The autoship email came Saturday morning while I was still in my robe: Hank's next bag ships Tuesday, $71.24 for 34 pounds of Purina Pro Plan Large Breed Adult. I opened the pet tab in our budget spreadsheet to log it and realized I'd never written down, in one place, what it costs to feed one big dog and one small cat every month. So here it is, every line, as of September 2025.
Hank's bowl: about $57 a month
Hank eats Purina Pro Plan Large Breed Adult. Our vet suggested it not long after we adopted him, he does well on it, and I don't mess with a dog who has a shiny coat and predictable digestion. The 34-pound bag lists at $74.99 on Chewy. Autoship takes 5% off, so we pay $71.24.
At 68 pounds, Hank gets a little over three and a half cups a day, split between breakfast and supper, measured with a real measuring cup and not the mystery scoop that came free with something. A bag lasts about 38 days. That works out to roughly $1.87 a day, or about $57 a month.
The kibble lives in an airtight bin in the pantry, bag and all, because a 68-pound dog who loves food will test any lid you own.
Mabel's bowl: about $38 a month
Mabel eats Hill's Science Diet Adult 7+ dry food, measured once a day into her bowl on the counter where Hank can't reach, plus one 3-ounce can of Fancy Feast Classic pâté every evening. She's eight, she weighs 10.4 pounds, and since her soft-food week after the dental in June she's gone right back to crunching like nothing happened.
We buy the cans by the case, which brings them to about 79 cents each, so the wet food runs roughly $23 a month. The dry is about $15. Together: $38.
Treats, chews and litter
Treats are the line I keep an eye on, because it creeps. Our budget is $24 a month, and that covers:
- A bag of small training treats that I break in half
- A box of dental chews (Hank gets one most evenings)
- Peanut butter for his Kong Classic, checked for xylitol every single jar
- Mabel's lickable cat treats, which became a household staple when we used them to hide her pain medicine in June
Litter is $21 a month. It's the unscented clumping clay that won the litter test I wrote up earlier this month, bought in the big box and scooped every morning.
Add it all up and we spend about $140 a month to feed and litter two animals: $57 for Hank, $38 for Mabel, $24 in treats and chews, $21 in litter. That's $1,680 a year, or about $4.60 a day for the whole crew.
Where we trimmed, and where we won't
The biggest cut was the fresh-food topper. We added a fresh dog food subscription to Hank's bowl in May and I canceled it on August 8. As a topper it cost $58 a month, $174 for the whole trial. When I asked what it would cost to feed him entirely on it, the quote was $11.40 a day, about $347 a month, which is more than double our whole food-and-litter line. He liked it. He also likes his kibble. That decision wasn't hard.
The smaller trims are boring, which is how I like them. Autoship on the kibble is 5% for doing nothing. Cans by the case beat grabbing a few at the grocery store. This summer we froze our own yogurt-and-blueberry treats instead of buying the pre-made ones. And I break training treats in half, which Hank has never once noticed.
The honest mistake: in June the treat line hit $41. I hadn't bought anything big. I'd just tossed a bag of jerky treats into the Target cart three trips in a row because Hank "deserved" it. He did not need three bags of jerky. Now treats only get bought from the list.
What we don't do is shop Hank's food by price alone. Our vet steered us away from grain-free boutique diets years ago, and I'd rather pay for a food he has done well on than save six dollars and spend it on an upset stomach. Same with Mabel's senior formula. Every animal is different, though, and what goes in your pet's bowl is a conversation for your own vet, not a spreadsheet.
The box arrives Tuesday. Hank will hear the delivery truck before I do and sit by the front door talking until I open it, even though he knows perfectly well the kibble goes in the pantry and not directly into him.
