9 Ways You Can Save Money on Your Cat
Note: This blog post contains affiliate links to Amazon and if you purchase from these links, I will receive a small percentage of the purchase.
Everyone knows that our favorite feline friends can get expensive fast. Especially when you have more than one! Here are my 9 go-to ways to save money on them.
Buy in bulk
Most people understand that to save money on something in the long run your best bet is to buy in bulk. You mainly see people doing this with food and cleaning supplies but this can be done with your pets as well. Just like anything else, your pet supplies can be found in bulk warehouses like Costco or Sams but also some things on Amazon. If you use filters for water fountains you can buy the filters in bulk on Amazon.
Subscribe and save
Speaking of Amazon, a great way to save is their “Subscribe and Save” option. You can do this with cat litter, food, flea treatment, and cardboard for scratching. Other places do this as well like Chewy.com. Usually, the amount you save is 5% but that begins adds up after a while.
Use a litter that you don’t have to change as often
I might get some disagreement with this one. But here is my philosophy. You can buy the cheap litter and constantly change out the box while still dealing with the benefits of that cheap litter (like smell and dust and clumping issues) or you can spend money on something of more quality that you don’t have to buy as often and is better not only for you but for your cat’s health as well.
Get creative with cat toys
If you aren’t new to having cats then I probably don’t have to tell you about buying these nice, expensive toys and yet they prefer to play in the box they came in. Welcome to the cat life! You can do a Pinterest search about DIY cat items and spend all day looking at the possibilities. In the end, I can assure you that they don’t care about the toys they have as long as you are playing with them. Just like with children, an expensive toy doesn’t make up for time spent with you.
Give canned food as a treat instead of an everyday meal or portion it out
As long as you give your cats a constant supply of crunchies, giving them a whole can of cat food probably isn’t good for their health anyway (especially their weight). I would recommend buying those rubber lids made specifically to go over cans of cat food and portioning out a can. Of course, if you have 3 or more cats then this probably won’t work for you. Personally, I don’t give my cats can food but I feed them meat from the table as a treat and also give them Temptations cat treats. It makes them happy to get a treat and they are not overweight.
Save your furniture by making sure they have plenty of scratching places
My cat’s absolute favorite thing to scratch on are these turbo scratcher cat toys. This cardboard toy is cheap to be replaced and cats love it. I recently bought some replacement cardboard and the cats were taking turns using it before I could even place it into the toy. Give them plenty of options and you’ll have to worry about your furniture a lot less. Remember it’s in a cat’s nature to stretch their claws and scratch things. That’s the only way they are going to keep their claws in good health.
Don’t skip on the preventive medicine
Not skipping on this is something that will save you money and heartache in the long run. Something as simple as flea treatment can be expensive but if you skip on this you’re going to have an expensive flea infestation and then your cats will probably have to be wormed as well. You have to also consider these fleas will be biting you and your children if you have them.
Consider insurance
I understand that not everyone can do this, especially if you have multiple cats. But there is a good possibility that at some point in your cat’s life they are going to get sick and they are going to need a vet. The diagnostic testing alone can run you hundreds to thousands of dollars. No one wants to be faced with a hard decision to make all because you don’t have the money to pay for their treatment. Most pet insurance policies will start at about 1 dollar a day per pet.
Put your change aside. It adds up fast
This probably won’t cover a vet bill that is thousands of dollars but having a savings set aside will give you peace of mind if something small comes up. Like antibiotics are needed. If you put aside 1 dollar a day for a whole year that’s 365 dollars in your pet’s health savings.
Do you have ways to save money on your cats that I didn’t mention? Let me know in the comments!