I read today in the paper that it costs and average of $1571 US per year to own a dog and $919 per year to own a cat. (sourse: investopedia)

For those of you with pets, how are ways that you have found to save money?

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Well, I seriously doubt we spend that much on our two dogs together!!! But our dogs make us money!!! We breed them and sell the puppies!!!

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~Happiness is a large family~

Were they talking about Paris Hilton??

Yes, there are probably people who spend a lot on their pets, but I think most of it is optional. My DH had two dogs that stayed with his parents when he moved to MD. One of them became really sick last year and we did spend a lot of money on him. Putting him to sleep cost us $96 The second dog is healthy and now staying with us. We spend may be $20 on food that lasts 2 months and a few bucks on little treats. And ticks and other regular meds may be a few hunderd a year, if that.
I think just as with anything else, pets are as expensive as you want them to be. There always tons of coupons for pet food, you don't have to have a pure bred and I haven't met one pet yet who really cared if his "haircut" was a little crooked.

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Lena

Well, I think when I had two geriatric dogs I didn't even spend that much! I probably spent $1300 the year our lab died which included shots for both, putting one to sleep, tests on both, vet bills, cremation for one and food (both were on special diets and meds), but that was just the one year.

Now that we have a much, much smaller dog and younger for our second (went from an 85 pound lab/husky to a 15 pound terrier) it is MUCH cheaper!

So, we spent about $50 every two months for food: $300 a year (our 15.5 year old Sheltie has to have K/D for his kidney disease, but if we didn't he would die or have more expensive vet bills), $250 a year for our Sheltie for tests/vet bills/shots/kidney tests, $100 (if that!) a year for our little dog for shots/vet bills, $200 a year on Sentinel for both, $150 a year for Deramaxx (arthritis meds for the Sheltie) and $50 a year on grooming for the Sheltie. Maybe an extra $25 for incidentals.

That would make a grand total of $1075 for two dogs. And, that is a high estimate.

Honestly, the way to lower pet costs is to not let them get old. Once they get around 12, it just gets more expensive. But, he is still worth it!

If it was just our younger dog than it would be a grand total of $400 for her.

We don't spend that much but I guess it does add up over the course of the year. We buy a bag of $15 dog food every three to four weeks, a $5 box of dog biscuits that lasts more than a month and his flea/heartworm prevention medicine is about $150 a year. He also gets some new toys and special treats throughout the year. I'm not sure what his check ups cost but he hasn't been sick. We do keep up with his shots. I think your costs really go up when you have a lot of special grooming done or if your pet becomes ill.

I'm not bothered by the amount we spend because he is a part of our family.

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That seams really high We paid in the las year around $500 for out pets. a dog, 2 cats, a bird and a fish tank. We buy all our pet food/ litter in bulk from costco and don't spoil our pets.

Pet owners spoil there pets for example a pet gate from petco cost $70 the same gate with different packaging cost $40 at Babies R Us. It is rediculus the mark up on pet products.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006

It really depends on vet bills for the year! Some years they are more than others. We have one dog and she's the cheap one. We also have six cats - though only three of them are actually "mine", darn neighbors up and moved away on their cats. I go through a lot of cat food.

DH and I don't have children yet. So our three cats are our babies. Two of them are scarcely felt in our budget. Just food and cat litter and their annual shots. The third (well, actually the first, seeing as we've had her the longest) has an autoimmune condition that eats away at the skin around her mouth. She's on medication daily to control it, and gets to visit the vet every 2 months. But she's worth every cent, as she's the sweetest most loving cat I've ever had. She's cuddled up on my lap right now, making me type one handed. :love:

Also, of our three cats, two of them came to us as stray kittens. So we had to pay a private vet for their spaying - that's about $300 per cat. Yikes. Fortunately it's just one operation per cat. Phew!

I'm not sure exactly how much we pay each year. I budget $40 a month for their food and litter and Connie's meds and vet visit every 2nd month is about $60. We've had some once off large expenses - the spaying, the automatic litterbox (completely worth it with three indoor cats, IMO), the cat tree (I think we spent $200 on that 6 years' ago) and Connie's $200 hairball last year (she hadn't eaten in three days, went in for X-rays and blood work, and a day later threw the darned thing up).

Our three cats are still cheaper than the hypothetical baby we've been trying to have.

We don't have any pets. My dh will probably lobby for one when the kids are a bit older. I'll have to use this info. to help him sway otherwise. Not too much on pets.

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"Before I was a Mom I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body." ~Anonymous

We paid about $400 this past year in vet bills, which included spaying....unless an emergency comes up, it shouldn't be that high again. We are on a payment plan where we pay $20 a month to cover everything in a year. I HIGHLY recommend this! Then, we buy a bag of dog food about every other month..sometimes longer...at $8 a bag approx. She has had to have a tag, collar, toe nail clippers (we do them), kennel to sleep in, and of course, food/water dishes....and that is about it. Even if you add in what we paid for her, we are no where close to that total!!

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Shaking in my boots (well, if I was wearing them in the middle of summer!), but glad to be back!