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Paying out of pocket

Three months at a time versus monthly

Started 29 April 2025 · 15 replies · 161 hearts · read 2k times

ZoëHackney, UK · 29 April 2025
about a year ago

Three months at a time versus monthly — putting it in its own thread so it does not get lost in the check-in.

This is the boring administrative kind of problem, which I gather is the kind that actually gets solved.

The total across a year is a much bigger number than the monthly one and I have only just made myself look at it properly.

I am asking here rather than anywhere else because nobody on this site is selling anything, which matters more than usual on this subject.

Three months is the honest figure, taken from the two-line diary I keep rather than from memory, and memory had it lower.

If anybody has a template or a form of words that worked, I would be extremely grateful for it.

54

HettieLancaster, UK
#1

The thing I underestimated was how the cost affects the decision-making. I was reluctant to raise problems because of what a change might cost.

11

LlianCarmarthen, UK
#2

Zoë, I have been where you are and I would rather say so than stay quiet.

My experience is that this got easier once I had a plan for a year rather than reacting month to month.

7

GavinDundee, UK
#3

Building on what Llian wrote rather than answering the original question.

What helped was somebody here being completely frank about their own numbers, which gave me permission to look properly at mine.

9me too 6

PetraFacilitatorMelbourne, Australia
#4

I want to say plainly that there is no shame in any of the situations described on this page, including the one that has not been described yet.

16

KateBelfast, NI
#5

Something practical: I set up a separate account for it, which sounds excessive and means I always know where I stand.

11

IlyaAlmaty, KZ
#6

My review appointments cost money too, and building those into the annual figure changed my sense of the total considerably.

13

NadirCasablanca, MA
#7

Reading and nodding. Nothing to add, and I wanted you to know somebody had read it.

10

OttoPrague, CZ
#8

What Nadir described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

The thing nobody mentions is the ancillary costs, which in my case added up to more over a year than I had allowed for.

11

MoBradford, UK
#9

Gently disagreeing with Otto, or rather adding the other half of it.

My honest position is that this is expensive and I have chosen it, and I do not need anybody to reassure me about that.

10

GwennoPwllheli, UK
#10

What I found is that the cheapest route was not the most reliable, and I paid slightly more for something that did not run out.

7me too 8

SaffHastings, UK
#11

Gwenno said something I want to sit with for a second.

Something that helped was writing down what it buys me, in plain terms, which made the annual figure feel like a decision rather than a drain.

9

ZoëHackney, UK
#12

My prescriber was completely unembarrassed by the money conversation, which made it much easier than I had expected.

7

HettieLancaster, UK
#13

The comparison shopping is worth doing once a year and not worth doing every month, in my experience.

13

PetraFacilitatorMelbourne, Australia
#14

Facilitator note: I am leaving this open because the renewal season is coming and it will be more useful then than now.

17

GavinDundee, UK
#15

What I got wrong was not budgeting for the first six months properly, because that period cost more than the steady state does.

10me too 9