● Money & small business
How much does a dog cost per year? A worked budget for a dog and a cat, and 9 months of real spending
Pet costs hide in two places: the monthly things you stop noticing, and the yearly things you forget until they arrive. Here's one example household's budget for a dog and a cat, from the sample file of our pet budget tracker, and what nine months of actual spending looked like against it. The prices are examples, not averages.
The budget
| Biscuit (dog, 2) | Miso (cat, 6) | |
|---|---|---|
| Food & treats, per month | $85 | $45 |
| Insurance, per month | $48 | $26 |
| Flea, tick, heartworm / meds, per month | $32 | $18 |
| Litter, bags and other, per month | $18 | $27 |
| Monthly costs | $183 | $116 |
| Vet checkup & vaccines, per year | $320 | $260 |
| Grooming, per year | $360 | – |
| Boarding / sitting, per year | $560 | $150 |
| License, toys, beds, per year | $145 | $60 |
| Yearly costs | $1,385 | $470 |
| A typical year | $3,581 | $1,862 |
| Per month, averaged | $298 | $155 |
| Rest of its life, at today's prices | $39,391 (11 years) | $18,620 (10 years) |
The monthly lines look small, but twelve of them are most of the bill: $2,196 of the dog's $3,581 and $1,392 of the cat's $1,862. Together the two cost $5,443 a year, $454 a month. The lifetime figures are at today's prices, so the real amounts will be higher.
Nine months of real spending
From January to September the log shows $4,190.55, against $4,082.25 budgeted for nine months: $108.30 over. Four months came in under and five over, but only three by much:
- February (+$113): the dog's annual checkup, $342.50.
- July (+$356): a week away, with $434 of boarding for the dog and a $140 cat sitter. That's expected once a year, and it's why a flat monthly amount set aside matters more than any single month.
- August (+$77): an ear infection, $286.40, that nobody budgeted.
That one unplanned visit is most of the story. The dog's vet and medication budget for the year is $704 ($320 of checkups and $32 a month of prevention); by September it had already reached $796.90. In this example the budget didn't go over on food; it went over on the vet. That's why the planner suggests a separate emergency fund: $1,000 with insurance, $2,500 without, as a rule of thumb.
Your own budget
- Price the monthly costs from what you actually buy, and multiply by 12.
- List the once-a-year costs: checkups, grooming, boarding for your holidays, license, replacements.
- Set aside the monthly average, not the monthly costs, so July's boarding bill is already covered.
- Keep a vet fund on top. Insurance lowers it, but doesn't remove it.
The free pet cost calculator gives you the typical year, first year and lifetime figure for one pet. Every figure above is from the sample file of our pet budget tracker, where the budget and the whole year were recomputed independently from the spending log.