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As many of my long-time readers know, we have pets. Lots of them. We have 2 pups and 2 cats. And all of them make appearances on the blog, mostly at the end of each post when they throw in a well-thought-out, insightful hashtag comment on the content. So, if you have pets and you like to pamper them, check out how we went on a mission (and accomplished it) to acquire high-quality pet beds at a reasonable price.
Now, as many of you probably don’t know, we have a couch in our living room that has been absolutely destroyed over the years by our wonderful pets. One of the biggest issues we have right now is that we want to replace our furniture but want to make sure our new furniture doesn’t get destroyed.
Pampered Pets Are Not Required
First of all, let’s get this out of the way, pampering your pets is not a requirement to be a responsible pet owner. As long as you’re maintaining their health and providing them with a loving, playful home, there isn’t much more you need to do to have a happy furry friend.
That said, our pets mean a lot to us. I can’t tell you how much we enjoy having them by our sides each and every day. But, and here’s the catch, we don’t enjoy having our furnishings ruined. So there is a happy medium we all search for when it comes to being pet parents.
There is a saying that a friend once told me that I have never forgotten. Here it is…
“You can’t have anything nice with kids or pets.”
Hmm…I suppose there is some truth in that statement, but it’s a rather negative view of life in general. And since we have both a kid and pets, we just joke around when it comes to this line of thinking. But I do find myself coming back to it when I notice a new hole that was recently chewed in one of our couch cushions.
Here’s something you probably don’t know. One of our Mad Money Pups is a German Shepherd and she is only now coming out of the puppy stage. Hence, the holes being chewed in our couch. Our white Shepherd mix (seen in the feature photo) is long out of the puppy phase and just enjoys long, lazy days sleeping – ON THE COUCH.
In fact, our white pooch is the one that taught the new puppy that it was okay to be on the couch. And since our furniture was already old and ragged, we didn’t put up too much of a fight.
Well, we can’t break one without breaking the other one. So, that’s exactly what we intend to do.
When Your Pets Ruin Your Furniture
When your pets ruin your furniture, your options are:
- Live with it and pretend your couch doesn’t have holes
- Get rid of the pets – GASP! Never.
- Replace the furniture
- Re-train the pets to stay off of the furniture, then replace it
We decided to go with the last option. But in order to do so successfully, we need to tackle this task in two steps.
First, we need to purchase dog beds and train the dogs to use their new, hopefully, luxurious beds instead of the couch. When this has been successfully accomplished, then, and only then, will we replace our furniture. Look for that adventure in a future frugal post.
Our Frugal Mission To Find Dog Beds
I had a few rules for the new beds. I wanted them to be lighter in color, preferably grey, and super comfy – so the pups would actually want to lounge on them. The color was important to me because I knew these beds were going to reside in our living room because the dogs like to be where we are. #shocker
Basically, the beds needed to match our decor and be solid enough to hold up to two big dogs. Not only did they need to match, I also wanted 2 of the same beds so I could put them next to each other on the floor and it wouldn’t look odd.
Oh, I also didn’t want to spend too much money. 🙂 Yeah, that too.
Other articles you might enjoy:
- The Healthy Pet Food Hack You Need To Know About
- Pet Ownership: A Frugal Guide To Happy, Healthy Pets
- Owning A Pet Sucks
- There Is Never A Good Time For A Surprise Vet Bill
- The DIY Pet Grooming Hack You Need To Know About
Frugal Mission Accomplished
Bottom line: We shopped around. A lot.
We shopped at our local pet store, we shopped at our local big-box pet store, and we shopped online, exhaustively.
Finally, yesterday, I took Mini Monster with me to one of our local stores we hadn’t yet checked out. And as it goes with little kids, she was insistent on finding the beds right then and there and bringing them home.
That led to us going through each and every single bed that had potential. We were laying them down on the floor in the store and trying them out as if we were dogs. It was quite hilarious and I so wish I had snapped a picture. But alas, I did not.
