I talk a lot about various ways to save money on this blog, but that doesn’t mean that I, myself, am perfect in this. Sometimes I make blunders that cost me money, and this is one of those times. And the most frustrating part is that the mistake was completely avoidable and preventable.
I forgot to renew my disability parking permit in time, and now I’m going to have to deal with the consequences until my new one gets approved.
For whatever reason, my disability parking permit is only valid for one year at a time, despite the fact that my disability is recognized by the government as permanent. It’s not like my genetic disability, hypermobile ehlers danlos syndrome, is going to magically disappear after a year, but I still need to renew my permit annually.
And I forgot to renew it.
Well, technically, I realized two weeks ago that my permit was about to expire, but by then it was too late. Government efficiency and all that, you know, means that that isn’t nearly enough time. My permit expires today and I have no idea when my new one will arrive.
Trying to Get the Paperwork Together
In order to renew my disability parking permit, I needed updated medical documentation explaining why I need it.
I tried making an appointment with a rheumatologist through my health insurance, but the next available appointment was in three months. Obviously, that wasn’t going to help me renew a permit that was expiring in two weeks.
So I made a private appointment with a rheumatologist I’d been to before. (He also is through the insurance but it’s impossible to get appointments for him that way; privately you can see him much sooner.) That appointment cost me $285, which is already a pretty big expense that I might have been able to avoid if I’d started dealing with this earlier. Even going privately, though, I still had to wait a few days for the appointment.
In the meantime, I went to my family doctor, who wrote up a whole letter detailing my disabilities. He explained that because of my Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and dysautonomia, I can’t walk far without getting significant pain and dizziness.
I thought that might be enough, but a friend in the know was concerned that the letter wouldn’t be accepted because it came from my family doctor rather than a specialist.
I didn’t want to submit paperwork that might get rejected, especially when I was already so close to the deadline, so I decided to wait until my rheumatologist appointment a couple of days later.
The rheumatologist essentially wrote me the same thing my family doctor had, just with more details and medical terminology. He wrote that I had polyarthralgia (I had to Google that- it means non arthritis pain in multiple joints) because of my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, fibromyalgia, and wrote the causes of my dysautonomia and specifically wrote that I can’t walk more than 50 meters without getting dizzy and having increased pain.
I submitted his letter, along with paperwork from my dysautonomia specialist, (a post about my visit to that specialist is coming up shortly) my family doctor, and older paperwork from the EDS specialist.
And now the waiting game begins.
I have no idea how long it will take for my renewal to be approved, but in the meantime, my current permit is expired, and I won’t have the benefits that come with it.
Why This Is Going to Cost Me Money
Having a disability parking permit makes a huge difference for me, both financially and physically.
Here where I live, there are a number of parking benefits that come with having a disability parking permit, and I’ve gotten very used to relying on them.
For one thing, with my permit, I can park for free in blue and white paid parking zones. That means I don’t need to pay every time I park somewhere that normally requires payment.
I can also park on sidewalks and in places that are generally forbidden to park, as long as I’m not interfering with traffic and there’s enough room for pedestrians to pass safely. That makes a big difference when there’s no available parking close to where I need to go.
And many paid parking garages offer free parking, or additional hours of free parking, to people with disability parking permits.
These are all things that save me money on a regular basis.
Without my permit, I’ll have to start paying for parking in places where I normally park for free. And depending on how long the renewal takes, those costs could really add up.
It’s especially frustrating because parking is an expense that I generally don’t need to budget much money for. Now I’m going to have to spend money on something I normally get for free, all because I didn’t take care of my paperwork in time.
And that’s on top of the $285 I already spent on the private rheumatologist appointment.
I don’t even know yet how much this mistake is going to end up costing me.
It’s Not Just About the Money
As frustrating as the financial side is, the physical consequences might actually be worse.
There’s a reason I have a disability parking permit in the first place.
Because of my EDS, walking can cause significant pain, particularly in my pelvis. Fortunately this isn’t all the time; it depends if my pelvis is out of place. (But this happens at least once a week and lasts until I go to physical therapy.) The bigger issue is my dysautonomia; I can get dizzy when I’m upright and walking around. The longer I have to walk, the more difficult things can become.
Having a disability parking permit means I can usually park much closer to where I need to go, which makes it easier for me to manage my day to day life.
Without it, I may need to park much further away from my destination and then walk that extra distance, even when I’m already in pain or feeling dizzy.
Grocery shopping is one of the things I’m particularly concerned about.
When I go grocery shopping, I’m often at my dizziest by the time I’m finished. I’ve been walking around the store, standing in line, and dealing with everything involved in shopping. By the time I get back to my car, I’m often really ready to sit down.
Having to park further away and then push a full shopping cart a longer distance to my car is not something I’m looking forward to.
And it’s not just grocery shopping. Every errand, appointment, or outing where I can’t find close parking is potentially going to be more difficult.
The whole point of the disability parking permit is to make life a little more manageable for people with disabilities. And now, until my renewal goes through, I’m going to have to deal with those extra challenges.
A Very Avoidable Frugal Fail
The most frustrating part of all of this is knowing that I could have avoided it.
I didn’t lose my parking permit because I no longer qualify for it. My disabilities haven’t gone away, and I have medical documentation explaining why I still need it.
I simply didn’t start the renewal process early enough.
And now I’m paying for that mistake, both literally and figuratively.
This is one of those situations where procrastination ends up costing money. Sometimes putting something off doesn’t really matter, but other times there are real consequences, especially when you’re dealing with government paperwork and medical appointments that can take months to get.
I already have enough medical appointments, paperwork, and other things to deal with, and I really didn’t want to add another expensive and physically difficult problem to my life.
But here we are.
What I’ll Do Differently Next Time
I’ve definitely learned my lesson from this.
When my new disability parking permit arrives, I’m going to immediately put a reminder in my calendar for a few months before its expiration date.
Not a reminder a week before. Not even two weeks before. A few months.
That way, I’ll have enough time to make the necessary appointments through my health insurance, get the documentation I need, submit everything, and hopefully have the new permit approved before the old one expires.
It takes a little bit of planning, but that planning can save a lot of money and headache.
I know that being frugal isn’t just about buying things cheaply or finding good deals. It’s also about staying on top of things like renewals, paperwork, and deadlines so that you don’t end up spending money unnecessarily.
And this time, I failed at that.
Hopefully my renewal will be approved quickly and I won’t have to spend too much money on parking in the meantime. But regardless of how long it takes, I’m frustrated with myself for letting this happen.
It’s a shame that something as simple as forgetting to renew a permit is going to cost me money and make my life harder when I already have enough physical challenges to deal with.
At least I’ve learned my lesson, and hopefully next year I won’t be making the same mistake again.
