We did something similiar to Slyder, where we put it on the credit card. I applied for one that had a deal of interest free for 3 months, and paid for the cycle as close to EPU as possible. We had 3 months to save some money as I was doing Synarel for the 3 months leading up to our cycle, but we also had travel costs to pay for as well.

Our savings covered our travel/accommodation costs first.
The anaethetist sent us a bill for our out of pocket, which was easier to handle a small amount instead of the full amount and wait for a refund.
FS sent his bill, and i think i claimed whatever refund we got for him, then sent refund cheque along with our out of pocket cheque.
Once medicare refunded for our cycle, it went straight back to the credit card, then we had enough in what we had saved to pay out the remainder on the CC. With plenty of time to spare in the interest free period... DH had to ring the bank and tell them we had made a 'purchase' that we wanted on the no interest for a certain period. It was a 1 purchase only on interest free, so any other purchases made were charged interest.