Money

I am upping my daycare fees as of July 1. I wrote the letter today, having finally finished my taxes and seeing not only the steady increase of the cost of fuel, electricity and food, but also my dire need to actually accrue more money.
I am nervous about how the parents will take it. This is only the second time in my 8 years of doing this that I have increased my fees. I think I put myself in the parents' shoes too much. I start to feel badly for them, having to already pay so much for daycare, and then to have that increased. But I have to stop being a softy, because as we all know, I ain't doin' this for the pure pleasure of it! It's a business, my family's livelihood, my income, and my job, not my hobby.
So we'll see.
Money, money, money. Don't you just hate it sometimes? Wouldn't it be nice to go back to the old days of working hard and bartering? I'll give you this, if you do that. That doesn't fly with the banks though, does it?
We are supposedly getting a fairly nice tax return this year. What I'd really like to do with it is put it towards a nice vacation. I'd really, REALLY love to take the boys to Disney. I went as a child, DH did too, and it feels somewhat unfair that my kids won't ever get to go. At least not while the magic of youth is still with them. Not before they become too old for that sort of thing, or they think it's dumb or cheesey. It's just so expensive though! Why can't they do a discount week or something? I think everyone should get to go to Disney once during their younger years, despite income. I could fund maybe one third of what we'd need. That's just not enough. And I find it extremely difficult to sit on money and wait, as in, SAVE.
Sigh.
Sigh again.
But saving the money isn't really even an option. Our dog is sick. Well, dying really. He has a bad heart, and of course the vets want to make as much money as possible out of us and want him on all these heart meds and stuff. DH went to pick up the first two weeks worth today. Guess how much they were.
Go on, take a guess.
If you guess right, you win a trip to Disney.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha, not really.
Ok, are you ready?
$140!! (That's Canadian, people.)
WTF? Do they honestly friggin think that I am going to pay $300/month for meds for a dog???!!
DH loves that dog so much. I'm sorry, but I don't love him that much. You can put a price on love. And that is too expensive. I'll let the first two weeks go, for the sake of DH, but after that, I'm sorry, but no.
Would you give up a vacation to keep your elderly dog (possibly) alive for a few more months, or a year?
I think I am rambling here. I know I am. I'm really tired, and it's pretty late. So, I will go now and leave you with my thoughts.

The initial examination:
$69.30 (Wish I made that much for 15 mins of work.)
The tests and bogus costs for a few hours of "boarding" (sheesh):
$506.57
Two weeks worth of meds that may or may not keep your dog alive for an unknown amount of time: (Do these vets actually know anything besides how to make money?)
$139.08
The look on your kids' faces when you tell them their dog is dying, you don't know when and they have to give up their dream of going to Disney anytime soon because of it,
Priceless (but not in a good way.)
For everything else, there's Mastercard. Oh, wait. That's already maxed out.
Damn.