Monthly Expenses: January 2013

It's been a full year since I started to track my monthly pet expenses. Though the number was shockingly high and painful to look at over and over again, it's been a great exercise and I'd like to keep this habit no matter how busy I get. So, without further ado, here's the first month of 2013.

January 2013

• Food: $147
• Accessories: $43

TOTAL: $190
YTD TOTAL: $190


Food

We got Maya 3 boxes of 4 lb. the Honest Kitchen Zeal. I usually purchase the 10 lb. box online, but after some calculation, I found that if we get the "buy 3 get 1 free" deal from Pet Food Express, it's actually cheaper per lb. to get four 4 lb boxes than a single 10 lb box elsewhere. (Of course it'll be even cheaper to get four 10 lb boxes, but she won't be able to finish that much food in time.) When we were at the store, they only have 3 boxes left, but was kind enough to still apply the 25% off, which was even better, because I'm still not sure if I'd like to keep her on the food for too long.

Accessories

Maya finally got a new bed! Because both of her old ones were half destroyed and too small, we wanted to get a new one for a long time but weren't able to find one we liked with a reasonable price. One day, Maya's daddy came home with a new bed he found at Taget, so now instead of hopping between two beds at night, she's cycling between three. She seems to enjoy sleeping on different beds during different periods of the night...

A new bed that finally fits her

Maya's old beds

Besides a new bed, we also stocked up on poop bags from Daiso ($1.5 for everything store). The black ones are a bit more expensive at 70 per box, which we only use when we need to carry her poop around, like going on hikes. The translucent ones are 170 per box, which we use during normal walks since there are trash cans in the park every few steps away. Either type of bags are much cheaper than those doggie bag rolls, which I always pull too many out at once, take forever to open and run out on the day she decided to take two poops per walk. I usually keep a box of the black ones in my car and a box of the translucent ones by the door with her leash.

Black bags on the left, translucent ones on the right

We also got her two stainless steel bowls at the $1.5 store. It comes with lids that seal up the bowls nicely for bringing food and water on the go. A hair stopper for our shower drain also cost us $1.5, but I did not add it to our pet expenses, since it stops more of my hair than her fur on a daily basis.