I am not a math student. I hate math. Can’t do it. Totally avoid at all costs. Yay for liberal arts! Thank God for calculators! Can I get an Amen?
So last night, I had to do some math on this raw diet bit. I whipped out my Texas Instruments calculator that I’ve had since 8th grade my iPhone and pulled together my grocery receipts from the past 2 weeks.
Everybody said feeding my dogs fresh, uncooked food would be expensive. Too expensive. I poo-poo’d their comments, silently judging them for… well, a lot of reasons. I’m judge-y.
…They might be right tho. 
I almost choked on my pizza crust! Nearly $200 in the past 12 days! Over $8/meal! DAMN!
(Still cheaper than my last vet visit. And certainly cheaper than that surgery was gonna cost. Calm down).
Ok. So I might have gotten just a TAD carried away with the buying. After all, I am determined for this to work.
But what to do? What’s my budget? Where can I save? How can I do this without bailing out and resorting back to the commercial bag food?
I’ve decided, at least for now, my outside budget number will be what I spent on vet bills so far this year — $2200– for first one infection then another. The goal is to stay out of the clinic for infections, allergies, rashes, etc. because they’ll be healthy & won’t need to go. (I love my vet & all, but I think I paid for that new surgical wing).
There are 17 weeks left in this year (16 weeks till Christmas. Start shopping!).
That’s 238 meals each (I think). 476 total for 2 dogs.
Assuming I would spend an additional $1500 at the vet to finish out the year, that works out to be… (drum roll, please…) $3/meal.
HOORAY!!
$3 x 14 meals/week x 2 dogs x 52 weeks = $4,400 for a year. That still seems like a lot.
I can do it. I’m determined. They’re worth it.
For starters, produce from the farmer’s market is less expensive and tastes better than grocery store produce. While the bounty is still plentiful, I’m front-loading.
Stock piling. Squirreling away. Saving up for winter.
It’s expensive now, but in a few weeks when the market closes and my only choice is the grocery store, I’ll have a freezer full of fresh!
Freezer Fun:
- Clean and dice your fruits & vegetables & meats and freeze in single layers on wax paper-lined cookie sheets. (If you just dump fresh goodies in a freezer bag without this step, you’ll have a big frozen glob).
- Do all of one thing at a time so you don’t cross contaminate.
- If you’ve got a big freezer, stack your cookie sheets.
- Once frozen, put together some combos in individual meal-size freezer bags.
- Drop them in the fridge to thaw the day before you need to feed, and you’ll be good to go!
…to be continued…
pugs & kisses,
Tay
The HOL Dog 