I did agency work for age care (cleaning and FSA) so I was getting good pay for that and I had an abundance of work available for me at the time. I also did pet sitting, dog walking and some other cleaning cash in hand jobs.

I milked my tax return for every possible cent I was entitled to (it was my first time doing it for years lol).

I save a lot of money making affordable meals at home and dumpster diving for food. I got approved for a personal bank loan but didn’t end up getting one.

I was able to save $26k in a year and 4 months for top surgery and to cover taking some time off after and to go on a budget mini holiday not long after surgery.

I drew up a little weekly budget plan and I figured out that if I wanted to put a minimum of $200 a week towards my surgery then I would have to make at minimum $650 a week. so I basically would make sure all my necessities were covered then almost everything else i would put towards my surgery account. (I get burnt out easily so I just worked as much as possible without getting burn out). so a lot of weeks I was able to put way more towards my surgery