by Hope
While we were traveling last weekend, we saw a lot of news about the pandemic expected with the Coronavirus otherwise know as COVIP-19. And it got me thinking…
While we do live in a tiny town so are not as exposed as those in big cities. Princess attends school with a lot of international students, many from China. In fact, the students were banned from returning home for the Spring semester. Volunteer families were asked to take in the students for the Winter (this week) and Spring Break (in April.)
Tips for Preparing for a Pandemic
But I got to thinking on ways we should prepare…just in case. So I did some research on “preparing for a pandemic” and so on. There really wasn’t much that we don’t typically do.
- Have 3-4 weeks of food stocked. (I just ordered groceries after our No Grocery February so we are well stocked again. I did add a few extra cans of food – veggies and soup, that have a longer shelf life.)
- Have plenty of water. I always keep cases of water on hand. I know monetarily it’s a waste, but health-wise, it makes a huge difference in our intake of water. So it’s a trade off I’m willing to make. I also keep a few gallons of water in the kitchen and bathrooms for freezing weather alerts, so that is available too.
- Stock your prescriptions and OTC meds. This is one area where I had to take stock. We don’t get ill often. But Princess does have asthma and pretty serious allergies, so I ordered an extra inhaler for her and stocked up on our typical OTC meds.
- Work from home…yes, I already do that. But Princess and History Buff certainly don’t. Thankfully, they are both pretty aware and tend to be “germ-a-phobes” so not touching their faces and using hand sanitizer are something they are used too. And of course, if there was an outbreak, they would stay home.
Do you have any “preparedness” that you do in these types of situations? Thankfully, we don’t have any additional travel plans until April, when Princess will be going to Texas for Spring Break. So I feel pretty safe. But it’s always better to be prepared.
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
I’m not sure why people are stocking up on water. I just heard there is a water shortage at our local Costco. The water supply is not going to get affected, is it?
You do that because of hurricanes and earthquake preparedness. What am I missing?
So you have diabetes, and your daughter has allergies and asthma severe enough to require an inhaler? And you still don’t have real insurance?
I’m looking forward to the future entry where you are contemplating bankruptcy because of medical debt, because one of you required hospitalization and that stupid religious cost-sharing plan doesn’t pay.
This comment has nothing to do with Hope’s post. She is not discussing her health coverage. We don’t know the details of her health coverage.
If you watch the comments, you do. She’s too scared to post she has some faith-based cost sharing plan in an actual post, because deep down she knows it’s a beyond stupid idea, but she admits to it in comment responses once the post is off the main page.
What she calls “heath insurance” is a faith-based cost savings plan. She’s admitted as much. A simple google search will tell anyone with two brain cells bouncing around in their skull that they are a TERRIBLE. Forget for two people with chronic health conditions requiring regular medical checkups and:or medication.
And it may have nothing to do with this very obvious “pay me, I posted!” post (and with the amount of stuff she posts that has nothing to do with finance, I’m just dying to know how much contributors here are paid). However, it has everything to do with her overall budget, the one where she budgets $0 for Healthcare, despite her daughter needing a prescription inhaler. Those cost money, how is she paying for it? Where is it in her budget?
At the end of the day, I’m more worried for Princess than Hope. If Hope wants to make terrible decisions, all the more power to her. She doesn’t get to make this terrible decisions for her daughter.
It’s just another example of how she lies and omits.
Our health coverage is covered by my business so it is not included in my personal budget.
As for the costs of Princess inhalers…I’ve had to get exactly 2 in the last 4 years. Cost $20 each. I would certainly consider that negligible.
Lies and omits? Sometimes there is just nothing to say.
Most inhalers expire after a year. If they’re stored properly, they might be effective for another. But you really want to potentially risk your daughters life to save $20/year? I have a family member that DIED in part because their rescue inhaler was expired.
And yes, you lie constantly. Mostly by omission. Like….if you’re making $100K/yr, which is necessary to meet your posted budget, why do you care if your family is paying you the paltry sum of $12/day to take care of your grandma? If your income is that high, you make more than that in a given hour in your business. Why are you even accepting it?
It’s a long string of things like that. You say you have this huge income now, but you’re behaving inconsistently with that.
Given your track record of inconsistent statements, and purely illogical decisions, I do not believe a word you say. Short of posting scans of full financial statements (which I do not want, because that’s a really stupid thing to do), I won’t, either.
I never said I cared or asked about receiving payment to care for my grandmother.
I brought it up because it’s a situation many face. And there are financial implications.
I can only write about what is happening in my own life and circumstances.
You calling me a liar is, well, kind of funny. Sometimes I look at my life and think, I wouldn’t even have the imagination to make this stuff up if I wasn’t living it.
Behaving inconsistently? I don’t even know what that means. How am I to behave if my income grows? I am saving more, paying on debt weekly and definitely more at ease and less stressed. I don’t know how I’m behaving.
Jen, we are also in a cost sharing ministry health plan. We have been members for 2.5 years and it is working for us. We have had three claims that they have paid in full. $300 per month for two of us. We self insure all the small stuff which is fine since a year of coverage in the sharing plan is about 2 months premium for health insurance. A year of premiums and deductible/co-insurance was going to cost us over $30,000 for a bronze plan.
We are very happy with our cost sharing ministry coverage.
And, I have more than two brain cells in my head. That is why I’m not letting insurance companies extort money from me anymore.
I’m not sure why you read Hope’s posts if you are so negative. You should move on.
We do know the details. Despite these health issues and a son needing to be hospitalized for a unplanned surgery, “the jury is still out” for Hope if health insurance is worth the investment. She mentions in a comment on a previous post that she has enrolled in a faith-based cost sharing program. There is also not a line item in the budget for medical expenses because they are all so healthy that any out of pocket costs are supposedly negligible.
Yes, we are in a cost sharing program. And yes, I do believe our health care costs are negligible with almost 16 years of medical costs to back it up. There’s really no “supposedly” to it as I track everything and have for years…
One of your twins had emergency surgery last year with no insurance coverage. There is no way that was negligible. He may have decided to not pay those bills or some family member may have paid them or something else happened where no money came out of your household, but there is zero way that uninsured emergency surgery had negligible cost.
Your family did have a huge expensive medical emergency last year. You just chose to make it HIS problem unfortunately.
Sorry Hope you did say you gratefully accepted the money for your grandmother’s care.