monthly shopping bill

[anais743]

theres hope then!

[MelanieGiles]

Skippy

What other debt forums do you post on as a matter of interest?

[hallway]

In my Iva im allowed £480 food (2 adults, 2 teenagers)£36 for a cat and dog and £35 a month for toiletries and haircuts.

[Skippy]

Melanie, I also post on Debt Questions now and then - I much prefer this one though!

[Emily]

Inflation is going to be on the hop and so you have to spent more in the future to cater for House keeping.The last 12 months have made the money men cringe

I wish these voluntary organsiations like CCCS etc start spending some time reading the FT or the business pages of the press and start coming up with a realistic expenditure guidelines.

I am sometimes in the opinion no one really knows the 'Economics of debt' and making things up as they go along in typical need jerk reaction.

[MelanieGiles]

I definately agree that both the CCCS guidelines and the Common Financial Statement are worth of a complete overhaul. I gather that the CCCS are currently reviewing theirs at the moment.

[cat 1]

we're allowed £500 for 2 adults and 2 kids.I have 5 babies( I mean cats) and it should also incluse toiletries.I also pack lunches up and this is taken from this amount. I frequently go over the food budget, but I feel I can't really help it.I should provide healthy meals for us all-inc lots of fruit and veg. If we survived on tesco basics I'm sure I could do it for alot less (and I have) However, the diet could not be substained with this. Cat

[MelanieGiles]

Well done to you for providing good wholesome food for your family. In South Wales we have a lot of farmers markets which sell cheap locally produced products, and I can definately recommend them if you have them in your area. The food tastes much nicer as well.

[johnz]

My 3 cats cost more per month than me and my husband do. Because of the various health conditions they can't have "cheap" cat food. We are supposed to feed them prescription food, but they hated it, so the vet has compromised with Whiskas Senior food cos it has more nutrients in it. Added to that are the daily meds 2 of them have to take, plus cat milk for Rocky's enzimes (cats are allergic to cows milk), plus TD biscuits cos at their age they need to really take care of their teeth. But they are my baby's and I wouldn't change them for the world. I'll starve before they do.

Me and hubby allow £200.00 per month for food and washing powder. We each pay for our own toiletries and I always look on the end of the isles at tescos. They've normally got some good bargains there.

In fact, regardless of what I'm buying I tend to do the end of all the isles first, just in case what I'm buying is on offer, then do the rest. It's a good tip. You may find a cheaper alternative at least.

[anais743]

ladyh

I bike too! go pedal power!!! cold though aint it!

[J-DOUBLEYA]

The CFS & CCCS guidelines all need an overhaul as living costs are increasing but I think that its important to have 'A' guideline that works for all.I wish these 'guidelines' were reviewed annually. It is important to remember that these are only guidelines and therefore they are not set in stone. I had not heard that these were under review. I will make some enquiries and be very interested to see what changes are advised given the current climate with creditors.

[MelanieGiles]

So far as I am aware, the CCCS do review their guidelines every year.

[snowy]

Hi

My husband is in an IVA and I am on a DMP, we budgeted in total £240.00 per wek for all groceries which I did find difficult to be begin with and we drastically had to re-think things after the first couple of months of the DMP as I wasn't buying enough of the foods that I needed and was just buying a lot of Tesco Value and Asda basic stuff which was having quite an impact on my diabetes control and not in a good way. there was on occasion when I was in the house along, husband on nights and we didn't have anything in the cupboards, my blood sugars dropped dangerously low, luckily I managed to phone my neighbour and lied saying that I hadn;t realisd we were out of milk etc, which is what I use when going hypo, they were very helpful and sorted me out. I was very luck, after that I realised I was playing with my life so I contacted PP and said I needed at least another £10 per week as I couldn't risk not being able to afford enough food. They straight re-calculated things and we now have £360 per month for food and pets, bird, rabbit, guinea pigs and koi in the pond!!

[MelanieGiles]

Do you mean £240 per month? If so, that is pretty low given you special dietry requirements. £360 seems far more reasonable.

[snowy]

Hi

Yes it was £240 per month as we were desparate for our creditors to see that we were genuinely serious about sorting ourselves out and would be willing to go without in order to pay them back what we owed! It didn't work though!