food/housekeeping allowance on benefits

hanstar

hi, just wandering if anyone could help,
i am trying to write a personal budget form out to send to creditors so i can try and sort out a payment plan.
i am on jsa (i have a partner and a 13month old son) does anyone know how much food allowance is a month/week. ie... how much does the goverment say i need to live on?
obviously i have been cutting right back on food and shopping so i can pay debts but i dont want it to look like i can afford money that i cant, on the same hand i dont want to allow to much money for food/household expences because they'll think im taking the mick and not take my request seriously.
as it is we are a family of 3 and i've got spending down to about £150 a month but that means no luxuries at all and no clothing, only maybe £10 a month for my son on clothes.
at that rate i have £100 left for creditors (7 of them!) so its not very much to try and spread out. but i dont want to pay what i cant afford.
does £150 a month sound about right for a family of 3? or to much/less?
any advice would be greatly recieved

margaretclare

Go to the CAB for help on this.

On benefits, it is assumed that the benefit is for the bare minimum of existence, no luxuries and certainly none to any creditors!

£150 a month for 3 of you, one of which is a young child? Nappies etc? Well, all I can say is that 2 of us, retired wrinklies, spend double that for groceries. We're spending approx £70 a week on grocery shopping. So, £150 a month is far too little.

Does that help?

hanstar

thanks for that, its hard to know how much is a reasonable amount to spend on food. we do get £12 a month milk/veg tokens so that helps a bit. we use reusable nappies but still have other things like wet wipes that mount up.
i will give the cab a ring to see what they say, i did ask one of my creditors but they said they couldnt tell me and i had to just budget as much as possible so money was left over for "them!".
thanks for your reply.

welshmoneylover

£150 wouldn't last 2 weeks in my house for food, its far too little amount, don't forget once the baby starts growing into a young boy, the amount of food he will need to eat will start shooting up.

I know, I've got 2 teenage boys with hollow legs and are permanently hungry!

hth
Sue

bonnie_2

If your on benifit i believe the most they can take is a £1 a month each. Do not try and pay them and leave yourself short, Benifit money is for essentials and creditors are not essentials.The CAB will tell you this. There is a charity that will pay your bankruptcy fees if your on benifits, but i can't think who it is at the moment. If you go to the national debtline site it tells you how much to allow for housekeeping and clothing. £78 per couple and £35 for a child plus £5 a week on clothes each. Hope this helps.

GemmaLewis

when i filled out one of those forms i said i spend £200 a month on food etc, i also have a baby and a partner, and we r claiming JSA as a family.

krisskross

You would get a lot more help with this question and any others you may have about dealing with creditors on the Debt Free Wannabee board.

nottslass_2

Have a look at the Nationaldebtline.co.uk website they Have lots of useful Information. There is information on how much to allow for food and other expenditure per person, You can down load a personal budget sheet,sample letters to creditors and lots of fact sheets.

I've rung their help line in the past and found them fantastic,they were really helpful and non judge mental !!! Best of all its free

hanstar

thanks for all the help/advice.
i have been trying to ring nationaldebtline for the past few days, i will keep on trying tho. i have had a look on there website, loads of good info but cant quiete find what im looking for. but then again i dont really know what im looking for!! hopefully they'll be able to help more over the phone.

notlongnow_2

We are 2 adults, three children and I have spent on groceries in the last 2 months approx £90. I buy when on offer, I buy large packs and do ALL home cooked food. We dont go without (apart from takeaways..lol) and eat extremely healthily. Fortunately no-one is a fussy eater so I make one meal for all of us.

I didnt have a great deal already in the cupboards...usual dry goods, pasta, pulses etc, plus half a cupboard of various tins.

alwaysonthego_2

At the CAB we say £20 per person plus £20 for the house per week.