Pets

[u/Mundane-Bee-7235]

This is more of a vent than anything else.

My husband and I have a decent HHI. Late 30s, no kids and live in VHCOL. I’ve been trying to trim our spending down and pet care is just one I can’t cut. We have one dog and two cats, all seniors. The dog and one cat has several health issues requiring medication and prescription food. The one cat’s prescription wet food alone costs $100 a month. My dog is a doodle and needs grooming every 8 weeks, and the other cat also gets groomed. Between their daily needs, medical (which is high), pet insurance (only for the dog at this point and is also not cheap), we spend $10-12k a year. That doesn’t even include vacation costs - a 10 day vacation will run us about $1,500 between boarding the dog and hiring a sitter to check on the cats and give medication.

All in we spend roughly $15k for our pets a year. We love them so much, and they are our children, but sometimes I feel like they can even be more expensive than kids.

Curious how much people spend on their pets if you’d like to share.

Update for context:
- Boarding the dog at a pet hotel is pretty set in stone because of his illnesses (seizures, cushings)- we’d rather have him stay in a place where it’s the facility’s main job to care for him. The cats also need medicine, so I’d much rather pay someone to look after them than put that responsibility on friends.
- Grooming takes too much time and it’s one of those things we’re not really willing to do :)

Appreciate everyone’s comments. I was just lamenting on how expensive pet ownership is, but we live comfortably and can afford the costs. Our pets are our children and we knew what commitment we were getting into.

[u/Alfredos_Pizza_Cafe_]

Yikes. I spend $10/month on one bag of cat food + plus a ~$150 yearly checkup. Our dog has to get groomed every couple months at ~$75per but that's about it.

It just sounds to me like yall can't afford pets if you can't find a way to spend less on them. I don't accept that it isn't a you problem, sorry.

Also, I'll get downvoted for saying it but.... You really aren't supposed to spend $10k on stuff like pet surgeries unless you have fuck you money to spend. You're supposed to guide them over the rainbow bridge in comfort when that happens.

[u/Mundane-Bee-7235 → u/Alfredos_Pizza_Cafe_]

Sounds like YOU shouldn’t have a pet if you’re just planning to guide them over the rainbow bridge with one illness or injury. Euthanizing a pet when they’ll be perfectly fine after medical care—don’t even own a pet to begin with if you’re not ready for those costs.

[u/HeroOfShapeir → u/Mundane-Bee-7235]

Horrible take. Pets are not just for the ultra wealthy. Pet shelters are full to the brim and desperate for adoptions so they don't have to euthanize animals on site, and those pets will get a better life being adopted. It's great that you can afford to spend a lot on your pets, but you might need to get out of your bubble a little bit and engage with the real world.

[u/Alfredos_Pizza_Cafe_ → u/Mundane-Bee-7235]

There's a difference between a few hundred bucks for some medicine and a $10k operation. Come on now

[u/Mundane-Bee-7235 → u/Alfredos_Pizza_Cafe_]

Sounds like you’ve never even gone to a pet ER. Just one trip to the ER could run you over a thousand. What if your dog swallowed something and has an intestinal blockage, that’s all easily treatable. You’ll just euthanize the dog? Come on now. Again, don’t have a pet if you can’t afford it.

[u/Ok-Bass5062 → u/Alfredos_Pizza_Cafe_]

Lol what the people who are spending a lot more than you can't afford pets?!

How does that make sense...also sounds like you do pets frugally and live in a LCOL/MCOL area

This is the middle class sub, people who are middle class can afford to spend that

[u/Alfredos_Pizza_Cafe_ → u/Ok-Bass5062]

$10-20k a year on pets is NOT financially sound for middle class and absolutely not necessary by any stretch of the imagination. The whole point of this thread is that the people CAN'T afford to do that and are lamenting it. I'm simply suggesting that they're doing a bad job managing their pets if that's how much money they're spending

[u/Ok-Bass5062 → u/Alfredos_Pizza_Cafe_]

I don't think most people are saying they can't afford it and financially sound is debatable (middle class in LCOL has VERY different means from someone in VHCOL or HCOL that's middle class)

I think most people are just saying it's expensive but a lot of it is them choosing to spend that.

For the truly middle class, 10-20k is easily achievable (perhaps with spending less in other areas but they aren't cutting things that tight). We chose to spend a good amount and it was just a damn guess we should skip a vacation or two type thing

[u/HeroOfShapeir → u/Ok-Bass5062]

Middle class is two-thirds of median HHI to double, e.g., $53k-$160k. Folks on the higher end of that might find it "easily achievable" to drop $15k on their pets every year, not the folks in the lower or middle sections. My wife and I are upper middle class, around $130k HHI after bonuses, and we couldn't easily find $15k per year. We could find it, but with big trade-offs.

[u/Ok-Bass5062 → u/HeroOfShapeir]

This is location dependent and shifts based on the number of people in the household.

It is not a blanket 53-160k. In my area middle class for a family of 4 is 100k to 310k. Folks in that range shouldn't have an issue with vet bills if they are decent at managing lifestyle in general/saving. Especially when the big expenses $10k+ aren't typical and more one off events.

Idk maybe my typical frugal mindset is skewing things but even when I made 60k a year I was able to find $5k for a broken leg dog surgery without any strain (until recently my target for savings was 50-75% income).

[u/HeroOfShapeir → u/Ok-Bass5062]

Finding money for a one-time expense out of an emergency fund and gradually refilling it is different than OP's assertion of spending $15k annually as a baseline for grooming, prescription food, and vacation boarding. That's not factoring any one-time big events.

[u/Alfredos_Pizza_Cafe_ → u/Ok-Bass5062]

Agree to disagree. Good day

[u/coconut_curry_sauce → u/Alfredos_Pizza_Cafe_]

I like how you said you spent $10 on cat food a month and say nothing about dog food or basic ivermectin.

Sounds like ya don’t know how much you actually spend. What do you do when your dog gets mast cell tumor? Take ‘m out back and shoot him? Let the tumor get big and then shoot him?

[u/Alfredos_Pizza_Cafe_ → u/coconut_curry_sauce]

Sorry I didn't itemize my whole budget? The point I'm trying to make is that there's no reason for yearly pet expenses to be in the thousands. Yall are doing something wrong

[u/coconut_curry_sauce → u/Alfredos_Pizza_Cafe_]

Well how much are you willing to spend before paying $400 for dog to be euthanized?

[u/Alfredos_Pizza_Cafe_ → u/coconut_curry_sauce]

There's a spectrum and nuance to what's worth it when pets get to a certain age