Next week, cancelled, dog dollars
Next week at this time will have had made the 1200 mile drive to PA. This upcoming weekend we have a bunch of prep to do. We haven’t decided firmly if we are going to leave Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. It should be an interesting trip. I am bringing dvd’s to watch in the party van along the way. Our plan is to have Ali and I drive in shifts with the the non-driver napping along the way.
I finally cancelled my hosting account with the old provider. At first I was nervous about the move but now I am happy. The new host has more features and allows me tons of flexibility. There are a few annoying things but nothing I can’t work around. I am just about to click 16,000 blog hits, sweet.
We spend so much money on pet related stuff, especially Nicki. I estimate that we probably spend at least 200 per month on things for her. Ali gets her this canned food that is basically safe for human consumption. She buys it at this high end dog care place in Naples. It costs almost 2 bucks a can. Awhile back I found the same food at the local Pet Supermarket chain and it was 25% less. However Ali still overpays for the stuff at the dog place. I’ve come to accept this price gouging over time as something not worth fighting about. However last night I was unloading the latest load of food Ali got and I saw a small bag of dog treats, 18 BUCKS! Ali just got done running 5 and a half miles so I didn’t want to jump her about it so I waited a bit then mentioned something. I said it was crazy to pay 18 dollars for a bag of dog treats when Nicki likes the treats that cost 2.99 just as much if not more. I suggested that if Ali wanted to spend that much on something like that that she uses “her” money instead of “our” money. Ali didn’t verbally respond beyond saying the 18 dollar treats are healthier for Nicki. Come on, the dog eats better than we do.
There is just so much spending that goes on in our household, some needed, much not. Luckily our incomes allow us to do so without digging a credit card hole. However our savings only creeps up at a very slow rate and is soon to be cut considerably by the pool cage bill. We just need to take pause before buying certain things and consider our real need for them. Normally when Ali and I have a mini-argument over money it’s because Ali doesn’t care to question why some things cost what they do, she just knows that we can afford to pay for it. She talks about wanting to start IRA’s, buying a new Prius, the days of her being able to drop back to either staying home or working very little but we are paying 18 bucks for a bag of dog treats. If we want to be able to make some of those things happen we will have to examine our cash flow, me included. I certainly could clean up my spending as well. If we moved into a condo we could save a fortune. House maintenance related items are the largest bite out of the financial pie. The addition of the party van has not helped matters. The $3500 van has mutated into an almost $6000 van in the 6 months we’ve had it.
I think part of the reason we spend with small thoughts of consequence is we know we are sitting on a big equity egg with our house and 2 pieces of land we own. I think knowing that safety net is present contributes to the situation.