How to live off £50 a week

Brewer20

You need to cut your outgoings, bank fees, phone bills and you don't need to shop at such places like Aldi/Lidl for cheap food, other supermarkets do that too.
Travel insurance, phone insurance do you actually go abroad or feel you'll lose or break your phone. To me all unnecessary luxuries.
BTW I did my monthly shop yesterday, £119 for the two of us and we ate out the day before for £17 which included an acholic drink each, it wasn't Wether spoons either. Phone bill £12 Tesco X 2 phones (sim only) we own the phones.
It can easily be done on what you have coming in if you say that's all your outgoings mentioned.

Terry_Towelling

I seem to recall from previous threads that OP has a large sum of money saved which is under the control of his/her appointee, so it isn't readily apparent why any money from the allowance granted by the appointee also needs to be saved.

Obviously that's none of my business, and I have no right to ask (so I'm not), but it piques my interest and causes me to wonder (internally) why the need for extra savings outside of what the appointee is presumably putting aside anyway. Apologies if I have got this wrong.

As far as sticking to a budget is concerned, there is no magic secret; it is purely down to record-keeping and discipline. If you want to save £290 per month and be forced into sticking to your budget, why not simply ask your appointee to cut your monthly payment down by £290 on the basis that, if you do run short, you can ask for a sub.

rawhammered

Mental health issues are a serous and increasing concern in today’s society.

nicetomeetyou

I just want to thank everybody for the good advice you've all given me.

I think I have come to a workable solution. This is what I'm thinking.

I get paid £500 4 weekly (£125.00 every Thursday) I will set a sanding order up for £50 every Thursday from my Nationwide account and paid into my Yorkshire Bank B account (now virgin)- This is for my weeks groceries - I can do a good shop in Aldi for £30ish a week) I will use the other £15 for coffees. I mostly go into Wetherspoons and its £1.35 for a coffee with free re-fills.

I also get £50 every 4th Tuesday (I forgot to mention this) Its paid directly into my Yorkshire Bank B account (now virgin) from my appointee I will use this every month as part of my personal allowance and add it too the £200 4 weekly allowance. So this means I'll have £250 a month on a 4 weekly basis. So gives me £62.50 a week.

This is on a calendar month bases .
- £47.00 for mobile phone contract
- £13.00 a month for nationwide account fees.

This means I can save around £240 a month. I think this is more doable.

I'm thinking about taking the Nationwide App off my mobile phone and just using the B account App and Apple Pay. I find with the NW App I can't stick to a budget as its very easy to transfer money over from one account to another. If I take the App off I will have to stick to a budget. Do you think this is a good idea. I lack impulse control, like today I didn't need anymore food shopping but spend £28.00 on food. I do suffer from food anxiety about running out.

nicetomeetyou

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

Obviously that's none of my business, and I have no right to ask (so I'm not), but it piques my interest and causes me to wonder (internally) why the need for extra savings outside of what the appointee is presumably putting aside anyway. Apologies if I have got this wrong.

I have an appointee because it was deemed I lack capacity with my money. I want to take more responsibility with my life and this is me proving to my social worker and support staff I am taking responsibility. This why I am continuing to improve my credit rating and obtaining credit although I don't need credit cards or overdrafts. I thought this will show them I'm responsible. Its not worked out like I thought it would, they still won't relinquish the appointeeship. I am given the money for almost all of my requests but I want some savings behind me too and not have to rely on appointee

MovingForwards

Having your mobile phone and running your bank accounts well is sufficient for you at the moment to build your credit history and show you are responsible, having a credit card could be risky for a while.

Don't run before you can walk.

Good things come to those who wait.

Two commonly used sayings, but very appropriate. I would stick to a budget, then in a year if no hic ups along the way revisit your finances, see if you have got a year of savings or whether you dipped into it.

I don't think having a loan or credit card will prove anything to your appointee at this stage.

Sea_Shell

Taking out credit you don't need may not be seen as responsible money management by your Appointee.

I don't know how closely they monitor what you DO with the money they give you regularly, but if they believe that you are being too frivolous with your spending, they may feel that the time is still not right to give you even more freedom to spend "on crap" (your words from your other thread)

They have a duty to make sure that you don't....so they have to be sure that you won't.

Katiehound

nicetomeetyou wrote: »

. I do suffer from food anxiety about running out.

I'm just wondering if you could build up a small store cupboard / freezer cache of things you like to eat such as baked beans, cereal bars, longlife milk .
Then, when you are tempted to buy yet more food you can say to yourself 'I don't need that 'cos I've got 'whatever' in the cupboard, so I'm not going to go hungry!'
Just a thought

dreaming

nicetomeetyou wrote: »

I have an appointee because it was deemed I lack capacity with my money. I want to take more responsibility with my life and this is me proving to my social worker and support staff I am taking responsibility. This why I am continuing to improve my credit rating and obtaining credit although I don't need credit cards or overdrafts. I thought this will show them I'm responsible. Its not worked out like I thought it would, they still won't relinquish the appointeeship. I am given the money for almost all of my requests but I want some savings behind me too and not have to rely on appointee

Thankyou for coming back to give a little more context. I would like to firstly say well done for trying to understand and improve your situation.
I have to say I agree that taking on credit is not a good way to show that you are managing your money though. I can understand that you are worried about your credit rating etc. but it is far more important to manage the cash side of it. To take on credit, especially when it is not needed, would be seen as a red flag to many who have oversight of those who are deemed to lack capacity. As I mentioned before it might help to talk this over with someone face to face (or via the internet) and I would recommend you contact an organisation such as MIND who may be able to help. Do you have a good relationshp with the appointee and could they assist a little more rather than just approving and handing out the cash?
You are doing well though to recognise the "trigger points" for your spending (food anxiety) and you should try to get help with managing this as well. I know how hard it is to get the help sometimes but I'm sure if you persevere there will be something.

Terry_Towelling

It is probably hard for most of us to understand why anyone with money and access to shops would have anxiety about running out of food - let's face it, if you were to run out, you could just go out and buy a bit more food then, instead of anticipating a shortage and buying unnecessarily.

Now, I can see that is a very simplistic stance I have taken, and I mean no offence by taking it. I understand that anxieties are often irrational and that alone makes them hard to rationalise.

What Katiehound has said about creating a store of certain non-perishable items makes sense. For my part, I always have a few tins of chopped tomatoes in the cupboard and plenty of dried pasta. It is the easiest thing in the world to knock up several pasta meals out of those ingredients (with a few extra bits) - no need to buy pre-made pasta sauces. You could use your 'emergency' store of ingredients if you ever ran out in your main food store.

Just as with the finances, it is all about discipline, and application. If those things are weak points for you, you may not be able to overcome your impulsive nature but I know you can try. Perhaps regard the emergency food store as your safety net, so that you no longer need to feel so anxious.