Fluffy and Fido

One of my favorite financial writers, Liz Pulliam Weston, writes a column for MSN Money. Her articles are well thought out and very timely. As some of my readers know, I have animals. I own several dogs and they are not only my pets, but my family as well. A recent column deals with the cost of pet ownership . My local NPR station had a broadcast on the cost of pet ownership as well.

A friend of mine breeds dogs. She has been breeding dogs for 20 years, breeds maybe 1-2 litters a year, usually has a waiting list, does her best to screen her puppy buyers and has had very few dogs returned back to her. As a responsible breeder, she has a contract of sale and says she will take back a dog she bred for any reason . Up until this past month, in the past ten years, she had 2 dogs sent back to her, one was due to an unexpected job relocation overseas, the other because the owner died.

This month she has gotten back 2 more dogs, the reason, the buyers could not afford the animals anymore. One person is filing bankruptcy, losing their home and going to live in a non pet apartment, the other family suffered a job loss and a job downsized and simply can not afford to keep the pet. The money spent on food and vet care needs to go towards the family.

I looked at Liz's article, I read her figures and for my area, the costs are higher than what she has in her table. I feed a premium food, which costs me more than $150 a year, I spend about $35 a bag and that lasts not quite a month, I spend about $60 a year on toys, I use a wholesale pet supply company for the toys, and I also buy old children plush toys at tag sales and thrift stores (cutting off any choking hazard or dangerous parts-no squishy beads either, just plush), one my dogs favorite toys is the cardboard roll from the empty paper towel roll. I take advantage of sales at the farmers co-op to buy food, I get a "bulk" discount at my vet by bringing everyone in at the same time for their yearly check up (I only pay one DVM fee of $35 instead of $35 for each pet), I go to the local rabies clinic and pay cash instead of getting the rabies jab at the vet (savings about $3 per dog). I practice good animal husbandry to keep my pets healthy. I have a kennel license (saving about $60 a year). I still spend a fair chunk of change on my pets.

I consider myself lucky, I was able to keep my house after the Bankruptcy which enabled me to keep my pets. Honestly, if I did not have my pets to keep me company during the filing, I'd be on some serious anti-depression meds. If the bank wanted me to sell my house, I would have been hard pressed to find a rental that takes pets, much less the number I have and that would have been devistating to me to have to decide who to give up or sell.

As pointed out in the article, it's important to be realistic about the expenses involved with pet ownership so you can budget appropriately for your pet. Your pet expenses need to be budgeted in like any other budget item. I know what month the license is due, the annual vet check up is to be scheduled for, I can space out the food purchases and I plan my budget with that timeline in place.

Pets are a wonder addition to any family and in tight financial times, we need to plan for their needs as well.

A Discount Just for Asking

My office belongs to our local Chamber of Commerce. I actually read the Chamber newsletter last week, and lo and behold, there was a blurb about getting a discount if you insured your house and or car through a particular agency.

This agency recently "took over" the insurance office that writes my car insurance policy. I called, left a message, and found out yesterday that since I work for a business that is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, I am eligible for a 10% discount on my car insurance. Yea Ha! A little less money I have to fork over. Plus my policy comes up for renewal and the one claim I had (I backed into a co-workers car and dented her side panel-on her husbands very expensive BMW-Ouch), rolls off too. Since I have no other accidents or tickets (knock wood), I'm looking at a premium drop of at least 15% if not closer to 20%. Sweet as they say.

I maintain a membership in the Farm Bureau of my state so I can take advantage of the discount they offer on a variety of businesses, I got a Triple A membership because I do travel a lot on weekends and various places give Triple A discounts (hotels especially) plusI like the peace of mind, and now as a fringe benefit, I get the Chamber of Commerce discount as well. Triple A and Farm Bureau "dues" cost me about $100 year and I've already gotten about $200 in various discounts.

If you work in a small business (and even a larger one) that is a member of your local Chamber of Commerce, call them up and see what benefits and discounts you may be eligible for. The entire process took less than 10 minutes of my time and I will be saving close to $175 if not more on my car insurance alone this year. It doesn' t hurt to ask!

The March Budget and Goals

Looking towards March with a more positive outlook, here is the budget I've come up with. I've not included my income, I have to see how my little raise figures in to the whole equation, but here goes with what I can foresee at this point. Fixed Expenses are in blue.

I know I've been really bad the past two months about adding up my cash receipts (miscellaneous money) and those should be budgeted to each category, but I don't. Last night I stopped at the grocery store and spend a whopping $5.50 on groceries, but paid cash out of my miscellaneous money. I just need to use my debit card for any and all food purchases so I can track it better.

I got my new student loan booklet two weeks ago and my student loan for dropped from $174 to $171.50, I'm keeping it at $174 so the additional $2.50 can snowflake off the total amount due to the loan. I do the same for my mortgage, my payment is $553, but I pay $555. Not a ton of money, but every little bit helps.

My goals for March are:

1) Continue to work on second job prospect (see other post about that).
2) Find more things to sell on E-bay/half.com
3) Talk to neighbors about holding a block yard sale in Mid April
4) Get my act together and join a gym (I don't have a choice in this one, MD's orders,I;ve been putting it off and stretching at home is not a work out).
5) Start on yard clean up and garden planning. Spring IS supposed to arrive in about 15 days!
6) Stop dipping into EFund!-this is a biggie, I should have almost $500 in my Efund, but I've dipped into it to cover some expenses when I should not. BIG shame on me.


