food/housekeeping allowance on benefits

viktory

woodbine wrote: »

I`m always abit wary of people who make claims that they live on next to nothing

bestpud wrote: »

You say the last two months so I am assuming you had quite stock of ingredients in before this, and at some point will have to restock again?

Either that or I am feeling a sense of deja vu...:think:

Absolutely. Some people claim they live on practically fresh air but still eat like Kings and Queens.

I'll be interested to see if the poster making that claim backs up their assertion. I am sure it would be of great use to us mere mortals.

OrkneyStar

For two adults and 1 child (presuming in disposables) then I would say £40-ish per week (£180 is pcm) would be enough but not way over the top either. I don't mean to be cheeky but on benefits you should not really be having luxuries to any extent, many working people cannot afford them either. Once you pay the debts and/or one of you gets some work then you can treat yourselves.
Our family is the same size, DS in real nappies though, and we spend anything from £30-50 per week depending on what we need and how many reduced things I find!
The advice about the CAB is a help as they do have sensible realistic livable guide figures.
As for living on very little per month, it can be done if you have existing bulging cupboards/freezer but not ALL the time. There is a child here and some of his/her CTC will be expected to contribute to decent food (and clothes/toys, which can be second hand.

dawnylou wrote: »

For me, my Fiance and 2 pups we spend £100 per week.
Really trying to cut it down but just can't do it!! So I think £150 per fortnight is nowhere near enough!!

If YOU can afford this then fine!
Good luck.

alwaysonthego_2

OrkneyStar wrote: »

For two adults and 1 child (presuming in disposables) then I would say £40-ish per week (£180 is pcm)

Good luck.

I would say £80 per week is more realistic and this is what the CAB would say!

OrkneyStar

alwaysonthego wrote: »

I would say £80 per week is more realistic and this is what the CAB would say!

I think te CAB figures are quite generous (or they were, I am not sure if they have been updated since I last saw them), and I realise what I am suggesting is probably NOT what the CAB might suggest. All I can say is we have the same size family (albeit DS not in disposables but they can be bought fairly cheaply!) and £40 per week is ample. Also remember the couple are on benefits so may not actually have £80 per week to spend in the first place, on top of other things like electricity, clothing etc. They are already surviving on £150 per month so my £40 per week would be a realistic increase. I fail to see how two adults and a child could NEED to spend £80 per week on groceries.
Also if they pay more to their debts then they will clear them quicker and then have more spare cash for whatever they desire. Although if your debts are above a certain amount perhaps you should not even be trying to pay them at all!!- Debt Free Wanabee board can give more advice on this. If your debt total is, say, approx £1000 then you could pay them off in a reasonable time so won't have to budget so tightly for so long, whereas £10000 debts or £50000 would be a different matter. In other words I am saying have you had debt advice ?
Good luck whatever happens.

notlongnow_2

notlongnow wrote: »

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.

Hi, I have definately only spent that amount. I buy everything when it is on rediculously cheap offers in the supermarkets and buy the biggest one they sell. (Massive Persil and loo rolls in Asda)

I dont have a massive stock of cupboard items, I may have a few bags of pasta, pulses(lentils,chickpeas) I buy a lot of fresh veg but not so much fruit as I think its very expensive this time of year. I buy whole chickens and make a sunday lunch and then have enough left over for another meal. I dont tend to buy any other meat because im !!!! at cooking it..lol, but I will buy it if its cheap/reduced.

We dont eat processed food but i do like fish fingers (£1 a box in Asda at the mo)

I make bread and buy eggs from the local market.

I buy cereals at a pound in asda and currently Asda own bags of porridge are only 25p...Cheaper than the Smart price brand, and I like to know my boys are going to school with a proper warm brekkie inside them.

If its cheap, ill buy it!!

I am also lucky in that I go into Asda whilst at work at night and so can usually drop on to the 10p reduced items. What I cant use, ill freeze. If its not on offer, I wont buy it. Also, last week I bought a carrier bag FULL(the SA loved me..lol) of 3 packs of raisons and fruit bars and bags of dried apricots for 5p each!! Bargain...lunchboxes sorted for ages.

