Tell All Tuesday - First Round of Bills Done
I had my CT scan a month and a bit ago, which was completely unremarkable and showed nothing amiss. If I get a similar result from the colonoscopy next month I assume we’ll just wait and see if my symptoms return and to what level of severity (I have been symptom free for a few weeks now). But that doesn’t mean the fun is over, for I had the bills from the CT scan to pay. This past week I paid both the hospital bill (~$1000) and the radiologist’s bill (~$50). I also have a bill for labwork from my doctor for about $12 that I haven’t received yet (nice that once the deductible is met my bills become so small). But, basically, I’ve paid the bills for the CT scan, so we can start to move forward. My emergency fund is back to $1000, and we’re continuing the half debt/half savings plan until the colonoscopy is paid for as well.
So our debt repayment amounts are the same as last week, and we have paid off about 40% of our original debt (as of last June). This past week I received some payments from surveys, as well as some advertising revenue and my paycheck from taekwondo. All in all, I have about $650, of which $325 will go to the student loan payoff fund and the other $325 will go to our savings account. I don’t know how much the colonoscopy will be out of pocket, but I do know I won’t be paying that until at least July. We may decide to go to taekwondo world championships at the end of June, and by our estimates in gas and lodging that would cost about $600-$800. All in all, the next two months look to be expensive. But based on the amount I’ve been working, both for taekwondo and tutoring, it should end up being doable.
Oh, and a week from Friday I get my wisdom teeth out. Can’t forget that one. I already have the $155 we will owe for that procedure put aside for that. Thank goodness my dental insurance company
decided to cover it.
On to next week - since I can only pay the student loan once a month, I don’t see anything big happening on the debt reduction front, but you never know. And I get paid by taekwondo again Friday so that should boost my savings numbers a bit.
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May 27th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
I just want you to know that you were one of my big inspirations when deciding to start my own PF blog. I am currently working my way through your archives (I am in October!) and love your candidness. I am currently making decent progress, but I know I have lots to learn - keep up the good work!
May 28th, 2008 at 1:52 am
In many ways it does feel like medical bills can be money wasted, especially when no diagnosis is found. I just got the results for my MRI, and need knee surgery (waaaa). So indeed while frustrating, eliminating possible issues is expensive, but I am happy your results say everything is normal health wise for you.
May 28th, 2008 at 9:05 am
It’s kind of a hassle and I don’t know if you want to do it, but it should be possible to make an extra payment without advancing the due date on your student loan. After the payment posts, contact the lender and tell them to reapply the payment to principal only (they may insist on paying the accrued interest and then applying the remainder to principal). When paying down my private student loans, I did this every month, using my lender’s contact form on their web page. It took just a minute or two, and in a few days, I would receive an email telling me that my request had been completed.
I’m glad your test results have been negative!
May 29th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Terrifying bills! Maybe they’re scaring the ailment out of you?
Glad to hear you’re feeling better and so far nothing has shown up in the tests. Maybe it was a passing thing that will just go away.