Some pets are more expensive than others

Two articles about pet expenses and costs caught my eye this morning.

The first was about the value of the Obama’s dog Bo.  Because he was a gift, the Obamas had to report the value, which was estimated at $1,600.

Seems high for a dog, but purebred dogs can be extremely expensive.  So I can’t say I was super surprised by this.  The cost might be the reason the Portugese Water Dog hasn’t caught on as a popular pet.  Not when you can get a great mutt from the shelter for cheap.  Purebred dogs do have their value though, and as someone who grew up with Golden Retrievers as “siblings,” I’m not one to judge your choice of dog.  Just a note about how expensive they can be.

The other article discussed some of Liz Jones’ expenses.  Liz Jones is a Daily Mail columnist who has revealed her struggles with debt. So much so that people have offered to send her money to help her out.   But after reading some of her expenses, maybe I don’t feel so bad for her after all.   Her pet expenses come to around $580 a month, but she’s got a lot of pets.  Seventeen cats, five dogs, plus horses and chickens.  Food and vet bills for all those animals have to add up.  But then we find out that her cats eat organic prawns.

Organic prawns.

I don’t even buy organic prawns for myself, much less my cats.  I buy good food for my cats, as I want them to be healthy and live long lives, but I don’t know that I would ever feed them organic prawns.

Okay, if my vet told me that I had to feed them organic prawns or they would get sick, then yes, I would.  But until that point, it’s not happening.

If you have the money to throw around, then go ahead and feed your cats organic prawns.  Buy them diamond encrusted collars.  Do whatever you want.  But if you’re in major debt, to the point where your fans are offering to send you money, maybe see if the cats would be okay with non-organic prawns.

Megan Smith

Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:

In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance.  It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information.  It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck.  While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.

While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.

Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.

So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan.  I needed to budget.  I needed to know what I was spending my money on.  I needed to prepare for the future.

I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way.  I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.