Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!
10 April 2024
Post No. 347
The Week’s Contents
• ICDP (Individual Capacity Development Programme) Resource, Holiday with Relief – In Focus for Spring 2024 Issue: Holiday with Restricted Budget
• Protection Key Note 2 for Week Beginning Monday 08/04/2024: Protection of Basic Spending Needs
• Goal of the Month: Reduction of Poverty as a Lack of Protection Linked to Spending
… And much more!
Key Messages
• ICDP (Individual Capacity Development Programme) Resource, Holiday with Relief – In Focus for Spring 2024 Issue: Holiday with Restricted Budget
How to make your holiday plan with budgetary restrictions attached to it
The current Issue of our ICDP Resource entitled as ‘Holiday with Relief’ focuses on Holiday with Restricted Budget. The Issue deals with limited spending for holiday, with a family’s or household’s immediate needs rather than wants during holiday.
Holiday with Restricted Budget can happen in the following circumstances:
a) “When a family is on a restricted budget, it means it is limiting its spending “, according to ‘pocketsense.com’ (1)
b) When a funder or donor, who funds your holiday, adds restrictions to their gift by telling you that the funds you require for holiday must be used for the purpose agreed upon by you and whoever funds your holiday (here holiday funder or donor), according to ‘pairsoft.com’ (2)
c) If the person who sponsored your holiday project does it through a policy on restricted funds budget or a reserve of money that can only be used for holiday projects or purposes.
These restrictions can be permanent or temporary. Many people or families on low income will have their holiday budget restricted to essential spending. What essential spending does mean. According to ‘count.co.uk’ (3),
“Essential spending refers to the unavoidable expenses that ensure your safety, health, and basic well-being”.
With restricted budget for your holiday, you have some challenges to deal with.
This year, ‘Holiday with Relief’ provides wealthy advice, tips and hints to overcome these challenges and find opportunities to finance your holiday. Through this wealth of information, we will try to tackle holiday poverty or poverty linked to restricted or limited means to enjoy a decent holiday whether at home or away from home.
Therefore, the purpose of this year’s Issue of ‘Holiday with Relief‘ is to work with our users in order to find way of having enjoyable and streamlined poverty-relieving holiday experience by managing or reducing or even removing these restrictions that can bound up with their holiday plan/budget. It is about creating freedom and flexibility for their holiday budget by managing or reducing or even removing any restrictions attached to it.
The resource is packed with Spring-like poverty-relieving ideas about how to reduce poverty linked to restricted means while being on holiday. Although the contents of this year’s Holiday with Relief will be for holiday, they can be used at any other time of the year.
Key highlights or content summaries about the 2024 Issue of Holiday with Relief are given under the Main Development section of this post.
• Protection Key Note 2 for Week Beginning Monday 08/04/2024: Protection of Basic Spending Needs
Our work on approaching protection from the spending side instead of from income perspective continues this week. Approaching protection from the spending side is about relieving people from spending deprivations, particularly for those who are not able to spend on basic needs or cannot spend enough to meet their basic needs. There are ways of protecting these people. Before looking at these ways of protecting them, let us first try to understand protection as a way of meeting basic spending needs. We shall as well indicate how CENFACS can work with the community to protect their basic spending needs.
• • Protection as a Way of Meeting Basic Spending Needs
To understand protection as a basic need, one may want to explain protection. According to Chris Park (4),
“Protection is defence against harm or danger: any activity (including insect and disease control, fire protection, and law enforcement) that reduces losses or risks, tends to maintain basic conditions and values, and reduces damage or injury to people and property” (p. 360)
This definition of protection can be extended to include the defence against hunger, famine, malnutrition, homelessness, disease, insecurity, unemployment, climate change, etc. In the case of this week’s Protection, it is the defence against less or lack of spending on basic needs to sustain and increase life.
Protection as a way of meeting basic spending needs helps to increase the availability of resources and to expand choices through the provision of financial and non-financial means to consume life-sustaining goods and services. Those who lack this protection need support. There are ways of protecting their basic life-sustaining spending needs.
• • Ways of Protecting People’s Basic Spending Needs
There are initiatives that can be undertaken to protect people, especially those in need, and to cover their basic spending needs. These initiatives can come from themselves or others.
• • • Protection by People in Need Themselves of Their Basic Spending Needs
To protect their basic spending needs, they need to stick to or follow the basic spending rules. One of these rules is the 50/30/20 budget rule (5), which states that you should spend up to 50% of your after-tax income on needs and obligations that you must have or must do.
