How Much Money???

Folks,

How much money are you spending on supplements, vitamins, protein, and other non-food items you have been taking since surgery?

Jeff

For the 2-4 weeks after surgery, I was using a lot of the Unjury protein which retails around 27.00 a cannister.  The first two weeks I probably spent $100 or so.  The Chicken flavored was my life saver.  The next two weeks I used the unflavored protein and the vanilla more just to boost protein in my puree stage.  Now 2 months out I may use a scoop of the Vanilla Unjury powder in my Greek yogurt to give it taste and to boost protein. So maybe $50 or so in that time period. I do not see myself really buying a whole lot of this going forward.  I have never used the shakes. I may one day if I get in a pinch. For supplements, I use Wellcor which was created by the cardiologist I had to go through for work ups.  I buy the Calcium and the Multivitamin which has everything we need.  I pay $45 a month.  You can order direct or purchase at Walgreens now I think.  I like it as I only have to take calcium morning at night and chew the vitamins 3 times during the day.  They taste great and are made in the USA.  Hope this helps!  Your food bill goes way way down!

Thanks. I was thinking that there would be a ton of vitamins and stuff to buy that would basically cost as much as the food we eat.

The vitamins aren't too bad (go to celebratevitamins.com and you can check out the prices with the order builder). BUT... it really depends on what you do after.

My family has completely changed our eating habits and quality of foods we have in the house. We don't buy cheap junk food anymore and we buy better quality meats and veggies (organic where we can, etc etc). So, I'd say our food bill has probably gone up a good bit. Unfortunately, Doritos are much cheaper than asparagus, ya know?

Immediately after, I had protein drinks to buy and all that fun stuff. I hate them and being allergic to soy limits what I can do. I just don't drink them often anymore, honestly. I get protein from food.

Anyway, just rambling.

Thanks I will check out that website. I imagine we will clean up our eating too.

I did not have much money post op because my copay was high so I watched my pennies!

The initial non-prescription vitamin cost for me was about 25 bucks. I went to walmart and got everything I needed (childrens multivit chewables, Tums, Vit D, Vit b12 sublingual). I don't do any fancy stuff yet. Waiting on my labs this week to see if I am deficient in anything. I will be switching my multivitamin and calcium to something better soon. Haven't needed to buy any more vitamins since.

Prescription wise I had to get on 50,000 IU prescription Vit D since I was so low and that was about 12 bucks with my insurance. Also I had the pain pills and the anti gall stone meds to buy post op. The pain pills were only 10 bucks with my insurance and the anti-gall stone meds were 75 bucks. Honestly I only took two because they are so huge and taste nasty so that was a waste of $75. Also there is the PPI you will need to get. I do Nexium which is quite expensive, but my copay is 40 bucks but that is the only thing that works for me. There are cheaper PPIs

So on the vitamin cost = $25. Prescription cost = depends on you and your doctor, mine was $137

On the protein end: I ordered a big jug of unjury chicken that I only used once and hated. I also ordered the other flavors but just in samples. So my unjury cost with shipping I think was $35? I also ordered a bunch of stuff off of mybariatricpantry.com. I did their sample shake packs (the big one that has a ton of flavors) and protein bar sample pack and lots of other things. That order came to $110? with shipping (can't remember exact). I wanted to do sample packs to see what I liked. Also went to GNC and bought Lean Shake 25 vanilla powder. Its ok, makes me nauseated though. I think that was $23-24? I now do Sam's Club and buy the 18 packs of RTD Premier Protein. I do vanilla and chocolate and they are $24-25 a piece. Ive also bought the EAS advantage RTD shakes which are a little cheaper but I like the Premier better. I am also almost out of chocolate so that will be another $24 soon and I will be ordering Syntrax Nectar Mint cookie (so good!) soon. Glad I did the sample packs first! I tried some "cake" flavors and almost threw them up!

So overall protein shake/bar cost was: $217

Your protein shake cost will depends on you. Whether you can tolerate powders or can only do RTDs or mix of the two. Obviously RTDs are more expensive.

Now that I'm further along and out of the gummi/chewy vitamin stage, I take daily:

2 Centrum Multi-vitamins (generic)
6 Calcium Citrate (generic)
1 B complex (generic)
1 B12 sub-lingual (generic)

It's far less than $1.00/ day.

I no longer take protein powder either.

While I buy more expensive, higher quality food, our grocery bill is much less than pre-surgery.

I am 4.5 months out and I buy from Costco....

  premier shakes 18 per pkg.  they  cost me $25 a box that last me a month since I drink 1 a day except  on weekends.  the vitamins I purchased there where 3 month supply ( big bottles ) and that ran me about $60 dollars, whi*****luded calcuim, Vit D, Vit B-12,  B complex , Chewable Vitamins, Chewable Calcuim.  then I have my presciption for my prilosec which runs $10 bucks a month ,  the most expensive is  my chewable iron from my doctors office $25 for 2 months supply snce costco didnt carry a chewable form and I couldnt find one at a regular  health food store.   So not too bad at all...  My grocery bill is maybe $50 bucks for 2 weeks ....  still dont eat much of anything....

I am about five weeks out and the cost has been much less than I anticipated.  Even with the food changes.  I bought very little food after surgery - just some things to get me through the first two weeks.  Since then, I've been eating out of my well stocked pantry and freezer.  Cooking is somewhat difficult because an old "normal" recipe that would make 2 servings is now often 6 servings.  So I freeze a ton of food now and slowly make my way through it.  My old monthly grocery bill was something like $250 plus $50 eating out.  I've only spent about $80 this month because food just lasts so much longer - and I buy organic!

For vitamins I bought chewable calcium and multis for about $25 total just to get me through until I could take regular pills.  I get my regular multi vitamin and regular calcium at Costco.  Over a year's worth of multi's are only $13, and the calcium is about the same price and will last almost four months (taking 4 a day).  I also take sublingual B-12 only twice a week because it is 2,500 mcg.  Also purchased at Costco for $12 and will last a year.  

For protein I bought one bag at walmart for $10, and bought only ten premade shakes to get me through the first two weeks - about $12.  I'm still working off the Walmart protein, but no longer need the premade shakes.  A coworker of my mom's gave me her leftover Unjury and I loved it, so I ordered one bottle of it today.  That is expensive at $29 (including shipping), but the way I use it it will last over a month. 

My costs are greatly reduced food wise, and vitamin wise.  Plus, I no longer have to take diabetes meds.  Was taken off the day after surgery.  That cut my monthly costs $25-$75 (including testing supplies!)  It may feel expensive if you buy it all at once, but spread it out and it won't hurt:)

I still buy the syntax matrix protein powder. That is about 60/mo. Then I take 2 multivitamins a day/1 b12/vit d and vit c. So altogether about 90/mo. But the 60 I figure into my food costs as it replaces my breakfast anyways.