How Much MY Basenji Cost is His First Year:
I have always been the type of person that keeps a close eye on their income and expenses. Basically I like to count MY money; I want to keep the little that I have. Naturally with that mentality I wanted to see how much my Basenji will cost me over his lifetime. Especially, over the first year of his life. So I decided to look into the cost and looked into the cost and did some research.
After looking high and low all the estimates I was given were lacking some, in my opinion, key costs. Cost of living, raw vs. dry vs. mix, travel, treats, groomer (if needed), toys and bedding, cleaning materials? the list goes on but you get the point. The costs I found seem to give me information in pieces or assumptions. The good cost I found where for other dogs with much higher grooming requirements. Feeding is the most important but what type of feeding didn't would I use? So, to be honest, I winged it. I just went forward with getting the dog. Side note, the perfect dog found me and I couldn't pass up the opportunity, so I had to reserve my pup then.
There is the background now for the meat of this post.
I have been tracking my spending habits on my dog from the day of the first deposit to the day of pick up to his first birth day, Aug. 28th. The numbers your about to see are dang close to the total I have spent on him. I wanted to share this with everyone and specifically the new and future Basenji owners.
So far we have spent $2617.29 on Kenji from Oct. 3rd, 2010 to Aug. 28th 2011. I know this isn't a full year of expenses but this post is about how much he has cost by his first birthday. The above number includes some non-standard cost. So this isn't a budget for a full year of a Basenji. Some of these costs will only come once.
Kenji's Purchase Price = $800. His Neuter operation was $209.69 at Banfield Pet Hospital at Petsmart with Banfield's Wellness Plan (more about this later). AKC Registration = $35.00, this was a standard registration none of the extras. Avid microchip registration was $19.96, he came already chipped so there was not cost there. Kenji also forced me to make a few modifications to my dining room chairs. So I made an $11.44 purchase at Home Depot for some ply wood and nails. I was also given 2 wire crates; a 200 and a 300. These can range from $50 -$150
The monthly purchases are more meaningful to some. To me these were the ones I had to budget for and make sure I could hit. These costs are mostly affected by the food you buy, the treats you get, the grooming needs, classes you are signed up for. We didn't take him to the groomer or sign up for classes. We did everything in house so we spent time and not money here. The type of food we purchased as Kenji's base food, which lasted about 3-4weeks, is Diamond?s 6lb bag of Small Breed Puppy food which is $13.77 per purchase. We also tried other dry kibble and raw chicken on Fridays. This would extend the life of one bag but add the price of a second food. Food and treats averaged about $29.21 per month.
Additionally, we signed up for the Wellness Plan at our vet which covers doctor visits and we get a discount on standard procedures. There is a monthly fee but it beats having to pay full price for shots, and operations. Without this plan; when Kenji was neutered it would have cost me nearly $800, but it only cost $210. The monthly fee for this is $23.95 and worth it. Kenji also costs us monthly for rent. That?s an extra $25 tacked on to our already over priced apartment.
We did take Kenji to the groomer once, it was $20 and I feel we could do just as good of a job. He is already low maintenance and they didn't do much but give him a bath and trim some hair. So we saved there. Aside from this the rest of the money spent is on toys, bedding, leaches, treats, more bedding, more toys, collars.
This is yet another guideline on how much I have spent on my Basenji. It is different for everyone and every dog. Hope this post helps someone.
I won't tell my husband all of the involved costs and C) I will do it again!!
