What do you do with your FSM holiday vouchers

[comeandhaveteawithme]

I am not judging you for what you do with them. It doesn't matter to me. I am of the view that it all goes into a family pot and benefits the family one way or another. I am only curious.

A friend of mine said that she doesn't know anyone that unless the FSM supermarket vouchers that entitled families are issued to cover the school holidays on actual food for the school holidays. Most people use them to buy clothes or toys or exchange them with their parents or someone for cash. She's very ragey about this for some reason.

But is she correct?

Most FSM vouchers have stopped now so maybe it’s time to move on?

My council sends adhoc vouchers still (so got one in February but not easter). I see them as a bonus if they arrive. Originally they were supermarket vouchers and I used them partly on food/partly on school uniform. Now it's cash redeemed at the post office I pop it in my bank account and it gets used (I could say I use it for the difference in my food shop of two teenagers at home in reality it's just in the pot).

Have they?!

Everyone on FSM still gets them here. £15 per child, per week. In fact I think it's £25 per child at Christmas. They get emailed to parents from the school.

I still get mine. £15 per week per child. I’m thankful for it. It supermarket vouchers so just use it as intended, to buy food

We get £15 per week per child in the holidays. Mine just goes in the pot and generally covers the cost of the holiday extra snacks/food. I sure don't spend on toys/stuff. I think some of the summer holiday ones last year I used on a few essential clothing items for one but other than that it is all on the food shop

These people will still have to buy food though and more than in term time, so whatever they are spent on, food still has to be bought

It's a bit theoretical though isn't it ?

Say your grocery bill comes to £80.

If you have a voucher worth £15, then only £65 comes out of your account and you have £15 to spend on whatever you want.
If you sell it to someone, you might be given cash by that person, but you have to use more cash to buy your groceries.

I can't see why anyone would get worked up about the way someone else organises their money.
Many families need it to be able to feed their kids. Like any 'cut off' amount for anything, there will be some families nearer the wire than others who might have a small amount of wiggle room.

No most council provide them now, using the household support fund.

I’m not really sure what these are, but if they’re supermarket vouchers then they will come off the supermarket bill? Everyone has to buy food, so what does it matter what imaginary pot it comes out off?

i can’t imagine anyone spending less than £50 a week on food for a family so surely these vouchers will only cover part of that anyway?

I don't know of any LA that doesn't? And would be interested in knowing

But agree with @BobnLen and @CarpetKnees

I use mine to buy food for my children. It's an absolute God send in the holidays which I really appreciate.

If you get a voucher that can be used at Asda, Tesco or Morrisons, but your nearest shop is Lidl, whats wrong (morally) with swapping them for cash with a family member that lives near those?

Unless you are saying these families never buy food for their children from anywhere...

I'm not saying this at all. but my friend is spitting feathers. I'm merely curious what people do with them.
Swapping them for cash is fine IMO

Ours stopped dec 2021 birmingham

I am in Norfolk and ger these for my children. I actually try to make sure I put some aside so that in a tight month/emergency with unexpected costs I have enough for a weekly food shop.

My youngest gets all his FSM as vouchers(after a battle with school) because his needs meant he couldn't eat food at school. He is currently only being offered 1 hour of Educational provision a week and I have had to reduce my working hours, so the vouchers make a big difference to my budget.

I don't care what others do with their vouchers, there have def been times they have meant I could feed my kids when otherwise I would have been stuck and times where they have perhaps gone towards treats ie at aldi some middle aisle bits or asda, clothes for the kids. But they always benefit my children so does it matter?

I get supermarket vouchers and use them to buy extra food during the holidays. They've also gone on uniform before.

We use them for food it is an absolute godsend for us . Pays for breakfast lunch and dinner during the holidays I think it’s meant to be just lunch but we can make it stretch. Like another poster we get £15 per child per week

Well presumably the family are purchasing extra food to cover the extra time the children are at home so the children are still being fed so no, they aren’t really spending it on anything else.