You might be best off starting a new thread in the nutrition section to get some good ideas of what people feed.

Many on here feed raw but otherwise

Fish4Dogs - £36 for 12kg
Fishmonhers - £30 for 10kg
Arden Grange
Skinners - Around £15 (a bit cheaper, still reasonable)

Here is a thread where people discuessed their feeding costs per week:
http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=157357

For my 13kg dog I spend £30 every 3 months = £3.30 ish per week on Fish 4 Dogs kibble (which IMO is one of the better kibbles available).
However, she eats half the reccomend guidelines (guidelines should always be just that..) I would have thought your dog would cost around £5-10 per week on a good dry food.

Hi It's nice to see someone planning the whole thing out before taking on the responsibility of a dog (unlike me who said I would never have a dog on the saturday and by the sunday had GSD pup ). I see you are in Cannock. I don't know what you have in the way of rescues over there, but we have Roden and Hillbrae over here in Telford, both of which have some gorgeous dogs in atm (I know 'cause I've had to give myself a stern talking to ).

sorry just seen your other post about owning tarantulas lol, i guess a spider catching dog won't be of much use to you

Can I ask where you've found the fish4dogs at that price? The ones I have found are £10 - £20 more.

Found the Arden grange at a reasonable £32.99 delivered but I'm still having trouble working out how long a bag might last. I understand a staffie typical weight is 11 - 17KG.

Are there any reasons why someone might choose one sex over the other?

I'm not keen on house spiders so a spider catching dog is very welcome lol

I had a girl staffi before now because boys can be more dominant and as she was my first of the breed i thought i'd start with the softer option, she was a lovely soft girl but had issues with being stroked by strangers? this time i got a boy as i was sick of the 2x yearly seasons with a girl bleeding, but pro's and cons really equal and of course they would be spayed or neutered from rescue so both of the cons are void mostly, so whatever you see that you like should be good

you may be shocked at how many staffs are in rescue but equally all of the dogs in there need homes so you may surprise yourself and come walking out with dreams of something completely different.

Lovely to read about someone keen to home a rescue staffie There are so many lovely dogs that need a new home. I'm sure you'd give a staffie a great little life.

From what I've read and you guys are telling me a staffie does seem ideal. But I'm still not 100% that we'll be having a dog at all. Cost wise things seem to be ok and I have enough time for attention and exercise. I think the biggest issue is myself. I need to be sure this is what I want.

If we have time next week I want to go and look round a rescue. I don't know if they'll allow a bit of interaction or not but I think that'll be what makes my mind up either way. As I said to begin with I've never had any experience of being around dogs long term and the whole idea is a little daunting and scary but exciting at the same time.

If you ask, they may let you walk a dog......