How I saved over $3,000 at the pharmacy this week…

Just this week I have had my entire three month checkups at three different doctors and of course medications were involved.  Well the copay's are fresh and new since it is a new year and WOW was I surprised when I got to the pharmacy.   There were refills for Ryan’s medication as well.

1st ask your doctor’s office if they have the coupon cards, most of my doctors have given me the cards which is what has turned me on to the programs that I started using.

So I have been using here and there medication prescription savings cards here and there and I have decided that I need to do this for all my medication since money is tight and seems to be getting tighter every day.  I have enrolled in a few simples steps in most of my medication and am still searching for the rest of the medication that the family takes online.

The first step is to Google the name of your medication and the word coupon.  So in the search engine box it will be “Enbrel coupon” or whatever medication you take fills in the underlined spot. Then look for the website that will take you to the medications webpage.  NOT anything else just the medication’s web page. 

Visit Us Online & Save Up To 75%.

ENBREL® (etanercept)

www.enbrel.com/

Visit the Official Website For Financial Support Information.

Click to see full safety and prescribing information, including boxed warning. More info

When you get to the right page look for discount card, promo card, coupon, or problem paying for prescriptions?  Then sign up for the card.  You can usually print out a temporary card right then and take it to the pharmacy to use.  Most have a huge savings.  Enbrel has given me the best savings so far.  

Without insurance Enbrel for 4 weeks’ worth of medication cost $2655.99, with our insurance our deductible was $650.00 which was out of our budget but Ryan still needed it.  With our Enbrel Support Card, our copay was $0.00 for the first prescription and then I think we pay under $50.00 a month for a year.  We can sign up every year.  

I turned in other medication cards and they racked up. Apriso I saved $378.99 was the original cost, our copay was $97.00 and I paid $0.00, Nuvigil our cost was $497.99 our copay was $194.00 and with the card I paid $0.00.

With just these 3 prescriptions I have saved with no insurance taken into count, $3532.97 our copay would have been $941.00 but what I actually paid was $0.00.

This is not anything that you can’t do.  I promise. If you are reading this on the internet, you can do a search and find the medication you take and get a card if the medication has one.

 

  **Disclaimer** not every medication has one, but those that do will make a huge difference in your budget.  

Butterfly hugs and lilac dreams to all.

Science Fair for the kids

I have three kids in public school and in Maryland it is a requirement that they participate in the science fair.  It is like 30 percent of their grade for the semester WHAT!!!  Anyway, with my sophomore he is being home taught so he is off the hook this year so I am helping both of my fourth graders.  What in the world have I gotten myself into?

We decided, well I decided that we would do something practical that would benefit the family to save money.  We are trying to figure out which laundry soap works the best and which trash bag holds the most weight without tearing.  This way they get a science project and I find out if I am spending my money wisely.  Win for the kids and win for me right?  NOT!

We have spent the last three weekends working on these projects.  They did a rough draft of what they wanted to do and how they thought it would actually work the first weekend.  Hours of them writing and bring it to me and trying to get them to understand that you have to measure the trash bags weight by pounds and not ounces.  My stars we would be there measuring for a year.  

The second weekend I had them finalize the rough draft so that I knew what supplies I needed to buy and make sure that we had everything on hand and everything was ready for this weekend so that we could actually do the projects and have time this week to print the pictures and type the project up and next weekend we will have time to put it on the boards.  Sounds like a great plan right?

HA!!  Did my J tell me something?  After making sure that they pinned the rough drafts to the cork board in my office so that I knew where they were and they would not get lost he decided that it needed to be at school.  So the two weekends we spent working on this project and making sure it would go off without a hitch and Mee Mee was here to help him with it, he doesn’t have it at home.  To top it all off it is a four day weekend and we are stuck redoing the entire thing.  

Well not me.  I have enough of my own homework that I told him it is now up to him.  He spent most of the day rewriting the entire project and it is nowhere as complete as the other one.  Yews I know he can get it tomorrow and work this week on it, but we have to complete the project today.   It is 50 degrees and tomorrow it will be a high of 23.  I am not raking any leaves in 20 degree weather.  Oh, that’s right we are using leaves to measure the weight in the trash bags.  I couldn’t figure out how to use duplicate trash :)

So N’s project worked like a champ.  We put stains on samples of t-shirts and worked through two types of laundry soap and let me tell you Surf powder is the absolute best way to go.  She doesn’t see it yet but it by far removed 90 percent of the ketchup stain where Method (Target brand) liquid maybe removed about 40 percent.  Her project is going to work great.  I now know I am spending my laundry soap money wisely.

