Cheapest way to do WLI

[JBJ]

I'm hugely overweight (BMI of 43) - combination of disability/medications and a complete inability to stop eating my emotions! I've tried SW/WW etc, but I just don't find it sustainable long term as the food noise never goes away. I think I would really benefit from WLI, but I'm not currently able to work much due to various disabilities and just can't afford circa £150 a month long term.

I've seen discount codes etc for various places, but presumably these are just for the first month? Can I switch to a different provider every month to get discounts again? Any tips or tricks for making it as cheap as possible? And what's the minimum I could potentially get it to per month using discount codes?

I've been hoping that they become more readily available on the NHS, as I'm not diabetic or anything, but I can't see that happening for a while. It's so frustrating that the price of these potentially lifesaving drugs makes it inaccessible to people on a low income!

Any advice welcomed, thank you.

You can switch providers, I've only done it once tho. Some feel the extra dietary advice is valuable.

Can you think longer term? I thought I'd do 3 months initially, but that was daft! I plan to stop after my seventh month, but I was BMI 30. So could you save up for a while so you can budget for say a years supply?

You'll be amazed how much less food you buy, my reduced food costs paid for nearly half of each month's dose!

A lot will depend on how you respond to the medication. In 6 months I have not had to go above a 5mg pen (so far) and cost with discounts has been around £130/pen (which is not the cheapest provider).

Each pen you get 4 doses, 5 if you use the extra liquid. That works out around £26/week. But it will get more expensive if you need to go up to higher doses, you just won't know if you will need to.

Have a think about if you will save money on takeaways, fizzy drinks, food treats that will offset against the cost.

The problem is, saving up for a year at the price they are is probably going to take me 2 years!

Yeah I wondered about how much I'll save on food costs, but most of my food budget goes on feeding a teenager 🤣

Hmm when you break it down to £26 a week, that actually doesn't sound too bad. It would still be a stretch, as I'm on a very low income, but possibly doable. What I don't want to do is start it, realise I can't afford it longer term and have to stop, as that would be more frustrating than never starting in the first place!

There is a provider called Shemed who are doing a specific offer for completely new starters, who don't mind participating in their research trial. I'm not using it myself as I've already started. It is £99 a month for a year, and you have to do various specific things each month to comply with their process. So do a self administered blood test, do a video call each month. Might be worth you having a look and see if it could work for you if the price suits.

Otherwise, yes, you can swap and change every month to use new customer discounts. Some suppliers also let you build up credit if people use your referral code, and if you are able to get enough people to use it.

£99 a month seems a good price. I'll definitely check that out, thank you.

Teenagers are a bottomless pit so you have my sympathies there! They are always attracted to the expensive stuff too!

Can you look at what they are eating? If you are buying less treat food, they won't be grazing on expensive empty calories either. Look at cheap basic foods for them that fill them up - eggs, toast, porridge oats with bananas etc tell them to drink water.

I don't actually buy a lot of junk food as such - my son likes Asda's cheap diet lemonade, so that's only 60p a bottle, and he fills up on toast/cereal etc if he's still hungry after dinner. It's just the sheer volume of stuff he can put away that baffles me! He's tall and skinny and a bottomless pit just lately 🤣