Yes, dogs are very expensive to keep, especially when you have multiple dogs but my dogs are my only vice. Like many people who have answered, I dont drink, I dont smoke, I dont go out at night, I have no children and I very rarely buy anything for myself (clothes, make up, shoes, bags etc hold no interest for me). Also, I live with my parents and, am ashamed to say, I dont pay my way, I live there scot free.

When I think about what my dogs cost me per year with regards to insurance, training (my 2 biggest costs which amount to several thousand pounds), food, fuel in the car to take them on their varied walks etc, it's frightening and I would be very well off if I didnt have them.

I dont have a well paid job compared to the national average salary but I work to pay for my dogs, thats where my money goes and thats why my dogs have to work for me in return!

You make choices. I don`t smoke, drink, go clubbing (!), have foreign holidays, new furniture or expensive clothes.
What I do have is a healthy lifestyle, contentment and an absorbing hobby.

It sounds like we "dog folk" are all pretty similar in many respects.

I do have a child, but I don't smoke or drink, I go out for a meal with a couple of friends once in a blue moon, I don't buy new clothes very often or go on expensive holidays. I have no other hobbies except for my dogs and horses.

It is all about what is important to you. You can make it as cheap or expensive as you want to. If you are sensible and shop around for bargains, then keeping a dog (or dogs) can be relatively cheap.

At the minute - it is very easy.
In May it will be a different story.

Benjie is the only one insured but that is because the in-laws to be pay for that. I borrow money if my animals need vet treatment and I cannot afford it, hasn't happened yet - touch wood. Louie is registered with the vets my family have used for years - it may be 30 minutes down the M1 but I trust them, and my family trust them, IMO they are the best and they are cheaper than the other vets around. (I paid £48 for both injections and a microchip, my brother's GF paid £78 for the whole lot at a different vet)

We buy bulk, £8 for a 15KG bag of dog food - lasts two to three weeks. For the rabbits £10 a 20KG bag of food and £5.95 for a bale of shavings, £8 a week for hay...although sometimes I do dry grass cut from the garden - front, where no dogs have been on it.
They get odd treats and goodies every now and again, but Louie still has loads of treats left over from Christmas!

I don't smoke and rarely go out. We do have takeaways on occasion, shop at Tesco, own brands and named brands. Only buy new clothes on sale.

I don't go without and neither do my dogs. Living on £208 every 2 weeks, you have to work it out..the dogs are better off than us tbh..

Like others have said I don't smoke or drink and my dogs are my hobby. A lot of people I have worked with go out at the weekend and think nothing of spending £40 on drinks/meals out whereas I don't do that and my dogs keep me healthy with all the exercise I get which I wouldn't do had I not got them to walk.

We don't have children and my husband works shifts so they are good protection and company for me when he is not there. I think I would be a bit nervous living on my own but I know Parker would protect me (Cherry wouldn't!).

They are also a means of meeting other people and chatting when you are out exercising them or at training clubs.

We cancelled the gym membership we weren't using anyway That freed up a good chunk of money each month.

Ongoing costs are fairly little really if you think about it - insurance, food, periodic expenses like flea/worm stuff. Very unlikely we can have kids, the cars we run are both hand-me-downs anyway, the only real big indulgences we have are having Sky telly and the pets... we don't holiday abroad because my husband hates being hot and bothered (and hates being cold as well) - we just go stay with the parents in either the North East or the in-laws who live by the side of a loch in the Isle of Skye - both places we can take the dog anyway (and I think the in-laws have planned the canine's holiday agenda for when we go up in the summer already)!

Where we'd struggle is that we both want to take on a second dog and can't find the spare cash for rehoming fees yet (oh in the summer when I get exam marking money coming - muahahhahahhaah).

This I kind of don't understand. Say a rehoming fee was, for example, at the high end and around £120. My dogs cost me about £40 each a month. Presumably for another dog, I'd have that £40 a month to hand...so if I didn't have £120 to hand, all I'd do is put that £40 aside each month for 3 months, then voila, I have my homing fee, AND I know from physically doing it that I can live without that £40, so can afford the dog.

I work damned hard basically. Since having dogs my life has changed dramatically but I wouldn't have it any other way, they have the best food I can afford, they're both insured so if anything happened to either of them I wouldn't have to worry about how to afford it, I shop around online for things I can like food, treats etc. What I get from my dogs is worth it's weight in gold, it's worth going without nights out and new clothes imo even if most of the people I know, with and without dogs don't get why my life now revolves around them.

Thinking about this post reminds me of what a friend's husband said to me last year when I was talking about my dogs. He is very mean and though not hard up by any stretch the sort of person who counts what you're eating at his house when you're round for a meal!

He said to me "Oh they must cost you a lot your dogs?" in a disapproving tone. I was horrified as I don't see it in terms of cost-to me that would be like someone saying to be that Jamie (my husband) costs a lot to feed!

i agree, have never thought of my dog and cat as expenses - they are my dependants and they deserve to be cared for and benefit from any money that comes in the house

i think that without my family i would probably have loads of dosh but i would be incredibly lonely...where is the sense in that?

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