how much does your cat cost per month?

[juicychops]

i have 3 cats which can be expensive (although i know that it was my choice to have 3 cats). Im trying to cut the costs down as much as i can. They now eat just dry food with occasional meat as a treat (although they eat it so quick they are sick)

their flea stuff i now alternate between stronghold and a flea collar as stronghold is a lot more affective. flea collar for 3 months the stronghold for the 4th month then flea collar again.

dont have pet insurance as just too expensive

so in total probably spend about £5 per week.

does that sound about right or could i be saving money somewhere else?

Is that 5 per week for all 3, presumably?

I've got 3 too

I spend (in total, for all 3):

food: £3-4 per week (James Wellbeloved dried food only - no hideously expensive wet food)

wormers: £0.50 per week

flea treatment: frontline every 2-3 months. I never use flea collars.

insurance (petplan) : £24 per month

HTH

thanks bella yeah thats £5 per week for their food and the flea stuff averaged out

Do you want me to make you feel better? I'll tell you what my lot cost me

Food - we spend about £20 a month on their food (they get dry food plus a shared pouch of wet food at night). They also get a vitamin pill every day, and they currently have an addiction to those freeze dried fish bits you get in PAH, so those things bring the total food bill up to about £40 a month. Insurance - they're on a joint policy with the dogs, but their portion works out at about £15 a month I think. Wormer / Flea treatment - they get Advocate which is about £15 a time (every month in summer plus extra tapeworm treatment, but only every 3 months in winter) - probably averages out at about £8 a month over the year. So that's £63 a month, and if I add on the yearly boosters, that brings it to an average of about £70 a month.

Then we have the dogs - we usually spend about £120 a month on food, chews, treats etc, about £30 a month on wormer, flea stuff and vitamins (plus £40 a month on the pup's joint tablets, but they're covered by our insurance), £19 a month on insurance and about £20 on new toys to replace the ones they've destroyed! So when I add on their annual boosters, that's works out at about £200 a month without the pup's medication - which reminds me, I've also just paid £120 excess out for the insurance, so that whacks on another tenner to the average

We also have two rabbits and a guinea pig, which cost us around £30 a month in hay, grass, sawdust, food, willow toys and fresh greens.

So that brings my grand total to about £300 a month, or £75 a week

No wonder we're on a first name basis with everyone in pets at home!

I probably spend around £8per week on food (hi-life pouches 2 a-day and encore dry mix)

Insurance is £7 pm

I use the other flea stuff that i cant remember the name off thats the alternative to frontline, as Tom has a bit of a problem with it (knocks him out for six for a few days .. whimp!)

Not alot, but I do have only 1 cat

I really dont know how you do it MrsL123!!!

In my defence, it only works out at about £5 a day each for me and DH, and we don't drink or smoke or go out much (TTC!). They're our one guilty pleasure

It'll be even worse if the pup's insurance doesn't cover all her treatment, then we'll be eating beans on toast for the next year!

Do they need vitamin pills, MrsL? Do they have a vitamin deficiency? If not, you could be doing them harm, as well as wasting money

i have 5 cats they only eat dried Purina One cat food they are not insured i buy great flea stuff from the vets but it is very expensive for 5 lots but it has lasted for months as in no fleas either on them or jumping around the house that i know of though they do need it again soon effects cant last for ever

Bella the older one has prebiotic tablets as she suffers from colitis (hence the expensive hypo-allergenic food - only one she can eat without dire consequences!), and vitamin B complex tablets for her nervousness (both recommended by the vet - she's one of those highly strung types, not sure where she got that from ). She also gets joint pills, as we don't want to go through the same problems as we've had with the poor pup, so they're more of a prevantative measure. The pup only has the pills from the vet, which thankfully are covered by the insurance!

The real drain on my finances is DH. He costs about £400 a month to feed, requires constant entertainment with playstation 3 games (he's 38 soon!), needs regular beer supplements, and at the moment is having daily treatment for man flu

Okay, just checking

You have my sympathy re dh - esp the man flu

hmm, we have three cats. they have dry food in the day and either a pouch or a third of a tin each at nightime. so foodwise about £7 a week for all three.

I stronghold them-in the winter i do it every 3 months as they tend not to really go out much, in the summer its every month so thats £25 for 3 pipettes per month.

they seem to lose their collars quite a bit(they are chipped but have had problems with people feeding the girls so have DO NOT FEED collars! lol)
so Id say I spend £3 a month roughly on new collars.

so approx £56 a month

Oh!and worming, the vet tries to sell me tabs at £8 a pop but i buy them online from vetuk for £1.40each so say all in all £60ish