We decided NOT to buy a bearded dragon.

[u/[deleted]]

My wife and I were looking at getting a bearded dragon for our son for his birthday. A young beardie is only about $60. So we set aside $200 in our budget counting on buying a reptile aquarium and some incidentals.

Then we learned it needs expensive UV bulbs that last about 6 months and are about $40 each. Also the electricity cost the run this heat 24 hours can be a drain on the electric bill.

Also the beardie needs to go to the vet every 6 months for a checkup. And finally, food. They have a very diverse diet and can eat up to $15 per week in foods. So I did a total cost analysis for a beardie that lives 12 years and it turned out to be a whopping $10,000

Life pro tip, do a total cost analysis on pets before deciding to purchase. Even free pets are absurdly expensive. In 12 years both of my kids are going to be in college and I will desperately need $10,000 then. I will not need an aging lizard.

Edit: For everyone giving me shit about my poor son, don't pity him. First he didn't know about the beardie. Second we are taking that $200 and taking him to an amusement park. He's fine.

Edit 2: This post is not about "don't buy pets, they're expensive." The post is about "make sure you're aware of the full cost of something before making a decision." Yes we have kids and dogs. Yes they're more expensive than lizards, but for us well worth the cost. A reptile, not so much.

Edit 3: Thank you all for the "you're way overestimating" and the "you're way underestimating" posts. The accuracy of the cost really isn't the issue. The issue is we were expecting something minimal and almost made a big mistake. The point is, we did the research and it was way more than we were expecting and wanting to pay. To us, it wasn't worth it. We have other pets. We aren't frugal, but we are smart with our money. I am simply encouraging others to do cost analysis. And at the end of the day if a bearded dragon is worth 10k to you, awesome! Do it.

[u/adoptabeagle]

$125/week for my two dogs food, toys, & misc, all excess from that budget goes in savings for our "insurance" (just a savings account, we put aside ~$100-200/month for future vet expenses/an emergency pet fund). My own food budget is around $70-100/week for myself & fiancé, we often joke how our dogs eat better than we do. Our animals are the one area where we aren't frugal, those creatures deserve all we can give.

[u/ShackledPhoenix → u/adoptabeagle]

To be fair, you're an outlier though... I have two Great Danes and even Blue Buffalo doesn't cost me nearly 125/week. Toys and stuff, I spend maybe $20 per month buying toys and there's at least 3 in the same room as her at any moment.

I'm pretty picky about my foods ( No corn EVER,No Flour or Wheat Gluten, protein derived mainly from meat) and I have a 9+ year old Great Dane who is in incredible shape and health. My 6 year old is a hyper active, fast as hell mountain goat still. Puppers can be quite healthy off carefully selected cheaper foods. Most of my food is around $1.00 - $1.50

[u/work_login → u/ShackledPhoenix]

I think he meant he budgets or puts away $125 per week on his two dogs, not actually spends that much each week.

[u/Cheeetooos → u/work_login]

The biggest swing in the cost of pet ownership is the owner's approach to end of life care or care in very serious medical emergencies. For instance, it is totally valid to forego treatment for cancer when your pet is diagnosed. Treat for pain management and just let your pet enjoy the end of his/her days. It's also valid to give it a shot and treat for cancer to try to beat it. This is the outrageously more expensive approach, but some people go for it.

[u/aeioewe → u/adoptabeagle]

Same here. I have four pets, two dogs and two cats. I cook homemade food for the dogs at dinner that my friends and family always tell me is way better quality than they eat themselves. I just went into my personal accounting software from last year and saw that I spent $5,982 on my pets during 2016, which doesn't include the food I bought for them at the grocery store (that went into "groceries"). It's crazy, I know, but I totally agree with you that they deserve all I can give.

[u/Feisty_Red → u/adoptabeagle]

This this this. 100%. If, god forbid, something bad ever happens... I will starve before I ever let any of my dogs go hungry. They're so spoiled. 😂 So many Kong toys. Everywhere.

[u/[deleted] → u/adoptabeagle]

WOW I feel like I'm underbudgeting. $35/month for my dog. $15 into a sinking fund for his yearly vet checkup, $20 month for food and treats (I split the cost of pet food and treats for him + the family cat with my parents, ends up being $40-$50 a month). Any toys or grooming I pay for out of my own petty cash. He's also 14lbs so he doesn't eat a lot.

[u/adoptabeagle → u/[deleted]]

The main issue is what would happen if you got a large vet bill (they can be in the 5 digits easily). You don't want to end up in a place where you have to euthanize because you lack of funds for treatment.

I would reccommend looking into insurance plans, getting a premium quote, then putting that amount in savings so you don't lose any if there are issues with the insurance company.

[u/HeKnee → u/adoptabeagle]

The real question is whether you would put your dogs down if they exceed the $125 per week budget and associated savings account in an accident or something (heaven forbid).

If you aren't willing to do this, then what is the point of the budget?

[u/adoptabeagle → u/HeKnee]

Of course not. I'm very careful with my finances. Every expense is budgeted for and if we have any excess it goes to specialized savings accounts. The point of the budget is to know how much we can spend in every area. If they ha e a large vet bill, we may not get new toys that week/month etc. Budgets aren't always that strict, it's a way to have an idea of how your money comes in and out so you can plan for future income changes.

Comfortably, we can afford $125 of care each week. If our animals needed more, we would use thw excess from the previous months (allotted in the savings). That's the point of the savings: it's in case we need more. If our income was cut down, we would trim the budget accordingly, and vise versa if it increased.

If our dogs exceeded that? We would use our other savings. We would use credit. We would get care plans. We would ask well-off family for help if it was that bad. We would never put money before our animals lives.

[u/HeKnee → u/adoptabeagle]

You have the opinion of most. I guess my feeling is that if my dog gets hit by a car or does something else crazy expensive (like $3k+); there is a good chance I'd just put her down. Especially if the outcome was uncertain. There are so many other dogs out there that need good homes and $3k would pay the bills for another dog to live for several years (at least on my modest dog budget).

Everyone has their own priorities, I'm just always curious where people draw the line. My inlaws just paid $4k to remove a melanoma tumor from their 15 year old dachshund's lip and it died from something else like 6 months later. They have more credit card debt than savings and its worrysome to me that they would throw money out the window like that. Getting that garage apartment spruced up for them. The bucket is the toilet, haha.