Sat urday 31 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •
Money^53
Name
Adele
Pember
Age 29
Income
£5,000 a year
Occupation
Start-up
business
How I spend it
I
bought Charlie about six
years ago – he’s a jack russell
cross chihuahua and he
was the runt of the litter.
He was the size of my hand,
and I immediately thought :
“I have to have him.”
He’s really spoiled. My husband
James and I will give up nights out
to buy Charlie things we think he
needs, as we can’t aff ord to do both.
We paid about £200 for all his
injections. Since then he’s cost
us thousands; one vet bill alone
was £2,500 after he swallowed a
bit of hard plastic that got stuck
in his intestines.
Charlie suff ers with separation
anxiety and loneliness when left at
home alone. I’ve had to plan my life
around him, from socialising and
date nights to going on holiday.
If I couldn’t bring the dog, I simply
wouldn’t go because the thought
of leaving Charlie broke my heart.
That was the inspiration behind
my business.
We were on a long walk in Bute
Park near the centre of Cardiff in
the summer of 2017 when, about
an hour away from home, it poured
with rain. Charlie and I nestled
under a shop front while I Googled
on my phone to fi nd the nearest
dog-friendly place. I couldn’t fi nd
anywhere, so Charlie and I ran
home, both getting back looking
like a pair of soggy doggies.
I decided that something new
needed to be available for owners,
so I launched a blog called Dog
Furiendly listing all the dog-friendly
places nearby like pubs, cafes,
restaurants and attractions.
As time went on, James and I
realised it needed to be a proper
website, dogfuriendly.com , like
a TripAdvisor for dogs.
So in June last year, I quit my
job as a marketing and campaigns
manager for a national charity to
work on the business full time. I wasWe are keen
to hear how
you spend it:
maybe you’re
a “squeezed
middle” just
about coping
fi nancially;
a pensioner
working part
time; or a young
adult saving
furiously for
a home. If you
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appear in this
column, contact
spend.it@
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‘If I couldn’t bring the dog, I simply
wouldn’t go ... the thought of leaving
Charlie broke my heart. That was
the inspiration behind my business’▲ Adele Pember
admits she plans
her life around
Charlie, giving
up nights out
to give him the
things he needs£2,500
One vet’s bill for Charlie, but overall
he ‘has cost us thousands’£250
Adoption fees plus £120 to spay a
second dog rescued from RomaniaRomania and has cost us £250 in
adoption fees and she will cost a
further £120 to spay. She was found
in a back alley where they were
chopping up dogs for meat and it
broke my heart.
Our main income earner from
the business is from dog-related
events – such as tail-wagging
pub crawls, themed “pawties”
and “pawlidays”.
Although these events are not
regular, it does help us throughout
the year as they can each bring in
between £400 and £1,000 profi t.
The best part about these is that
Charlie gets to enjoy all these events
and socialise, and now Minnie will,
too – these dogs have a better social
life than we do!
We’re now looking at seed
investment to grow the business and
to provide more stability, in the hope
that over the next three years, the
£5,000 per year we’ve been getting
by on will be a distant memory.As told to Carol Driverearning £28,000 a year and I was
the main breadwinner in the house.
Now my salary is about £5,000,
which barely covers our bills.
James, who is a senior graphic
designer and now earns around
£30,000, keeps us going fi nancially,
bless him. Our mortgage is £535 a
month, and we have two cars that
cost £300 a month.
We pay £35.99 for our internet,
£143 council tax, £24 for my phone
and Charlie costs about £20 a month.
We also spend £325 on food and
supplies, although we may dip into
this for socialising.
If I’ve had a good month, I give
myself £20-£30 pocket money to buy
a new dress. But any extra cash is
usually spent on a new lead/harness/
bow tie or treat for Charlie.James recently had a £500 bonus
from work, and we decided we
didn’t want to spend it on bills, so
we went on an all-inclusive holiday
to Turkey, which cost us £400.
James is really strict with his
fi nances – he has a spreadsheet and
knows exactly what’s going out and
takes care of everything bill related.
Before I left my job, we paid off
our £3,000 debts from loans and
overdrafts from our wedding and
university, so we’ve managed to
keep our heads above water but
we’ve really had to strip back our
spending.
That said, we’ve been saving up
our Christmas and birthday money
and we’ve decided to use the cash
to buy another dog.
Minnie’s a mixed breed fromRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws