To use the child benefit payment as my grocery budget?

[iwillsoiwill]

Would it be unreasonable to use my child benefit as my grocery budget for all 4 of us??
We get 280 per month so in a 4 week month that’s 70 per week, which is my average weekly spend! Or should I assign to to something more child specific?does it really matter?

I don't understand why you would even need to ask the question unless in Ireland there are some rules in about what child benefit can and can't be spent on.

There literally can't be anyone who thinks that buying food with child benefit is a wrong thing to do - seriously - why are you asking?

YANBU, its not like you are asking if you can spend it on gin and cigarettes! CB is there to help you raise your children, feeding them is a pretty important part of that

Well I'm spending mine on a hotel room for me and dh,we're going to York.Its not even benefiting ds .Its all out of the same pot though so he'll still be fed.

Not benefiting the DCs? relaxed, happy and rested parents definitely benefit the DCs @PrincessHoneysuckle! Enjoy!

@coconuttelegraph I don’t know I hear ppl over hear say oh I use my child benefit for x, y or z. Maybe I’m just used to that and as I said upthread I used to spend the first child’s solely on her. Now with no2 I just thought I could assign it to groceries at the start of each month instead.

There is no such thing as spending one piece of money. You have a grocery budget of XXXX. You buy groceries to that value. It isn't benefit money or earnings money you use. It is just money. If you didn't have the CB money, you would still buy groceries wouldn't you? It's just money. How does your brain work?

I also budget out what my Child Benefit goes on. My budget is really tight so every time a payment for anything goes into my account I already have a plan for exactly where it is going! I think using it for your grocery bill sounds like a great plan

@doublesheesh I take out my money once a month and use cash...it’s my way of budgeting. The CB comes in at the start of the month and I take it out for the food envelope. That’s how my brain works...sorry if that puts you out!

Often people on here seem to think it should be saved for the children or go directly on activities etc. for them, so I assume that's why you asked?

Ours just goes into the pot with everything else. We've never thought to allocate the same amount to anything in particular.

Regarding the daily fail comments, I’ve always had the feeling that our contemporary attitudes to ‘benefits’ as hand-outs is a bunch of utter bollocks designed to relieve employers of paying a living wage.

We need to shake off this hideous obsession with how other people budget or spend their money and get on with out effing lives.

Mine just goes in the general pot to pay the bills, if ds needs anything I get it when he needs it.

@spanglydangly I will!

I inherited a fair bit. I am at the moment ‘leisurely’ self employed, and nobody judges me because I don’t claim. This is a great way to take the onus off employers thereby creating a system which forces working people onto welfare with little left over for even a low rental.

And if you don’t currently work, you are double fucked.

It's €140 a month per child in Ireland. Paid to every family with a child up until the child's 18 birthday. Even Bono's wife! Some people save it and give it to the child when they turn 18 or they put it towards college fees. Its not based on your income or means tested either.

Everyone saying they spend it on their hair or a hotel room are talking crap.

During a month, you'll spend more than £80 on your child or more than £137 on two children...so you're not actually using it for your hair or hotel room...it's all just in the same pot.

Well, sorry to say it, but in a country without legal abortion the least they can do is pay a decent amount of child benefit.

@iwillsoiwill, think of all the deals on in the supermarkets on the first Tuesday of the month! I think plenty of families use it for a big shop that fills the freezers and presses. Ours covers health insurance for my family of four...just. Which is probably one of the reasons that child benefit is higher in Ireland than the UK.

I put half my child benefit away for college/training and half goes for swimming or gymnastics lessons. But if I dont need to pay that I buy myself something nice because I deserve it!

We do have legal abortion.

@AnotherEmma they are legal now!

No not unreasonable. I budget everything. I get 137 a month and I use 80 pound for swimming lessons p/m and the rest on there clothes.

Mine used to go on shoes and the rest on food. Now they have all left and are all earning.

Go by the rule iwill all fed , no one dead! I used to be able to stretch the food too but always fed well. Mince stretched with veg and sometimes some lentils thrown in. They once asked "What was that pudding you used to make a lot mum?" It was Queen's Pudding and then I explained why they had it every week cos it was blooming cheap used up left over loaf, free brambles for jam in Autumn and eggs from the farm up the road.Good Budgeting OP.

Well, sorry to say it, but in a country without legal abortion the least they can do is pay a decent amount of child benefit.

So that would be the U.K. then. Because it’s the UK that still hasn’t secured legal abortion throughout.

Sorry yes I do know that it was finally legalised.
Still wasn't legal before that though.
And I know it's not technically legal in UK!

Anyway shouldn't have derailed thread, apologies.

As you were

Don’t worry, You just made yourself look like an idiot. That’s all.

Most of my family members save it all into their child's account so they get a lump sum when they are 18.

You have more legitimate use of the benefit than them