There is another rule, which is 70-20-10. The 70-20-10 budget formula (6) divides your after-tax income into three buckets: 70% for living expenses, 20% for savings and debt, and 10% for additional savings and donations.
There is a third rule which is 70/15/15 budget (7). With this budget rule, you will spend 70% on needs, 15% on wants, and 15% on savings.
Depending on individual circumstances, one may opt for any of the three budget rules or any other budget splitting strategy (e.g., 75/15/10 budget rule) to deal with their basic spending needs.
Those living in poverty and having problem to meet their basic spending needs are required find budget rules or splitting strategies that can work for them. They may have their budget almost 100% allocated to needs with nothing to wants. However, they may still have some wants (e.g., entertainment, holiday, etc.) being financed if someone else funds their wants or asks them what they want and give them what they want. They could find it difficult to be eligible for some support if they have savings, however small these savings may be.
Besides the above-named budget rules or splitting strategies, there is a free budget calculator from ‘moneyhelper.org.uk’ (8) that one can use. This calculator will help them to know exactly where their money is being spent, and how much they have got coming in. Those who have a bank account, they can use their bank’s app to learn to deal with spending.
Moreover, they can carry out spend management, instead of simply undertaking cost cutting exercise which will not work because their circumstances of life. What is spend management? According to ‘nanonets.com’ (9),
“Spend management is the process of planning, organising, and controlling an organisation’s expenses to optimize profitability, ensure cost efficiency, and support strategic decision-making”.
Those who having problem in meeting their basic spending needs can conduct spend management which can improve the way in which they make their spending decisions and spend their money.
Those who cannot protect themselves via the above-mentioned means can ask for protection support to others (like public and private organisations dealing with spending protection).
• • • Protection of People’s Basic Spending Needs by Others
Those who fail to protect themselves, they may be qualified for social protection. According to Devereux and Sabates-Wheeler quoted by ‘assets.publishing.service.gov.uk’ (10), social protection is commonly understood as
“All public and private initiatives that provide income or consumption transfers to the poor, protect the vulnerable against livelihood risks and enhance the social status and rights of the marginalised; with the overall objective of reducing the economic and social vulnerability of poor vulnerable and marginalised groups”.
The same ‘assets.publishing.service.gov.uk’ also quotes Harvey and others who argue that
“Social protection is usually provided by the state; it is theoretically conceived as part of the state-citizen contract, in which states and citizens have rights and responsibilities to each other”.
So, under certain conditions, those who unable to meet their own basic spending needs can be qualified to benefit from social protection. In developed countries, this is common. In developing countries like of Africa, there is need to check country by country if social protection, in the way we defined it above, exists. Even if it does, it is better to verify that it is enough to bridge the gap in meeting spending needs.
• • Working with the Community on Protection of Their Basic Spending Needs
There are people within our community who can handle the problem of their basic spending needs by themselves. There are others who need support or to work with somebody else in order to navigate their way to the solution about spending protection problems. For those ones, CENFACS can work with them in order to find the level of protection they need to resolve their basic spending problem.
Working with them on basic spending needs can include things such as
√ Writing together their spending needs budget
√ Providing tips to protect their spending (such as shopping around to cut their bills, cutting back on non-essential spending, seeing all their spending in one place, etc.)
√ Recommending to them to check with their bank or any financial institution that deals with their money if there is any help and support about way of handling spending (e.g., bank apps)
√ Analysing their spending accounts
√ Advising them on spending issues (e.g., how to calculate essential spending, how to categorise your payments, etc.)
√ Finding spending counselling services appropriate to them
√ Recommending them to use free online budget calculator and bank apps
√ Providing basic spending advice about the types and levels of spending protection they may need
√ Making spending protection benefit enquiries on their behalf
√ Supporting them to make an application and apply online
√ Signposting them to specialists in social protection benefit
√ Organising a drop-in sessions about social protection benefit
√ Running small and targeted spending protection clinics for those in need
√ Helping them to fill social protection benefit forms
√ Running a referral service on spending protection matters for them
√ Advocating their spending protection cases to services and organisations where they could be eligible
√ Keeping them informed, guided and updated about any changes in social protection benefit legislations
√ Translating and interpreting spending protection benefit documents or materials
√ Motivating them to become independent from social protection benefit as a long term solution
Etc.
