Get Your Finances in Line in 2009 UPDATE!

Welcome, November!

We've done pretty well with our goals this year. We paid off my husband's student loan, added to our emergency fund, and earned extra via small side jobs. We still have not replaced my husband's car, but are choosing not to until we find the kind of deal that he wants. (Or his car explodes- we'll see what happens first!) We have the money in place and named for the car, and will not be taking out any loans for it.

When we wrote out that list, we thought we aimed high. We were not expecting to finish most of those goals, but we thought we'd reach for the stars! We actually considered lowering the "money on the side" goal to $500, but decided that we might as well set the bar high!

This year has really shown us how much having a goal can motivate a person to do their very best. Next year, we plan to kick it up a notch! We're still hoping to be 100% debt free (including the mortgage) by 2012.

I call 2009 a success, even if it was a bumpy success! Next month we'll make our goals for 2010!

Head over here for more updates via MoneySavingMom- and while you're there, take a look at Crystal and Jesse's incredible progress on their house savings. The impossible dream lives!

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Rerun: How Much Is Too Much?

Well, we've had to postpone the surgery.

Mini has chewed a hole in herself at the infection point, so she's spending the day at the vet getting that take care of.

In light of the recent expenses, I thought I'd rerun this article that I wrote on 2/16/08. Enjoy!

How Much is Too Much?

Has anybody else seen this piece by Slate.com on saying no to your vet? As a pet owner, I found it very interesting and relevant to situations that I have experienced with my animals.

Our five pets are easily the least frugal aspect of our lives. We have one dog, one house rabbit, and three guinea pigs. While they are not insanely expensive,they are not cheap. Vet care is one of our biggest expenses related to our animals. When we accepted the responsibility of having a pet, we accepted that we would have to lay out a reasonable amount of time and money to care for them. And for the most part, we have lived up to that promise to them. We feed them quality food, keep their living areas clean, walk the dog, clip piggie and bunny toenails, and take them to the vet when needed.

There are some people that say "Oh, we'll just put Fluffy down if we are presented with some huge vet bill." For us, our vet care expenses have not been something that would cost a lot in one fell swoop (like the $1300 vet bill Ada Calhoun experienced) Our biggest vet bill was a slow snowball. It was not like we were presented a huge bill for a complected problem. Our biggest vet expenses came from a fairly simple problem and lack of research on our part.

Our first house rabbit Kibbles developed a mild foot infection shortly after we got her. Her former owner kept her locked on a wire floor cage 24 hours a day, she was a big bunny, and the combination resulted in a fairly common infection. We took her to a random vet, not realizing at the time that it is very important to find a rabbit specific vet. She looked at the foot, shrugged, and gave us some cream. It helped for awhile, but the infection always came back. Each subsequent visit to have the vet look at it and give us more cream cost about 60 dollars. Had we gotten it taken care of in a visit or two, the expense would not have been much.

After a year of these visits, I did some research and switched vets. Our new vet was very knowledgeable about rabbits. She took one look at the foot, said that the infection was out of control, and asked what we had tried. We handed over the cream, and she very gently lamented the fact that we had not seen a rabbit specific vet sooner. There was a lot more the other vet should have tried besides the cream. The cream was fairly weak and would not do much for an infection as terrible as the simple foot infection had become.

At this point, the infection was so bad that she said we may never actually get rid of it. Our best hope was to keep it under control. We spent around 200 dollars for her to put Kibbles under, clean it out very well, pain medication, stronger cream, and bunny antibiotics. Then follow up visits, another cleaning, and more medication. The infection cleared up quite a bit after this. We'd spent around $1000 total at this point, over a year and a half or two year period. It was a small infection- nothing that we would consider putting an animal down for, but when we added up the expense (at a time in our life where money was very limited) we were amazed at how much we'd spent.

A foot infection is hardly an expensive surgery or chemotherapy, but those things are available to pets. I'm not sure what we would do if this came up. When we accepted the responsibility of our pets, we accepted the expense that goes with it. As long as the quality of life would be back to normal after the treatment and we are not prolonging suffering, I would hate to put animal to sleep because the treatment was expensive. On the other hand, how much is to much? I know I would not go into debt for my animals, and spending $25,000 is out of the question.

