Medical bills

I'm feeling good as well as eh tonight: good because I've finally bounced back from a horrible five day streak of hacking, wheezing, and slurping on disgustingly sweet cough drops, and eh because I had to shell out big bucks at the doctor's office and pharmacy today. 

When I woke up this morning, just as congested and miserable as I'd been yesterday and the day before that and the day before that and the day before that, I finally admitted I needed to seek professional care. We went to the local walk-in clinic. The doctor was helpful - he diagnosed me with a severe allergy, which surprised me because I thought I just had a cold - but his help doesn't come cheap, and our insurance doesn't cover office visits (yes... we have cheap individual health insurance that barely covers the cost of a Bandaid, but that's a topic for another post). Then we spent over $100 at the pharmacy. The medication worked, so it was worth it, but wow. Money goes fast!

All in all, I estimate this one episode of sickness will cost us around $400 in total, at the least. 

I'm proud of the way we've paid for it, though. All the over-the-counter medicines, cough drops, etc. were purchased with our debit card. My doctor's visit will run through insurance before they send a bill (just in case my insurance company is in a generous mood), but when we do receive it, we will pay it right away - again by debit card. And as for the medication, I put that on my one active credit card that I maintain and pay off each month in an effort to make FICO happy. So all in all, the money is gone...but we won't be accumulating interest on it. It won't become part of our debt load.