Remortgage to pay off debt

weston800

noitsnotme said:

weston800 said:

ladyholly said:

What animals do you have that cost £140 pm. We had 3 up until last year and spent nothing like that. I know pet food has shot up in price but could you find a cheaper alternative. Remember every penny saved is a penny towards your debt

My dog is raw fed and I would flatly refuse to change that (I already use the cheapest supplier), it costs slightly more than kibble but we don’t have children (and don’t want children) 

noitsnotme said:

weston800 said:

ladyholly said:

What animals do you have that cost £140 pm. We had 3 up until last year and spent nothing like that. I know pet food has shot up in price but could you find a cheaper alternative. Remember every penny saved is a penny towards your debt

My dog is raw fed and I would flatly refuse to change that (I already use the cheapest supplier), it costs slightly more than kibble but we don’t have children (and don’t want children) 

Our dog has been raw fed from being a puppy (7 yrs old now) and we don’t spend anywhere near that much.  He’s a medium size dog weighing around 20kg.  My wife buys it in bulk, a months worth at a time and freezes it.  I’ll check with her but I reckon we pay around a third of what you do a month.

I’ve just checked with the better half… up until just recently we were paying £15 a month for 15kg of chicken mince in bulk.  That’s just gone up to £22 a month.  And then about another £10 a month on oily fish and maybe £8 a month on goats milk.  He also eats vegetables.

If you’re buying prepacked then it’s going to cost a lot more.  The big savings are buying in bulk, splitting it up and then freezing it.  Even with the extra costs of running the freezer it’s going to be a lot less than £140 a month.

The £140 isn't just raw dog food, we have two cats as well.
I buy dog food in bulk every month and have a second freezer in the garage for her food. As previously mentioned, I use the cheapest supplier for her food. She weighs 40kg so needs more than most dogs. She's on a specific prey model raw diet which means no veggies or kibble - it's pure meat, offal & bone and they need a variety of meats, it's not recommended to just feed them chicken mince. Red meats do cost a little more but red meat is vital for raw fed dogs. I started off doing DIY and it worked out more expensive so now I buy the 80/10/5/5 chubs.

The £140 as follows:

Frozen chubs x60 £66.00 Salmon Oil £8.00 Treats £5.00 Cat litter £10.00 Cat wet food £38.00 Cat biscuits  £7.00 Cat flea & worm  £6.00

noitsnotme

weston800 said:

noitsnotme said:

weston800 said:

ladyholly said:

What animals do you have that cost £140 pm. We had 3 up until last year and spent nothing like that. I know pet food has shot up in price but could you find a cheaper alternative. Remember every penny saved is a penny towards your debt

My dog is raw fed and I would flatly refuse to change that (I already use the cheapest supplier), it costs slightly more than kibble but we don’t have children (and don’t want children) 

noitsnotme said:

weston800 said:

ladyholly said:

What animals do you have that cost £140 pm. We had 3 up until last year and spent nothing like that. I know pet food has shot up in price but could you find a cheaper alternative. Remember every penny saved is a penny towards your debt

My dog is raw fed and I would flatly refuse to change that (I already use the cheapest supplier), it costs slightly more than kibble but we don’t have children (and don’t want children) 

Our dog has been raw fed from being a puppy (7 yrs old now) and we don’t spend anywhere near that much.  He’s a medium size dog weighing around 20kg.  My wife buys it in bulk, a months worth at a time and freezes it.  I’ll check with her but I reckon we pay around a third of what you do a month.

I’ve just checked with the better half… up until just recently we were paying £15 a month for 15kg of chicken mince in bulk.  That’s just gone up to £22 a month.  And then about another £10 a month on oily fish and maybe £8 a month on goats milk.  He also eats vegetables.

If you’re buying prepacked then it’s going to cost a lot more.  The big savings are buying in bulk, splitting it up and then freezing it.  Even with the extra costs of running the freezer it’s going to be a lot less than £140 a month.

The £140 isn't just raw dog food, we have two cats as well.
I buy dog food in bulk every month and have a second freezer in the garage for her food. As previously mentioned, I use the cheapest supplier for her food. She weighs 40kg so needs more than most dogs. She's on a specific prey model raw diet which means no veggies or kibble - it's pure meat, offal & bone and they need a variety of meats, it's not recommended to just feed them chicken mince. Red meats do cost a little more but red meat is vital for raw fed dogs. I started off doing DIY and it worked out more expensive so now I buy the 80/10/5/5 chubs.

The £140 as follows:

Frozen chubs x60 £66.00 Salmon Oil £8.00 Treats £5.00 Cat litter £10.00 Cat wet food £38.00 Cat biscuits  £7.00 Cat flea & worm  £6.00

Fair enough, you only mentioned the dog before so thought it might be helpful.

As an aside our dog has been fine on just the chicken for a long time.  Very healthy and an incredibly shiny coat.  I guess the fish and veggies help.

Sarahspangles

weston800 said:

ladyholly said:

What animals do you have that cost £140 pm. We had 3 up until last year and spent nothing like that. I know pet food has shot up in price but could you find a cheaper alternative. Remember every penny saved is a penny towards your debt

My dog is raw fed and I would flatly refuse to change that (I already use the cheapest supplier), it costs slightly more than kibble but we don’t have children (and don’t want children) 

I think feeding your dogs with children would be a saving too far (sorry can’t help myself)

Sarahspangles

Your SOA outgoings are fairly similar to ours, the three things that stand out are:

• Gas + Electric, we’re at home all the time and still spend less than half that
• Mobile phones, if you own the handset you can get a Giffgaff goodybag with 20GB data for £10
• It’s not clear where the leakage actually is but I guess it’s the dangerous categories that can be simultaneously essential and discretionary. Unless you’ve given some aspirational estimates!

