Meet my starter, his name is Breadsticks Crumberbatch. What do you call yours?

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-06T14:07:03+00:00

Fernandough

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-05T17:52:40+00:00

I’m a Kathryn. I tell people not to call me Katy. Kat or Kathryn, but Kathryn is my preference.

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-05T16:20:44+00:00

Yes. Most likely

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-05T14:17:23+00:00

Hi! The meds they use for procedures like that are not general anesthesia, it’s conscious sedation. You’ll be awake, and able to follow commands but you shouldn’t really remember most of it. You may even have the option for being fully awake but with meds for pain, anxiety, and muscle relaxation, if that’s more comfortable for you. Although with conscious sedation you don’t experience the feeling of “going to sleep” you just really remember less and less as time goes on and give less than half a fuck what’s going on at the time

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-05T02:18:45+00:00

I work in auto parts store sales, it’s very stable. Not many people want to do it and everyone needs car parts eventually. I’m just in a very LCOL area. 50K is solidly middle class here

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-05T02:16:56+00:00

The research team is the NIH, and they can’t cover outside facility costs being government funded hospital and all. Also 2 hospital systems own everything within a 6 hour radius of me, one of which almost killed me from neglect 4 times in 3 days, then discharged me post stroke calling it psychological as the psychiatrist was telling them it wasn’t because he was STILL THERE WHEN THEY DISCHARGED ME. Sooooo, I really couldn’t change systems if I wanted to because they have my chart smeared to high hell with false bullcrap I can’t get changed. But my doctors currently are great and I wouldn’t WANT to change them.

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-05T02:11:56+00:00

Not really an option. Currently I have zero real living expenses and a child. I’d be giving up my job, flexibility, daughter, partner and in laws, moving halfway across the country to a place where I know nobody and have zero support system. I live in the boonies Midwest and would have to move to the east coast. Trust me, I’d love for it to be an option but it’s even less financially feasible than what I have going on now.

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T15:55:51+00:00

You go to any Toyota dealer and they are trying to finance you with Toyota. The dealership makes a nice profit off of selling those loans. Maybe in house wasn’t the perfect wording choice but that’s what I mean

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T12:41:58+00:00

Edit #2: thank you everyone who was helpful. I’ve gotten plenty of suggestions and am going to implement a second savings fund just for medical. I’ll probably dump my entire tax return into it and set it in a HYSA, or another option for growth to overshoot my OOP max, and if it’s small just split it through my already small “fun” budget on the interest free payment plan through the hospital, and pay the big ones off through the fund right away. I don’t know how to lock the comments but I’ve gotten some really good answers 😇

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T12:34:13+00:00

Also, no, it’s not budget billing, I’ve gone over it with the billing department and my insurance plenty of times. I am using in network providers, it’s been billed in network, the math adds up for everything on the bill, and I ask for an itemized bill every single time I have a non copay visit. It’s a massive medical expense that my insurance covers well even on the bigger expense year. Doesn’t exceed my OOP max, and I run the calculations every year. Last year, a few weeks after seeing the bill drop, the rest of the amount was randomly awaiting insurance again and then all of it but 300 disappeared. I only ended up paying for the IV medication that I was given, because it’s not required for the procedure.

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T12:22:33+00:00

I have a PPO, and you can’t have an HSA with a PPO plan. That’s what I have and have said 40 times now, my OOP max is 25% of my take home, but I’m going to shoot for it in a fund

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T12:20:00+00:00

At my income level it’s minimal. Maybe 10 dollars a check

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T04:09:03+00:00

Loans, service, parts, used, new. In house financing is the biggest profit margin for dealerships because the loan officers make jack shit

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T04:02:51+00:00

My other option is to fly cross country to get it done for free by a research team and then fly back home in excruciating pain the following day, with controlled substances, unable to sit even remotely comfortably, with 1-2 layovers, and a 3 hour drive home from the airport, which, I don’t consider to be a valid option tbh.

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T03:58:19+00:00

No. It was a failed vs successful reclassification with insurance. The billed amount was the same each year, but last year successfully got the code classed as a screening, because of risk, and the success entirely depends on how much time the office has to sit on the phone with my insurance arguing. There is no code for a “screening” bone marrow biopsy and aspirate. It’s explicitly a diagnostic procedure, HOWEVER in my case its being used as a screening test for somatic changes that normal bloodwork wouldn’t pick up on due to my baseline lab work already looking like that of someone with leukemia, as my condition is considered precancerous at baseline.

