It is a struggle some months and I am sure I along with others have shared some of your pain. We can not share all of it as all cases are different but I too wish someone had sat down with me and told me what I was allowed to spend and not. I am luckier than most in that my children helped, my son is 19 so has been all the way in the house with the IVA, he will tell me not to get something, and has never complained when a packet of sausages (reduced yellow ticket) and 4 tins of baked beans has been tea for 4 days, so I can make £10 last one week. We always make sure we have milk, yoghurts, bananas and bread in the house. Everything else is bought on a rota if money is short it is not bought. So no cheese this month as when I went to get it there was no cheap cheese. I throughout the IVA have never been able to save a contingency fund as I want to it is almost as if the essential items in the house know when you have a little saved as they then go and break and you have to fix them, the car is the worst and I need that to go to work as there is no bus. But it is only used for work. After work and at weekends it is parked up and not used. Showers are now 2 per week and hair wash is no more than 3 although my hair is down to 1 wash a week, apparently if you do not wash your hair so often it makes it stronger and less needing of a wash. But that means less water used, less on the electric bill and so the odd bar of 30p chocolate, which has become my treat.