Expense Budget
Mortgage $555
Health Insurance $120
Utilities $200
Food $175
Phones $60
Internet $15
Misc $100
E fund $200
Car Insurance $90
Student Loan $174
Transportation/Gas $110
Continuing Education $100
Clothes $50
Laundry $40
ING Savings $25

Where Does $100 Go?

On Friday I got out $100 to have as my spending money for the weekend and upcoming week. This is how it broke down

$9.85-drug store

$10.30-take out food (ate left overs for Saturday lunch)

$6.30-alcohol

$2.00-lotto (hope springs eternal!)

$13.50-plant

$3.00-fresh corn

$5.50-laundry

$17.50-odd lots store

$5.30-DIY store odds and ends

$6.50-grocery store

$5.00 Braclet

Total: 84.75

I was too tired on Friday to cook (and this seems to be a recurring theme on Fridays), so I ordered in some food from the local pizza place. There was enough to have the leftovers for lunch on Saturday. I also got a 6 pack of beer that has lasted the weekend (A cold beer with my picnic supper on Sunday was part of the perfect meal). I'm finding that my Friday routine is stopping off for a bottle of wine or some beer and ordering a takeaway meal when I have a fridge full of food.

I had a day out with the girls on Saturday to the local garden center and I bought a plant for my garden. I had weeded my gardens and had a gaping hole in the flower bed by the front gate. I read some where that you should always grow lavender by your garden gate and I saw this great big healthy plant and treated myself to this. Could I have passed on this plant, probably, but the garden looks better and I feel better and the lavender has a heavenly smell.

I'm looking over the receipt from the odd lots store and as I look over it, it's is the one purchase I should have just not made. I decided to try out this particular odd lots store (the one closer to me is very small and sometimes does not have great inventory) to see if this one was better stocked. It really was not. I wasted my time, gas and money. I wandered the isles and bought things for the sake that I did not want to walk out of the store empty handed. There were only two things I really needed to get (a disposable pan for a pot luck picnic I'm going to next weekend 89 cents and a new pair of gardening gloves $5). I had also been looking for a citronella candle (still a bit buggy at night and I sit on my patio), but none to be had, too late in the season. I ended up spending $12 on items I really did not need and did not want. And I'm down $12 of my mad money cash.

The General Ramblings of The Week

OK, so the plan yesterday was to work on my budget, but I did not. Shame shame on me. I did make a start, I balanced my check book, looked at my incoming cash flow, looked at my outgoing cash flow. At least faced up to it a bit. I just have to plug in the numbers.

I'm waiting for a payroll summary to arrive from my payroll department. Then that goes to my attorney (or I should say, his paralegal) and then I sign the forms. I did look at my ever growing file on the bankruptcty and realized I have to take classes. I think I can do them on line, so if that is the case, I'll try and start this weekend. I want to just get this done and over with.

What has been frustrating about this whole experience is I feel like I'm being told a bunch of things I need to do sort of after the fact. Hum, I thought I took very good notes in my two meetings with the legal office. Guess I did not or was soo overwhelmed I did not hear everything. The paralegal must think she is dealing with an idiot.

For those in a money crunch and you don't want to end up where I am. Here are a couple tipsI strongly suggest you do the following things AFTER YOU CUT UP AND SHREAD YOUR CREDIT CARDS.

1) Take a serious look at your credit card balances. Open those envelopes, write down the TOTAL amount owed and the percentage rate. Remember, I told you to organize your files so you can find your bills? This is one reason why.Then take a deep breathe and exhale.

2) If you are not deliquent, call your credit card company and ask for a lower interest rate. Make some phone calls. If you are having trouble paying the minimum, tell them, work with them see if they will work with you. Many will, they'd rather work with you than spend tons of their time and money sending you to collection.

3) If you are deliquent and are having problems, call Consumer Credit Counseling Services. They are a not for profit agency that will evaluate your financial situation and help you set up a repayment plan. Word of warning, these are no nonsense folks, they cut up your credit cards, you pay them, they pay your creditors and if you fall behind with them, you are on your own! Check your phone book for an agency close to you. Make sure they are licensed to do business in your state. I wish I had found them sooner, I did not.

4) DON'T fall prey to these other credit agencies that claim they can help you. Do your reasearch before you committ to any agency. There are agencies that claim they can clear your credit and give you a fresh start within months.

5) Be prepared to give up the extra's in your life, meals out, tons of new clothes, travel, etc. Remember, the goal here is to pay down, pay off your debt and get out of trouble.

6) Find a way to pay off a little extra on the minium balance to each credit card.

7) Keep a running total of what you owe and what you have paid off. Track your progress.

Karyn Bosnak eliminated her debt with her on line grubbling via her web site. Excellent idea, got her on the Today show, a book deal, and she is debt free and donated the money she got from folks to charity as well once she was debt free. I'm four years too late stealing her idea, I'm not reccommending you set up a web site for the sole purpose of getting out of debt, but she does have some excellent tips for budgeting, etc.

DISCLAIMER:The information given here is not to be in place of or in lieu of any professional advice you get from a financial advisor or other legal entity. These are some tips I have researched from other blogs and web sites and are tips based on my own personal experience. They are not the be all end all to financial planning. Every person and situation is unqiue and I strongly reccommend that you seek professional advice when dealing with your financial situation.