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Pet Food

May 13th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

When I was fresh out of college, I "inherited" 2 cats. Not knowing any better, I started out feeding them an el-cheapo brand of food from the grocery store. Then one of them developed a bladder stone and had to have surgery. The vet thought the stone developed because of her diet, and so the el-cheapo brand went in the trash, and I started paying much more attention to the kitties diet and making smarter choices. Thankfully, they never again had a diet-related condition. I learned the hard way (through pain & suffering for my poor cat and a big hit to the wallet for me) that when it comes to pets diets, prevention is indeed the best medicine.

Kitties crossed the rainbow bridge many years ago, and shortly thereafter destiny brought a dog into my husband & my life.

Now definitely older and hopefully wiser, when buying food for our dog, I put the emphasis on buying the healthiest possible food, but of course I also try to buy it at the lowest possible price. I shop for "value" rather than "cheap." He eats twice a day ... 12 meals each week are dry food, but twice a week he gets a can of wet food as a treat and as a way to provide variety (and hopefully improved nutrition) to his diet. He gets one treat in the evening (his reward for "doing his business" and then letting me brush his teeth), but even those are the healthy variety. His weight is perfect, and it is my sincere hope that he will never have a medical condition that is because of poor diet (because that would be my fault).

So I'm feeling like a good doggy mommy / minder of the family finances today ... I had a successful shopping trip to the pet supply store.

The Haul:
12 Large Cans of Homestyle
6 Large Cans of Wellness
4-lb bag of dry Science Diet Nature's Best

These were the deals:
Homestyle: case discount (10%) plus $5 off coupon
Wellness: buy 3, get 3 free rebate
Nature's Best: Rebate for full purchase price Smile
Total Order Discounts:
- $10 store certificate received in mail
- 10% store member discount (which was free)

Net Cost (once the rebates come in): $12.50 (plus tax) plus $0.84 to mail in 2 rebate coupons.

For those of you without dogs, the Homestyle and Wellness brands of canned food are premium brands that normally cost a bit over $2 a pop. The Nature's Best dry food retails for $11 a bag ... it's not my dog's usual brand ... I usually buy him Costco's Kirkland Signature brand which is MUCH less expensive but also very good quality IMHO ... but when it's free (well, actually 42-cents for a stamp to mail in the rebate), then why not?

The rebate coupons are in the mail already ... I learned years ago to mail them as soon as I get home from the store (otherwise I forget).

1 Responses to “Pet Food”

  1. FrugalFish Says:
    1210775848

    Good for you! I never seem to find coupons on the brands my cats eat these days. Unfortunately, one is kind of sick and can only eat 1 specific commercial food (which is expensive, of course), but it's still about half the price of the RX diet that's the other option.

    I wish more people understood the importance of a high quality diet for their animals. It can make a night and day difference.

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