Cold medicine on a budget

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Last week I was pretty happy that I hadn’t gotten the cold that Stephen and little S had. Apparently I was a bit too cocky too soon, because it hit me yesterday.

Unfortunately, although we had cold medicine in the house, none of it was approved for pregnancy. When Stephen got home from work, I headed for CVS. I still had a few Extra Care Bucks left over from a great sale/coupon deal a week or so ago, so I figured I’d get generic medicine and see if I could get it for as little out of pocket as possible. As far as cash was concerned, there was only a dollar in my purse so I really had motivation to be careful.

The cold medicine was cheaper than I anticipated, so I grabbed a box of tissues. It still wasn’t enough to meet my ECB amount. Since I couldn’t remember anything else we needed around the house, I headed for the makeup and picked up a lip gloss similar to the one that I use all the time that is almost gone. It still wasn’t enough. Then I went to the candy aisle, found a HUGE Symphony bar, totalled it up in my head, and headed to check out.

After the cashier rang everything up, it STILL wasn’t enough to use my ECB. The thing about it is that they can’t complete the transaction if it ends in the negative, so you have to buy enough merchandise to bring the balance up. Even if it’s only a few cents. So I grabbed a bag of M&M’s, thinking they would be enough – but they were on sale (on bummer, lol!) and still didn’t bring the balance out of the negative.

By the time I walked out of the store, I had bought a package of cold medicine, a box of tissues, lip gloss, a Symphony bar, and four bags of M&M’s. My total out of pocket expense was $.19. That definitely made me happy!

S doesn’t know it, but there’s a bag on the kitchen counter with chocolate in it for him to enjoy later. It was so much fun to be able to get treats like that for my family!

I’m thankful for the way that God provided – I know everyone gets sick at some time or another, but it was nice not having to buy the medicine and pay a whole lot for it!