The following is a guest post by Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff ^[1]. Her blog covers living expenses, saving for your future, and the fun stuff in between. (Ed. Thanks, Crystal!)

I’ve been complaining on and off about the cost of my poor Pug’s allergies, so I thought I’d do a little post to let all of us vent a little about unexpected expenses.

Here’s how much Mr. Pug has cost in vet bills and medicine alone since he developed major allergies to meat proteins and dairy in February 2010:

• February 4, 2010 - Mr. Pug licked off some hair, so we visited the crappy vet I will never go to again - $185.29
• May 11, 2010 - Mr. Pug stopped eating and his eyes looked cloudy, first visit to new vet for dry eye - $177.78
• May 12, 2010 - Dermatology Exam, Skin Scraping, Ear Check, and 6 medicines - $254.00
• May 18, 2010 - Check-Up on dry eye - $53.34
• June 2, 2010 - Check-Up on Ear Infections, Skin Infection, and medicine refills - $134.00
• July 8, 2010 - Check-Up on Skin Infection, 2 new medicines, and 2 refills - $146.80
• July 8, 2010 - Antibiotics - $60.60

AND we’re scheduled for another $105 check-up this coming week for his hopefully healed ear infection. So, between February 4 and this coming week, we will have paid at least $1116.81 for vet visits and medicines alone. That doesn’t even take into account the $45 bags of vegan dog food that only lasts about 6 weeks or the $500 we spent last year on 5 tooth extractions.

Thankfully we didn’t get pets until we had excess cash flow, but DANG! He’s an expensive little boy! I love him and we’d pay it again, but I wouldn’t suggest pure breeds for anybody not willing to lay out major dough for something as “simple” as allergies. We would totally let our dogs go if they needed chemotherapy or something (yes, I have my lines), but allergies…well, how do you turn down treatment that can make a pet 99% better? I’m a sucker for his big Pug eyes…I mean, look at him:

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Have you had any unexpected expenses pop up? If so, what have they been and how are you dealing with it?

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