Pepto-Bismol By the Pound!

One of the new benefits being offered by my employer is a Flexible Spending Account. Basically, if you're not familiar with an FSA, you can pull money out of your paycheck before taxes to spend on healthcare expenses. The kicker is, if you don't use it in the calendar year, you lose it, so if you're not going to incur the expense it's best not to sign up for it.

I've had FSAs available to me in the past, but it wasn't worth it to me. The FSA at work has a minimum contribution of a few hundred dollars a year. I was completely discounting it, until our insurance provider mentioned that you could use the money for over the counter medicines, such as aspirin, tyelnol, or antacids. Antacids? You've got my attention now. ANTACIDS!

We are SO signing up for the FSA now.

If you're a regular reader of this blog or Sweetie's blog, you are probably aware of the fact that he suffers from some gastro-intestinal issues. Issues that can often be managed through appropriate usage of Pepto-Bismol. As in, if we are eating in an environment where we are not 100% certain of every ingredient going into the dish, and it's acceptability in Sweetie's diet, he'll take a "preventative Pepto" just to make sure there are no future issues.

And now we can get our Pepto-Bismol with money we didn't have to pay payroll taxes on. The savings are astronomical!

Heck, if we don't incur the necessary medical expenses in 2006, I'll just go buy Sweetie a few cases of Pepto for Christmas next year. And leave a little out for Santa, because all those milk and cookies are bound to give a guy some indigestion.