The Salon and Slate articles have been weighing on my mind since I read them. Our dog, who we love so very much, is getting older. I know that these bigger vet bills may be an issue sooner than we want to think about. How much is too much? And if it becomes too much, will I have the courage to say no to my vet without feeling like an absolute monster? I think that if she was suffering and the treatment would not make that suffering less, I would be able to put her down without too much guilt. But if that $1300 treatment would cure it, what would I say? I will have to cross that bridge when I come to it.

Have you been in this situation? How did you decide that it was too much?

Budget 911: Christmas Budget Emergency!

Our Christmas budget (and then some!) has been eaten by a furry friend...our guinea pig, to be exact.

A lump that we've been watching with our vet pretty much exploded on Sunday, requiring a costly trip to the vet on Monday. His discoveries were not good- we are going to have to get her a guinea pig hysterectomy (which we figured, based on what we were watching for under his care) and a biopsy to determine if she has cancer. She's also on antibiotics for the time being. We'll know more on Thurday for Friday what direction this is all going to take.

When we took on the responsibility of having pets, we also said yes to the costs of a reasonable amount of care of them. It is absolutely stunning how much vet bills can add up, especially for little animals who require exotic vets. Our dog has cost us far less than our (late) house rabbits and beloved guinea pigs.

Because of the bill that we already have an estimate on for Thursday, we are going to have to drastically scale back Christmas this year. Luckily, several things are already in place that will assure we are able to get gifts for those we're close to without the out of pocket expense.

Stay tuned as we face our Christmas Budget Emergency! It looks like this article came out just in time for us.

Monday Morning Mention

Happy Monday! Let's talk food!

Keep Calm and Carry On posted this AMAZING looking Mac 'n Cheese recipe. *drool* I ordered a free sample of Bragg's here so I could try it out!

We make Ghee at our house- our remarkably health conscious roommate got us hooked on it. He does not use a filter, but rather uses a spoon to scoop out the foam. Head over to Kitchen Stewardship for the recipe!

Is it possible to have Christmas when you have literally no money to spend? Mom's Frugal has a guest poster who says YES!

Walgreens $5 Challange: The Not Quite Edition

Deal One:
We used the Walgreens coupon that made these soups $1.25 each.
Next, we added the 1.10 off 3 coupon that I printed awhile back. (Go here for various printable coupons that save me tons of money!)
Then we added a .25 off one can coupon from a newspaper insert.
Finally, we used a $2 Register Reward from last week's deals.

TOTAL: $1.97 (including tax.)

Deal 2:
Tylenol Cold and Zyrtec (which I use every day, all year long!) The turtle was an extra for my husband, who was assisting me today! :)

The Tylenol was on sale for $4.99
The Zyrtec was on sale for 18.99
I used this $2 off Zyrtec coupon
and this $2 off Tylenol coupon.
We got a $10 register reward back for buying $20 worth of selected products.

Total: $23.29, but we got a $10 RR back , which we used on our third transaction.

Deal 3:

The soup was on sale for $1.25, and I used another $1.10 off 3 Progresso soup coupon.
The cakes were on sale for .99 cents each, and I used two .75 cents off 2 coupons, cut from previous purchases.
The evaporated milk and chocolate chips were on sale, and I had newspaper coupons for both.
The two Reeses were filler items.
I also used my $10 off Register Reward from the second transaction.

Total: $1.65

Total OOP today: $26.91, which means I did not make the $5 challenge at all. This was not my best day at Walgreens by any means, but I got a lot of items that we like to have on hand for the winter (like the soup!) and expensive things that we use anyway, like the Zyrtec. All in all, it came out to $1.34 an item, which is not so bad. :)

How did you do at Walgreens this week?

It's amazing to see all the giving that has been going on as a result of this challenge. Kingdom First Mom mentioned something that called to me- NICU Survival Kits being put together by Quatro Mom. Go here to see what you can do to help!

Monday Morning Mention

Happy Monday! Since I'm doing the 30 Day Giving Challenge, I thought I'd devote this MMM to inexpensive giving opportunities!

Write letters to seriously ill children and make them smile! All it costs is a stamp and some creativity.

Donate blood. Easy, quick, and you usually get a free cookie and/or juice at the end.

Use your coupon stockpile to assemble care packages for women in domestic violence shelters. Or donate money to charities like this, that make women's shelters a little more welcoming for women and children coming out of a seemingly hopeless situation.

Check out The Give List blog to find lots of great giving ideas...without having to pull out a checkbook.

Have a great week!