The above are just some of the ways that CENFACS could use to support the community regarding basic spending protection. Part of support services or products is the basic financial advice product/service we can offer in terms of financial protection, which contains both income and spending protection.
Those who need help and support about basic advice on spending protection and/or for any of the matters listed above falling within our capacity, they can contact CENFACS.
Those who would like to enquiry about any other spending protection issue that is not listed above, they can still check with CENFACS if there is any help.
Those who may have some questions about Protection of Their Basic Spending Needs and the Protection Month itself, they should not hesitate to contact CENFACS.
• Goal of the Month: Reduction of Poverty as a Lack of Protection Linked to Spending Needs
There are many definitions of poverty. During this month of April 2024, we are interested in poverty as a lack of protection, particularly but not limited to protection linked to spending needs.
• • What Is the Lack of Protection Linked to Spending Needs
The lack of protection on spending is in itself an indication of poverty. It is an indicator relating to the inability either to spend on basic necessities of life or have a cover to spend on them.
It is one of the problems that many people in need face. Some of these people may not have where to go to ask for support while they are failing to meet the necessities of life. They could be lacking protection to spend. In these circumstances, poverty as the lack of spending protection is simply the lack of means to cover part of their budget relating to needs. It is also the lack of insurance to cover or consume part or all essential goods and services to maintain and increase their lives. Our goal for the month of April 2024 is to help reduce this type of poverty. There are implications for this goal.
• • Implications for Selecting the Goal for the Month
After selecting the goal for the month, we focus our efforts and mind set on the selected goal by making sure that in our real life we apply it. We also expect our supporters to work on the same goal by supporting those who may be suffering from the type of poverty linked to the goal for the month we are talking about during the given month (e.g., April 2024).
For further details on the goal of the month and its selection procedure including its support, please contact CENFACS.
Extra Messages
• All-year Round Projects Cycle (Triple Value Initiatives Cycle) – Step/Workshop 8: Monitoring and Observability of Your Play, Run and Vote Projects
• Shop at CENFACS’ Zero Waste e-Store during This Spring Giving Season
• CENFACS’ be.Africa Forum E-discusses Energy Transition Minerals and Poverty in Africa
• All-year Round Projects Cycle (Triple Value Initiatives Cycle) – Step/Workshop 8: Monitoring and Observability of Your Play, Run and Vote Projects
To count what is happening and happened to your Play, Run and Vote Projects, you need to monitor and track them. Monitors or trackers will help you to do that. Likewise, observing your Play, Run and Vote Projects will assist in knowing what happened. Before giving an example of monitoring and observability of your Play, Run and Vote Projects, let us first explain both monitoring and observability.
• • What Is Monitoring Your Play, Run and Vote Projects about?
It is the step during which you regularly observe and record the activities of your Play, Run and Vote Projects. As part of this process, you will routinely and regularly collect information about the outcome of all aspects of your Play, Run and Vote Projects as the theory of monitoring suggests. The monitoring exercise will help you to check your progress against your project plans. You can plan specific dates for your project progression monitoring. If your Play, Run and Vote Projects involve other participants; then you can ask them to tell you what they think about the projects.
• • What Is Observability of Your Play, Run and Vote Projects about?
According to ‘ibm.com'(11),
“Observability is the ability to understand a complex system’s internal state based on external outputs. When a system is observable, a user can identify the root cause of a performance problem by looking at the data it produces without additional testing or coding”.
So, observability will inform what is happening, while monitoring will tell you when something is wrong in your Play, Run and Vote Projects.
• • Example of Monitoring Your All-year Round Projects
Let say you want to monitor your Run to Reduce Poverty in Africa. To monitor it, you will need…
~ to cover all the activities making your Run
~ to find out what all the participants think about your project
~ to know who take part in the run, their number and the frequency of their participation
~ to find the met and unmet needs
~ to identify the problems you encounter in the process of running your project
~ to figure out the resources needed for the project and the costs of running it
etc.
• • Example of Observability of Your All-year Round Projects
You can observe your Run to Reduce Poverty in Africa. Through its observability, you can
~ understand running issues
~ analyse the output data about your Run
~ detect the issues early and explore ways of resolving them
~ propose actionable insights to fix these issues
etc.
• • Recording Your All-year Round Projects
You need as well to keep all the records about the project and ask for the comments from anyone who gets involved with your Run Project.