I buy toiletries from Boots making use of the clearance lines that give you extra points for buying them from the machines in there. Boots usually end up paying me to take the toiletries away and then I use the points on my Boots card for nappies or meal deals to take to work.

I dont have a small holding, I am just VERY VERY good with making my money stretch.

I have also, always got bags of flour/eggs ( I take sugar from macdonalds...Shhhh) and dried fruit so I can always make a batch of homemade muffins in about 20mins..intended for lunchboxes but they never last long enough to cool down! At the minute I have some organic dried pineapple bought for 10p a bag with plenty of date on it, soaking, so I will make a sponge pudding for the children later.

I work nights too so its not like I bags of time to do this. It doesnt take long, it really doesnt.

My biggest expense is milk as I have a toddler who can get through a lot!! Again, if im lucky I buy it for 10p from Asda late at night and freeze it.

I also live near a petrol station/Spa who charge horrendous prices but at tea time there is uaually shelves of veg and previouly overpriced meat. I buy reduced bread and freeze it.

I hate to waste my hard earned money and so I make use of everything.
HTH :beer:

notlongnow_2

bestpud wrote: »

You say the last two months so I am assuming you had quite stock of ingredients in before this, and at some point will have to restock again?

Either that or I am feeling a sense of deja vu...:think:

Hi, I never ever go do a 'big shop' because I see things cheap and make meals around that. We have a shop near us that really is pretty dire! Its 'Job Lot', it sells a lot of garbage out of date stuff but it also sells for example, 5 tins of chickpeas/bags of couscous and similar for a pound. Without being nasty, some of the people who shop there are not really bothered about chickpeas or making hummous and so these kind of foods are always very cheap.

Felicity

notlongnow wrote: »

Hi, I have definately only spent that amount. I buy everything when it is on rediculously cheap offers in the supermarkets and buy the biggest one they sell. (Massive Persil and loo rolls in Asda)

I dont have a massive stock of cupboard items, I may have a few bags of pasta, pulses(lentils,chickpeas) I buy a lot of fresh veg but not so much fruit as I think its very expensive this time of year. I buy whole chickens and make a sunday lunch and then have enough left over for another meal. I dont tend to buy any other meat because im !!!! at cooking it..lol, but I will buy it if its cheap/reduced.

We dont eat processed food but i do like fish fingers (£1 a box in Asda at the mo)

I make bread and buy eggs from the local market.

I buy cereals at a pound in asda and currently Asda own bags of porridge are only 25p...Cheaper than the Smart price brand, and I like to know my boys are going to school with a proper warm brekkie inside them.

If its cheap, ill buy it!!

I am also lucky in that I go into Asda whilst at work at night and so can usually drop on to the 10p reduced items. What I cant use, ill freeze. If its not on offer, I wont buy it. Also, last week I bought a carrier bag FULL(the SA loved me..lol) of 3 packs of raisons and fruit bars and bags of dried apricots for 5p each!! Bargain...lunchboxes sorted for ages.

I buy toiletries from Boots making use of the clearance lines that give you extra points for buying them from the machines in there. Boots usually end up paying me to take the toiletries away and then I use the points on my Boots card for nappies or meal deals to take to work.

I dont have a small holding, I am just VERY VERY good with making my money stretch.

I have also, always got bags of flour/eggs ( I take sugar from macdonalds...Shhhh) and dried fruit so I can always make a batch of homemade muffins in about 20mins..intended for lunchboxes but they never last long enough to cool down! At the minute I have some organic dried pineapple bought for 10p a bag with plenty of date on it, soaking, so I will make a sponge pudding for the children later.

I work nights too so its not like I bags of time to do this. It doesnt take long, it really doesnt.

My biggest expense is milk as I have a toddler who can get through a lot!! Again, if im lucky I buy it for 10p from Asda late at night and freeze it.

I also live near a petrol station/Spa who charge horrendous prices but at tea time there is uaually shelves of veg and previouly overpriced meat. I buy reduced bread and freeze it.

I hate to waste my hard earned money and so I make use of everything.
HTH :beer:

That all sounds great, some really good tips there. I still can't get how you could consistently manage on 30p pppd though.

For example, the fish fingers, if there are 10 in a box at £1, that is 10p each. If each member of the family has 3, then there is no budget for the day for anything else.

