Conservation - a necessity not a need

Well, Ashley-Michelle had a psychic moment the other day when she posted about conservation being a good way to go with this blog. I may may start doing quite a bit of it in the coming months.

My car, a '96 Ford, has broken down one too many times and I am now seriously considering replacing it. We did find out that the reason it didn't start last night was because due to corrosion around the battery wires, which has been fixed, but it's been in and out of the shop pretty much every other week for the last couple of months.

So with that said, I will be embarking on one of two possible paths with my money. And they are as follows:

1. Take the plunge and replace my car with a used one
2. Deal with a crappy car for two more years or so while I do some serious saving for car payments (there is no way that this car will last long enough for me to save enough to pay for a new car in cash)

I will let you know what I decide to do in the next few days. My mom and I are heading over to Car Max to ask questions and look at some cars that I might be interested in purchasing. I just have to decide how much more I am willing to put up with from my Ford.

I will also be posting with an updated budget based on whatever path I go down. There are obviously some changes that will need to happen. Any input or ideas would be appreciated. But please, lets keep the brand bashing to a minimum.

Peanut Butter Practicality

Sometime tomorrow, I'll update with the remaining three tips for college grads, but today, given that both myself and Super Careo are fur-mamas, I thought I'd share an ingenius money-saving tip.

So, most of us eat peanut butter. It's kind of an American tradition. And a large majority of Americans own dogs. Although the in-home care for pets has gotten better over the years, there are still a number of minor health issues that many fur-parents tend to miss. A big one is the importance of glucosamine in pets, especially larger breeds and animals pre-disposed to arthritis.

My Savannah, a German Shepherd-Brittany Spaniel mix, has suffered from arthritis for about seven years. The last year has been especially rough for her, so I started feeding her glucosamine tablets at the urging of the vet. I did notice it seemed to help quite a bit with her joint and bone pain, caused by the stress of her condition. Still, my vet suggested that I switch to a specific company.

The only problem is, the tablets aren't flavored, and both my dogs are notoriously finicky eaters when it comes to treats. Seriously, my Pomeranian loves to eat broccoli, but don't count on seeing him gobble down any treats designed to address his tartar and plaque build-up. Oy.

A few weeks ago, I got the idea to take a spoon and coat the glucosamine tablets with a small amount of peanut butter. Because watching the weight of an arthritic dog is so critical to maintaining their health and comfort, I always did a very small amount, just enough to make the tablet seem like a treat. When I noticed that the jar of peanut butter itself was just about too empty to use in making a sandwich, it occured to me there wasn't any reason why I couldn't just start using the tablet to scrape a small amount of peanut butter off the side. True enough, it's worked like a charm!

So, I suppose perhaps a good direction to take this blog is conservation of resources, as well as money management. I, for one, feel great that I'm not tossing out a jar of peanut butter that is too little to put on a sandwich, but just right to entice a dog to take her medicine.