Budgeting for the first year post-op - any suggestions?

Hi everyone,

I'm awaiting confirmation of my surgery date, it should be in the next 2/3 months I'm told, and now I'm (somewhat) frantically trying to budget out for the next year for vitamins, regular food, and clothes.  

Assuming I'm back to work within the 4 - 6 week timeframe (I work in a business/business-casual environment), can anyone give any ideas on how many sizes you go down over the following months?  I'm trying to figure out what I will need to set aside to gradually buy new clothes and at what pace - I really don't want to buy anything until I know the weight loss has slowed down enough but I still will need clothes for work during that time. 

I went to Costco today to price out vitamins and found them to be reasonable - do you have any suggestions on anywhere else that may be less expensive?

As for food , what do you usually spend on this once you've stopped drinking the Optifast and on your regular diet?  I know the portions are so much smaller then, but I can't really guess how much I would be spending, or what a typical trip to the grocery store would include.  

Thanks for any suggestions - if you can't tell, I'm definitely one of those people that plan everything very far in advance :) 

The trick with the clothing is to buy second hand and don't buy a whole lot. A belt comes in real handy to help hold pants up.  I don't mind my tops being lose so I just kept wearing them until they became way to big. i also bought clothes on sale. If you go to a support group they might have a clothes exchange that could help you out.

I buy some of my vitamins at Costco but there are two of them that they are no longer carrying. I sometimes get them at Shoppers when they are half price. You learn to keep your eyes open for sales on them.

I can't help you with the food. I still had to shop for my husband.  I just know that there is a lot more left overs which my husband will have to eat throughout the wee****il it is all gone. I can not do left overs. Every time i have left over I start to feel sick. Not sure why. I am sure we save a lot more money since we don't buy pop or chips or sweets anymore.

Sorry I could not help you out more but I can tell you I don't have a lot of money and we made it through 

That's great advice about the clothing exchange and going to Shoppers, thanks so much! 

I found that the most expensive things for me were the baby Tylenol until I could swallow adult format without it getting stuck and clothing.  I am a little picky so I bought new.  I quickly learned to save money buy more fitted styles as the loser clothes i was used to wearing would quickly be too big.  I also had to buy all new winter outerwear which was costly.

Kelly

Thanks! I'm pretty picky too so I'm anticipating a huge cost. I'm hoping I can get a fraction of my money back from my old wardrobe on Kijiji. I've never been so excited to be able to walk in almost any store and actually be able to try something on that fits.  

Good luck and remember it is all worth it.  I had surgery Dec 8, 2014 and I can tell you from my short experience. Vitamins at Costco yes a fraction of the cost even your iron. It is behind the counter though. Buy your protein drinks there too for after surgery.  18 for $25 I believe.  They have 30 grams of protein and the chocolate almost tastes like chocolate milk.  I still have one a day to help with protein.  On my Facebook we have a sight for plus size clothing where people post.  There is a lot of great stuff.  I just recently sold on that site clothing for $5 a piece and have made $275 to put towards new clothing. A lot of my clothes had never even Ben worn. So check you may have something like that I your area. Have had to buy new underwear though.  Buy only the essentials and I have read don't buy loose because you don't want to feel too comfortable aim for the next size. As for food if I wasn't buying for someone else it would be next to nothing.  I honestly can say as a single mom I have more money now than working my full time and pRt time job.  No more fast food.  You really find out how much that adds up to. No more pop, and junk food.  The expensive stuff is what is not good for you.  The first few weeks you will be living off pudding, jello, broth.   I think you will do great, keep on this site as it helps in so many ways.  Oh and bought winter coat on site and it's new for $25.  So it can be done