It would be great if (when you have the time) you could post a typical days menu so we can see how it is done!

I try really hard to keep our expenditure down (without sacrificing on poor quality products) but there is just no way I could acheive what you do.

For example, I only buy toilet roll when it is less than 25p (my benchmark) for a reasonable quality (ie supermarket own) brand. Surely a family of 5 would get through a toilet roll every 2-3 days, so reduces your food head cost substantially.

Some of your tips for example porridge are great, I agree that (in the main) oats are oats and cheap, nutritious and filling and getting woopsidies milk makes a meal like that very cheap. However surely there are only so many meals of that nature.

If my budget was really limited I would go for no meat rather than poor quality meat products but even pulses and other protein sources can add up.

I fed 6 people for lunch today, 3 kids, 3 adults. I tried to make a nutritious lunch which was appealing to all palets but not too expensive as follows (all costs are estimates as time is limited:-

1/2 bag penne pasta 40p
2 tins tomatoes 60p
3 fresh carrots 10p
1 clove garlic 5p
1/2 onion 5p
1/2 tin pulses (I could have saved money here by using dried) 30p
Cheese 50p
Dried basil - neg
Frozen peas 50p
Frozen greens 50p
3 yogurts 50p (for the children, adults no pudding)
3 bananas 30p (for the children, adults no pudding)
Drinks - water - free

So 60p per head for a meat free, home made meal. No drinks costs. Most of the things on that list are very difficult to find whoopsied such as pasta, tinned tomatoes, tinned pulses, cheese and frozen veg.

Please do come back and share some meal plans etc with us and give me more inspiration!

notlongnow_2

Felicity wrote: »

That all sounds great, some really good tips there. I still can't get how you could consistently manage on 30p pppd though.

For example, the fish fingers, if there are 10 in a box at £1, that is 10p each. If each member of the family has 3, then there is no budget for the day for anything else.

It would be great if (when you have the time) you could post a typical days menu so we can see how it is done!

I try really hard to keep our expenditure down (without sacrificing on poor quality products) but there is just no way I could acheive what you do.

For example, I only buy toilet roll when it is less than 25p (my benchmark) for a reasonable quality (ie supermarket own) brand. Surely a family of 5 would get through a toilet roll every 2-3 days, so reduces your food head cost substantially.

Some of your tips for example porridge are great, I agree that (in the main) oats are oats and cheap, nutritious and filling and getting woopsidies milk makes a meal like that very cheap. However surely there are only so many meals of that nature.

If my budget was really limited I would go for no meat rather than poor quality meat products but even pulses and other protein sources can add up.

I fed 6 people for lunch today, 3 kids, 3 adults. I tried to make a nutritious lunch which was appealing to all palets but not too expensive as follows (all costs are estimates as time is limited:-

1/2 bag penne pasta 40p
2 tins tomatoes 60p
3 fresh carrots 10p
1 clove garlic 5p
1/2 onion 5p
1/2 tin pulses (I could have saved money here by using dried) 30p
Cheese 50p
Dried basil - neg
Frozen peas 50p
Frozen greens 50p
3 yogurts 50p (for the children, adults no pudding)
3 bananas 30p (for the children, adults no pudding)
Drinks - water - free

So 60p per head for a meat free, home made meal. No drinks costs. Most of the things on that list are very difficult to find whoopsied such as pasta, tinned tomatoes, tinned pulses, cheese and frozen veg.

Please do come back and share some meal plans etc with us and give me more inspiration!

Hi felicity. To be honest I dont know how I do it!lol. Re:loo rolls. I buy Asda own(not the REALLY cheap) or I buy whatever is on offer for £4 for a huge pack. I dont buy cheap ones as I think its false ecomony. If its a brand im not familiar with(lol) then I squeese a roll with my thumb inside the cardboard inner and finger on the outside of the roll. If they squeese down to a really thin roll I wont touch them. Cheap loo rolls really are cr*p!lol. And baby is in nappies so she doesnt use it. The boys also know not to use half a roll each time they go and one boy I have to remind to use it!

Your meal sounds really nice. I think I would have left out either the greens or peas. and maybe cut down on the cheese? If I buy cheese I buy a big block that lasts for ages or buy when cheap and freeze.

