My Husband and I Made This Big Money Mistake -- and It Cost Us $3,000 and Counting

It was a lesson learned the hard way.

My family and I were ready to adopt a dog in early 2020, when the pandemic hit. Since the world was shutting down and you could barely buy toilet paper at that point, we decided to hold off a few months until things settled a bit.

By September, we were ready to take the plunge. And through a local animal rescue, we found Champ, our 70 some odd–pound lab mix whose favorite activities include barking up a storm, burying bones in random corners of the house, and taking up two-thirds of the bed, leaving me and my husband to cram ourselves into the corner.

Because Champ had been bounced around a lot, once we adopted him, we wanted to focus our efforts on making him feel safe and secure. And since he was fairly young and had gotten a clean bill of health, we weren't in such a rush to buy pet insurance for him.

That was a huge mistake, though. And it cost us $3,000 -- and counting.

Waiting didn't pay off

My husband and I knew we wanted to buy pet insurance, but it just wasn't a top priority while we were helping Champ settle in. But then the poor guy started limping, and pretty soon, he was diagnosed with arthritis.

His condition, however, had the potential to go hand-in-hand with malformed joints, our vet warned us. So she recommended further testing to make sure surgery wasn't required.

Since we didn't have pet insurance, we had to shell out about $3,000 for that testing. Thankfully, we had the money in a savings account, but it was still a large amount to pay up.

Thankfully, Champ didn't end up needing surgery. But he does need anti-inflammatory medicine on a daily basis. He also needs regular blood work to make sure the meds aren't messing with his kidneys and other organs.

Meanwhile, my husband and I have since gotten pet insurance for Champ. But since we didn't do that before he got diagnosed, we're now on the hook for hundreds of dollars in bills for medication and blood work every year, since our policy, like most, doesn't cover pre-existing conditions. And that expense could've largely been prevented if we'd gotten our insurance earlier on.

A mistake you don't want to repeat

Adopting Champ was one of the best decisions my husband and I have ever made. Putting off pet insurance was one of the worst. If you're adopting a pet, don't wait to get insurance. But don't just get any insurance -- choose the right one.

Progressive reports that the average annual cost of pet insurance is about $300 to $870 for a large-breed dog. Interestingly, the average annual insurance cost for a medium dog is about $385 to $1,107. For small dogs, it's $251 to $699.

Clearly, these are big ranges. But that's because different types of pet insurance offer varying benefits and levels of coverage. You may not necessarily need the most expensive tier, though. In many cases, a policy that protects you from the astronomical costs of accidents and illnesses will suffice.

And to be clear, it's not just dogs that need pet insurance. If you're adopting a cat, you should get a policy, too. Progressive estimates the average annual cost of pet insurance for cats at about $169 to $462.

In fact, if you're looking to adopt a pet but haven't found one yet, the time to start researching insurance options is now. That's another mistake my husband and I made -- we realized we'd already dropped the ball on pet insurance, and so we rushed to buy it before other health conditions of Champ's made themselves known.

Thankfully, several years later, he's yet to have been diagnosed with another condition. And we've been pretty happy with our pet insurance company thus far. But we also didn't do the level of research we normally would, and that's totally on us.

It's never easy to own up to a big financial mistake -- especially when your job is to write about personal finance and help people avoid such blunders. But I'd rather share this mistake so that other pet owners can learn from it. Owning a pet is a big undertaking in its own right. You don't need the stress of costly and potentially avoidable medical bills to pile on.