Wednesday, May 27, 2009

There goes my plan for my emergency fund this month...

Saturday morning I was petting my cat when I noticed that one of her eyes was tearing a yellowish green liquid. Ugh. After a quick Google search, I decided to take her to the vet that day to make sure there wasn't anything seriously wrong. The closest vet (and the one where I've taken her a few times for serious issues) is extremely expensive. Last year, instead of taking her there, I brought her to a local walk-in vet service to get her vaccine updates because it was over $100 cheaper. However, when an issue like this pops up, I don't have many options.

The vet saw her that morning, and as I suspected, there wasn't anything majorly wrong. It turns out she has allergies (???) and a slight eye infection stemming from them, so she's now on antihistamines and eye ointment twice a day (today is the last day of that, thank god!). She seems to be doing much better, and now I have the necessary pills and ointment to use if this problem should pop up again.

All told, the vet visit set me back ~$150, between the cost of visiting the vet, the cab ride to the vet, and the eye ointment I had to buy at CVS. Because I hadn't yet made my mid-month emergency fund deposit (due to my company taking their sweet time reimbursing me for a flight to a conference next month, bah), I had the cash in my checking account and I was able to pay with my debit card instead of putting the cost on my credit card. Now, though, I have to wait until later this week when I get paid to make my emergency fund deposit. I think I'll still be able to max it out by the end of August (my goal), and things like this are what it's for, but it's still a frustrating setback. Thankfully we're all OK, and now I can cancel my annual July vet visit, so I guess that's a silver lining at least.

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