Kelly the Culinarian: September Savings Day 12: Take care of your fur babies

Saturday, September 12, 2009

September Savings Day 12: Take care of your fur babies


Pets enrich our lives in ways that are hard to assess. But they are damn expensive. Cats will run you $700 and dogs $1,000. Per year.

We have an adorable dog and two amusing turtles. Our turtles needed a new tank recently. Craigslist was our best friend. We also bought the last round of food in bulk and the massive, professional filter was an eBay find.

As for Napoleon, coupons have been my friend. I bought several months of Science Diet food for $4 by pairing a sale with a manufacturer coupon and a store coupon. He also has several months worth of treats from various coupons gigs all over town.

As for him getting fixed, I used the low-cost services of Friends of Animals, which didn’t actually turn out to be all that low cost when you factored in the pain pills and dissolving sutures, but I wasn’t going to let my puppy baby go without pain pills.

And I highly recommend the services of Luv My Pet for vaccinations. They have great packages that allow you to get all you pets’ shots taken care of in an afternoon -- no appointment or office fee.

We also keep track of coupons and discounts we can use on his grooming. In between grooms, we have purchase about $40 in grooming supplies for doggy baths, nail trims and other touch ups. A full groom is $55, so you’ll get a good ROI on a bottle of shampoo, scissors and nail clippers.

Budget for your pet, then coupon, coupon, coupon. That’s how we get his toys. I even have a coupon for a free office visit for Napoleon’s next check up.

1 comment:

jillianduch said...

Kelly, I'm glad you're blogging again! And love the savings ideas. I just got a clipper set a few months ago to give my little guy haircuts at home - which is way simpler than I thought it would be. I'll have to start looking for coupons for treats and toys... but dog treats are super-easy to bake at home. I can share some recipes, if you're interested...