Friends, foe and those of you riding through the six with your woes: cold and flu season is upon us.
Down Under, cold and flu season typically occurs between the dreaded months of May and October, and reaches its peak in August.
Most Aussie adults cop 2 – 4 colds each year. If, by some divine miracle you’ve not experienced one, symptoms include coughing, fever, sore throat, sneezing, blocked or runny nose, general congestion and feeling thoroughly shithouse.
And if you’re lucky enough to contract the flu, your symptoms will be far worse. You can look forward to a fever, sore throat, muscle aches and runny poop de poops. Pneumonia is a very real (and life threatening) complication, too.
So while you’re feeling like a clammy bucket of walking chunder, you’ll probably make a desperate dash to the pharmacy. In your disgusting, close-to-crap-dacking-yourself state you might drop a lazy $50 on all kinds of remedies – anything to make the pain go away.
We at PEDESTRIAN.TV hate to see you HASOC, so we’ve banged up a few ways you can avoid the chemist-splurge. It’s one thing for your body to be sick, but your wallet? Not today.
1. Ask your doctor to prescribe the least expensive derg on the market.
It’s a common mistake to assume your doc is writing you up a script for the least-expensive drug. Sometimes medical professionals partner with drug companies, meaning they could have personal preferences. You can always request a prescription to a drug with a generic alternative. They sometimes harbour free samples under those white coats, too, and asking for some never hurt nobody.
2. Chose your chemist wisely.
A good rule of thumb is: the bigger the pharmacy, the cheaper the juice. Except for supermarkets – they’re usually pricier cause of one-stop convenience and longer opening hours. Chemist Warehouse is probs gonna be a fair whack cheaper than Amcal too, if you can deal with the bright yellow decor.
3. Join a loyalty program.
If the only pharmacy around your area is one of the aforementioned more-spenno ones, get yourself a loyalty card. Priceline has a Sister Club, Amcal has a loyalty program, as does Guardian. It’s their way of getting you back through those doors, but join up (usually for free) and you’ll reap plenny of benefits, like points-to-dollar systems and birthday treats.
4. Or, screw the middle man completely and just buy those meds online.
Operating on the WWW cuts out overheads like rent and floor staff. Pharmacy Direct, Pharmacy Online and ePharmacy are just a few Aussie sites offering discounted meds. So if you’re a seasoned vet on the cold and flu front, you can work out what you need and get it on the cheap there.
5. Buy generic meds.
This is the one time in life when being a basic bitch pays its dividends. Generic paracetamol and branded paracetamol (like Panadol) have the exact same ingredients. The only difference? One has nicer packaging and is more expensive.
6. Get amongst the Pharmaceuticals Benefits Scheme
We might be lagging behind on other really important things like marriage equality… But one thing we have do have down pat is a damn good healthcare system. The PBS is available for all Aussie citizens with a Medicare card. If you’re spending tonnes of cash on meds/operations (over $1,475.70 in a year) you could hit the Safety Net Entitlement, which means everything you pay for after that will be at concession rate… If that went over your noggin you can read more about it here.
Go forth, Jon Snow, and make this winter your biatch.
Photo: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
