So actually I shouldn't say that. Actually our spending hasn't been all that terrible. There have been bad months here and there. And overall we aren't blowing the budget out of the water. A bit higher than perhaps it should be. And a lot more than I would expect but honestly we are right where we need to be just about. We have spent on average $7000/month on stuff outside our mortgage and property taxes. With all that it's around $11k/month. We are bordering on our $120k/year spend that I had guessed and estimated.
Not terrible considering I didn't feel too deprived. We traveled a lot considering it was covid. We spent an entire month away and not grocery shopping. We didn't track spending to the penny for the first 2 months of 2021. Yet once we became conscientious we got a firm handling on groceries, eating out, and spending in general. Had we had a handle on our spending these past few years we probably could have saved even more. But i'm pretty sure we didn't spend as wildly as one would think, mostly it was just a bit more on traveling and eating out. For us we had always pretty much only lived on base salary never bonus or stock. Interestingly DH is getting a raise which we didn't expect and I'm guessing the money will go into savings.
But what happened? Well I hate, hate, hate one thing and I have never tracked or added up before this one category. Our spending on our pets. So far this year we have spent $8703 on our dog this year. This is tons of vet visit in Jan/Feb we spent $3650 on the his medical bills alone. And in 2019 I know we spent like $8000 on his spleen removal surgery. This is top of medications and vet visits month. His average bill is like $700/month between prescriptions and vet visits, blood tests, etc.
FWIW the orthopedic surgeon in January (turns out he had a torn ACL due to his weakening joints and ligaments from his condition) said he couldn't do surgery. He also said he didn't expect him to live past 8 years and he's already almost 5. It's amazing he's alive this long.
Our last two dogs were not this expensive until the last 1-2 years of life and both had chemo. One lasted about 11 months but had a week in the hospital in the beginning when we found the tumor. The other lasted almost 24 months and during that time has tooth removal surgery and chemo and also a torn acl (no surgery though). So we were pretty used to spending a lot money on our pets.
I am not sure if this is because we keep getting dogs from rescue groups/shelters instead of buying a dog. I wonder if next time we should buy a dog from a breeder. But then I feel so guilty spending that much but they seem to be healthier. But do I really want to pay someone $4500 for a dog? I mean yes i pay that to a vet, but at least we adopted a dog someone else didn't want. Kinda like reduce, reuse, recycle.
Anyway since I was tracking spending this year pretty carefully again I had a slight heart attack at the sight of my vet bills.
December 12th, 2021 at 08:45 pm 1639341955
December 12th, 2021 at 09:39 pm 1639345190
I have had two pets, including the current resident, whom I have told "your middle name is retirement" because I have borrowed from my 403(b) to help fund expenses. My Henry cost me about $13k in the year that I changed careers and only *earned* about *$13k, and Miss Buffy had a crisis 2.5 years ago that cost about $9k--but the first vet who saw her back then suggested the possibility of euthanasia, and she is still going strong at 16.5 with just a bit of medication each day. But before she got sick in June 2019, my two senior kitties cost me very little in vet costs (and Miss Bridget, who died this year, passed very quickly with only a few hundred spent in her final week).
December 19th, 2021 at 09:49 pm 1639950579
January 7th, 2022 at 08:07 pm 1641586065