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per month that is... I was having a debate with someone who said that it can't be that expensive but I worked out for me it's approximately £50 per cat (ouch!) which covers the monthly insurance, food, worm and flea treatment and also money towards their annual boosters. That doesn't include any unplanned vet visits. No wonder I'm always broke!

Just being curious

Easily that, I'm sure. It's the unplanned vet visits that tip the balance. Our boy we took on in January needed an urgent dental and that was £750 this weekend. the next day Lou Lou was straight down to the vet with cystitis. The teeth issues were a pre-existing condition and it's not worth claiming for a one off trip for Lou. It reminds me that I need to collate all my receipts for Pepsi's on going issues since the beginning of the year. Hopefully this Saturday will be her last trip for a while. Food adds up too as only Edgar will eat 'cheap' food and he is on Applaws chicken himself for two weeks whilst his gums settle!

I have two indoor boys and by the time I have bought food, litter, treats, fish (cod in the morning and coley in the evening with some prawns before bedtime...them not me!) I don't even want to know how much I spend. What I do know is I spend longer deciding on their food then I do mine

I would say I was spending at least £75 a month on Mischa but that included monthly injections for arthritis. I always joked my credit card would beat her to Rainbow Bridge! Now she's gone, I would give anything to be spending that money on her again.

3 cats cost around £90 which pays for food, litter and insurance. I don't put money aside for boosters as they only cost around £35 per cat yearly.

At least £80-£100 a month for food, litter, 'sweeties' for 3 and the 1-2 strays we feed. That doesn't include the vet visits which topped £230 last month or their injections. We are also going on holiday soon and for the first time putting them in the cattery - another £165. We don't have insurance for them although I'm considering it for Daph as she's only 2 and we're getting on a bit

Interesting! Never really considered it!

So wet food probably £20, biscuits (diet and teethy peg ones as we call them! - hills TD) £10, gabapentin meds £30, Metacam (doggy one..... long story!!!) £15, Tesco finest stick treats to take gabapentin £7.50, insurance £20 (but worth every penny as I have claimed £4000 in last 2 years for scans, ultra sounds, MRIs etc), (dreading this years renewal....)

I think that's it.... other than the random toys I buy her each month !!!

So that's.... £102.50

Worth every single penny and I dont begrudge any of it!! Would sell my house and live in a cardboard box with her if I needed too!

£100 per month is a small price to pay for my best friend, my baby girl, my everything!!

Sorry.... getting a bit sentimental lol!!!

Not sure how much I spend, Food alone is a third of what i earn. NO vet or insurance for me. My cats are healthy and have no health issues.
They are just fed Purina ONE for kittens in kibbles. The protein value is higher.
In wet food, Meow Mix, IAMS, fancy feast, baby food.

Um...I stopped keeping track of how much Pip was costing me a while back, I don't really want to know! In terms of food and cat litter I think I probably spend between £80 and £100 pcm for my two. But they give me so much that I think they're worth every penny!

Cats don't have to cost that much. I think I spend about £60 a month for 2 cats :
2 bags cat litter (sainsburys budget brand or Coshida from Lidl) £4
1 bag Iams £10
8 boxes of whiskas or felix poches, whatever is on special offer 8 x £3 = £24
few tins of cat food £2
insurance 2 x £6 = £12
flea and worming stuff £6

Last time I paid £15 each for innoculations, so no need to budget for those.

One small cat -

Food about £25 (I did say she was small),
Drugs (fortekor, vidalta, istin, ipakitine and metacam) about £70 per month,
Litter £44 (she will only poop in the best),
No insurance (no one would touch her!),

Total around £140 per month, YIKES!!

This is excluding vet bills (Probably around £150 a year, unless she needs an operation).

Cuddles and purrs - priceless.

Wow Podsy, I have to ask - £6.00 for worming AND flea treatment for two cats?

And £15 for the vaccinations is incredibly cheap; from memory my vet charges in the region of £50 or so.

here is my list
food wise mine are eating a mix of food
Harry and Charlie have some schumusy nature for breakfast which they finish off as part of their lunch they have a pouch a day between them.
Merlin has felix for breakfast
lunch is a mix of foods Merlin has some more felix mixed with 1/4 a tin of encore
Charlie has a mix of felix mixed with half of what's left of the schumusy
Harry has 1/4 a tin of encore mixed with the rest of the schummy
diner is a pouch of Tesco cuts in gravy between them they also have 1 as I am going to bed to try and stop them waking me up for food.
I also buy some josera dry food which lasts me about a month
cost wise all this comes to
schumusy £6.00 x 3 = £18.00
Felix £3.00 x 2 = £6.00
encore £6.00 x 2 = £12.00
Josera £10.00 x1 = £10.00
all in all food wise I am spending around £46.00 a month on food which I've just realised is more than I spend on my own food.
then there is litter which costs around £25.00 a month
mine have the program injection twice a year for fleas which comes to about £90.00 for all 3 so the flea treatment comes to around £5.00 a month for each of the boys worming is also done at the vets twice a year as they are indoor only cats I think that comes in at a couple of pounds so not worth counting
then boaster are around £50.00 a year per cat so again I would say about £5.00 a month per cat
so all in all my boys are costing me £101.00 a month not including the £40.00 a month I put by just in case

Too much...that's why I'm getting a big jiffy bag and a few stamps tomorrow to post my Georgie Porgie straight to the cat's home lol

I once started a spreadsheet to work this out. I gave it up as it was too time consuming and I felt guilty about putting a cost on them.

Anyway my 3 little darlings have cost me over £500 this month in vet fees. The two oldies aren't insured but I look at it that over the years I've saved a fortune in insurance premiums because they didn't need any treatment.

I buy food in bulk and shop around for the offers, there is usually somewhere that has an offer on. Cat food usually has a long shelf life so it's not unusual for me to have 3 months worth of food in the house.

Blimey!! When I do homevisits, we say around £25-30 a month. Not that mine cost that little, Buster's renal food alone is more than that, and his insurance is about £30. I think I Worked out he cost around £100 a month just for insurance, renal wet, Seraquin and Denamarin, never mind litter etc (Although at least the vet advised against de-fleaing him monthly). Molly is probably about the average, she has Pets at Home Ever so Tasty food, chicken every day and her steroids are a few pound a month.

Ria - £50 for a booster??? My vet charges £20 for standard, £25 for FeLV.

Hi Meriad

I'm a bit of a bargain shopper!

Once a month I use Advantage 40 flea prevention treatment which I order online. Costs apx £9-10 from Animed or Medicanimal (free postage). Box contains 4 vials so for 2 cats that lasts 2 months. Then once every 3-4 months I give them a Panacur Granules which cost aprox £1.30 a sachet. Much cheaper than the vets!

Then for their annual vaccinations I took them to Vets4pets who only charge £15 for annual boosters. Our nearby vet wanted to charge £45 per cat, so I drove across town to save £60! I asked Vets4pets how they could do it so cheaply and they said that because they are part of a chain they can buy medicines in bulk at lower cost, plus they want to promote preventative medicine so keep the cost low on purpose.

I have found Budget cat litter from Sainsburys and Lidl is fine (Don't like Tesco or Asda own brand) Cats get whatever meat pouches are on special offer, so at the moment it's Whiskas and Felix at 2 for £5 at Asda.