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DIVESTMENT OF MONEY-SINKS:

Animal-related - buying, grooming, raising/showing (resource-heavy) animals:
    
Pet costs can be big players in a household's budget. (I know - I'm a big animal lover.) Maybe it's time to look at some pet-related expenditures you may have been choosing to be unconscious about...

Have your heart set on owning a particular breed? They do show up at pet shelters, for various reasons - and shelter "acquisitions" are easy to track online these days. There are also rescue organizations for almost any breed of cat or dog (and probably other critters as well), and not all of these animals have been dumped due to problem personalities. You can usually save a bundle over buying from a breeder or a pet shop (most of which perpetuate the undesirable - to say the least - breeding "mills"), as well as rescue a pet from oblivion.  Or check the free pet ads in your local paper, of course.
 
Does your dog really need to be professionally groomed? (I know, you might well need help with the toenails - a friend?) And here's a tip:  Get the teeth cleaned whenever Fido is already having to be anesthetized for some reason.
 
If The Hunt is your life, or you're a professional animal raiser/trainer/shower, well, that's that. But if you're a dilettante, maybe it's time to back away from those major expenses (or enjoy it another way - as a spectator, maybe?). 

And I do hope you'll consider the economic and societal consequences of letting your cat or dog have babies just for the experience. Those are pet costs that affect all of us.