You can do it on an outcome-monitoring sheet for effectiveness in the way you are collecting and keeping record. An outcome-monitoring sheet can include any skills, any improvement in motivation and aspirations, any boost in confidence and self-esteem, etc. that you or your participants have gained or increased as a result of your project.
You need to record changes and effects as they happen. You can keep notes of any success and failure about your project, the numbers of people involved in it and the numbers of those who benefited.
Please remember to make sure that the records you are keeping and the notes you are taking will help you to decide who is your Runner of Poverty Reduction in Africa 2024.
For those who would like to dive deeper into Monitoring and Observability of their Play or Run or Vote project, they should not hesitate to contact CENFACS.
• Shop at CENFACS’ Zero Waste e-Store during This Spring Giving Season
CENFACS e-Store is opened for your Spring goods donations and goods purchases.
At this time, many household expenditures have been squeezed by the cost of living pressures mostly driven by the hikes in prices of basic life-sustaining needs (e.g., food, transport, housing, council tax, phone, etc.). This is despite the fact that inflation is now low (almost between 3% and 4%) compared to last Spring’s figure (around 8.7%) , and the reduction of energy price in the UK.
The impacted of the cost of living pressures need help and support as prices and bills are still higher while real incomes are less for many of those living in poverty.
Every season or every month is an opportunity to do something against poverty and hardships. This April too is a good and great month of the year to do it.
You can donate or recycle your unwanted and unneeded goods to CENFACS’ Charity e-Store, the zero waste shop built to help relieve poverty and hardships.
You can as well buy second hand goods and bargain priced new items and much more.
CENFACS’ Charity e-Store needs your support for SHOPPING and GOODS DONATIONS.
You can do something different this Season of Goods Donations by SHOPPING or DONATING GOODS at CENFACS Charity e-Store.
You can DONATE or SHOP or do both:
√ DONATE unwanted Easter GOODS, GIFTS and PRODUCTS to CENFACS Zero Waste e-Store this April and Spring.
√ SHOP at CENFACS Zero Waste e-Store to support noble and beautiful causes of poverty relief this April and Spring.
Your SHOPPING and or GOODS DONATIONS will help to the Upkeep of the Nature and to reduce poverty and hardships brought by the cost of living pressures.
This is what the Season of Giving is all about.
Please do not hesitate to donate goods or purchase what is available at CENFACS Zero Waste e-Store.
Many lives have been threatened and destroyed by the cost of living pressures.
We need help to help them come out poverty and hardships caused by these pressures.
To donate or purchase goods, please go to: http://cenfacs.org.uk/shop/
• CENFACS’ be.Africa Forum E-discusses Energy Transition Minerals and Poverty in Africa
Energy transition in Africa goes through energy transition minerals that Africa possesses. However, this transition via minerals that Africa has will be meaningful only if these minerals continue to serve poor people and poverty reduction causes in Africa. But, what are these energy transition minerals?
• • Brief Understanding of Energy Transition Minerals
The United Nations Environment Programme (12) explains that
“Energy transition minerals are naturally occurring substances, often found in rocks, that are ideal for use in renewable technology… Lithium, nickel and cobalt are components of batteries, like those that power electric vehicles”.
These minerals of energy transition can fasten energy transition. They are technological innovations developed to support energy transition. They include cobalt, copper, lanthanum, lithium, for electric vehicles; platinum, palladium, rhodium for fuel cells; copper, neodymium, terbium for wind energy transitions, etc.
They are found in many countries including Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, there is a dilemma between where these minerals are found in Africa and poverty in Africa.
• • Dilemma Surrounding Africa’s Minerals and Poverty in Africa
A the moment, Africa has the world’s highest number of poor people and is the lowest emitter of greenhouse gases. In other words, Africa ’emits’ more poverty than greenhouse gases.
Regarding Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions, a recent study conducted by Yolandi Ernst of the University of Witwatergrand in South Africa (13) reveals the following:
“Although the rate carbon emissions in Africa is increasing (because of natural ecosystems such as the soil and plants in grasslands, savannas and forests) are converted for agricultural purposes, Africa is still emitting less carbon emissions compared to the other regions of the world”.
This is when one considers both the natural and anthropogenic emissions.
Additionally, the website ‘globalissues.org’ (14) states that
“An estimated 3.8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are emitted by Africa, but only two percent of the proportion of renewable energy investment went to Africa in 2023”.
