If your employer-sponsored FSA opts for a grace period rather than a $500 year-to-year rollover, tomorrow is your last day to spend the money in your account before your employer takes it back for itself (our health care system is great!).
Luckily, Amazon makes it incredibly easy to find FSA-eligible items on their site with a dedicated page, but if you’re overwhelmed by options, here are a few of our favorites that you can throw into your cart before the deadline.
A First Aid Kit
Thousands of our readers have bought this 299 piece kit (the Amazon widget below is acting strange), and it includes bandages, basic medicines, alcohol pads, and more. It’s all self-contained in the included zipper pouch, so you can throw it in a glove box, or below the sink in your bathroom.
A Neti Pot
If you haven’t used a Neti Pot before, you’re going to be really freaked out (in a good way) when you realize what it feels like to have cleared-out sinuses.
Contact Solution
Own contacts? You can just spend every last drop of your FSA money on bottles of contact solution, so you don’t have to worry about that “oh shit” moment when it’s 11:30 PM on a Tuesday and you realize you don’t have any left.
Pregnancy Tests
The cool thing about these is that you should keep a few handy whether you really want to get pregnant, or really don’t want to get pregnant. Related: condoms are also eligible.
Light Therapy Mask
Neutrogena’s affordable light therapy mask covers your entire mug, and delivers powerful targeted blue light, effectively zapping acne-causing bacteria, and red light, which reduces inflammation. The whole treatment is gentle enough for daily use, and it’s safe for those who are prone to irritation. Plus, it sort of makes you look like Iron Man.
A Wrist Brace
From our own Tercius:
As someone who spends 12 hours a day in front of a computer, I’ve had to deal with repetitive stress injuries. I’ve used wrist support braces like this one and it’s helped. But it fell out of use when I switched to a trackball.
An Ankle Brace
I busted my ankle in college and ended up wearing one of these around campus in the subsequent weeks. It’s good to have one on hand (on foot?) if you’re prone to ankle tweaks.
Sunscreen
The sun will come out...tomorrow eventually. Sunscreen has a shelf life, so you shouldn’t spend like $500 in FSA money on it, but you can definitely buy all that you’ll need for this year. I’m a huge fan of Neutrogena’s Hydro Boost, which takes cues from Japan’s far-superior sunscreens. Supergoop! City Sunscreen Serum is a veritable cult favorite among the skincare-conscious set. For a somewhat less expensive option, Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch is a reader favorite as well, and they also make a spray version.
A TENS Massager
TENS (Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) massagers seem a bit like pseudoscience, but every time we post a deal on one of these things, we hear nothing but rave reviews. In fact, I use one occasionally after exercising, and it does seem to reduce muscle pain. At the very least, it feels cool.
Eye Mask
If you have a migraine (or really, any head or eye pain), this hot & cold eye pack is an easy way to soothe that pounding ache around your temples. I keep mine in the freezer. (Note: It also work wonders when it comes to eye de-puffing).
Lip Balm
Not all lip balm is FSA eligible, but SPF balms typically are. Jack Black is known far and wide known for its men’s grooming gear, and its SPF 25 balm is eligible, as is this Sun Bum variety pack, and good old fashioned Coppertone Sport.
A Blood Pressure Monitor
Is your blood pressure higher than it should be? Of course it is, everyone’s is, but you can keep tabs on it with an FSA-eligible monitor. Omron’s digital monitors are incredibly popular, but if you have more cash to spend, Withings makes one that syncs with your phone.
Kinesiology Tape
KT tape provides extra support for your muscles without sacrificing your range of motion, which is why you see it strapped to pretty much every professional athlete these days.
Corn Cushions
If you do a lot of walking, corns are an unfortunate part of life. Even if you don’t deal with them all the time, it’s worth keeping some corn cushions in your medicine cabinet so you don’t have to, uh, walk through a pharmacy to buy them.
Wart Stick
Getting warts frozen off is expensive and hurts like hell. Instead, try Wart Stick. This Chapstick-like formula goes on super easily and dries everything up fast, plus you’ll barely feel a thing. Promise.