Money Talks
I’ve been getting a lot of messages from a lot of people about the process of IVF, my decision and my feelings about IVF, why I chose the IVF route. However, the messages I get the most is, does your insurance cover it and how could I afford it. Well the truth is.. Post Malone funded mine and my husband’s IVF treatment…. Just kidding! So now I got your attention, read on to learn ways to rack up a little cash. It all adds up. Believe me.
The worst thing about IVF is you can not start until you pay up. The facility center will check your benefits and if your insurance covers it, great! If your insurance covers partial, the facility will figure out your out of pocket cost and how much you met, then you have to pay the difference. If your benefits have a lifetime max of 15k (this is some random number) then you have to pay the balance of what’s left after the 15k. Also, if your embryos are sent to the lab to have biopsied, they will not give your doctor your results until you pay up.
This is my LAST chance to try for a family. If this doesn’t work out then I would have to accept the fact that being a mom wasn’t meant to be. So my husband and I decided to go to the best in the Bay Area, which of course comes with a hefty price tag. Insurance doesn’t cover it so we had to pay everything up front. My husband and I are very fortunate that both of us have great jobs. So to pay for this up front, we had to dip into our savings. We were planning on buying a house, but we figured the house can wait.
There are other ways to make money to help fund your IVF treatment or anything else you may be saving for.
You can finance your IVF. Many people told me about this loan company called CapexMed. It’s a loan for fertility treatments and fertility medications. From what I’ve been told by people who have signed up for this, you just need a credit score of 620 or higher. I’m not sure how much the interest rates are, but if you’re interested in this option, there are loan specialist who are happy to help!
For those of you who are thinking of IVF in the long future. Here are a few things I’ve done that got me some extra cash.
Ibotta. Since I signed up for this app, I got about almost $700 cash back from shopping! You can get cash back from buying groceries, shopping online, booking your travel by clicking the Expedia icon in your Ibotta app. There are a ton of retail shops, restaurants, and other specialty stores. The trick is though, you have to find someone that uses this app a lot because you get to earn money from “Team bonuses.” I used the app a lot so feel free to use my referral code. I also think you get $10 for signing up and I get $5, but you have to use the app within 3 days. My referral code is attached to this link. https://ibotta.com/r/6z4yw. For those of you who are signing up through your app, my referral code is 6z4yw.
2. Poshmark. Since this weight gain, I haven’t been able to fit into my clothes. I put aside all the clothes I know I will never wear so I can upload them on Poshmark. I have only a few things in my Poshmark closet, but hopefully I can find a weekend when I’m finally free to take pictures and upload them. You can friend me on Poshmark @dmacatulad. I think other apps like Offerup or LetGo is kind of shady and I do not recommend it. First of all, you have to meet these people in person who you don’t even know. They can rob you for your item because they know you’re going to have it with you. So let’s not go that route. If you still decide to meet strangers in person, please do it in a public area.
3. If you don’t have the patience to wait until someone purchases your items on Poshmark, there are second hand stores in the Bay Area, such as Buffalo Exchange or Wasteland that will buy your clothes on the spot. They pick the clothes out of your pile that they want to purchase. My husband and I went to these places many years ago because we were moving and needed to downsize. Together, we made about $300. There was a Goodwill located near by so we just donated the rest of our stuff so we didn’t have to take it home. The tip is, they buy things in season. If you go there during fall or winter time, do not bring shorts, tank tops, and t-shirts. They will most likely reject those items. If you go there during Spring and Summer, do not bring winter coats or sweaters. Also, if you are not from the bay area, I think you can find a second hand store that would purchase your items on google.
4. Ride share. If you own a car, driving for uber or lyft is another way to make a little extra income. If you feel a little weird having someone you don’t know in your car, then UberEATS, Grubhub, or DoorDash is the next best thing. True story, I talked about how I thought it would be so much fun if me, my husband, and Peanut drove around to do UberEATS together. Since people in SF orders food delivery all the time, we would definitely get a lot of hits. I guess I talked about it so much that my husband finally gave in. He signed up, drove the car, picked up the food, delivered it while peanut and I sat in the back. We did get a lot of hits and sometimes 2 deliveries at one time. I honestly had so much fun doing this, however my husband hated it because he said he ended up doing all the work so our UberEATS delivery extravaganza was short lived. I think we only did it for 2 hours for 3 days. I don’t think we even made any money off it because the money we made, I wanted to buy food after.
5. Amazon Affiliate. If you always wanted to start a blog and write about something you’re passionate about, then you could be an Amazon Affiliate Marketer. I signed up for a Squarespace business account, which allows me to put amazon links on my website like these two below.
You have to sign up to be an amazon affiliate on the amazon website. Once they check out your website and analytics, you may get approved. You put amazon products on your webpage and if anyone clicks on the amazon link on your website, you get a percentage of what they purchased.
I know the price of IVF may be discouraging or some people may think that there is no way they can afford this. I had those thoughts when I first did my research. I thought I couldn’t spend this amount of money if this was not guaranteed. I even felt like doing research was a waste of time. I’ve learned through this experience, there is always a way. If you really want something so bad it will happen. You have to put it out in the universe. It’s like a vision board. You create a board of things you really want in your life. Things that brings you joy, happiness, and success. You stare at your board and believe with your whole heart, it will happen. You just have to put it out there.