Concerning poverty in Africa, the website ‘statista.com’ (15) notices that
“In 2024, around 429 million people in Africa were living in extreme poverty, with the poverty threshold at 2.15 U.S. dollars a day. The number of poor people on the continent increased compared to the previous years. However, poverty in Africa is expected to decline slightly in the coming years, even in the face of a growing population. The number of inhabitants living below the extreme poverty line would decrease to 402 million by 2030”.
The same ‘statista.com’ (16) explains that
“In March 2024, over 11 percent of the world population in extreme poverty, with the poverty threshold at 2.15 U.S. dollars a day, lived in Nigeria. Moreover, the Democratic Republic of Congo accounted for around 10 percent of the global population in extreme poverty. Other African countries with a large poor population were Tanzania, Mozambique, and Madagascar”.
If one believes in the above-mentioned figures of poverty, it means that in 2030 poverty will still be in Africa with a large number of extreme poor. Yet, greenhouse gas emissions in Africa will be less in Africa compared to the rest of the regions of the world.
Because of the stubbornness of poverty in Africa, there is a need to argue that energy transition minerals would be meaningful to the eyes of this high number of poor in Africa only if they free these people from poverty, in particular energy and climate poverty. In other words, it is good to expect energy transition minerals in Africa to do more in the fight against global adverse climate change. Equally, it is greatly important to make sure that Africa’s energy transition minerals go the extra mile in reducing and perhaps ending poverty in Africa. This argument makes up the focus of our e-discussion for this week.
Those who may be interested in this discussion can join in and or contribute by contacting CENFACS’ be.Africa, which is a forum for discussion on matters and themes of poverty reduction and sustainable development in Africa and which acts on behalf of its members in making proposals or ideas for actions for a better Africa. They can contact us at our usual address on this site.
Message in French (Message en français)
• Magasinez sur la boutique en ligne Zéro Déchet du CENFACS pendant cette saison printanière des dons
La boutique en ligne du CENFACS est ouverte pour vos dons de marchandises de printemps et vos achats de marchandises.
À l’heure actuelle, de nombreuses dépenses des ménages ont été comprimées par les pressions exercées par le coût de la vie, principalement en raison de la hausse des prix des produits de première nécessité (nourriture, transport, logement, taxe d’habitation, téléphone, etc.). Et ce, malgré le fait que l’inflation est désormais faible (près de 3 % à 4 %) par rapport au chiffre du printemps dernier (environ 8,7 %), et la baisse du prix de l’énergie au Royaume Uni.
Les personnes touchées par les pressions exercées par le coût de la vie ont besoin d’aide et de soutien, car les prix et les factures sont encore plus élevés, tandis que les revenus réels sont moindres pour de nombreuses personnes vivant dans la pauvreté.
Chaque saison ou chaque mois est l’occasion de faire quelque chose contre la pauvreté et les difficultés. Ce mois d’avril est aussi un bon et excellent mois de l’année pour le faire.
Vous pouvez faire un don de ou recycler vos produits non désirés et inutiles à la boutique en ligne caritative de CENFACS, la boutique zéro déchet conçue pour aider à soulager la pauvreté et les difficultés.
Vous pouvez également acheter des biens d’occasion et des articles neufs à prix cassés et bien plus encore.
La boutique en ligne caritative du CENFACS a besoin de votre soutien pour les achats et les dons de marchandises.
Vous pouvez faire quelque chose de différent en cette saison des dons de marchandises en faisant du shopping ou en faisant un don de marchandises à la boutique en ligne de la charité CENFACS.
Vous pouvez faire un don ou magasiner ou faire les deux:
√ FAITES DON de MARCHANDISES, de CADEAUX et de PRODUITS de Pâques non désirés à la boutique en ligne Zéro Déchet du CENFACS en avril et au printemps.
√ ACHETEZ sur la boutique en ligne Zéro Déchet du CENFACS pour soutenir les nobles et belles causes de lutte contre la pauvreté en avril et au printemps.
Vos ACHATS et/ou DONS DE BIENS contribueront à l’entretien de la nature et à réduire la pauvreté et les difficultés causées par les pressions du coût de la vie.
C’est l’objectif de la Saison des dons.
N’hésitez pas à faire un don ou à acheter ce qui est disponible sur la boutique en ligne Zéro Déchet du CENFACS.
