Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Alchemilla

I think the rush to holiday in the uk has driven the prices crazy.

The roads are dreadful to get to Cornwall anyway xxx

DawnW

@jadewest94 Lidl and Wilko usually have cheap seeds if you have those locally, or Poundstretcher and similar. I bought some recently online from a company called Seeds to Sow, where you can get small packets of most things for 55p. They arrived promptly and look fine, though of course I haven't grown them yet!

BlueJ94

DawnW said:

@jadewest94 Lidl and Wilko usually have cheap seeds if you have those locally, or Poundstretcher and similar. I bought some recently online from a company called Seeds to Sow, where you can get small packets of most things for 55p. They arrived promptly and look fine, though of course I haven't grown them yet!

You know what, I didn't even think about lidl or wilko! I'll definitely take a look. Oh that's cheap, I'll have a look on my work break

foxgloves

Actually @DawnW & @jadewest94, I forgot Wilk*'s too, even though I have bought the occasional packet of seeds from them myself in the past. Don't waste money on seed trays @jadewest94, as the plastic trays from meat, mushrooms, etc, are usually fine. And if you need to cloche any baby plants, home made cloches made by cutting away the bottom quarter of big plastic bottles work really well. You can also make free seed labels by cutting strips from butter/spread tubs & snipping one end to a point for sticking them in the compost. I make a pile of these every year.
F x

BlueJ94

foxgloves said:

Actually @DawnW & @jadewest94, I forgot Wilk*'s too, even though I have bought the occasional packet of seeds from them myself in the past. Don't waste money on seed trays @jadewest94, as the plastic trays from meat, mushrooms, etc, are usually fine. And if you need to cloche any baby plants, home made cloches made by cutting away the bottom quarter of big plastic bottles work really well. You can also make free seed labels by cutting strips from butter/spread tubs & snipping one end to a point for sticking them in the compost. I make a pile of these every year.
F x

Thanks for the useful tips! I'll keep these in mind!

foxgloves

Evening Campers,
Busy morning, as while Mr F transported two sulking cats to the vet's for their new pet check-ups & vaccinations, I took the opportunity to vacuum downstairs. Ash is nervous of the vacuum as all our previous cats (even the hard nuts!) have been so it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. I also got litter trays de-contaminated before they were back & had the back door open throughout. It was cold, but so lovely to have some fresh air into the place - have to watch open windows like mad in case of speedy whiskered escapes. Well, they perked up when they got back & discovered their fresh bowls of biscuits......I didn't perk up when I saw the cost.........nothing against the vet's, they are generally more reasonable cost-wise than other practices we have used, it was just that I am used to seeing a 'new pet' bill with two digits.......of course having scaled up our household cat population to two, it had instantly doubled the bill. Never mind, vaccinations are very important & I'm sure the bills would be a lot higher if they had to be treated for any of the horrible feline illnesses the jabs prevent. I have sufficient money in our Meow Fund savings pot to cover this, but I am glad that this reminder came in time for our Annual Money Summit on Sunday morning, as I will need to make sure we are putting a realistic amount into that pot. Now that the cats' ages have been confirmed, I will also sort out pet insurance. I didn't initially take out a policy on my first cat & naturally he turned out to be a prize fighter who was forever at the vet being stitched up.......then he needed gastric surgery.......suffice to say he'd cost me over £1k in vet bills before I'd even had him a year. I have had pet insurance ever since. I've found one which looks good for our needs & will put 2 pets on one policy & it looks as though we can get a sizeable wodge of nectar points on it too. Will defo sort it out this weekend. Of course having two cats instead of one also impacts grocery budget in terms of their food, but I'm not worried about that, as there are often better prices to be had on cat food by shopping around. Best price atm still seems to be Wilk*'s, as it was when we had our last dear old fur friend, so we will be topping up supplies tomorrow. We don't continue with litter trays once they can go outside as they have access to their cat flap day & night, so that will be a saving on buying litter.
So we have a clean house, vaccinated cats (who I think will zonk out from their jabs after they've had their dinner) & it's Mr F's cooking night! I've got a magazine (I just have one subscription now, instead of my ridiculous pre-LBM magazine habit) & intend to put my feet up with that. I do miss all the magazines my Mum used to bring me, but my sister & I swap the titles we subscribe to, so I do get to read 2 different ones for a single subscription. Any others I may wish to buy very firmly come from my Personal Spends. Reformed character or what?!
Stay cosy. Very icy this morning. 
F x

ladyholly

We have always had insurance for our dogs even back in the 70s when it wasnt really known. Our premiums for our 3 dogs is now well over £200 a month but they are all oldies. 1 15 years 1 approx 14 years (picked up as a stray) and an almost 11year old. If we had a puppy now I would put money away each month but not really practical with older animals.

Sun_Addict

I have the pet plan for my 2 cats and 1 dog that covers the vaccinations and flea/worm treatment and a discount on treatments. 

My old boy (cat) cost me a fortune in vet visits as he was a scrapper. Oh the antibiotics courses and stitches he cost me 😩 The vet said it would shorten his life significantly. He lived to be 21 😆

DawnW

Sun_Addict said:

I have the pet plan for my 2 cats and 1 dog that covers the vaccinations and flea/worm treatment and a discount on treatments. 

I have this for my dog, it isn't the same as insurance but covers routine things like vaccinations, flea and worm treatments etc. It also covered his neuter operation, and there are discounts on some items too. It costs £12.50 per month for my small (cat size, but don't tell him that ) dog. It seems good value for money, he has a booster jab each year, plus monthly worm and 3 monthly flea treatments, plus it covered all the initial puppy stuff. There are also options for regular free health checks, but he doesn't like the vet much, so we don't bother with these, although of course I would take him if he were poorly.

Sun_Addict

DawnW said:

Sun_Addict said:

I have the pet plan for my 2 cats and 1 dog that covers the vaccinations and flea/worm treatment and a discount on treatments. 

I have this for my dog, it isn't the same as insurance but covers routine things like vaccinations, flea and worm treatments etc. It also covered his neuter operation, and there are discounts on some items too. It costs £12.50 per month for my small (cat size, but don't tell him that ) dog. It seems good value for money, he has a booster jab each year, plus monthly worm and 3 monthly flea treatments, plus it covered all the initial puppy stuff. There are also options for regular free health checks, but he doesn't like the vet much, so we don't bother with these, although of course I would take him if he were poorly.

My small dog is £12.50 a month, the cats are £10 a month each for the vet plans. The dog is insured separately as well.