MAJOR "small thing" victory! We have now, officially, FULLY insourced dog grooming! When we came to MMM, she was getting a full bath/nail trim/etc once per month for $30. Then we moved it down to just her nails ($18, then $14 after we moved), but we had to move her up to once every 3 weeks because her nails are high maintenance. We got her as a rescue, and some are split, and have really long quicks, and grow in a tight curve into her paw pads. Given how technical the cutting of her nails is, and not wanting to be the Bad Guys who quick her, we kept outsourcing the nails. For Christmas though we got a dremel, and we finally worked up courage (slash time, now that husband is done with his masters) to do her nails ourselves!
$14 every 3 weeks means a $243/year savings =) Plus, she did really well with the dremel! Probably because I fed her an entire cheese stick in the course of her four feet =P We got faster as we went though.