Tags
budgeting, dog food, dog treats, entirelypets.com, finances, glucosamine, groupon, pet finances, vet, zignature
This is part of my ongoing effort to track our pet finances here at the House of Two Bows. Previous posts in the series can be found under the category of finances.
The Cost of (Pet) Things for October 2012:
- Food: $84
- Treats: $9
- Grooming: $0
- Accessories and misc: $0
- Vet & Medical: $255
- TOTAL: $348 (running average for 2012 ~ $173 / month)
In food news, we’re trying out a new kibble this month called Zignature, manufactured by Pets Global, Inc. A local pet store was running a promotion to drum up interest, selling 4 pound bags that would normally retail for $9.99 for only $4.99. We’re almost done with our first trial of the Trout and Salmon Meal Formula, and have another bag of the Turkey formula coming up just in time for November. It’s going okay so far, but I’ll post my thoughts later.
Also picked up a bunch of meat and supplements, including a large container of JointMAX liquid Glucosamine at a pretty reasonable price after redeeming a Groupon for EntirelyPets.com.
Topping off the Groupon deal ($30 worth of products for $15), I threw in a couple pouches of Fruitables treats. Meanwhile, RJ is suddenly on board with dehydrating our own treats more regularly, so he took the initiative to shrink down a big ol’ bag of chicken hearts, which the Bows are loving. This makes me happy, as I’ve not had the energy to keep up with treat-making projects to make the dehydrator purchased in May 2012 pay for itself yet.
The biggest hit to this month’s finances — and knocking the monthly average back up, dammit — was vet bills, obviously. I can’t do anything about this until I move to a less expensive part of the country/world. Ugh. We’ve gotten away with no major veterinary expenses for Bowpi this year (knock on wood), but I’d like to do a full blood panel at her next annual exam (she had a limited panel done in February 2011), so I’ll expect another figure like this in a few more months.
I priced out the daily cost of feeding all of our beast once, and immediately tried to forget it again. I did figure out that we actually save a good deal of money feeding a home made diet instead of a good quality kibble, though, for the number of dogs we have.
I don’t mind spending money on good, healthy food. It’s even pleasurable, including the prep work. And prepping for two isn’t so different from prepping for one. What’s three or four or five…? If I made an assembly line out of it, maybe I could amass that small army of dogs that I’ve been fantasizing about lately…
Oh wait, but there’s that annoying bit about vet bills and having to leave town and sometimes the country with virtually no dog-proficient friends I trust with the Bows, let alone any MORE dogs than that… Curse you, reality. Curse you.
Our vet bills from the beginning of the year got us big time but we’re slowly averaging out. Had we not invested in our dog walker/trainer, our own ‘Cost of Things’ would look a lot better but he’s worth every penny so far.
Thanks so much for encouraging us to start our own this year! Still loving your monthly updates!
If it helps, we budget $150/month for the dogs, not counting their food (which I’m too lazy to separate out of the grocery budget, especially now that half of each meal is chicken and yams). We’re a little under budget for the year, but only because the specialists have chosen not to charge us for a couple of June’s visits.