De nombreuses vies ont été menacées et détruites par les pressions exercées par le coût de la vie.
Nous avons besoin d’aide pour les aider à sortir de la pauvreté et des difficultés causées par ces pressions.
Pour faire un don ou acheter des biens, rendez-vous sur: http://cenfacs.org.uk/shop/
Main Development
• ICDP (Individual Capacity Development Programme) Resource, Holiday with Relief – In Focus for Spring 2024 Issue: Holiday with Restricted Budget
How to make your holiday plan with budgetary restrictions attached to it
Looking forward to building holiday budget with manageable restrictions?
You are in the right place as the following contents will show you:
∝ What Is Holiday with Relief (HwR)?
∝ What Is the Focus for This Year’s HwR?
∝ Reduction of Holiday Poverty
∝ For Whom This Resource Is Designed
∝ Types of Holiday Budget Restrictions
∝ Holiday Plan and Budget
∝ Ways of Dealing with Holiday Budget Restrictions
∝ Organisations Dealing with Holiday Budgets, Grants and Matters
∝ Needing Help and Support to Deal with Restrictions Attached to Your Holiday Budget.
Let us summarise these contents.
• • Content Summaries, Tips and Hints about Spring 2024 Holiday with Relief
• • • What Is Holiday with Relief?
Holiday with Relief (HwR) is an awareness, preparedness and solutions focussed Resource to Manage Information over holidays (e.g. Easter and Summer holidays).
As an Information Manager, HwR is a set of life-changing tips and tricks to help and enable vulnerably unaware people to plan and have their holiday or break with confidence in taking into account all aspects of life and by making sure that key areas of those life aspects are not adversely affected.
• • • What Is the Focus for This Year’s HwR?
The focus for HwR for this year is on Holiday with Restricted Budget. It is about providing a set of life-enhancing tips and hints to support those who are looking for simple but practical advice to reduce or manage restrictions linked to their holiday budget.
• • • Reduction of Holiday Poverty
This Spring Season, we shall find ways of working with the members of our community who are likely to face holiday poverty because of various circumstances but in particular due to the lack of means to enjoy a decent holiday, whether they stay at home or are away from their home. We hope that working together with them will help them avoid holiday poverty trap or to exacerbate it.
Through this wealth of information contained in the ‘Holiday with Relief’, we will try together to tackle holiday poverty, particularly poverty linked to restricted budget or limited means to enjoy a decent holiday whether at home or away from home.
• • • For Whom This Resource Is Designed
This resource is primarily designed for the CENFACS Community members and those related to them.
The resource also caters for the following:
√ Those who are looking for some basic ideas about how to build holiday budget that has restrictions
√ Those who are searching for holiday funding schemes and programmes with minimal or without restrictions
√ Those who are willing to create holiday plan and budget that meet funder/donor requirements or restrictions or prohibitions
√ Disabled people and their carers
√ Those looking to raise money for their holiday trips
√ Those wanting to fund their respite break as disabled persons and their carers
√ Anyone interested in funding for holiday with with budgetary restrictions.
• • • Types of Holiday Budget Restrictions
As briefly explained in the Key Messages, Holiday with Restricted Budget can happen in the following three cases:
a) “When a family is on a restricted budget, it means it is limiting its spending “, according to ‘pocketsense.com’ (op. cit.)
b) When a funder or donor, who funds your holiday, adds restrictions to their gift by telling you that the funds you require for holiday must be used for the purpose agreed upon by you and whoever funds your holiday (here holiday funder or donor), according to ‘pairsoft.com’ (op. cit.)
c) If the person who sponsored your holiday project does it through a policy on restricted funds budget or a reserve of money that can only be used for holiday projects or purposes..
Advice, tips and hints can help to manage or overcome some of these restrictions.
• • • Holiday Plan and Budget
The starting point to plan your holiday is to have a plan for your holiday and a budget for it.
Regarding your holiday plan, you need to include the following:
where to go if not staying at home, when to go, how to go, who to go with, where to stay, what to do, what to eat, when to return, etc.
Concerning your holiday budget, the theory recommends to take inventory or stock of last year’s holiday accounts. In practice, you will use your last year’s holiday expenses and divide them by 12 to obtain the monthly amount of saving or spending you need to budget for the next holiday.
