- Pet expenses are rising with inflation, impacting owners' budgets significantly.
- Healthy Paws Pet Insurance reports a 38% increase in pet services over five years.
- Below, a CFP gives her best advice to manage growing pet ownership costs effectively.
Just about everyone is feeling the effects of inflation right now.
There's a good reason for that: From February 2023 through 2026, the inflation rate has outpaced the Federal Reserve's preferred 2% by as much as three times.
And pet owners have another whole category of rising costs to consider. Between food, vet visits, grooming, gear, and pet-sitting, pet ownership was never cheap. Now, it's putting even more of a strain on their wallets. Department of Labor data cited by Healthy Paws Pet Insurance found that the price of "pet services" such as vet visits, grooming, and boarding rose 38% in the past five years.
"I have two pets myself," says Tessa Steinemann, CFP and managing partner at True Alpha Wealth Management, "so I am very aware of pet ownership costs." Steinemann, who has a cat named Gabe and a dog named Bailey, helps a wide range of clients with budgeting and saving for the future — and in the current climate, she says the cost of owning a pet has risen in ways that many people might not think about.
How much pet ownership costs
Adopting a pet is never free, even if it's cheap. Whether you're taking in a stray cat or adopting an expensive purebred dog, you'll have to pay for things like vaccinations and microchips, toys, bedding, and food. In 2021, the ASPCA found that the average initial expenses for a dog were $1,030, and annual expenses were $1,391.
For some pet owners, the costs can be even higher. A 2026 survey of more than 1,500 US pet owners by Healthy Paws Pet Insurance and Money.com found that respondents paid an average of $4,272 a year on routine expenses for a cat or dog. Thirty-one percent said their costs had risen in the last year.
Survey respondents also said that they spent $50 or more each month on pet food and treats (63%), vet care (42%), medications and supplements (29%), and grooming (28%).
It might sound simple to cut back on spending for your pets when prices rise, but any pet owner knows that's not the case. "I think a lot of people think of their pets as family," Steinemann says. Because of that, she continues, pet owners tend to include their pet's medical care, food, and even toys in spending for the household.
How to plan ahead for pet expenses
While the cost of having a pet is only going up, Steinemann says there are steps you can take to minimize how much the cost hurts your budget. The first step is to simply learn how to budget; start by looking back at your spending over the past year to get a sense for how much you can plan on spending going forward.
"Making sure that you have put together a budget is extremely important," she says. "So many people just kind of fly by the seat of their pants — they bring money in, they send money out."
When putting together a budget, consider decoupling the cost for pet food from the food you eat, even if you're buying both from the same grocery store; the more concrete information you have about each category of spending (pet food, vet visits, pet insurance, and any other pet-related expenses), the easier it will be to assess where you need to cut back elsewhere.
Steinemann emphasizes that while inflation will inevitably make many parts of pet ownership more expensive, not every cost that can go up is one that needs to rise. For one thing, she suggests evaluating any spending on premium pet products. "Nowadays, a lot of people are getting fresh food for their animals," she says. "That's going to be significantly more expensive than the normal kibble that people usually used to do."
It's important to be honest about what you can afford and how you expect to pay for not only day-to-day costs, but also unexpected costs like a veterinary emergency.
Giving your pet the life they deserve doesn't need to be insurmountable, though, especially if you're willing to do some research into what options are available to provide help.
Steinemann suggests turning to local resources for help. Many communities have nonprofits dedicated to keeping animals off the street and getting them the medical help they need. If you've put together a budget and just can't find room to pay for your pet expenses, some online searching for local organizations can be a great way to get the help you need getting across the finish line. "People love animals," she says.
Created by the Commerce Team in partnership with Healthy Paws Pet Insurance.
The post How inflation is reshaping the economics of pet ownership appeared first on Business Insider
