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General Budgeting

jasbrent

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Wondering how much you all spend a month on your guinea pigs food a month. I never realized how much these little beauties eat! Lol. Looking to better budget myself. Thanks!!
 

ClemmyOddieIndy

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Wondering how much you all spend a month on your guinea pigs food a month. I never realized how much these little beauties eat! Lol. Looking to better budget myself. Thanks!!

Veggies - $180-$200 (about $6-$10 a day)
Hay - $15 (I buy in large bulk)

My pigs are pelletless at the moment, but when I did get pellets I would spend about $50 every 5-6 months on KMS.

I tried to switch to fleece to save money on buying bedding, and that was a horrible and expensive disaster.

Budgeting for medical expenses is important too, and setting up a medical fund is pretty essential. My Odette cost me somewhere around $5,000 total during her last year of life. I'd have to dig out the medical bills, but I know that its somewhere around there or higher. Then in the less than 3 months I had Daisy her's were around $3,000.
 

jasbrent

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$180-200 a month?! I only have 2 piggies. Don't think they eat that much veggies! Lol
 

LifeAsItMayBe

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After a few years of tracking expenses I figured out I spend a little more than $1 per day per pig. So, $30 per pig per month, or $90 total. Veggies, pellets, Carefresh bedding, etc. I haven't ever had to take them to the vet. They don't have a dedicated vet fund, but my savings account has enough in it for anything they or I need.
 

ClemmyOddieIndy

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$180-200 a month?! I only have 2 piggies. Don't think they eat that much veggies! Lol

Unfortunately, that is for 2 pigs as well.
 

jasbrent

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Geeze lol. I better calculate mine. I just know I am constantly purchasing a crap load of food just for my guinea pigs. Oy.... :\
 

sallyvh

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I also spend around $150 a month all together on my 4 pigs.

$120 of that goes towards veggies
$15 goes to hay. I buy 50lbs at a time and it lasts for about 5 months.
$15 goes to pellets. I order 50lbs of KMS and they should last for 10-11 months.

On top of that I buy litter for their kitchens, either wood pellets or yesterdays news.

I'm fortunate that my parents will pay for any bigger medical expenses. I had about $1500 in a vet account for them and pretty much all of it was used for diagnostics on my one pig. I have slowly built it back up to around $500 so if anything happens I can take them in. I'm a full time university student and I only work every other weekend so I put away as much as I can towards their care.
 

jasbrent

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Where can I order that hay and pellets? I spend $25 for a 90oz bag of hay that last close to a month and $20 or so on 10lbs of pellets. That will last me for a good while.
 

jasbrent

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Oh and $40 for a bale 144L of paper bedding that last me a month
 

AmberCalzone

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When I had my (2) girls I spent...

Per Month
-$40-60 on vegetables (I went to multiple stores to get the best deals, and my mom allowed me to use some of her 'family food' vegetables too)
-$50 on hay (we don't have a local dealer, that I found, so I ordered 10lbs off Amazon for $25. They would eat between 10-20lbs a month. They never finished the second box in one month, but they would run out of the first so I would have to buy another)
-$10 on kiln dried pine pellets for kitchen area

+ I would buy them at least 1 new "cutesty" thing every month :) A bed, a tunnel, etc.

I didn't have a vet fund, because my savings account always had enough in it to cover any vet costs.
I used fleece bedding, so that was a one time expense.
 

pigmommy89

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Unfortunately, that is for 2 pigs as well.

I don't know what kind of veggies you feed yours, but I only spend about half that on veggies for way more than two, and they each get the recommended 1 cup per day. :)
 

jasbrent

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So where would I buy that KMS hay and pellets? Or how do I get them off of the pellets to save me from buying that?
 

AmberCalzone

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You may not be saving money by go pelletless, because you'll have to buy a wide arrange of vegetables to get them the vitamins that they would have been getting from the pellets.
 

AmberCalzone

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I don't know what kind of veggies you feed yours, but I only spend about half that on veggies for way more than two, and they each get the recommended 1 cup per day. :)

Yes, I only fed mine organic vegetables, and I spent way less than that (for 2 pigs, as well). Granted I did run around to 3 different grocery stores to get the best deal, and my mom helped me out a bit​, but I still can't imagine spending that much for 2.
 

jasbrent

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So what is this KMS brand of hay and pellets??
 

sallyvh

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(broken link removed)

Here's the KMS website to order hay and pellets. I love their pellets, I haven't bought their hay but many members here love it.

If your pigs don't have calcium issue I personally would continue to feed pellets. They are an easy way to know your pigs are getting vitamins and minerals. If you go pellet-less you will end up having to buy more veggies and supplements to ensure they get what they need. People only generally go pellet-less if they have issues with sludge/bladder stones.

You can also look at getting hay from SPS or oxbow from Dr. Foster&Smith is decently priced if you live in the US.
 

jasbrent

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I use oxbow and I live in Canada. It is really expensive . I will check out the KMS website. Thanks!!! Keep the advice coming peeps!
 

lunarminx

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(broken link removed)

even with shipping, which will make you jaw drop, it comes to about 1.45 per lb if you buy 50lbs at a time.

Smallpetselect is a great place for hay too

(broken link removed)


But You can also buy it by the bale at a feed store, i get a 50lb bale at tractor supply for 20.00.
 

sallyvh

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ClemmyOddieIndy

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Here is how I spend that much:

Lettuce $1.99 - Buying organic usually means small heads that only have 1 or 2 days worth
Green Pepper $.99 (one a day)
Yellow Pepper $1.99 (one a day)
Red Pepper $1.99 (several times a week not every day)
Orange Pepper $1.99 (several time a week not every day)
Cilantro $.99 (this will last for a week)
Baby carrots $1.99 (this will last for a week)
Grape Tomatoes $1.99 (this will last for a week)
Belgian Endive $4.99 lb (this will get about 2, but I rarely find good Belgian Endive)
Parlsey $.99 (only fed a couple times a week, but it lasts about a week)
Roma Tomatoes $.99 (only fed a couple times a week)
 
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