Just remember Gud, hospitals and doctor's offices are fine with establishing a payment plan you can afford, you don't have to pay all the bills immediately.

msbelle, I just had to drop $500 to get my car's a/c fixed. I feel your pain.

I am also in the budget belt-tightening crowd. Moving/unpaid vacation/etc has wiped out my emergency savings. I'm waiting on one paycheck that seems to have gotten stuck in the change of address shuffle. My other paycheck I can't pick up until Sunday. So the $100 I had put into savings to start building it back up goes back into checking so I can renew my license.

And here comes Halloween and the holidays and my Hamilton trip... it's always something. Always several things, actually.

Gud, I agree with you about the bad press coverage of Trump. I've been wondering--how long has stuff like that been going on?

I remember how credulous the media was about Bush's claims about Iraq before the we invaded them..

Also, i wonder--how credulous was the media back in 1980 when Reagan claimed that cutting taxes would increase tax revenue? (I don't remember much media skepticism about that, but I was only 15 then.)

Gud check and see if the hospital has some sort of grant, payment plan etc. When I had to get tested for Whooping Cough my out of pocket cost was going to be something like $500 and I applied and got financial assistance, because of my income that was covered and any hospital related expenses for 6 months so it ended up covering my hospitalization and ER visit as well.

It was a sliding scale thing so don't be afraid to ask about it, check the hospital's website , etc a lot of hospitals have something like that.

I'll have to look into something like that. I can't really complain too much, I make a more than decent salary, we own our house outright, we only have the one car payment on a $16,000 car, but medical expenses have just penned us down financially.

Medical expenses are why we declared bankruptcy back in 2000. Thank god for Medicare and excellent work insurance, or Hubby's cancer would have forced me to do it again. It was easily three-quarters of a million dollars for his treatment.

Gud you can always apply and if you don't qualify you don't qualify but it never hurts to try for something like this.

Yeah. Pretty much everyone in the U.S. is one medical emergency from bankruptcy with or without insurance.

I am also in the budget belt-tightening crowd.

Me too. Combination of repairs and overdue maintenance on the house, stress spending and an upholstery job I got ripped off on. My savings is almost gone and my debts have gone back up. I don't know, I make a decent salary too, own my house and my car, and yet I never can seem to get ahead. The stress spending and eating out are what does it, I guess. I should drop Comcast, for real, too, I don't need it and it's stupid expensive.

538 has Clinton back up around 75%. That makes me feel better.