These categories are things like:

• clothes, cosmetics, grooming, toiletries.  Don’t go naked but do set a budget, audit what you’ve got and fill gaps.  Watch out for high-maintenance hair!
• food and drink.  It’s possible to cut food spend dramatically if you check what your meals actually cost.  If you get organised and have home-made ready meals in the freezer, you won’t spend on takeaways.
• furniture and household goods.  You just have to set a budget for these and stick to it, even if it means having to delay spend as you need to save up for big ticket items.

ladyholly

RE pet food. Fair enough. I have never fed raw so cannot comment on the costs. It just seemed a lot.

Humdinger1

Yep re high maintenance hair...8 years ago I worked out that hair was costing me around £1k per year at the hairdressers, never mind shampoo etc.  I clutched my pearls in horror but when I started breathing again, went cold turkey. I now spend about £100 per year and love my hair.  Subscribed to cheer you on love Humdinger x 

kimwp

Humdinger1 said:

Yep re high maintenance hair...8 years ago I worked out that hair was costing me around £1k per year at the hairdressers, never mind shampoo etc.  I clutched my pearls in horror but when I started breathing again, went cold turkey. I now spend about £100 per year and love my hair.  Subscribed to cheer you on love Humdinger x 

May I ask what you do with your hair? My parents are trying to get me to spend more "on myself" (they don't spend anything on themselves, so not sure why they are egging me on tbh), one thing I'm considering is dyeing my hair to cover the greys, but if there's a lower cost/maintenance option I'd love to hear it.

Humdinger1

Indeed you may @kimwp! So my hair is mostly curly.  I stopped trying to straighten it, use curly shampoo/ conditioner now and rejoice in the curl.  Hairdresser comes to the house twice a year and I pay £40 a time.  I use 'Go Blonder' spray every 6 weeks or so and it looks natural. I comb through conditioner daily with a wide-tooth comb and that's it till I wash it the next day.  Curls run in my family; my aunt used to try and straighten hers in the 1960s when curls were not the fashion by ironing it under brown paper.  It worked for all of 5 minutes.   Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

MFWannabe

weston800 said:

noitsnotme said:

weston800 said:

ladyholly said:

What animals do you have that cost £140 pm. We had 3 up until last year and spent nothing like that. I know pet food has shot up in price but could you find a cheaper alternative. Remember every penny saved is a penny towards your debt

My dog is raw fed and I would flatly refuse to change that (I already use the cheapest supplier), it costs slightly more than kibble but we don’t have children (and don’t want children) 

noitsnotme said:

weston800 said:

ladyholly said:

What animals do you have that cost £140 pm. We had 3 up until last year and spent nothing like that. I know pet food has shot up in price but could you find a cheaper alternative. Remember every penny saved is a penny towards your debt

My dog is raw fed and I would flatly refuse to change that (I already use the cheapest supplier), it costs slightly more than kibble but we don’t have children (and don’t want children) 

Our dog has been raw fed from being a puppy (7 yrs old now) and we don’t spend anywhere near that much.  He’s a medium size dog weighing around 20kg.  My wife buys it in bulk, a months worth at a time and freezes it.  I’ll check with her but I reckon we pay around a third of what you do a month.

I’ve just checked with the better half… up until just recently we were paying £15 a month for 15kg of chicken mince in bulk.  That’s just gone up to £22 a month.  And then about another £10 a month on oily fish and maybe £8 a month on goats milk.  He also eats vegetables.

If you’re buying prepacked then it’s going to cost a lot more.  The big savings are buying in bulk, splitting it up and then freezing it.  Even with the extra costs of running the freezer it’s going to be a lot less than £140 a month.

The £140 isn't just raw dog food, we have two cats as well.
I buy dog food in bulk every month and have a second freezer in the garage for her food. As previously mentioned, I use the cheapest supplier for her food. She weighs 40kg so needs more than most dogs. She's on a specific prey model raw diet which means no veggies or kibble - it's pure meat, offal & bone and they need a variety of meats, it's not recommended to just feed them chicken mince. Red meats do cost a little more but red meat is vital for raw fed dogs. I started off doing DIY and it worked out more expensive so now I buy the 80/10/5/5 chubs.

The £140 as follows:

Frozen chubs x60 £66.00 Salmon Oil £8.00 Treats £5.00 Cat litter £10.00 Cat wet food £38.00 Cat biscuits  £7.00 Cat flea & worm  £6.00

That’s pretty good tbh 
I also feed raw and our boy eats over a kilo per day and I also wouldn’t feed kibble so totally understand 

kimwp

Humdinger1 said:

Indeed you may @kimwp! So my hair is mostly curly.  I stopped trying to straighten it, use curly shampoo/ conditioner now and rejoice in the curl.  Hairdresser comes to the house twice a year and I pay £40 a time.  I use 'Go Blonder' spray every 6 weeks or so and it looks natural. I comb through conditioner daily with a wide-tooth comb and that's it till I wash it the next day.  Curls run in my family; my aunt used to try and straighten hers in the 1960s when curls were not the fashion by ironing it under brown paper.  It worked for all of 5 minutes.   Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

Thank you Humdinger! I have wide curls that go frizzy, I'm going to a hairdresser that's known for being good with curls this weekend so hopefully he can help me. I won't disrupt the thread anymore, but thanks again xx