I'll take your Audible account and raise you my Cleaners

Good news!!!!

Yesterday, I straightened out the giant mess of NHS induction stuff all for 25.00 to rush the order and some outright begging.

Second, I ordered the first of 14 ivf meds and have contacted several other mail order pharmacies. For some reason I thought they were all coming from the same place. I needed to repeat all my insurance info so many times that I'm going to star in Memento 2 and just tattoo it on my forehead.

Third, I got in touch with the hospital clinic for my progesterone injections while in Cambridge, MA in July. This is a huge component to being able to keep my spot. Still alot to coordinate but it's been through the kindness of strangers that this is working out. Fingers crossed that I will NEED to be taking them!

One of the things we are doing since the lay off is talking over what expenses we can cut. Some decisions like not going to a concert or taking a summer cooking class are no-brainers. Others like listing what is most important to pay for medical wise since our flex med account just ran out and we have some staggering bills to come in the next months are much harder.

In usual fashion the decision making involved a list of most to least important.

Going- my cleaners, hiring someone to powerwash our deck/porch, cut plants for summer beds by 1/2, Audible, HBO come June 1st, eating out more than once on the weekends (and setting a dollar amount), a week at the beach for family vacation, thought of doing Disney with Ben in December, Ben in daycare partime over the summer, family/Ben 3 year studio pictures.

Staying- Ben's birthday party (although I am doing a joint party with another parent to spilt the cost), seeing the acupuncturist related to the ivf cycle (I asked if she could cut some visits/reduce fee), Bill getting together once a week for lunch with friends/a summer movie release, going to Destin to see family sometime before summer is out.

I'm sure there's more, but this list is of no real importance than to us. We are trying hard to look at both being home for the summer as time to be a family, time to recuperate from the pending medical procedures, and to re-evaluate what we spend money on if I am to be home in the future longer term.

Some decisions are hard calls on scaling back. As a coupon queen who will cut unused postage off and stick on a birthday card, this feels like an opportunity to make lasting changes that will pay off somewhere in the future. Time as a family is more important than the stuff we buy.