One of the most overwhelming aspects of dealing with infertility and deciding to undergo IVF is facing the staggering costs associated with the procedures. Unfortunately, many insurance plans do not cover any fertility treatments, and as much as Tricare does cover, it does not pay for anything after a diagnosis of infertility. Even though they pay for 100% of testing prior to a diagnosis, I have to pay room fees for my hysterosalpingogram and my hysteroscopy, as well as my anesthetist's fee, which will come to $700. I can submit my bill from the anesthetist to Tricare and they might cover it, but I'm not holding my breath.
I've talked about some of the different options for our IVF payment, and while we're still trying to decide, I think we're leaning the most toward the $15000 charge for four cycles--two fresh and two frozen. Yes, IVF may work on the first round, but if not, and we only paid for the cycles one at a time that would be $12000 down the drain and another $12000 for our second procedure. These quotes were also given to us before we knew we would have to do ICSI (the doctor injects the sperm directly into the egg, instead of just putting them in a petri dish together and letting them do the work), so that may make the procedure more expensive. On top of that, the estimate for medication is $2000-5000, and I'm planning on $5000 for budgeting purposes.
I also like to add in a little padding in case something ends up costing us more than what we were expecting, so adding in a $5000 buffer, we're looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of a $25000 hit to our savings next spring. Although we're pretty good savers and put about 15-20% of what we make each month into savings or investments, we also just took an expensive trip to Europe, bought $3000 worth of stocks and enoyed a fairly spendy summer, all before we knew IVF was in our future. While we do have sizeable savings, most of it is in our IRAs and various stocks and funds that we really don't want to touch until retirement.
So, looking at our savings account, I really want to save another $10000 before March. That sounds incredibly daunting, but I've thought about it, and I think it's possible. We'll probably get somewhere in the neighborhood of $3000 back from taxes, bringing us down to $7000. We already put $300 a month directly into savings, and since we've refinanced our Washington house, that's an additional $200 a month that we'll be able to add--so by the end of March, that will be another $2500, leaving us with $4500 to scrounge up.
And that's where babysitting comes in. I'm certainly not making millions, but I estimate that if my parent interviews this week go well, I'll be working about 10-15 hours a week, so by my self-imposed March deadline, I could probably save close to $2000 as a conservative estimate. Leaving us with $2500 that will hopefully materialize just by pinching our pennies.
With Colby gone I'll be eating out less, and while I'm planning a few trips during the deployment, I'm trying to make them as cost-effective and budget friendly as possible. I've decided to set a $50 clothing limit per month, my makeup and beauty stash has been recently replenished so I shouldn't need to spend much there. Any money we get for birthdays or Christmas will go toward the baby fund since that's pretty much the best gift either one of us can imagine.
So, with that savings plan in place, I really think we can reach our $10000 goal, and if we're very, very good, maybe even save a bit more so that we're not entirely cleaned out by April.
Is anyone else saving for a big purchase or event? What are your best savings tips?
