PediPaws Pet Nail Trimmer Is Another Way to Save Money
This is the story of how PediPaws managed to save us almost $500 a year and helped us to get more involved in the care of our pets. I am always looking for ways to save money, as I am sure everyone is these days, but one area I will not cut corners in is the health and care of our animals.
One of our pets in particular is a special case – she is a twelve year old mixed breed named G, and she has a weakened immune system due to Cushing’s disease. Her medication and vet visits are expensive, along with her specialized diet, but we would never dream of not giving her everything she needs. Up until recently, that included getting her professionally groomed.
Lately though, since she has gotten older, her immune system has gotten weaker and it has been harder for her to fight even simple infections, which means she can’t really be around most other dogs. Case in point, the last time I took her to the groomer she contracted pyoderma, a bacterial skin condition, and she is still fighting it off so right now I can’t take her out anywhere.
I have no problem bathing and grooming her at home, she has pretty short hair, but I can NOT cut my dog’s nails. Those pet nail clippers you have to use look like a torture device; I can’t use them at all. My husband has been able to trim her nails once or twice, but the last time he tried he cut her too close to the quick and she really yelped in pain – there was actually some bleeding; he couldn’t do it again after that. We needed some kind of pain-free nail trimmer. That’s when I saw a commercial for Pedi-Paws and decided to give it a try.
Pedi Paws is a battery-operated spinning emery band that gently files nails instead of cutting them, and it costs about $20 plus shipping and handling – cheaper than one visit to the pet groomer. When it arrived we decided to try it immediately.
So, G is pretty hyper due to her condition, which causes increased adrenaline, but she was not at all nervous around the PediPaw – it emits a low buzzing sound, like an electric toothbrush. I was able to trim her nails by myself; she just sat in my arms and let me do each paw. If you have a larger dog or a very nervous dog it might be easier with two people, but I had no trouble with my 50lb dog. In fact, I know she was much happier having me do it, so for her it was way better than going to the dog groomer, and it is definitely less worrisome for me. As a bonus, at $40 a month, we figure Pedi Paws pet nail trimmer saves us almost $500/year. Not bad for an As Seen on TV product!
Lower Phone Bills with Magic Jack
So, I want to talk about this product I have seen on TV called MagicJack – it’s a Voice Over IP (VOIP) device that allows you to make free local calls and free long distance calls from your computer using the Internet. Like tons of you, I’m sure, I have been thinking about how to lower my phone bills but I don’t want to rely solely on a cell phone, and I am looking into various options.
Now, I have been thinking about this off and on, and then yesterday I was reading this article on CNN.com about a couple who wound up with an $8000 cell phone bill after the wife went to Indonesia – they almost missed a mortgage payment because of it! $8000? She could have flown her husband to Indonesia and talked to him in person for that! Well, anyway, the article mentions some alternatives to bringing your domestic cell phone internationally, and one of them was a Voice Over IP (VOIP) device. It plugs into your computer’s USB port and allows you to make phone calls using the Internet.
Magic Jack was a PC magazine Editor’s Choice in 2008 and will top $100 million in sales this year – pretty good for a product that only costs $1.67 month ($19.95/year), and you can even get the first year of MagicJack service free. Obviously, for this type of device a broadband or other high-speed connection is desirable, but if you don’t have one it might be worth investigating – in all likelihood it will pay for itself with the amount you save on phone bills. Have any teenagers or college students? When have they ever stayed within the minutes on those ridiculous cell phone “family plans?” Now, for less than $20 a year they can call to ask for more money without costing you more money, and keep the cell for texts and true emergencies.
The CNN article also mentions an American businessman whose plan racked up minutes at international rates, although he was in a Detroit hotel room, because his phone was accruing roaming charges from Canada. The problem with disputing these charges is the fact that whether he realized it or not, he was still using the services. With Magic Jack he could have just used his laptop and the hotel’s wifi and would have been able to avoid roaming charges all together.
In a time when the cost of everything is going up and the amount of money we have is going down, it makes sense to invest in products that are going to save you money not only now but also in the long run. Every college student, traveler, couple in a long-distance relationship or family with members living internationally would benefit from a product like Magic-Jack.