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I've always hated these recommendations to "the poor" as to how they should spend their money (and even whether they are allowed to think of themselves as poor). How much do a managerial hierarchy of "experts" earn "advising" those without much money how to spend it? Out of morbid interest I looked at my household's "modest but adequate" budget (or perhaps one ought to say "freezing and cheerless") and was interested to find that if my partner and I opt for the "food without alcohol" version that will cost us 43.85 pounds a week, whereas the "food with alcohol" will cost us 45.39 - presumably the non-drinkers are encouraged to make up with Mars Bars? We're still expected to cough up our charitable donations, even though we're supposed to be this frugal old retired couple (grateful not to be in separate wings of the workhouse?) Pam Shurmer-Smith National University of Singapore Steve Cummins <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Dear John The Family Budget Unit at York produces 'modest but adequate' and 'low cost but acceptable' household budgets for a range of family types split by what is needed by household eg fuel, food, clothing etc.. http://www.york.ac.uk/res/fbu/ Best Steve Pickerill, Dr J. wrote: > Dear all > > I work with a group in Wales trying to establish a large-scale > eco-village (Lammas - www.lammas.org.uk ). > They are putting together a planning application and need some help, > beyond what I can offer. > > "As part of the planning application we need to evaluate the proportion > of household needs met from the land by each household. As part of that > calculation we need to quantify in £pounds each households annual food > needs and annual clothing needs. We are trying to format a common > approach and so we have been batting around figures amongst ourselves > for this. However we may well need to back these up. Can you help us? We > have been assuming that we are seeking an annual figure for adults and a > figure for children, though it may be the case that there should be more > categories. For example to feed a 1 year old is quite different to a 14 > year old. Either way some kind of solid foundations/ basis for the > figures would be really useful. I would like to emphasise that it is > needs rather than consumption. For example Green and Blacks chocolate > and M&S silk stockings are not necessarily needs!" > > Would anyone be willing to give them a hand? does anyone have any > expertise in this area? or could anyone point me in the direction of any > literature we could use? Get back to me if so. > > Thanks > jenny > ------------------------------- > Dr Jenny Pickerill > Lecturer in Human Geography > > Department of Geography > University of Leicester > University Road > Leicester > LE1 7RH > UK > > work: +44 (0)116 252 3836 > fax: +44 (0)116 252 3854 > email: [log in to unmask] > web: www.jennypickerill.info > Autonomous Geographies project: _www.autonomousgeographies.org > _ > Lammas low impact settlement project: __www.lammas.org.uk__ > __ > -------------------------- -- Steven Cummins MSc PhD MRC Fellow Department of Geography Queen Mary, University of London Mile End Road London E1 4NS T: 44 020 7882 7653 F: 44 020 8981 6276 E: [log in to unmask] W: http://www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/staff/cummins.html Pamela Shurmer-Smith Portsmouth UK --------------------------------- The all-new Yahoo! Mail goes wherever you go - free your email address from your Internet provider.