Anonymous wrote:
>I believe veterinarians should offer prepayment plans.  I believe they
>should get into the business of savings accounts for animals.  It doesn't
>work for me, to say my savings account at the bank is for my ferret's
>future medical needs.  The money is too accessible and it goes to other
>family obligations over and over again.
 
Anonymous, that behavior will damage more than the ferrets' health care,
and it is something that you NEED to get under control.  I am willing to
supply you with weekly budget book pages if you are interested.  They are
a pain in the butt to do and all receipts get saved and those are good
things; as a result spending goes down and it is easier to tell wants from
needs.  There is an individual independent fun money allocation of 1 to 2%
of income so that allows some record-free spending and actually REDUCES
guilt about such spending due to it's being a set amount and independent
of other's input.  The irony is that since it is so guilt free it tends to
reduce fun money spending.
 
You can achieve the result you want by buying ferret health insurance.
That site and some others can use to answer questions brought up today
were last posted in my resources list on something like 2/20/02.  You can
find them in the FML archives that can be reached using the header of
each FML, or by going into the Files section at the Ferret Health List in
Yahoogroups.
 
Some people exchange labor for reduced costs: anything from cage cleaning
to book keeping to...
[Posted in FML issue 3711]