How to live on 65 per week?

grumpyoldwoman41

Hope I am not posting in the wrong place, new here, new to JSA and prospect of living on 65 per week....after having a job that used to pay about 10 times that ...

Not working since 1st December this year, just got a letter that my JSA application was accpeted, still waiting for HB and CTB to get back to me, applied for all on the 2nd December, it is taking ages.

Even assuming that my rent/council tax would be covered by benefits till I find another job - still, how is it possible to live on £65 per week? To pay all the bills from it and to feed myself? Not mention the pets....

I have been working for the past 15 years or so so really new to all the benefits things and can not get it in my head how am I going to manage?

dmg24

Surely if you were earning £650 per week you have savings?

grumpyoldwoman41

DMG - no I do not have savings, I have big debts actually.
But that was not the question I askedin my post, thanks.

dmg24

grumpyoldwoman41 wrote: »

DMG - no I do not have savings, I have big debts actually.
But that was not the question I askedin my post, thanks.

The answer to your question is you learn to budget. People do live on £65 a week, many of those on disability benefits have to for a very long time. If you look on the Old Style board there is info that will help you to cut your food budget right down, a single person can easily (and very healthily) eat for £10 a week.

newmee

Good luck it's hard. I've just returned to work following 6 months on ESA and it was a total nightmare. The trouble is you lose the wage but you don't lose the outgoings you've built up as part of everyday life. I've never earned masses and have always been sole provider for me and my DD so only things like running a small car, mobile phone, contract for broadband etc etc. I don't know what to say other than look at every aspect of your outgoings, try and make any possible changes and get another job as soon as you can!
Best of luck x

PasturesNew

Well, the £65/week is deemed "enough" for you to live on. "you to live on", which excludes debts and pets and luxuries and commitments and hobbies.

Rent/council tax aside and just looking at the £65, it could be broken down like this:

£35 bills (electricity, gas, water, TV license, landline, broadband).
£15 food (generous)
===
£50

Leaving you £15/week to pay for: transport, clothes, shoes, haircuts, cleaning stuff, laundry, loo roll, pets, holidays, Xmas, birthdays, replacements/breakages, contents insurance, life.

So now you have to work out from those pots where you'll make cut backs to pay for what you want. e.g. beans on toast all week, with an egg on top as a Sunday treat, could cut your food bill down to about £5 ... but you'd be f4rting too much to attend job interviews.

£65 JSA for a single person is pretty much survival, rather than living.

CFC

I think it's very hard to go from a decent wage to peanuts. As newmee says, the outgoings that you have built up do not diminish with your income.

First steps - you say you have debts, so pop over to the debt wannabe free board and get some advice as to how to approach your creditors about your reduced income. Also post your outgoings, you will get lots of good advice as to how to cut down your outgoings
Secondly - start browsing the old style thread and cut down on your shopping bills
Thirdly - cancel anything that you can such as mobile contracts, sky etc
Fourthly - look to only heat the rooms that you use and other relatively painless ways to save
Fifthly - might be worth unloading stuff at a boot sale or on ebay.

grumpyoldwoman41

Thanks for posting DMG, Newme, Pasturesnew and CFC

I am absolutely terrified right now to be honest as can not see how I can survive, never mind live on that amount of money - all very fresh, I guess with time one can learn to budget for that...

I do not have a car so no expense there but just my gas and electric are 100 per month at the moment, with water rates that is 2 weeks of JSA already gone each month.

Mobile that I am in the middle of the contract so can not cut, same with SKY. Then BT/Internet/Pet Insurance/Pet food....

:eek::eek::eek:

CFC

Pets are going to have to learn to love the Value range! Though I bet Lidl's pet food is better than Tesco's own cheapie.
If your gas and electric bills are £100 a month you need to look at your usage and get them down.

Do all these things as fast as you can. At the moment you do not go to work, so your new job is 'saving money' and you need to put the same application into it that you put into work.

Chin up, I'm not surprised that you are frightened, I hope that your time of unemployment is short.

grumpyoldwoman41

My current outgoings (no food for me here) are:

Gas £ 65.00
Electric £ 40.00
TV License £ 12.00
Water £ 27.00
SKY £ 60.00
BT £ 32.00
Mobile £ 35.00
Pet Insurance £ 65.00
Internet £ 12.18
Pet Food £ 100.00
Dog Tablets £ 30.00
Together £ 478.18

:eek::eek::eek:

dmg24

grumpyoldwoman41 wrote: »

My current outgoings (no food for me here) are:

Gas £ 65.00 Electric £ 40.00 TV License £ 12.00 Water £ 27.00 SKY £ 60.00 BT £ 32.00 Mobile £ 35.00 Pet Insurance £ 65.00 Internet £ 12.18 Pet Food £ 100.00
£ 448.18

What animals do you have? :eek:

Speak to Sky, BT, mobile etc - even if you are not at the end of your contract many will let you downgrade rather than have you default.