Money for the Rest of Us

I have a wonderful loving old Golden Retriever who has kidney disease.  We discovered this about 2 years ago after she had been peeing on our rug (even if we were gone for just 3 hours) and we took her to the vet.  After a number of blood tests they determined that she has kidney disease and that a special kind of perscription dog food would help.  It does– she doesn’t pee on the rug any more and she still is relatively healthy for a 12-year-old dog.

Here’s the kicker– the biggest and best value bag of the food is $66.  This lasts about a month and a half.  Now, on a small non-profit worker’s/student’s budget, this is a ton of money, but it’s well worth it to be able to have such a loving animal around.  So, yesterday I drove over to the vet to pick it the bag of dog food and I got a parking ticket!  Yes, suddenly that $66 bag of dog food became $116.  I was parked halfway in a legal spot with my flashers on and was only inside for 5 mins.  What are the chances that the parking enforcers would come by right then?

The moral of the story is, watch where you park (especially in DC).  A product’s price can suddenly go through the roof when you start adding additional costs.