It’s near the end of the week and I have £12.57 left to spend at the Korean restaurant birthday dinner tonight. It has been quite easy this week because I still enjoy the use of my existing stock of possessions and food. This doesn’t cost me any money.

Essentially, I am still living a middle class lifestyle that is far beyond someone on benefits. A fair way to take account of it is the use of accruals accounting. In short, goods and services are accounted for as they are used instead of when they are paid for. For example, I bought three boxes of cereal before the challenge started. Under cash accounting, I can ignore this. Under accruals accounting, I have to account for the one box of cereal I ate during the week.

More information on accruals accounting can be found in paragraph 22 of the IFRS manual.

I’m going to adjust week 2’s budget under accruals accounting.

List of Adjustments

1. To account for the consumption of the existing food in my fridge and freezer. Including free food given by my parents
2. Benefits in Lents does not take account of Oyster card costs because they are assumed necessary for work, however, there’s no adjustment for non-work travel.
3. To account for use of existing household products, such as my bed, sofa and toothpaste.
4. Existing use of laptop and TV, assuming an estimated useful life of 3 years.
5. To account for free beer and sandwiches consumed at a work event.
6. To account for clothes worn, assuming a useful life of 2.5 years.
7. Existing use of guitar, piano and the reading of 3 chapters of book. Estimated useful life of 10 years. The book cost £2 and has a total of 14 chapters.

Notwithstanding the disturbing fact that this looks like a spreadsheet at work, I am now over budget by £22.77. This shows that I already have good wealth and income doesn’t matter so much. Those on benefits don’t have such wealth, and need to borrow at extortionate rates to fund a basic lifestyle.

No kimchi for me tonight.

The first week of Benefits in Lent has concluded with a budget overspend of £0.97. The biggest spend was a train ticket back to Liverpool. I would have been within budget if I had a half pint of beer instead of a whole one.

Actually, someone on benefits should not be able to afford a £44 return train ticket. Yet, I’ve not spent a single penny on food. What is going on?

Pre-Paid Food

Yes, I cheated. I went on a large shopping trip on the Saturday before the start. I filled my freezer and bought three boxes of cereal:

Existing Food Stocks

I will take advantage of special offers. This means that I had built up a considerable stock of food – probably enough for a month. Benefits in Lent is a welcome opportunity for me to run down these stocks.

Work Lunch Allowance

I do get a lunch allowance from work. This does saves me spending money and time making sandwiches in the morning. At a conservative estimate, it gives me a £5 advantage.

The Spirit of Benefits in Lent

Benefits in Lent is not meant to be a perfect simulation. It does affect my behaviour enough to remember why I am doing this. My income is constrained and I can’t do whatever I want. Every time I pass Starbucks and want a coffee, I realise that I can’t afford it. It may seem petty that the only change in my daily life is not having coffee. But there will be harder choices to make. Because the three boxes of cereal won’t last forever.

Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent – the period of time leading up to Easter Sunday. It symbolises the 40 days and nights Jesus spent alone in the desert after his baptism and before his ministry. For this reason, people give up something, or change their behaviour during Lent. In order to reflect on the meaning of Easter.  Traditionally, people give up chocolate. Some more original ideas I have seen are: giving up Facebook and giving up haircuts.

The pastor at my church (crazy) Dan proposed something more radical – living on benefits for 6 weeks. In effect, giving up money. That means living on job seekers allowance, which for me is £63.40 a week. I’ll be starting on Sunday 21 February for 6 weeks, ending on Easter Sunday!

Why?

• Money for the poor in Greenwich – the money saved from living on benefits will go towards a poor council estate in Greenwich.
• Reflect on how fortunate we are – we are in the top 1% income bracket of the the world. We should feel like we have enough
• Deep religious reasons  – which I don’t know about – yet.

Ground rules

• Rent and council tax are excluded - because that would be paid for if you are on benefits. It would also wipe out my budget many times over.
• Travelcards for work is excluded – because you wouldn’t have need for a travelcard if you weren’t working.
• All other expenses are fair game – water, electricity, television, food, beer and widgets. All of them have to be covered by £63.40 a week.

Are we being annoying goody two-shoe Christians?

Absolutely not. However, I realise that there are criticisms and issues which I be discussing in future blog posts.

Track my progress

As an accountant, I’ll be maintaining an online spreadsheet of my budget and actual spending. Benefits in Lent Link.

I’ve estimated that I have to slash my weekly spend in half. I’ll be blogging about my experience. It’s going to be a struggle. But I will enjoy producing the spreadsheet, doing variance analysis and fancy pie charts.