EBay Paid My Hospital Bill

It’s been two weeks since I’ve looked over my mail. Mail is for sissies, grown-ups, you know, responsible people. I just want to gaze at my daughter, make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and color with Mayer (we did get a new box of crayons). Still, I understand the priority of making the house payment and paying the electric bill (yada yada yada), so I took a brief escape from my preschool-like world and opened mail.

I received some bills from the hospital.

I knew it was coming and I was told by a member of the hospital discharge staff when it came in the mail to ignore it. Why? Let me explain.

The counselor and I pay out of pocket for health insurance. It ain’t pretty being self-employed; mainly because of the lack of benefits (I should say non-existent benefits). Maternity benefits are sparse; hence my drive for EBay success has been primarily to pay for hospital and Dr.’s bills for Eden’s birth.

When I was discharged from the hospital, a lovely lady sat us down and explained our hospital bill (keep in mind, this was a normal birth with no surprises) was quickly approaching $14,000.00. Gasp!

“But,” she said sounding more like she was trying to sell us a timeshare property then pay a hospital bill, “if you pay it today we will discount it to $3,600.00. Today only!”

I looked at the counselor and he looked at me. We tried to figure out what we had in our checking account while Mayer chased Reef down the hallway.

The whole experience was a bit annoying (no thanks to Mayer's persistence to drive Reef completely out of his mind by teasing him to no end) due to the fact that I hadn’t slept for an entire 48 hours. I wanted to say, “Really, have you seen how beautiful my baby is? That's what we really should be talking about. But seriously, can we have a day or two to go over our finances before we commit to this.”

But like Howie Mandel, the clerk made it very clear it was a deal today and no deal tomorrow.

Image found here.

No doubt, the discount was great, I wasn’t disagreeing with that at all, but to shell out that kind of money in a lump sum isn’t easy. The counselor and I were hoping to have a few months to make payments.

But to get the deal, we put in on our credit card and hoped for the best.

Since I've been home, I’ve gone over my EBay earnings and I am proud to say between the counselor’s hard work and mine, we can pay off the entire credit card bill.

This is the beauty of working hard week after week. Sometimes selling trash is like a leaky faucet, just barely trickling in, but before you know it. it really adds up.

The week before I had Eden, I had some great sells. Every little bit helps.

This amazing vintage lamp/chandelier was free at a garage sell. I had purchased a candle holder for $2.00 and was told I could take "the old, ulgy lamp thing" for free if I wanted it. It sold on Craig's List for $45.00.

This BCBG wrap-around dress was also found at a yard sale and I paid $1.00 for it. It sold on EBay for $28.00. I've always had great luck with wrap-around dresses, no matter the size.

These J. Jill Jeans were from Goodwill's $1.00 day. They sold for $8.99.

And this Old Navy Size 16 Long Denim Skirt sold for $15.50. I found it at Goodwill on $1.00 day.

I found this partition screen at a garage sale and paid $8.00. It sold for $45.00 on Craig's List.

Now that Eden is home, we are all loving it. I found Payson spending some quality time with her.

"What are you doing, Payson," I say as I walk in the room.

"Showing her my basketball cards.," he says with a smile.