I buy yogurts that are on offer. The mullers fruit corners were on offer for 12 for £2 last week in asda so you could have saved yourself a banana each. Gosh I sound really tight!!!!! Or asda fromage frais is cheap. I usually see reduced Petit Filous in asda..they freeze well and I give them frozen to my baby for her sore gums or just to keep her quiet, plus its less messy than giving her a pot and spoon!

I think im just lucky with the reduced items I find.

Today we have had big bowls of corned beef stew left over from yesterday and home made yorkshire puds for lunch as the boys are off school. Im now cooking a chicken tonight thingy with a big pack of chicken thighs and legs I got in tesco for £1.25 and a jar I found in the cupboard with some potatoes and veg (Morrisons do sacks of potatoes for a couple of pound). There will be too much so OH will probably have some tommorow or ill freeze some.

I always make too much and then if the boys are hungry later they can have some more or Ill save/freeze so even though something may look 'expensive' it actually isnt.

and if I see an offer for bags of pasta or noodles or pulses or anything else then I will buy it so the cupboards are generally well(ish) stocked to always russle up a meal.

Im also lucky in that I can pass 3 major supermarkets on my way to school so I can nip in here there and everywhere to get best offers.

My 10p a bag organic dried pineapple has rehydrated well(used half a bag) and now im here to find a pineapple upside down cake recipe with the Eggs I bought for 30 for £2.50 from the car boot on sunday and the flour I have in the cupboard, and sugar I aquire from Maccy D's if we nip for a coffee when at work or from the tea trolley they leave at work after meetings..lol.

I also stocked up on the bread mixes from Asda a few months ago that were 25p and make 2 loaves.

You could have made a lovely homemade loaf to go with your pasta lunch...mmmmm homemade bread smell!
The £80 is just what I have spent over the last couple of months. I have 2 kitchen cupboards which were half full of things like beans, toms, cheap noodles for when im feeling lazy and various packets and sachets of things.

My budget will never go above £100 a month. I can get a trolley full of shopping for £25..lol. But wee also do like the occasional takeaway.

Also, fishfingers are not all the time. I tend to stay away from processed food but really LOVE fish fingers.

hanstar

OrkneyStar wrote: »

For two adults and 1 child (presuming in disposables) then I would say £40-ish per week (£180 is pcm) would be enough but not way over the top either. I don't mean to be cheeky but on benefits you should not really be having luxuries to any extent, many working people cannot afford them either.
.

i use reusable nappies for my lo, but he has just gone into larges so after selling of the medium ones ive had to put a bit more money into getting new ones, still a great saving tho.

i say that my £150 a month does not include luxuries because when i have used some budgeting planning sheets and calculators they list things that i dont deam nessasary when budgeting. so what id call luxuries.
we dont go out, we dont buy take aways, we dont smoke/drink, we havent brought clothes for ourselves since being on jsa (since september), we buy some clothes for our son but mostly always second hand, we dont use our car unless essential, we live in a rural area so need a car but refrain from using it. some of the luxuries we do have such as having an internet and phone line are things in trying to sort out and get rid of/cut down to free up more money for debts.

OrkneyStar

hanstar wrote: »

i use reusable nappies for my lo, but he has just gone into larges so after selling of the medium ones ive had to put a bit more money into getting new ones, still a great saving tho.

i say that my £150 a month does not include luxuries because when i have used some budgeting planning sheets and calculators they list things that i dont deam nessasary when budgeting. so what id call luxuries.
we dont go out, we dont buy take aways, we dont smoke/drink, we havent brought clothes for ourselves since being on jsa (since september), we buy some clothes for our son but mostly always second hand, we dont use our car unless essential, we live in a rural area so need a car but refrain from using it. some of the luxuries we do have such as having an internet and phone line are things in trying to sort out and get rid of/cut down to free up more money for debts.

Great you use reusables, me too, there is some cost as you point out, but the savings outweigh it!
I don't have much advice to offer other than my other post (but do suggest you get some debt advice from CAB, or somewhere else free, if the debts are becoming too much for you!)
Re luxuries, I was not referring to phone, internet etc, more food luxuries tbh.
I hope you get something sorted out job-wise/money-wise/budget-wise.