Hmm...wonder where my money goes??

**madhen** · 12-30-2008, 10:36 PM

I just got back from a stocking-up trip. I loaded all my numbers into Microsoft Excel, and found that, out of the $278.22 total I spent on supplies, $208.99 was on animals.

**Patty A** · 12-30-2008, 10:45 PM

I to understand how you feel. With the price of gas going up the way it did the bio-fuel rocketed. That made corn go sky high, and with that all the animal feed just got more expensive with each trip to the feed store. The price of hay tripled this year, and once again it was fuel costs. The farmers had to pass on the price of fuel for all the tractor work in growing produce, hay, and grains. I swear I don't know what we are going to do. With what it costs me to feed critters my family could eat like kings. It is soon going to be so bad we won't be able to keep our all our animals as we won't be able to feed them. Its sad, but it is becoming worse and worse. I sure hope prices soon drop, as it is I will not be able to hang on to the animals for long at this rate.

**pinetree** · 12-31-2008, 02:18 PM

Yes we have noticed a big jump also. Cat food has almost doubled here, I try to use coupons, but they seem to be rare lately.

I try to stockpile when its on sale. It helps alittle.

**dwallyfam** · 12-31-2008, 02:29 PM

Yes it is costing more to feed the buggers.

**mom2matty** · 12-31-2008, 03:06 PM

We adopted a cat at Christmas and so my "pet" costs have doubled! I use to just have the dog but now there is the additional costs with the new cat!

**Laura2** · 12-31-2008, 07:07 PM

I try to be as frugal as possible when buying for my pets. But there are a few things that I splurge on for them that I would never do for myself. For example, my two dogs get groomed every 8 weeks and the cost for both is $100. That is about $50 a month! I hate to spend more than $10 on a haircut for myself once a year!

**Nishu** · 12-31-2008, 07:32 PM

Maybe you should make them pull their own weight. Do you have a small cow or a large chicken that you could ride into town?

**Starlight9803** · 12-31-2008, 08:47 PM

I've found it to be similar here. Our pet feed and supplies accounts for a little over a third of our monthly household/grocery budget.

**fixer** · 12-31-2008, 11:30 PM

We spend an average of three hundred dollars a month for two dogs and one cat. I had to look twice at the numbers because I did not see how it could be that high. DW is a nutritional physiologist who works with animal feed. She refuses to cut corners on feed. We, on the other hand, eat cheap food all of the time. When we got married, she said all I would have to do is give her two things to make her happy. The first was a garden. I had several hundred acres so that was easy. The second was a cat. But, before we got a cat we made a deal. We wanted to put money aside so we could make decisions about it's care without worrying about the financial aspect of it. We saved three thousand dollars and put it in a certificate of deposit. It has been eighteen years and we have not had to touch it yet. We have been able to cash flow everything. I don't know what it has grown to but it certainly has more than doubled. I think this is an example of if the money's there, you won't need it. When money's short, things happen.

**Ilovesewing** · 12-31-2008, 11:37 PM

Originally Posted by Laura2

I try to be as frugal as possible when buying for my pets. But there are a few things that I splurge on for them that I would never do for myself. For example, my two dogs get groomed every 8 weeks and the cost for both is $100. That is about $50 a month! I hate to spend more than $10 on a haircut for myself once a year!

Bwahahaha -isn't that the truth!!

**Jeanna** · 12-31-2008, 11:38 PM

WOW! My pets feel like they are not taken care of now. For my dog, 2 cats, and chickens, I spend about $50 a month.

**fixer** · 12-31-2008, 11:51 PM

Originally Posted by Jeanna

WOW! My pets feel like they are not taken care of now. For my dog, 2 cats, and chickens, I spend about $50 a month.

I should have explained my situation better. One of our dogs weighs one hundred seventy pounds the other one hundred twenty pounds. Not only are big dogs expensive to feed, the medication is a lot more as well. As a matter of fact, instead of heartguard, they are getting a wormer made for horses. It is a lot cheaper and was given to us by our vet. Oh by the way, the cat weighs a whopping five pounds. She was a rescue that had a severe parasite load which stunted her growth.

**madhen** · 01-01-2009, 12:16 AM

My two dogs are approx 90 pounds each, but they are on a raw diet, so it costs a bit more, food-wise (and less vet-wise), to feed them. My big money sponges are my birds. They get fresh organic produce and bottled water. I am trying to eventually grow everything they eat, but I'm not there yet, and in the winter, it tends to be harder to do.

I also have the three donkeys and twenty-nine goats, who go through about 1.3 bales of hay per day, at approx $12-14/bale. Girl, one of my donkeys, also gets daily meds for sporotrichosis. Then there are the chickens, who get regular chicken feed, because the only source of organic feed I can find is on the east coast and charges shipping. They go through approximately 150 pounds of food per month (mostly because they share it with every freaking ground squirrel in the county and about a zillion finches).

At least the goldfish are cheap.

**fixer** · 01-01-2009, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by madhen

My two dogs are approx 90 pounds each, but they are on a raw diet, so it costs a bit more, food-wise (and less vet-wise), to feed them. My big money sponges are my birds. They get fresh organic produce and bottled water. I am trying to eventually grow everything they eat, but I'm not there yet, and in the winter, it tends to be harder to do.

I also have the three donkeys and twenty-nine goats, who go through about 1.3 bales of hay per day, at approx $12-14/bale. Girl, one of my donkeys, also gets daily meds for sporotrichosis. Then there are the chickens, who get regular chicken feed, because the only source of organic feed I can find is on the east coast and charges shipping. They go through approximately 150 pounds of food per month (mostly because they share it with every freaking ground squirrel in the county and about a zillion finches).

At least the goldfish are cheap.

I feel for you having something that eats hay. I took it for granted when I grew my own. The prices that horse owners pay here for what appears to be questionable quality is amazing.