Coming out of the darkness

I admit I've been missing in action these last few weeks. I've been trying to stick to the path of frugality and simplicity while I've been away. Sometimes I've stuck to the straight and narrow, while other times I've strayed from the path and climbed a tree or played in the river.

What I've been doing right:

• I've religiously tracked my expenses in Quicken. Before, we've had problems overspending the balance of our checking account because we just didn't realize what we really had.
• Mr. Blue got a raise. Theoretically, this is all I should have to say on this. Personally, the problem many people have is they think "If I only made more money, we'd be fine." The truth is, no matter who you are, your expenses can outpace your income. The life lesson is to live within your means, no matter what they are.
  
• We're setting up Mr Blue with his first IRA, and funding it appropriately.
• Both of us are signing up for disability insurance policies. In my work, I meet many people who didn't have savings or insurance, or didn't have enough of each. It's horribly frightening to think one or both of us could be injured or become ill, but we can't live our lives ignoring what frightens us.

We're doing well! I'm proud of both of us and the adjustments we've made, and I don't feel like I'm slogging through quicksand these days. But it's not all peaches and cream. We've stumbled along the way:

• We threw a party this weekend. We've had our house for several months now and just got around to truly celebrating it. The problem lies in how I did it. I bought enough food to feed half the block, so for the next week we'll be eating leftover veggie platter offerings, meatballs, cheese, and bean dip. I bought plastic plates and cups, when we could have used our regular dishes and just washed them since we didn't have that many guests.
  
• We faced some unexpected expenses. My car needed (NEEDED!!) 4 new tires, his needed a new headlight and work on the O2 sensor. While this hurt, I'm calling it a wash. We had to put some of the work on credit cards, but paid most of it from our regular paychecks. And the expense would have been far greater if something had gone horribly wrong at the wrongest possible time.
  
• I was doing well eating lunch at home, but for one solid week I ate out. I was back on track the next week, so I can pat myself on the back for that.

I was feeling down about my absence, and felt that I'd fallen off the simplicity wagon. But in writing this post, I feel better about what I've acomplished. That's the beauty of any kind of journaling - you find yourself in ways you never expected.

Where do you draw the line on vet bills?

My cat fell ill over Memorial Day weekend. To be frank, he couldn't pee. Turns out he had a bladder stone that was blocking him, and could have killed him.

He spent 4 days at the vets (remember it was a holiday weekend), before being spirited away to the animal hospital for surgery. We ended up spending a LOT of money on vet bills and surgery. My husband and I briefly talked about the possibility of having him put down, which was painful. Ultimately, we decided since these surgeries would make him better, we wouldn't take that road.

My mom owns a horse, and while she vacationed a few weeks ago, he seemed to have colicked. My mom's friend who was caring for the horse at the time called both my mother and me to keep us up to date. It turns out it wasn't colic, he was just being an old fart kind of horse. I asked my mom "Why did she keep updating me? What was I going to do?" My mother told me that she planned to tell me that if the vet said it would take a $10,000 surgery, I was to tell them to put the horse down.

This is an uncomfortable subject, but one I think every animal caretaker has to consider. What would you do if your pet's care was going to run in the thousands? Where would you draw the line between paying for the care and making the decision to put your pet down because you couldn't afford it?

I don't have children right now, I have cats. I love them to death. My young one, Loki, likes to sit between my arms while I type on the computer. Candy, who recently brushed death, buries his face in my arm and purrs to drown out the devil. But they're not children. I would certainly pay $20,000, or as much as it took, to save my child's life, but I wouldn't for either of the cats. Would I feel terrible and guilty if my cat died because I wouldn't pony up the money? Oh god, yes.

We spent several thousand on Candy's vet bills. In my mind, he was still young a young cat. The surgeries were 90% likely to fix the problem so it wouldn't come back, so it wouldn't be like I would have to subject him to numerous vet trips and procedures. If he were older, if it were more expensive, or if it would have seriously diminished his quality of life? It hurts to admit it, but I probably would have had him put down.

I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this. It's hard to even consider, much less talk about, but I think it's an important aspect of pet ownership to consider.