Picked paying off a medical bill over a weekend trip to the beach this month

I had $340 left on a hospital bill from last year and a chance to split a beach house with friends for $150 each. I sat there for like 20 minutes staring at my bank app trying to decide. Eventually I just paid the medical bill down to zero because that interest was gonna keep piling up. Now I'm sitting here debt free on that account but my friends are all posting sunset pics from the shore. It stings a little but not having that payment hanging over me feels way lighter than I thought it would. Has anyone else had to skip a fun trip just to wipe out a specific debt and felt mixed about it later?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_piper15d ago

my $600 vet bill last fall was the one that did me in. i had a chance to go to a music festival with my sister but i just paid off the whole balance instead. it was rough seeing her posts from the crowd but honestly that vet bill was stressing me out every single month. a few weeks later my cat got sick again and i could take him right in without worrying about money. that peace of mind was way better than any weekend trip would've been.

bennett.harper15d ago

@the_piper glad your cat is okay but $600 is a pretty standard vet visit. like you paid off a credit card balance you could have just carried for a few months. a music festival with your sister only happens once. your cat gets sick all the time, that's not a one time thing. just saying maybe you're overthinking this one.

blakestone15d ago

Bennett has a point about priorities, but @bennett.harper I think you're missing the bigger picture here. That peace of mind Piper's talking about is hard to put a price on. Carrying a balance for a few months just means you're paying interest on top of a bill that already stung. Plus, once you carry that balance it's easy to let it slide into a year or more of payments. Sometimes the responsible choice feels bad in the moment but pays off down the road.