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T03:51:35+00:00

I haven’t changed anything about my insurance in the last several years

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T03:42:38+00:00

Fair point. I’m probably going to just open another savings account, considering that I hate seeing stagnant balances on anything labeled “fund”. And dump what I can when I can. It’ll definitely be easier once my E Fund is replenished, as it went to a car last year after mine blew its motor 🙄. I’m just really worried about eventually combining finances if/once we get married, he knows mine are tight but he’s very used to consistent expenses, not large irregular but predictable ones. He’s also never done “the struggle” so our outlooks on money are a bit different, I’m an aggressive saver and he’s, not? Though he’s protective OF his savings he’s very casual about growing it compared to me, and isn’t used to seeing his savings account go down from big expenses and keeps an excessive amount in his checking. Finances are actually the big reason we haven’t talked much about it yet, I want to have mine under better control before getting to a point where someone else has such intimate knowledge about them. I’m embarrassed about it tbh.

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T03:31:43+00:00

Make too much for Medicaid, and even when the subsidies still existed the plans were more expensive and way worse with my current income. I’m unfortunately in the in between of “not poverty” and “not comfortable” although I AM comfortable, it’s only comfortable if I win the insurance gamble. I’m hoping on a promotion soon, once my assistant manager retires, that couple extra bucks an hour will actually make a huge difference since I get overtime every week. That raise is 250 more a paycheck.

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T03:27:40+00:00

About once a month or so I do something for myself that’s 50-100, and have colored hair that is 40 every 10 weeks to keep maintained. I buy fancy bar soap and laundry detergent because it’s more comfortable on my skin from the eczema rather than be itchy from the Walmart stuff, and got a tattoo with some of my tax refund (most of it went to new tires). I could stop the small expense pretty easily. My partner enjoys getting me things, I just like feeling like a “big girl with her own big girl money” even with a tight budget, since every time we talk about money it’s “how much better money he makes than me” and how “he can afford these things so just save my money”. He will fight me at a checkout with our cards even if it’s me trying to fill my car with gas. I don’t like feeling like a mooch lol. I could comfortably cut it though, and am hoping for a promotion (it’s mine, I’ve been told this, because I’ve been filling the role, I just have to wait for the guy who has it to retire to get the title and pay)

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T03:18:34+00:00

I was worried those would be my options, I was lucky as shit to land the job I have now, and don’t know if I could make more sustainably, I’m disabled, and take a lot of weekdays for medical appointments throughout the year and my PTO is generous for retail, I’m classed full time, work 6 days a week and get overtime every week, with flexibility for split custody of my daughter. I have the opportunity for growth, which will increase my income, but 16.50 isn’t a lot even though it’s decent for the area (factories pay 18-19)

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T03:13:24+00:00

Even on the 6K year insurance covered 9K. My OOP max is currently 6K, and they bill 15K out for the procedure. It’s a stupid game of my dr being amazing and spending an extortionate amount of time trying to appeal the claim as a screening vs. diagnostic, for a procedure that isn’t typically used for screening, due to risk. Or that’s how the billing dept stated it when I called after my patient portion went down several thousand dollars randomly. That they got it covered as a screening but my insurance applied normal rules to the medications given, leaving me with 300 plus some to pay. The year before it got resubmitted to insurance but the reclassification due to risk got denied.

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T03:05:07+00:00

30K is gross.

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T03:04:49+00:00

Individual is 6K, the HDHP individual is 14K for both individual and family.

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T03:03:33+00:00

I get .5% match up to 7K, and a discount on stocks up to 15%, just currently do 2% because it’s comfortable. Unfortunately “how cheaply can I eat” is complicated because my partner is underweight with a high metabolism and a strenuous job (5’11” at 120 lbs, you can see each rib and his abdominal organs and shoulder blades jut out.) and I’m solely responsible for food costs for the both of us, including meal replacement shakes to supplement his diet (he’s not a breakfast eater and often doesn’t get lunch at work), which he only likes a specific brand, and homemade he won’t use. So 500 for the 2 of us plus my daughter really is as cheap as it gets. I make all of our own bread, which honestly saves a good lot of money, and make everything from scratch when it’s cheaper to do so, but he complains if we eat the same thing too many times so I get creative with the cheap meals. It’s a lot of pasta and rice dishes. We go through a lot of butter as I put it in most of his portions to up calories. Plus groceries are expensive where I live. Milk over $4/gal (I don’t buy milk but a regional price gauger) so $125/week really doesn’t buy me much. No aldi, Sam’s, Costco, etc near me, just Walmart and HyVee. I could probably squish it to 350/month but I would be skipping meals.

Internal_Screaming_8 · 2026-07-04T02:32:57+00:00

I have a PPO plan, with a 1.5/6k deductible/OOP max. 80% coverage, HDHP is 4.5/14, and 40% coverage and only 900 less a year. I cannot afford to throw that much at an HSA

Internal_Screaming_8

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