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.

Ryanair is everyone’s most hated budget airline. Bad stories about Ryanair are an easy way to get angry. The Times lists 20 reasons not to fly Ryanair. I had a chance to form my own opinion during my weekend trip to Denmark.

Check in was smooth; Both flights arrived on time; The cabin was clean; I had decent enough legroom; And the plane didn’t suffer any loss of structural components. Rumours about a £1 charge to use the toilet were not true. Although there are plans to have passengers bring their own jet fuel.

Punctuality makes for good holidays but boring blog posts. Publishing bad news is preferable to good. But is it not better to celebrate the good rather than pull things down?

Complaints about Denmark

Amusingly, the Little Mermaid Statue in Copenhagen had been moved to Shanghai for the World Exhibition. However, I was convinced to go against the propaganda that it was worth seeing. I did not miss it.

In the end, the biggest disappointment was the terrible exchange rate, enough to turn Wagamamas from a cheap meal to a premium experience. Yes, I did travel hundreds of miles to a foreign culture to eat the same food. At least I refrained from my default choice of Chicken Katsu Curry. However, every other aspect was the same: the wooden benches, the menu, the chopsticks. The head waitress even sounded British. I might as well have been in London, except I was surrounded by a few Danes rather than hundreds of Canary Wharf yuppies. 

Ryanair, and Wagamamas, are actually quite good.