We Paid Cash: A Delivery and One Week in the Hospital

A testimony from Reelika

Having a baby is always a miracle and a real blessing for entire family. But with all this excitement, huge lists of medical and delivery expenses come, as well.

I was in a hospital already three days before my son was born. I always knew I wanted to have a private family room and not to share the room with three other women and their babies — yes, this is how it is here in Northern Europe. The shared room is covered by health insurance, but the private one is not.

I never knew I’d have to stay in a hospital that long. But due to an emergency c-section it totaled up to a week and the cost of a room was calculated based on the number of days I stayed there.

The total cost of staying one week in a delivery room was almost my full monthly salary. But I paid it fully in cash!

Here is how I did it:

• I set my mindset earlier that a new life should not start with a debt.
• I did my homework and found out the potential expenses of a delivery room. I estimated the stay in a hospital up to five days.
• Once I found out about my pregnancy, I created myself a weekly savings plan for the delivery room.
• I learned to say “no” to many invitations that would have cost me too much money.
• I prioritized and focused on things that matter the most.
• I opened another savings account specifically for the baby and delivery costs. I had a portion of my money automatically transferred from the checking account to the savings each time I got paid.
• I took advantage of reading many educational books about finances and business as I also majored in.
• I made some extra income with freelance consulting.
• I decided to increase my emergency fund. I also went through my closets and sold any clothes I didn’t need anymore.
• I got used to the new lifestyle of living below my means.

Although I had saved a lot, the delivery room still cost more than I estimated. But since I stayed in a hospital longer due to the emergency c-section, I treated the situation as an emergency as well.

I decided to pull 15% of the delivery costs from my emergency fund and pay the remaining 85% with my savings. Just like that, my delivery and one-week stay at the hospital were paid off with cash!

Reelika is a working mom, entrepreneur, Christian, philanthropist at heart, financial management lover, travel enthusiast, and baking fanatic. She blogs at Financially Wise On Heels about personal finance and entrepreneurship.

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