by Ashley
It’s allergy time!!!
I’ve been lucky in that I haven’t always suffered from seasonal allergies. However, in recent years, I’ve found myself becoming more and more miserable during what are paradoxically the otherwise prettiest and nicest months of the year.
So as the itchy eyes set in and my sneezes grew in number (and force! Oof!), I decided to meander over to the nearby Walmart to find some meds to ease my pain.
I was not alone! Nope. There were about 4 of us red and itchy-eyed zombies standing in the allergy aisle reading labels on the backs of pill bottles and comparing prices. What a sight we must have been!
And you know what I discovered? Allergy medicine can be $$$$!
I’d finally found a box of generic medicine that looked good and had the same active ingredient, same mg strength, and same number of pills as a name brand medicine. I snagged it thinking it was worth the $10 (by comparison, the name brand was nearly $20!!).
But then one of my fellow allergy-sufferers stopped me.
The medicine I’d selected was positioned about eye-level on the shelf, sitting directly next to its name brand counterpart. But my allergy friend pointed out a box on the very bottom shelf that might interest me. I stooped down to do some investigation and discovered that this generic medicine also had the same active ingredient, same dosage, and same number of pills as the other two medicines I’d been looking at. The main difference is that this was a no-frills box of pills (not a bottle), and its position was literally on the very bottom shelf where you practically have to kneel down to see what’s down there.
But you know what a difference the position and packaging made in the price of this medicine? Instead of a $10 bottle of pills (or an $18 name brand bottle), this little box of pills cost only FOUR DOLLARS! Yes! You heard me correctly.
So let this be a reminder that often times the best deals are those that are hiding right under our noses….on the very bottom shelf.
Allergy friends, any tried and true solutions? What types of allergy meds to you use?
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
We are typically in the same boat and with two of my kids with HEAVY seasonal allergies and the other two just snotty, well, the cost allergy medicine about killed me! But then…I found our miracle. (Bear in mind, I am no doctor, have no medical training, so I’m just saying that this has worked for us.)
Every morning from about a month before allergy season starts, each child squeezes 1/2 lemon into warm water and adds a spoonful of local honey (purchased at our farmer’s market.) Stirs it up, drinks it while making a face. And voila…no allergy meds needed.
Last year, I did not buy a single box of allergy meds, and my kids did not wheeze, have their eyes swell closed or spend miserable nights with snot running and having trouble breathing. It has literally felt like a miracle for us.
I have read why this works, and I’m here to tell you that it has for us. (And now that I sell Doterra oils, when we are on the go, we use the oil instead of squeezing a fresh one. It’s been a nice alternative.)
Wow, I’ll have to try this! I’ve heard a lot about the benefits of drinking warm lemon water first thing in the morning (lots of different health benefits), and I buy local honey anyway, so this would be a super easy and cheap thing for me to start doing! I’ll give it a shot and let you know my results! : )
Please don’t forget to follow up!! I want to know too!
The theory is that consuming the local honey helps you to build up immunity to the local pollen that is causing your allergy symptoms. At this point, there are no peer-reviewed medical studies to concur that it is actually true. But I say, if it works for you then go for it!! (It is definitely the kind of thing that I would try if I suffered from these type of allergies.)
-Meghan
Just in case isn’t as effective as you’d like, check out Sam’s or Costco. Both have a years supply of the generic versions of common allergy medicines at about the same cost of a single packet of the brand name. We get the generic versions of Zyrtec, Benadryl and Claritin–lots of different allergy sufferers here. We find there is enough for the allergy seasons of a couple years. If you split with a friend (to make sure you don’t have excess that you can’t use before it expires) you can cut the cost further.
We had to buy some allergy medicine for our 9 year old daughter just a couple of weeks ago. My husband went to the store for me, and I had him make sure to check dosages and such to see if she could maybe just take 1/2 of an adult pill, and we could therefore get essentially twice as many pills. What he found after reading labels and instructions, was the box labeled “children’s” was the exact same dose as adults. The children’s box had 5 less pills for 3 more dollars! They charged more for the exact same dose and less pills simply because it said “children’s”! Needless to say, we bought the adult box. Watch out for those marketing scams!
I’ve come across that with children’s cold medicine as well!
I definitely can relate. I take 5 allergy meds year-round (4 consistently and an inhaler as needed). It can get pricey. I use my FSA for all of these to help offset the cost. I also make sure to get a prescription for anything over the counter, so that too can be reimbursed using FSA money. While it’s still technically my money, the fact that it doesn’t come directly from my bank account helps!
I currently don’t have a FSA but I’ve thought about possibly starting one. Might be something worth checking out more in detail a little down the road.
I buy my allergy meds from Amazon….I can get a year’s worth at a fraction of the cost if I bought them at the store.