Hi cashpoor

I also entered a TD 18 months ago. The guidance on food bills etc was mentioned by one of the experts a while ago, from memory it was said that this is not accessable by those in a trust deed. Food is very expensive just now, we are also a 2 adult and 2 children household. Sorry to hear that your expenses have been queried. Do you think your trustee initially put his a bit lower so as the figures would work for a trust deed. the reason I say this is that the debt company we used did this with some of our expenditure as you need to have a certain amount of extra income left to live on after paying all your directdebits and insurances etc. Having said that our first review was this april and we did submit exactly what we spend on food etc. The trustee stated that our payments, we are both on a trust deed, were fine and would not change. We do find it really tight but as we are half way through can't wait till the 3 years is up. Hope you get on ok with this.

Hi cashpoor,

Liam is correct in stating that there is a document produced and reviewed every so often which sets ranges for acceptable expenditure that debt advisors should try to work to, and that creditors should be minded to accept.

The producers of this document provide it to the industry on the understanding that the numbers aren't shared publicly. The stated reason for this is that they believe that debtors would adjust all of their expenditure to the upper end of each of the range. I don't agree with this but the situation is as it is.

If you would like to let us know what you propose your food costs for two adults and two children should be, I'll certainly give you some feedback as to whether the number you provide fits within the range on these guidelines.