My camera battery died just a we finished N’s project so I am charging the battery before we go and complete J’s project so I will have to let you know how that goes tomorrow.  Have a fabulous day and enjoy the weather if it is nice where you are today.

Butterfly hugs and lilac dreams to all.

Breaking Dawn Part 2 DVD release

I am so excited to see the new Breaking Dawn movie and especially excited to see that is is on sale early.  You can pre order it and have it delivered to your door the day it comes out.  I love ordering from Amazon. 

Click on the link and place your order :)

Sick kids ICK!!

This is only Monday and already I have one that is home sick with a fever and one that is having a bad day of chronic pain with Psoriatic Arthritis.  We have had drizzle, damp and foggy days for the past 4 or 5 days and the dampness does nothing for those of us with chronic pain.  It is one thing for us as a parent to have pain but when we have a child in agony we don’t know what to do.  Our hands are pretty much tied and we can only depend on the doctors to tell us what their best educated guess is.

I have already decided that my house is going on lock down for tomorrow since I have one with a fever.  I am scared of the flu for the simple reason that a child with a low immune system can’t handle it.  I have covered the remote controls with saran wrap and am sanitizing door knobs, toilet knobs, and even faucet knobs.  

I am sending hubby out for the usual ginger ale, crackers, chicken for chicken soup, etc…  I am usually prepared with all this stuff but we haven’t had any common colds in a while so we had no use for these things.  While N has a fever she seems to be doing fine, just stuffy and headachy and over all yucky.  Ry is not feeling well at all, although he got in the tub and soaked for a while and seems to feel a little better.

Even though we are working through this we will make it through another round of the sickie’s, and this too shall pass I hope anyway especially with no one else getting anything.  We have to stay positive and support each member of the family.  And above all we have to get better by the weekend for MeeMee to come and see everyone.  

That’s all the time I have at the moment, I need to figure out something for dinner since everyone is not feeling their best tummies, hmmmm maybe grilled cheese and tomato soup.

Butterfly hugs and lilac dreams to all.

When you are feeling blah…

This weekend we have had foggy, drizzly and generally blah weather.  The kids have been pretty much stuck inside since they are working on their science projects, and I have one with the sniffles and the yuckies.  Poor little N, she is feeling stuffy and generally BLAH.

This morning she has a low grade fever and with the flu going around I am now on diligent watch since we have a 16 year old with a very weak immune system sue to his chronic illness and the medication he is on.  N has had the flu shot and it is rare that she gets sick, she may get a very mild cold once a season and she had that already, so hopefully it is just the yuck.  I am down on the only medication the helps relieve her stuffy head so it is off to the store I go.

Since the weather is so drizzly it is causing my body to react, but as you know a mom is never allowed to languish in bed and rest.  Although I have to be fair and say that if I would allow myself to do so my hubby would go to the store for me.  But since hubby and I also have eye appointments this afternoon we are going to go and get our eyes checked and pick up medicine at the same time.

The two youngest have to participate in the science fair in our county, the school system requires it.  So being who I am wanted to go elaborate and si-fi, but with the limitations and the teacher stressing that it has to show the kids work did I back off and let them decide so we are going semi simple.  We are deciding which trash bag can hold the most trash, or leaves in this instance, and which laundry detergent can clean the best.  Seems almost too simple, until they were writing the procedure what a process that is, even though the kids are supposed to do the project, the adults end up doing a lot of the work, when they are in the younger grades.

So enough about our weekend drama, let’s talk about how you are feeling.  Are you getting up and stretching at least every hour?  I find that I am sitting too long, so I now time myself by the shows on television.  At the end of the show I make myself get up and do a chore.  Start a load of laundry, wipe down the bathroom sink, make the bed, dust or even just walk to the other end of the house and do some light stretches.  You will feel better in the long run.

Alright, I gotta make lunch for the family so you all have a fabulous weekend and I will see you soon.

Butterfly hugs and lilac dreams to all.

Frugal Living Class January 28, 2013

Tired of spending an enormous amount of money on cleaning supplies? Devote a few minutes of your time and make your own cleaning products with ingredients you already have around your house. You will learn how to make high end cleaning products as well as laundry detergent, air fresheners, and many more. You will take home the cleaners that you make.

Mon: Jan 28 6:00-7:00pm

Registration Deadline: Jan 21 Resident Fee: $10; Non-Resident: $15

4990 Indian Head Hwy, Indian Head (General Smallwood Middle School)

For details or to register, please call 301-743-3020

On-line registration available at www.charlescountyparks.com

Contact Charles County Parks and Recreation to register for this class.