I feel for you
@TheMiceInTheShed. Pet costs are up there with energy prices when it comes to goalpost-moving of past budgeting (like working out what you need to live on with a pension).
We lost our old dog earlier this year and it’s not just that awful heartbreak that everyone who loses an animal they love goes through that is stopping us from getting another. I feel so angry inside that a few companies are cynically hoovering up the UK veterinary industry, right to the pet crematorium stage, and the prices for treatment and routine care are shooting off the scale, with pet insurance premiums responding accordingly.
Responsible animal lovers are feeling it and there are terrible animal welfare repercussions with those less responsible.
Apart from a couple of aquariums the only animal we currently have is a 15 yr old cat, whose insurance is a few pence off
£50 a month. I am open to another cat, or a bonded pair, as I can’t imagine being without one, but in my heart my home should be a amiable pile-in of animals who need a home, and I just will not do that. Poorer in pocket or poorer in heart isn’t a choice I’m enjoying making but I feel so taken advantage of by the big vet companies.