When I first started this journey to eliminate my debt, one of the first things that got axed was pet costs. S and I have a rather large pet family (three dogs, two cats, and two lizards) so you can imagine how expensive taking care of them is each month. I created a spreadsheet and logged in each pet’s food, vet, vaccines, and general care costs… plus the amount of money we were spending spoiling them rotten. My portion of the expense was somewhere in the $115 a month range which I got down to about $65 mainly by switching to the store brand dog food and cutting out the treats and toys.
After 6 months of this, I have come to the decision that the cheap food is absolutely not worth the other expenses and headaches that have come along with it. Since switching, all 5 pets have experienced some sort of food related illness including food allergies, dull coats and dandruff, and some very nasty digestive problems that I’m not going to describe to spare you the gory details! After 6 months of dealing with sad, unhealthy pets, messy accidents in the house on an almost daily frequency and ridiculously expensive vet bills I am officially convinced that nutritious and quality pet food is NOT one of the areas in my budget that can take a funding cut!
I have found cooking a homestyle diet for my dog is not only extremly healthy but ends up costing about the same as cheap dog food for the month.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea... do you have a recipe you can share? I'm soooo fed up with the pet food industry right now and would love to try something home made that doesn't break the bank!
DeleteCurious...why would that be the place you'd try to cut expenses? My pets are like my family; I would never feed them shitty food.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit that when I first started cutting expense I was a little heavy handed across the board... I had promised myself that I would look at EVERY penny I spent to see if it was a necessity or a want. Obviously good nutrition is a necessity and when I switched them to cheaper food I should have had a better understanding of what the store brands nutritional value was. Since running into so many problems I've learned a lot more about the nutritional needs of my fur-babies and I'm pretty upset that I was essentially feeding them the "McDonald's" of pet food.
DeleteOn another note, I do feel like my pets are my family and part of being a family is sacrificing together to reach a higher goal... but ultimately health, fitness, and nutrition are not something that my family will be sacrificing no matter how far in debt we are!