Saving Money on Pet Food
When I wrote my post on common sacrifices in budgeting to get out of debt, I forgot to include one major area we saved money: pet food. I used to buy high quality pet food for my dog and cats. When I say “high quality” I am talking $28-33 per 40 pound bag for the dog and $20-23 per 20 pound bag for the cats.
Warning: what follows might be TMI for some of y’all. (TMI=Too Much Information)
Last year, after much deliberation, I switched the dog to the Kroger brand of dog food, which is now up to only $10 for a 40 pound bag. However, there is a non-monetary price for that decision considering I turned in my Army-issue gas mask when I left the service in 2005. The cheap dog food gives my Rottweiler gas!
To make matters worse, hubby has hidden his Army-issue gas mask to keep me from putting my eyeglass inserts into it and using it at night or while he is at work (my eyeglasses are thick enough “to see into the future” as the joke goes). He knows I can sleep in a mask if need be, having learned that little trick in Kuwait and Iraq. So I am stuck with suffering noisily or chasing the dog with a can of air freshner and lighting a large amount of incense and scented candles. It might not be so bad if she wasn’t a house dog who only goes outside to leave yard mines and puddles. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad if she were a smaller dog (she is about 130 pounds of spoiled wanna-be lap dog).
As for the cats, they simply refused to eat the Kroger brand of cat food. There was much meowing and pitiful crying the one time I bought a bag of it. They don’t seem to mind the Wal-Mart brand of cat food, which is $12 for a 20 pound bag. Of course, there are olifactory consequences to that decision as well. They might not get gas (that I can tell) but they do stink bomb the litterboxes now. Did I mention there are three of them?
Days like today make me seriously reconsider my decision to switch to the cheaper pet food brands. Right now I am really suffering. Perhaps I should refigure my cost analysis to include the extra expense of air freshner, incense, and scented candles into the equation. Or maybe do another sweep-and-search for hubby’s gas mask…