And then it happened, I looked up and saw two of the same beds that were big, grey, fluffy, and rugged enough for our two crazy pups! Not only did the beds seem rugged – they were KONG brand! Anyone who has pets knows what I’m talking about here.
I hurriedly jumped up to reach them and pulled two down. Mini and I both tried them out and we were SOLD!
I was happy because I was able to check all of my boxes and Mini was happy because we were able to take them home immediately.
Let’s Talk Price
I obviously wanted to be as frugal as possible when it came to the dog bed purchase. And when I noticed the beds were made by Kong, I felt defeated. I cringed to glance at the price tag. But, I looked anyway.
Would you believe the price per bed was under $100?! I was so happy that I skipped to the register, dog beds in hand. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but it was a good visual.
As I was standing in line, I noticed that I was able to get $20 off each bed if I signed up for their rewards program. I did just that. And when it was my turn to pay, both Kong beds rang up for $105! #superduperfrugalwin
If you’re interested, these are the EXACT beds we purchased, selling for nearly $300/each online! In fact, I noticed that, despite only having 2 reviews, the one negative review was because of the price and that the same bed was selling for a quarter of the price in stores. Now, I must also say that some of the other beds we were considering were much less expensive online than they were in stores.
Oh, and just in case you were wondering, this is the cat condo our Mad Money Cats enjoy on a daily basis. It continues to serve them well after 3 years.
Here’s a little video to celebrate dogs everywhere!
So, as always, do your frugal homework and don’t overpay for anything! May your pets be pampered and your wallet remain fat!
How do you pamper your pets and still manage to remain frugality?
9 Comments
We ended up going with a king size so our boy could stretch out. He lets us sleep in it every night too! But right in between us.
I grew up with dogs on furniture and I see that bit training my own dog was a mistake. At the very least, pets should be trained to go to go to their own bed so that you have the options to invite them up on beds or furniture or to keep them down.
I like the way you think! Somehow, we’ve trained them to not sleep with us in the bed. But, then again, we only have a queen.
We live in England and have a Staffordshire bull terrier rescue dog whom we adore. When we first got him we decided he was not allowed on the couch or the bed, and I bought double size quilts from a charity shop, folded them and sewed covers that matched our furniture. We got him three beds for three different rooms. This worked for a while but I really wanted him on the furniture so I could snuggle with him more and my husband finally came round to this idea. So now he sleeps on the couch and on our bed. Our furniture is not destroyed, we just have a throw over the sofas, which we can take off and wash. If people come visit, we may take off the throws. He never chewed anything, but he was three years old when we got him. We had a cat previously, and she never scratched the furniture either and sat on all of it. We would hiss at her if she started to scratch and it worked well. Also the spray Feliway works, you can spray it on things and the cats won’t scratch it. Obviously they need something to scratch though. I think the main issue with not letting your dogs on the sofas or bed is that you then have to get down on the floor if you want to cuddle with them. My dog is such a good snuggler, I love sleeping with him on the bed or sofas. I couldn’t have it any other way. You may miss this too.
Yeah, our cats have a scratching post in one area of the house, but I’m thinking we need to increase the number we have so they’re readily accessible for them.
Unfortunately, our couch is ruined mainly because our one dog was a puppy and couldn’t control herself. 🙁
Thanks for sharing!
When we bought our house my wife insisted on buying a new couch that cost over $3k. Four years later that couch is not necessarily destroyed, but it doesn’t look good and our dogs are not the problem. Ironically, my wife is. She will put her coffee cup on it and there are stains on it and the like. Next time, I won’t fear the dogs, but maybe get my wife a sofa of her own. :).
This comment made me laugh out loud! I so needed that this afternoon. 🙂
My dog, aptly named Wile E. Coyote, has chewed numerous holes in my couch. He now gets to stay outside or in his crate when I can’t watch him. I feel bad, but he has to learn to not eat my stuff!
Agreed!
Love his name, btw. 🙂