I have been battling a serious cold all week. It’s the whole nine yards: sore throat, cough, stuffy nose, etc. I’ve noticed that being sick can be both frugal and costly, so I thought I’d do a little cost/benefit analysis of feeling like shit:
Cost – doctor’s visit co-pay (- $10)
Benefit – saving gas by staying home and not going to work (+$8 per sick day, approximately)
Cost – medicines (- $19.90, including a coupon I had for Delsym)
Benefit – no appetite for real food, thus no danger of ordering take-out (+$10-$20)
Cost – having to buy “I’m sick!” food, like canned soup, popsicles, ect. (-$15)
Benefit – no desire to go out to participate in costly social activities, like going to a movie, bar or restaurant (+$20-$50 depending)
Cost – an On-Demand movie or two when daytime T.V gets boring (-$5 per movie)
Benefit – getting to see a few recent movies (err…no monetary value, I guess)
Assuming costly social activities, it looks like being sick is actually sort of good for my bottom line. Except for the whole feeling like shit part….not sure this is a viable money-saving strategy over the long term.
Are you staying germ-free these days?
