployed because I'd get together with the wives and do it. I had disposable income then and spent a fortune buying stamps, ink, supplies - most of them have NEVER been used. I don't have any experience selling stuff on ebay, but I may try it since it's all just sitting there collecting dust.

martinisandmedicine · October 2014

I started taking on a lot of extra work.

emmuffy · October 2014

Cut out saving for retirement, vacations, clothes, entertainment. My parents have also been generous in contributing to my IVF cycle (they volunteered once I told them I was going ahead with IVF... I wouldn't have asked). Good luck!

theholmanherd · October 2014

I second @DaydreamSam‌. We are really careful about food. And we buy mostly organic for about the same price (our area has a low COL and a high amount of organic farmers, so organics are much more available than the average city. The pricing is kept pretty competitive because there are so many grocery store options). I spend $200/month most months and about twice a year, I add an extra $100 for spices, oils, herbs, and organic meat to be stocked up on. We eat mostly vegetarian, and what meat we do have is usually chicken.

Also, we put in our budget what we save. We have a zero-based budget (see Dave Ramsey), so every dollar gets a name on paper before the month begins. Any "extra" or unforeseen income goes into savings.

LindseyM2012 · October 2014

Thanks @ritacita for starting this discussion. Wonderful tips for all of us to learn from each other. I would love to shop at Whole Foods if it wasn't so expensive. I do go there when I buy steaks though. Otherwise, I can't justify the expense. And some things from there taste "too real" for my husband (he likes his processed food lol).

@emmuffy - How amazing your parents volunteered to do that for you! That would be a great reason to tell people about what is going on with IF issues. As difficult as it is to share it with people and as much as people don't understand, I'm sure you'd be surprised by some people's generosity and support.

@hrushka - Yes, my husband is a bada## He was full time pro for years before we got married. He was quite successful, but he felt like he needed to provide us with more stable income when we got married.

@daydreamsam - WOW! That is a huge savings for you! Very impressive! Thank you for the tips. I'm going to have to try doing more prep work for my shopping trips and shopping around.

LindseyM2012 · October 2014

rainbowbridge14 said:

DH also has an FSA through his work which we have run through this year, but we will max out the contribution next year so that we can use that as well.

This too! I forgot...I just enrolled in FSA/HSA for next year. I figure if I'm still going through treatments in the new year, this will certainly help, but even if I get my BFP before January (goodness, I'm hoping so) this account will help with pregnancy related costs.

BunnyBerry · October 2014

Since we'd been unsuccessfully TTCing for almost 3 years before moving back to the US, we knew some expenses were coming and tried to plan long-term.

We lived upstairs at my parents' (as in, a bedroom up the stairs and across the hall from my brother) for 2 years while saving for a house.
We put down 50% on the littlest, cheapest (but sturdiest) house we could find in a beautiful, safe, convenient neighborhood and put in a ton of sweat equity the first summer (put in a needed new kitchen, it's a $20k kitchen at least but cost us $10k).
We have no car (which is hard - I live in a suburb and work in the city). DH gets a free bus pass as a college student, and I buy one. Our house is in a lucky spot walkable to 4 bus lines, grocery stores, etc.
We have no television, just internet and an Amazon Prime account. Just one cheap laptop for DH (I have one from work). I used a basic (non-smart) phone on my family's plan until dad just sweetly bought be a smart phone last week! Cheapest internet we can get.
Coupon cutting. Since the school year is too busy for me to comparison shop, before September we gathered coupons and ads and stocked up to a year's worth of things like shampoo, toothpaste, TP, etc. and also the cereal I eat every day.
Nice dates only 1x/month (nice is relative - we never spend more than $40 but it's always lovely). Occasional treats (go out for ice cream or something) when we feel like it so we don't feel deprived and then splurge.
DH lived and worked here a year before starting college so he could get the resident rates. He begs, borrows and steals his textbooks.
Shorter showers, high efficiency lightbulbs, close off unused rooms to heat, low heat especially at night (64 daytime, 55 when we're not home or at night).
Grow our own veggie garden (saved even the first year when we had to invest a bit).
Buy everything on a credit card that earns airline miles, which translates into 6% cash back when turned into tickets to China. (We pay off in full every month.) This allowed DH to visit his parents for like a $50 fee instead of a $2500+ ticket last winter.
Gifts for any occasion are things we needed anyway - winter boots, face cream, graphing calculator, whatever.
We completely stopped decorating our house or furniture shopping except for cheap garage sale finds. This summer we got a set of glasses for $2, an almost-new recliner for $25, a new table lamp for $2, a Chinese vase for $4, etc.
I cut down to an approximately 40-hanger closet - got rid of anything that didn't fit, flatter, feel good, etc. and buy only high quality pieces on good sales that mix and match to fill it out.
I work my butt off tutoring Saturdays and Sundays while also teaching full time (for both jobs, I demanded a salary/wage I deserved and got it).
DH worked 25 hours/week for the first 3 years we were here in the US, before his school became impossibly difficult, so that was straight up savings (although now he had to quit to do full time engineering classes).

SND1231 · October 2014

I coupon for groceries.. I spend about $250-300 per month for my husband and I (which includes organic healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day...) We also do not have any cable- we use netflix and hulu and play it through my husbands PS4, I work a part time job and pick up as many hours as I can ( I am a full time student). I also make wreaths, and random craft things to pick up a little extra. We also don't have car payments or any debt besides our house... That is just from budgeting and living strictly on that budget. It hasn't been easy but we have a nice amount saved up even though my hubby just had to get a new (used) car as his broke down..

mshandlebar · October 2014

@lemonliz and @JlambertJen‌ We have never had cable, (even before IF). Back then we used to go to bars to watch games, but now we borrow MIL's ESPN login, so we can watch it off our Apple TV. We share hulu, netflix and amazon prime the same way throughout the family. Everyone pays for one and we all use it. It helps to save a little money. So, you should see if you have anyone willing to share. Other than that we budget everything. I keep an extremely detailed excel sheet that runs till the end of year and plugged in IF treatments. I adjust how much we can spend each week on groceries and other based on that. We were grad students on no income for a looong time, so we've always lived frugally. Now that we both work we try to maintain that level and put the rest in the IF account. I hate that money plays into this already stressful situation!

BandM14 · October 2014

@DaydreamSam‌ You are seriously inspiring me. I'm pretty good about budgeting most things but I literally SUCK when it comes to the grocery store... Not even kidding when I say I spent almost 250 yesterday and only enough food for about a week. I'm going to make it my mission to cut down on food spending ASAP! We aren't OOP for treatments yet but will be if we go to IVF, so better to start saving now.

This is a great thread, thanks for all of the helpful tips ladies!

Chasity08 · October 2014

We cut cable and replaced it with netflix. Costs us $7.00 per month instead of $70. We started shopping at Aldis which cut our budget in half. Our grocery budget is now $300 per month for 3 people, 2 dogs and 2 cats. My husband also started donating plasma. It takes him about 2.5 hours per week between 2 days and it brings in $285 per month. So between everything (the plasma, savings on cable and savings on groceries) we have an extra $550 or so per month to pay to the RE.

I also do photography on the side, so any time I book a side job that goes straight in to the IF fund as well.

Good luck!

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