Kitty bargains

We have a 12-year-old cat and an almost six-month-old kitten. This means lots of litter and dry food. I try very hard not to feed the cats any food with corn as a main ingredient and that's tough on the budget.

At Target tonight I started with litter. I used to get my litter at Sam's Club but their prices have been going up AND the size of the package shrinking, so by the time you consider membership fees, impulse buys and my employee discount at Target, it didn't seem like a bargain at Sam's.

Boots and Barkley cat litter at Target was $9.39 for 27 pounds and Tidy Cat multi-cat litter was $11.99 for 35 pounds. I got out my calculator and did some figuring. The Target brand, Boots and Barkley, worked out to be 34.77 cents per pound, while the name brand came in at 34.25 cents per pound.

At this point, my colleagues noticed me and wondered what I was doing so I explained. They seemed in awe that I would do such a thing. They weren't even sure how to do the math to find out which was cheaper. I explained.

Then to cat food! Iams was on sale, multiple varieties, $10.99 for the 6.8 pound bag. Normally it's $12.79. PLUS with two bags you got a $5 gift card free. I bought three bags of kitten chow and one bag regular.

My bill after discounts was $51.64 plus I now have $10 in Target gift cards.