So this post is more geared to the 'newbies.' Those of you who are just starting your journies or starting to gather information about this surgery.

I purchased my vitamins today in preparation for my surgery which will be sometime next month (still waiting on that pesky date lol). After weeks of sampling, pricing, and scouring through local stores to find what I need, I finally found the most cost-efficient way to get my vitamins.

I was surprised that a local store called "Natural Grocers/The Vitamin Cottage" had all that I needed - Chewable Calcium Citrate, Chewable B Complex, and sublingual B12. I got my multi (Centrum Chewables) from good 'ol Walmart.

Because I am a full time student and my husband is the only one working to support our household, I knew to stock up on these things now when I have the money because I may not have the money when I run out. Long story short, I decided to get a 6 month supply of vitamins.

Here's the truly shocking part to someone who lives paycheck to paycheck and sometimes struggles to make all the bills. This 6 month supply (and again the least expensive way to go) cost just over $171! Which means for a year, I'll be spending more than $340 on vitamins alone for the rest of my life!

Whew! It's expensive! Just a warning!

That's actually cheap.  Beware you probably will need more then you bought, if not immediately, soon.  More than likely you'll be adding iron, vitamin C, dry Vitamin D, and Vitamin A; possibly more.  (E, K, magnesium, potassium)  YMMV

I haven't actually priced what I take in a while, I order or buy as need as it isn't an option as to what I take, I MUST take them.

Trader Joes has good vitamins and a cheap price and they even have chewable multi's. I have had labs done and all is well, so they are doing the trick :)

It is a heck of a lot cheaper than the medications that some of us all take for diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol.  So if I did not have to take a couple of those med that would be great. 

Vitamins are much cheaper than prescription drugs! 

WOW that is pretty cheap. I think I paid 120. for a 3 month suppy of BE vits. That also doesn't include all my extras. We also don't have a ton of money, but my vits come first. I also need to look into a more economical way.

 Cheap vitamins is an oxymoron.  

The $340 that you'll spend in a year in vitamins is less than the bill for all of my meds for one month.  My bill that gets sent to my insurance is company is in the $700 range each month for diabetes, (3 medicines plus insulin) as well as depression, and high blood pressure.  I'll gladly pay the $340 a year if that was it.  Now I know why more and more insurance companies are approving WLS, it will save them money.  I wish you the best of luck staying on budget, it's not easy.

I spend a lot more then that for my vitamins and protein but you know what?  It is a heck of a lot cheaper then what I used to spend on fast food in a month.

I agree that vitamins can be expensive, but there are usually a lot of buy one, get one deals going on.  I have not added up how much I have spent, and I probably don't want to! :)

I actually went to CVS today to buy some Centrum Silver Chewables, as they are on sale buy one, get one 50% off.  The Centrum Silver Chewables were $12.29 for 60 chewables (a 1 month supply), so I would have been looking at $18.44 for two boxes with the sale.  Right next to them were the generic, CVS brand. I compared labels and they were exactly the same (the CVS brand actually has more folic acid, and one other thing that the Centrum didn't - everything else was identical.)  The CVS vitamins were on sale buy one, get one free...so for $8.69 I got two boxes and two months worth of multi-vitamins!  I have found that Calcium is the one thing that I have had to pay a premium for...but like someone else said - I would have no problem spending that money on fast food in a month pre-op! 

I think if you look for sales, you can save a lot! 

Once you can go the pills for calcium, CVS has a calcuim citrate, D, Mag that they also put on sale.  I use those and the CVS brand of centrum which I actually like better.