How much does it cost to keep a cat?

Rach:

We have 2 cats, older ladies at the age of 9.

In total here is what we spend:

£20 a month on cat litter (we have indoor cats, obviously outdoor cats use much less)
£30 on cat food, we get Science Plan biscuits which are expensive and also buy pouches from Tesco (whatever is on special offer and use the discount codes from this board via tesco.com)
Cat insurance is generally between £6 - £14pm depending on the age and breed of cat.
Worming tablets/flea treatments are normally only £5-£10 every 3 months.

So on average for our two cats, we spend £70pm.

I reckon a budget of around £40 a month should be sufficient.

Cost me a about £3-£4 at most a week for our cat, it could be cheaper if I bought cat meat in tins than the plastic pouches.

I buy bogof tuna at Morrions and he loves that so when I give him that he doesnt have the plastic pouche meat.

Also I pay to get him an injection per annum, cant remember how much eactly probably around £25 for cat flue and other things, and he goes into cattery once a year and thats about £3 per day for 7-8 days.

Our cat is a domestic shorthaired and he's 14 years old. He also has the run of the house and he has a cat flap so he can come in and out as he pleases. I spend about £3.50 - £4 a week on cat food. Sainsburys and Lidls own brand costs 34p a tin but my cat prefers Whiskers or Felix at about 50p a tin. In summer we buy biscuits which are about 90p per small box. We've tried buying the bigger boxes but I think the biscuits go stale before he has finished the box and he won't touch them. We spend about £5 a month on flea treatment. We buy Frontline from the vet - it's the only one we have found that works and its so easy to apply - just a small amount of liquid on the neck. We only worm him if he goes hunting. They were about £3.50 from the vet - again we found they were the only ones that worked. Worming tablets only kill the worms in the system they are not a preventative measure so we used to get through about 3 tablets a month when he was younger and hunted on a daily basis. I recommend insurance as our cat was run over twice (2nd time on Christmas Day) and the vet bill came to about £700 in total. That was 12 years ago - so it would probably be much higher now. He presently needs a tooth out and that will come to just over £100. He also has an annual check up and innoculations that come to about £40-£50. He also gets through about 3 reflective collars a year at about £3 each. When we first got our cat we bought food and water bowls, cat basket, cat flap and litter tray and litter. We also bought toys and scratching post but these are optional. Despite the cost we get alot of pleasure and companionship from our cat. He's part of the family and we love him to bits.

My cat is probably one of the cheapest around and thats not because I am a miser, its because she likes cheap stuff (yup - she's a bit crazy - I offer the most expensive foods and she turns her nose up, but gets all excited over a box of go-cat). She will only eat dry food (leaves wet foods untouched to go off) and will only have value litter (she must like the scratchiness??) from tesco. Ive tried special treats, cat milk etc and still she ignores them in favour of dry biscuits and water (I do buy bottled though as I feel she needs some luxury!) Ive tried everything expensive to no avail!

Her insurance is through marks and spencer at £4.93 per month, costs about £5.00 a month in food and about £3.00 in litter. Flea spray and 6 vials of the stuff from the vets is around £40 for 6 months supply, and her annual jabs is £25. She doesnt like the toys I buy, prefering the corks from wine bottles, paper balls and sticks, but also likes the free mouse from felix pouch people (but didnt like the one I bought for her).

In all, a wierdly cheap cat, and the vet says she is in perfect health so we must be doing something right!

Jo xx

I forgot to mention that as my cat is so cheap, I make a donation to the cats protection league every month so I technically spend more on cats per month than I originally thought!

I spend roughly £4 or £5 per week on food (Go Cat and Whiskas pouches) and cat litter (Catsan).

One cost you may want to bear in mind is neutering. It cost me £50 pounds for my cat. If you home your cat from a rescue centre they will have done this, but will look for a donation from you. I don't have insurance, but put away money per month until I had built up a vet bill fund.