What a fudgewimple

Larac

I wish you well on what looks to be quite a long 'debt' journey. I have been on a DMP since 2012 and coming to the end and paid of similar amount to what you owe. It can be done - I started off getting rid of stuff via ebay and then moved onto Mystery Shopping as an additional income and matched betting and lived fairly frugally for the last 5/6 years. I also own a dog - I work out of home and commute and my compromise was that if I was going to be out all day, I would be doing the walk early morning - yes I am the person walking around the village with a head torch on in the pitch black in the winter! I have been round the circuits on pet insurance - (which is essential if you are on a DMP) and with pets medicover - they were half of John Lewis quote for the same level of cover and were happy to pay up on a claim. I would suggest you need to up your 'income' -I would sumise that the rest of the unsecured debt needs to go into a DMP as the interest will continue to accumulate - there appears to be no end in sight with the current budget arrangement.

laveugle

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Children get free dental care don!!!8217;t they? 3 years without a check up for a 6 year old needs to be sorted immediately, as in book an appointment tomorrow morning for him.

Any reason your dogs can!!!8217;t eat chappie? It!!!8217;s low fat and actually very healthy, and much cheaper than what you!!!8217;re feeding.

It's really frustrating as for the past 3 years my husband has worked part time, I made appointments for them both to go to the dentist but he refused to go or "forgot" because OH wasn't looking after his teeth. I work full time and thought it ridiculous that I would need to take time out when he could do it. But hey thats his flaw, mines accruing debt! Now OH is working full time guess who's got to take DS to the dentist! ME! The earliest I can take him is in August so phoning NHS dentist tomorrow fingers crossed we can get back in.

And to the second part, I'm a snob. I've spent ages reading allaboutdog food and the dangers of cheap food blah blah despite knowing that plenty of dogs manage fine on own brand dog food. I just can't get myself out of that headspace, I'm scared of additives and anything that might make an already excitable spaniel hyperactive. She was a bit hyper on wainwrights and calmed down on Akela. I mean really I don't know what I'm talking about and have been relying on allaboutdogfood but it could be a load of tosh!

Fireflyaway wrote: »

I think your general expenses seem pretty standard until you get to the dog walker. That's the thing I'd be looking at changing. It's more than your child care and more than your food bill. It is really great that you take proper care of your pets though. My neighbour got a husky of all things. Poor dog just sits in the garden all day as they both work.
My other observation is your income is fairly low. I don't know your age or line of work but I'm thinking you could improve this over the course of time. Think about why you got in debt and what you will change to avoid it happening again.
Tackling the debts I'd probably go for the snowball method due to the number of creditors. Check out dave ramsey on YouTube and see what you think.

My salary is the top end of 20somethingk per annum but due to car lease its lower. People in my line of work earn around 35 to 40k as a base, the top earners 90k (but you need to be a lawyer with you know, 20 years of experience). I'm neither of those unfortunately. I'm trying to finish my unrelated degree via the OU (one module left but I did badly on the last one) so that I can do a masters in law which would help, and also work have just signed off a 5 day course in my field which should help. But I also need more experience, the way I've landed roles within my company is volunteering for it and carving out a niche, I'm lucky in that I now have a career path however I'm unlike most people in a similar role to me - they are all legal professionals with experience, I've just sort of taken an interest, taught myself the subject and had an excellent boss to support me. I'm trying not to be specific about what I actually do as it would be obvious to anyone who knows me. I work in data protection and suffer from imposter syndrome basically!

blue_eyed_girl123 wrote: »

Have you looked at mobile phone bill options? I've just got a sim only deal for £4 per month as I am happy with my current phone .

my contract is about £8 a month, I've had my iPhone for a year now and really need to get the screen replaced. Also hoping that when the battery starts to go I can just replace it for £30 and keep going with it. I'm such a materialistic person so if i manage to keep a phone for 24 months it would be a ruddy miracle.

blue_eyed_girl123

Haha, I also swear by C4sem4te, they do barely there phone cases which protect if the phone is dropped, about £15 but sooooo worth it. I've been desperate to switch phones before now but this one seems to have good memory and I like the fingerprint whatsit so I see no reason to switch. Don't forget the money mantra "do I need it?"

Red-Squirrel_2

laveugle wrote: »

And to the second part, I'm a snob.

You can!!!8217;t afford to be a snob. Get your dogs onto Chappie, it!!!8217;s perfectly fine.

My mind is boggling that you won!!!8217;t consider cheaper dog food but haven!!!8217;t taken your child to a dentist for half his life. I am sorry to be harsh, and I am a dog lover and owner with no children, but you and your husband need to work on giving yourselves a bit of a talking to! You really can!!!8217;t wait until August, ensuring your son gets appropriate medical and dental care is really important and a really basic part of your jobs as parents. If your husband refuses, that!!!8217;s totally unacceptable but it does mean you then HAVE to do it so your son doesn!!!8217;t suffer the consequences. Would you leave him without his vaccinations for similar reasons? Of course not, and looking after his mouth is just as important.

Brookside88

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

You can!!!8217;t afford to be a snob. Get your dogs onto Chappie, it!!!8217;s perfectly fine.

My mind is boggling that you won!!!8217;t consider cheaper dog food but haven!!!8217;t taken your child to a dentist for half his life. I am sorry to be harsh, and I am a dog lover and owner with no children, but you and your husband need to work on giving yourselves a bit of a talking to! You really can!!!8217;t wait until August, ensuring your son gets appropriate medical and dental care is really important and a really basic part of your jobs as parents. If your husband refuses, that!!!8217;s totally unacceptable but it does mean you then HAVE to do it so your son doesn!!!8217;t suffer the consequences. Would you leave him without his vaccinations for similar reasons? Of course not, and looking after his mouth is just as important.

