Green Minded Wallet

With the ever-increasing cost of gas, many people have been offering tips on how to make your gas go just a little bit farther. I thought that I would share some tips that, if I followed, would likely increase my fuel efficiency.

1. When traveling for a particular purpose, make sure to bring any items that you may need. For example, if you are going to the store, bring your wallet. If you are going to the laundromat, remember to bring laundry detergent.

2. If you have a meeting or event, make sure you know the day, time, and location. If you don’t you will waste time and money on travel, plus you will feel silly when you arrive a week early for the party.

3. If your car is prone to be a victim of hit-and-runs and as such has pieces dangling from it, make sure to secure them firmly and re-inforce them from time to time. I don’t have the scientific evidence to back it up, but from firsthand experience it would seem that having pieces of your bumper scraping the highway at 70+ mph causes a loss of fuel efficiency. I find duct tape and string to be relatively inexpensive, yet invaluable for this purpose.

Any tips that you would like to share?

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A couple of months back, I mentioned that one of my prescriptions (Zyrtec) had gone over-the-counter and generic and as a result my co-pay went from $14 for a 30-day supply (brand name) to $7 for a 30-day supply (generic). However, when I was at the allergist the other day he told me that there were some stores that were selling the generic version (cetirizine) for really cheap. So I did some investigating and found that I could get a 350-day supply for just under $33 through Amazon (including shipping). With a $14 co-pay the cost was roughly 47 cents per pill, at $7 it’s 23 cents per pill, and at Amazon it’s now 9 cents per pill!

What’s even better is that the generic I bought is actually the Sam’s club brand and Costco has a popular generic as well. Sam’s Club charges $17.12 for the 350-day supply, while Costco.com charges $15.99 for a 300-day supply. These prices are approximately 5 cents per pill but don’t include shipping or tax. One nice thing about the Sam’s Club version is that there are two bottles (with 175 pills each) so you could split it with friends. However Sam’s Club requires that you have a membership, while Costco charges a 5% surcharge to non-members for online orders. I went the Amazon route since I don’t have a wholesale club membership and I’m not really sure that I would use one (I figured the discount for one item really wasn’t worth it). Still, over the course of a year I will save about $140 over the brand name co-pay and I think that, is a pretty good deal.

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Do you remember when the idea of a college or graduate student was someone occupying a small room in a house, eating pasta and ramen, and commuting to school on an old beater bike? What happened to that idea - because seriously many of the students around me seem very ‘bling’ed out: triathlon bikes, BMWs, fancy restaurants, etc. I know that some students work, but given the increasing cost of gas, food, and tuition it doesn’t seem like there would be a lot left over for such fancy toys. As a student myself, it just bewilders me. While I realize I might be able to afford fancier items it would come at the cost of giving, saving, and debt (student loan) reduction. Personally, I’d rather have those and the self-discipline that comes with them, than a few shiny depreciating assets at this stage of my life. My philosophy is that this is probably the time (or one of the times) I will be making the least amount of money in my adult life; if I can be responsible now, I will have a lot more fun in the future when I do make more money and I don’t have to spend it paying off old debt. While I certainly don’t advocate eating lots of enriched starches or living with questionable strangers if you can afford not to (and it’s not your preference), I think that there’s a rather thick line between a beat-up Huffy and a new Cervelo.

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So, I mentioned awhile back that I was currently paying $14/mo for each of my three prescriptions. Well I found out that one of my allergy medications recently started being sold over the counter, and since I know that some insurance companies stop covering medications once they are sold over the counter I went to our school pharmacy to find out if my insurance would still cover it. The over-the-counter cost at a local pharmacy is around $19/mo so if I had to pay for it out of pocket it would cost an extra $5 more per month. But it turns out the our student insurance will still cover the medicine if you buy the generic with a prescription (the generic became available the same time that the medication went over-the-counter), so instead of paying $5 more per month I get to pay $7 less! I think that I will take my new-found savings and put it towards the ‘additional medical costs’ category in my budget.

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Would you ever considering switching a prescription to save money. If so what would be the deciding amount? Depending on the health care plan that you have you can pay a wide range for prescription drugs especially if you’re on a plan that uses a formulary. I know that not all drugs are the same but would you ever consider trying out a different drug if you knew that unlike the one that you’re on, the alternative drug is available in a generic form. Personally I’ve considered it a time or two but haven’t really followed through with it because I currently don’t pay a lot for my medicines. Right now I’m on three daily medicines, none of which have a generic alternative, and so I pay $14/month for each one. Alternatively generic drugs on our student plan cost $7/month.

Two of the prescriptions are for common medications that I know have generics in other product lines, however for prescription one the medicine I have works and so I’m afraid that if I switch it might not work as well and in the time it takes me to switch back I will feel quite ill. The second drug is an allergy medicine that I was upgraded to this past spring because even on other allergy medications I wasn’t getting a lot of relief. However I also started allergy shots this spring and so I am hoping that by next spring when I am done with the build-up phase I might be able to go back to the old drug since my symptoms should be less severe. Also, my third medication is also allergy related (I also have a few other seasonal medications that I take as well), so I have the potential for dropping it completely, at least during the off-season, if my shots work well. Even if I kept the third medication and switched to generics for the first two I would have a potential savings of $168/year. I’m just not really sure if it’s worth it. Also since my fellowship provides free health insurance through the student health center, these are basically my only medical costs with the exception of once or twice a year visits to my allergy specialist (new serum) and a $10 copay for a flu shot (which used to be free). I will say though that when I worked for the government I switched insurance companies because the first company had a hideous tiered formulary – they were charging me $45/mo for a generic allergy medication (versus the standard $15/mo) because they felt that over-the-counter Claritin was equivalent (which it was not). The difference for that prescription alone was enough to make it worth going to a different insurance company that had a higher premium but only charged $5/mo for the generic version of my allergy medication, saving me $40/mo on one prescription alone.

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So Tuesday and Wednesday I had two totally free days, and by that I mean that I didn’t consciously purchase a single thing: no trips to the grocery store, no snacks out of the vending machine, nothing. I didn’t do it intentionally on Tuesday, I just realized it as I was riding the bus home. On Wednesday, I thought that I would break my streak, because there are a couple of things that I wanted to pick up, but other circumstances prevailed and I didn’t get a chance to go to the store. I had to be a little creative for dinner, but it wasn’t too hard as I, like most Americans, have a cupboard that’s far from empty. My streak ended Thursday as I went to the grocery store and picked up a few items. Since Friday is dollar-burger day and Saturday is the farmer’s market, I don’t foresee anymore free days this week, but hey it was fun while it lasted. I really enjoyed having a fews days without consumption, even though the first one was accidental. Personally, I get so used to just running down the street to the store whenever I need anything, that I often don’t bother to use the what I have in stock. This whole experience has encouraged me to think about having a short moratorium in grocery shopping.  Since I have gone a little bit over budget this first half of the month, I’m curious as to what I could easily make with what I have in my cabinets. Hmm, perhaps I will have to investigate and see what I can do.

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