Not quite sure where all the money's coming from

I seem to be rolling in cash at the moment. It's a bit disconcerting to say the least, seeing that I cut my hours down so I'm only working 3 days a week. Not that I want you all to hit me up for a donation, don't get me wrong. I am trying to sock money away for tuition for next year, seeing as the stock market decline has wiped out a fair amount of what I was going to use. And then there's the little matter that I'll probably lose health insurance coverage in January too, if I cut my hours at work even further once I am doing more hours at college. So I need to build in a buffer for that. And I am about to start paying on a loan for the solar panels (which I don't have yet).

But.

It has really brought home to me just how much money I was spending on fertility pursuits. First there was the $333 (pre-tax) per 2-week paycheck for my flexible spending account. Which went towards an IVF, of course. Then on top of that there was all the other IVF-related spending. $400 for an u/s and bloodwork here, $500 for some flights there, a little something-something on vitamins, or pregnancy tests, or ovulation tests, another $250 for another blood test. It all added up to a staggering sum of money. Just staggering. My credit card bill alone was routinely four times as much as it has been for the last couple of months. Four times!

And yes, I am trying to be fairly frugal, so maybe that has something to do with it. But it isn't like I've cut out all spending. I'm still buying myself a treat here and there. Still not quite grocery shopping at Aldi. Still not as frugal as I could be.

Still, I'm fairly amazed at the financial drain that fertility treatments were having on my life. Actually, I had to be somewhat frugal while undergoing treatment, so I could pay for everything, so it has probably greatly eased my transition to my current income level. And, not that I'm complaining, please don't get me wrong. I was and am immensely lucky that I had the funds available to continue for paying for fertility treatments for as long as I did. I wanted to keep doing treatments, and I am glad that I was able to get to the end of that road in my own time (which as many of you know, is slooooow), rather than being forced to stop treatment early solely due to the financial aspect of it all.

But. Wow. Holy crap, and all that.

I'm even actually starting to give to charities again, which is a great feeling. It was one of the (many) wrenching aspects of fertility treatment - to get the begging letters and emails from causes I used to support, and to have to make the decision not to send them anything.