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It's tough times for pets too, as more and more are being abandoned by their cash-strapped owners. Hilary Osborne offers some tips on holding down the cost of caring for our furry friends
The recession is proving bad news for many pets. According to the RSPCA, a squeeze on household budgets has led to an upturn in abandoned animals with more than 30 pets a day being dumped by their owners.
While some people will find their budgets no longer stretch to accommodate a pet, there are ways to reduce the cost of caring for your furry friend.
1. Buy food in bulk
Cut the cost of pet food by as much as 50% by buying in bulk. Generally speaking, the bigger the package of food you can buy the cheaper it will be. At Sainsbury's, for example, a 1kg bag of Iams cat food costs £4.98, while a 3kg bag weighs in at £13.38. Go online to Pet-supermarket.co.uk and you can order 15kg for £45.76 – that's just £3.05 a kilo. It's a similar deal with fish food. At Sainsbury's 100g of Tetra Pond Floating Foodsticks costs £2.41. At Pet-supermarket 3kg of the food is on offer at £27.99 – that's 93p per 100g. Even when the sticks are full price, at £42.99 for 3kg, that works out at £1.43 a 100g. (Use discount codes on Petsupermarket and you can cut the cost of a big shop by more.) Do look out for special offers, though, as sometimes these make it cheaper to buy smaller packs of food.
2. Choose a mongrel
If you haven't yet got a pet but want one, don't choose one that costs a fortune to buy and care for. A pedigree animal will not only cost more up front than one of less certain heritage, it could be more expensive to care for if it is breed that is prone to ill health too. Research done by Sainsbury's Bank a couple of years ago suggested it could cost up to a third more a year to care for a pedigree pet than a moggy or mongrel. More recently, the bank has also compared the cost of treatment of various breeds of cats and dogs. It found rottweiler owners spend 60% more than owners of west highland whites on treatment, paying an average of £441 a time compared with £271. If you want a pure breed pet, you might want to find one that is cheap to treat.
3. Don't rush to go to the vet
Clearly, if your dog has been run over you shouldn't hang around, but minor ailments sometimes cure themselves. You wouldn't visit the doctor at the first sign of a runny nose, so why seek expensive help as soon as your cat or dog sneezes? Research done by More Than suggests unnecessary emergency vet appointments cost UK pet owners £118m a year, made up of vets' fees, travel costs and lost annual leave.
4. … but keep jabs up to date
Paying to get your pet vaccinated against nasty illnesses means a hit on your wallet every year, but not doing so could prove a false economy. If your animal falls ill with something it could have been vaccinated against and you don't have insurance, you could end up paying far more than the price of the jabs. And even if you do have insurance, some policies will refuse to pay out if an illness could have been prevented with vaccination.
5. Go online for cheaper medication
Instead of buying lotions and potions from the vet, order them online. Websites like Bestpet.co.uk sell prescription and non-prescription medicines for up to 50% less than the price you will usually pay. The flea treatment Frontline For Cats, for example, costs £18 on the site – at least £10 less than at most vets, and p&p is free. Another site, Petremedies.co.uk, offers vouchers for £3 off purchases of £20 or more if you subscribe to its mailing list.
6. Buy pet insurance
One of the most expensive parts of having a pet can be caring for it if it falls ill or has an accident. According to figures from the RSPCA, almost 50% of UK pets will require treatment at some point this year at an average cost of £220. Pet insurance covers you against some of the costs of emergency trips to the vet, as well as offering a pay out if your pet needs ongoing treatment. Many policies also include legal expenses if your pet causes injury to a third party – for example, should your dog bite the postman – the cost of advertising if you lose your pet and the cost of a reward for its return. It's an extra cost each month, or year – depending on how you choose to pay for your policy – but could save you hundreds of pounds in the long run.
7. … and shop around for it
Premiums are based on the type of pet you have, its age, where you live and other factors that will determine how likely it is to get lost or fall ill. But there can be a massive difference in how much you are charged. For example, Animal Friends quotes £76.34 a year to cover a one-year-old moggy living in Holmfirth in Yorkshire, while M&S quotes £91.68 for the same pet. As with other types of insurance, you could be able to cut your premiums by taking on a bigger excess. The best way to compare deals is to use a comparison site like ours. But make sure you read the small print as the cheapest policy might not offer the best deal. Some policies cover an ailment for 12 months only, or limit the amount they will pay out. If your pet is prescribed medication for the rest of its life, you could be picking up the tab when the cover runs out, so it may be worth paying slightly more for a policy that offers ongoing cover.
8. Form a cat-sitting circle, or get a house-sitter
The cost of getting someone in to feed your pet while you're away can be sky-high, with some cat-sitters charging £15 a day to feed and spend "quality time" with your pet. Instead, find friends and neighbours who also have pets and help each other out. If you are going on a longer holiday, consider getting a housesitter in. Using a professional service such as Homesitters.co.uk will probably only be cheaper than kennels if you have more than one animal, but they will make your home looked lived in and so less attractive to burglars.
9. Buy toys and bedding from the charity shop
You don't need to buy expensive toys for your pet. Sad-looking toys at carboot sales or in charity shops are a cheap alternative to expensive pet toys. Similarly, rather than buying purpose-made blankets and towels for pets, buy secondhand items or recycle your own. Your dog is unlikely to object to being dried down with a greying, fraying bath towel you no longer want hanging in your bathroom.
10. Have your pet spayed/neutered
Make sure you don't end up with more mouths to feed by taking steps to prevent your animal reproducing. (Obviously, this is one for larger pets, not the likes of goldfish.) If you are on a low income, you might be able to get a subsidy. Cats Protection offers financial assistance with neutering to cat owners who are full-time students or on means-tested benefits, while the Blue Cross offers subsidised treatment for pets whose owners are on benefits, extending beyond neutering and spaying.
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