I think some of the comments you've received have been unduly harsh but I have to say I agree with this. Thousands of dogs survive perfectly well on asda hero dog food with no ill effect, could you not even consider something a bit more middle of the road like iams?

bmthmark

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

You can!!!8217;t afford to be a snob. Get your dogs onto Chappie, it!!!8217;s perfectly fine.

My mind is boggling that you won!!!8217;t consider cheaper dog food but haven!!!8217;t taken your child to a dentist for half his life. I am sorry to be harsh, and I am a dog lover and owner with no children, but you and your husband need to work on giving yourselves a bit of a talking to! You really can!!!8217;t wait until August, ensuring your son gets appropriate medical and dental care is really important and a really basic part of your jobs as parents. If your husband refuses, that!!!8217;s totally unacceptable but it does mean you then HAVE to do it so your son doesn!!!8217;t suffer the consequences. Would you leave him without his vaccinations for similar reasons? Of course not, and looking after his mouth is just as important.

Totally agree, I think the OP needs to realign the family priorities.

I don't agree with posters saying get rid of the dogs, as they don't have to be that expensive. However the OP needs to drastically reduce the costs. I would aim to get the £325 down to zero.
I would also reduce food costs.

[Deleted User]

Hi. I'm not sure I've ever contributed to threads although I've been a member for a while. We have a 13yr old cocker who has pancreatitis flare-ups (indeed, he was in hospital overnight just last week on drips and Tramdaol @ £600) and any vet will tell you that Chappie is the food to give dogs. We also give ours Wainwrights or Wellbeloved but our vet also suggested Chappie Dry for his dry food as well (we use the dry as a mixer). Chappie Dry is also much, much cheaper.
Re insurance. When Tesco ins. ramped our pet ins up from £13 per month in 2012 to £86 in 2016 as he turned 10, we moved over to Lifetime pet cover. Our DD went down immediately to £31. We have also claimed without any problems at all (apart from the usual exclusions) and they are winning awards for service, value etc. With your dogs being so young, I imagine it may be even cheaper for you.

Sorry for droning on but it's got be worth a shot rather than have to give them up. You know that dogs are gannets. As long as it's not upsetting their tums (which I think some of these expensive, fancy foods that are aimed at appealing more to the owner's nose do) then why not buy a couple of tins and see what happens? If they don't polish it off, then you can come round to mine and slap me firmly across the cheeks:rotfl:

laveugle

winningjan wrote: »

Hi. I'm not sure I've ever contributed to threads although I've been a member for a while. We have a 13yr old cocker who has pancreatitis flare-ups (indeed, he was in hospital overnight just last week on drips and Tramdaol @ £600) and any vet will tell you that Chappie is the food to give dogs. We also give ours Wainwrights or Wellbeloved but our vet also suggested Chappie Dry for his dry food as well (we use the dry as a mixer). Chappie Dry is also much, much cheaper.
Re insurance. When Tesco ins. ramped our pet ins up from £13 per month in 2012 to £86 in 2016 as he turned 10, we moved over to Lifetime pet cover. Our DD went down immediately to £31. We have also claimed without any problems at all (apart from the usual exclusions) and they are winning awards for service, value etc. With your dogs being so young, I imagine it may be even cheaper for you.

Sorry for droning on but it's got be worth a shot rather than have to give them up. You know that dogs are gannets. As long as it's not upsetting their tums (which I think some of these expensive, fancy foods that are aimed at appealing more to the owner's nose do) then why not buy a couple of tins and see what happens? If they don't polish it off, then you can come round to mine and slap me firmly across the cheeks:rotfl:

I just got it in to my head that if I gave the dogs cheap food they'd have health problems

To make it worse I used to feed them raw and that ended up being the most expensive food possible! We've got two bags of dog food left so I will have a look at chappie, I can always mix a can in with their dry food which will make it last longer.

I think my insurance is £17 for the spaniel and £13 for the terrier. Can I ask what level of cover you had?

EDIT: Think we will trial Skinner's dog food as its £30ish for 15kilo and if I get two bags there is 20% off

laveugle

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

You can!!!8217;t afford to be a snob. Get your dogs onto Chappie, it!!!8217;s perfectly fine.

My mind is boggling that you won!!!8217;t consider cheaper dog food but haven!!!8217;t taken your child to a dentist for half his life. I am sorry to be harsh, and I am a dog lover and owner with no children, but you and your husband need to work on giving yourselves a bit of a talking to! You really can!!!8217;t wait until August, ensuring your son gets appropriate medical and dental care is really important and a really basic part of your jobs as parents. If your husband refuses, that!!!8217;s totally unacceptable but it does mean you then HAVE to do it so your son doesn!!!8217;t suffer the consequences. Would you leave him without his vaccinations for similar reasons? Of course not, and looking after his mouth is just as important.

Well he does get appropriate medical care, and it's not like we don't look after his teeth, but yes it is ridiculous. Anyway I did decide last week to stop relying on OH to do things as he never does them and just get on with it. I think because I kept asking him to take DS to the dentist that I never really thought to check up on when he had last been, which was my mistake. I clearly assumed if you ask someone to do something, they will do it! I'm phoning dentist at lunch fingers crossed we can get back on the books as NHS website says they aren't accepting any new patients.

[Deleted User]

You get cover levels of 1-5, we have 4 which gives us £6k of cover. Levels include dental treatment, travel, complementary therapies and other stuff. It's all clearly laid out on the website and not much small-print to catch you out, which is why they are winning awards.


The reason we are on Chappie is because pancreatitis requires a low-fat, non-fancy diet. Cheap doesn't always mean nasty with dog food, so you've nothing to lose by giving it a go IMHO.