Grocery Challenge - February 2012

FrugalLina

That is decidedly unpleasant and I am a bit worried she may be wrong, surely anyone on a low income should be considered for HB? Do you claim working tax credits? If you are in danger of not being able to afford your rent, contact Shelter to see if you can get any further advice.

And hugs for a horrible experience - it really should not be like that at all!

prepareathome wrote: »

Just a £4 spend yesterday on more milk and whoopsie lamb joint ( will do two meals) £2so thats £16.10 out of my £35 for the month so very pleased and still plenty in freezer and cupboards. Checked the benfits advice pages and it said I was entitled to HB and CTB so called my council only to be told as my husband is working and we have no children their policy is not to give any benefit to couples with no children unless they are on JSA , IS, PC or ESA, woman was very nasty and told me now I have told you that no doubt I will be receiving your claim in couple of weeks once you husband has given up his job. I told her unless he is made redundant in the next round of redundancies at his work in April she will not be receiving anything from us, but I am going to have a word with my MP as if government say we should get benefits then I want to challenge the councils right to refuse, they ( government) are going on and on about people working, yet our councils policy is basically to make people give up their work grrrrrrr. Sorry nothing to do with GC.

FrugalLina

I have had a spendy day today - had to get new glasses despite it only being a short while since the last pair - but I am glad to be able to see properly again even if I am now £60 down. Of course this isn't included in my food budget, but the bird food I bought at Poundstretchers for £1.79 is included, because I get as much pleasure feeding the birds as if I had eaten the seeds myself! Of course, I do add breadcrumbs, apple cores etc to eke it out and the birds are happy with that. Thankfully my neighbours buy the expensive items like fat balls and peanuts, I don't mind if they get the tits and I get the sparrows, I still get to enjoy their happy foraging.

mh2361

Hi, can I join the challenge for Feb? I'm completely new to this, rubbish on the computer and judging by other peoples spending targets, I'm pretty rubbish at shopping too! I usally spend £120 a week for 4 of us which includes all cleaning, toiletries etc and, guess what, i desperately need to reduce this and need help!
So I'll set my challenge at £450 .

Any advice gratefully received

helen_jelly

prepareathome - how awful of that horrid woman, send in the paperwork, you are entitled to help as is anyone who has an income below a certain level, speak to your MP but also try to find someone in charge at the Council and complain about her, I can't believe that anyone can be that rude when they are there to help, horrid woman!!! {I'm using the word horrid as a substitute for the word I really wanted to type]

mh2361 - hi and welcome. Lots of people will help out, they are all lovely here.

Budgets noted to here - will update list later

Helen x

tigerfeet2006

Dinner was aroaring success. The kids all had seconds, they wolfEd it down. There wasn't enough for me so i grabbed a HM ready meal from the freezer and had leek, sweet potato and goats cheese Pie. Tasted even better second time round . Pudding was popcorn Popped in the pan, to much excitement.

I am just off to the churches wednesday group now. We are having come to talk about patchwork.

JIL

prepareathome wrote: »

Checked the benfits advice pages and it said I was entitled to HB and CTB so called my council only to be told as my husband is working and we have no children their policy is not to give any benefit to couples with no children unless they are on JSA , IS, PC or ESA, woman was very nasty and told me now I have told you that no doubt I will be receiving your claim in couple of weeks once you husband has given up his job. I told her unless he is made redundant in the next round of redundancies at his work in April she will not be receiving anything from us, but I am going to have a word with my MP as if government say we should get benefits then I want to challenge the councils right to refuse, they ( government) are going on and on about people working, yet our councils policy is basically to make people give up their work grrrrrrr. Sorry nothing to do with GC.

Have you tried this site? (sorry if it the same one you used but I know eligibility for housing benefit varies by authority)
http://local.direct.gov.uk/LDGRedirect/index.jsp?LGSL=69&LGIL=0&ServiceName=Check+your+eligibility+for+Housing+Benefit+with+your+local+council

Whatever the policy of your local authority, the adviser in question should not be so rude. Most telephone calls are recorded these days so a letter to her managers should be in order. There are plenty of people out there who would be grateful to have her job. She would do well to remember that.

XSpender

NSD for me today. Not very well today. DH offered to get a takeaway so I didn't have to make any tea but I said I would manage. Just chips, beans and sausages so quick and easy to do.

Can't get warm tonight even with DH tracky bottoms on so will crawl under a throw for a bit after tea before painkillers and an early night.

I am sick of feeling unwell, have had a cough since October so tomorrow I am making an appointment to see another doctor next week to check it isn't anything underlying.:(

scotmumof3

£12.86 spend for me today at Asd@. Half of that was on YS items which is a first for me:o Got a steak and ale pie for sunday to freeze, pork steaks 8 for £5 going to try to get 3 meals for 4 of us from the pork including a sweet and sour (with veg) and rice would be grateful for any other ideas for this:)x Dinner tonight was HM bolognese sauce and spaghetti which was really nice.

scotmumof3

XSpender wrote: »

I am sick of feeling unwell, have had a cough since October so tomorrow I am making an appointment to see another doctor next week to check it isn't anything underlying.:(

DD was the same took her to the doc and he told me to buy her a cough bottle (like I hadn't tried that!)
Hope you get on ok and feel better soon:)

bupster

Yet another tenner between yesterday and today which is Extremely Rubbish, not least as it includes a bottle of wine which I very definitely don't need but really felt like. It's lasted two days but won't see a third :rotfl:

Still under budget for the month, though having dinner out tomorrow which will eat the last of my bank budget so a very quiet rest-of-February I suppose.

I do though still have six meals in the fridge and a cauliflower waiting to be made into soup, a dozen eggs, five pints of milk, sandwich ingredients, veg and fruit and a very lovely glass of wine

So I think I can manage a quiet fortnight until payday.

Prepareathome, someone else posted a link to the DirectGov site, which is the best first stop for anything with regard to benefits. That lady was vile on the phone and I'd be tempted to put in a formal complaint. However, with Council Tax benefit in particular I think it is local authorities who decide who gets it - and they're under the cosh in a big way as the government has wiped out a huge chunk of their budgets and made most of them go into massive debt to buy out their council housing.

What with the welfare reforms as well, there's a lot of councils that will struggle to keep their council housing in one piece (literally) and nearly all of them will be putting up rents by quite a bit. For anyone who's in council housing, expect your rent to go up by the rate of inflation plus half a percentage point and then if you're in an expensive area plus a few quid more EACH YEAR, starting from this year, as they have to bring rents up to 60% of market rates. I'm not sure everyone realises just how bad it's going to get with benefits being cut and rents going up, especially if you're in an area where market rents are very high.

On top of everything else, Citizens' Advice Bureaus are largely funded by local councils. One of our local district councils just tried to cut their voluntary sector budget by 86% (yes, you read that right) before being forced to keep it down to cuts of just 26% instead. So all those charities have just lost a quarter of their funding and they're feeling lucky.