Costs of Keeping a Dog the OS Way

budgetboo

We have a whippet. They are what I'd call a "cost effective" breed. Costs do vary a LOT from breed to breed, mostly due to food & vet insurance costs.

Food
£12 -15 every 3 months for VAT free sack of working dog greyhound food. (amazon do free delivery)
(though we get a her a tin of sardines every Sunday and the local butcher gives us free bones - these are optional).

Vet
£35 microchipping (one off)
£35 annual check up/vacc's
£10 every 3 months worming
£14 a month insurance (whole of life with £50 excess). - watch this one as some breeds cost over £80 a month!

Equipment (one off)
Good leather martingale collar - £15 - lurcher link.
Coat - £12 ebay (once you have one you can use it as a pattern to make more)
Bed- standard plastic one £16 + I made a nice cushion/mattress and she has a couple of £1 charity shop kids quilts.
Lead - £1 from poundshop
2x stainless steel bowls poundshop again
Water bottle for walks with integral bowl thing £1 from pound shop.
Identity tag - £3.75 ebay
Nail clippers - £5
Old Towel - charity shop job'll do or £1 shop hand towel for wiping down after walks in the pouring rain.

A rescue dog costs about £150 and they normally spey/neuter/do 1st set of vaccs etc so I haven't included those costs.

I budget an extra £10 a month for incidentals like, flea treatments, first aid ointment and towards the costs of insurance premium, a new collar when her old one wears out etc. It just sits in account till it's needed and covers the same sort of odds and sods for our cat too, so really it's £5 to the dog a month iykwim.

HelenYorkshire

Is it Dogstrust who temporarily find foster homes for dogs of people fleeing domestic violence?
Another possibility
Re collies and feeding, you don't want to overfeed and get them hyper

Buttonmoons

People never bothered with fancy food, microchipping, injections for everything etc etc few decades ago and their dogs were plenty healthy on table scraps and whatever was on the go :-/