To create your holiday budget, you can use the following steps as provided by ‘hrss.cpa’ (17):
Income evaluation, setting spending limit, review of past expenses, allocation of funds, expense monitoring, future planning, and adaptability to challenges.
However, you should bear in mind that there are economic factors (like changes in interest rate, exchange rate, inflation, the cost of living, the cost of holidaying, etc. ) you should include when working your numbers. You budget will be adjusted for these factors. You could as well use an online holiday budget calculator to do it for you.
• • • Ways of Dealing with Holiday Budget Restrictions
There is a number of ways or strategies that can be used to handle holiday budget restrictions and prohibitions, particularly when those restrictions come from holiday funders or donors. These ways or strategies of handling holiday budget restrictions include the following:
√ Amending your holiday budget and getting it approved by your holiday sponsor
√ Making your holiday project expenditures not to exceed the budget agreed
√ Offering a choice of designation for a restricted holiday fund to be used to your holiday funder or donor
√ Asking a donor to reconsider their restrictions if and where possible
√ Seeking flexibility to your holiday donor about the allocation funds to your holiday, whether for temporary or permanent restrictions
√ Suggesting alternative use of unused or unspent holidays funds/grants
√ Rejecting holiday donation with restrictions you cannot comply with
√ Bringing your own restrictions direct to holiday donor
Etc.
The above-mentioned strategies or techniques show that it is possible to manage restrictions, whether temporary or permanent ones, in the context of holiday restricted budget. It all depends on they types of restrictions, whether they are tough or soft, the value of the holiday donations, the level of flexibility of donor or funder as well as the flexibility your have in your own holiday budget.
• • • Organisations Dealing with Holiday Budgets, Grants and Matters
Paying for a family holiday is not always easy, especially for those families on low income brackets. There are organisations that can help pay for your/family holiday, however their support can sometimes come with budgetary restrictions. These organisations are specialised in holiday matters relating to people in need.
Some of these organisations provide grants, organisations like the following:
The Children Hope Foundation, Donna’s Dream House, Heswall Disabled Children’s Holiday Fund, Kids Cancer Charity, The Oliver Curd Trust, Sebastian’s Action Trust, Youth Cancer Trust, The Calvet Trust, Sandcastle Trust, Hannah’s Holiday Appeal, Brarretstown, After Umbrage, Tourism for All UK, etc.
There are organisations that give short breaks and holidays to families caring for a child with complex disabilities or health issues (e.g., www.togetherforshortlives.org.uk).
There are organisations that deal with family holiday grants or short break activities (e.g., The 3H Foundation, The Henry Smith Charity).
There are other organisations that are specialised in grants for disabled children and adults, adventurous holidays for adventurous families, etc.
Most of the organisations listed in this Spring 2024 Issue of Holiday with Relief are generally from the charity and voluntary sectors.
For those who are interested in them, it will be a good idea to check their funding/grant requirement, size, length, decision timescale, deadline and qualifying criteria.
For those who may be having some problems in finding these details, they can contact CENFACS for guidance and support.
• • • Needing Help and Support to Deal with Restrictions on Your Holiday Budget
CENFACS can work with the members of its community to find ways of handling restrictions on their holiday budget. We can guide them/you to find help for restrictions removal from their holiday budget. We can arrange for them/you to speak to specialists around restricted funding for holiday related to vulnerable people. We can as well signpost them/you to organisations offering holiday funding service to those in need.
Additionally, there are charities and voluntary organisations that can help around holiday budget matters such as
∝ paying for a holiday via restricted or unrestricted support for holidays
∝ finding the right holiday for families with a member with a chronic condition
∝ finding a break and or respite.
CENFACS can as well work with the members of its community to streamline holiday budget processes and achieve better results in terms of spending by guiding them on the following matters:
∝ what to do with unused holiday funds
∝ how to use unrestricted/unassigned/undesignated/designated fund balance to help balance your holiday budget
∝ how to coordinate your needs of raising funds for your holiday and the necessities of accounting for the holiday money raised to be received
∝ what to do unspent holiday grants
etc.
We hope that the above content summaries will provide an insightful idea about this year’s Issue of Holiday with Relief.
For those users who would like to dive into Holiday with Restricted Budget, we can provide them with online and print resources (e.g., a list of organisations providing holidaying support for those in need) relating to Holiday Budget.
To support Holiday with Restricted Budget and get the full Spring 2024 Issue of ICDP Resource (Holiday with Relief), please contact CENFACS.
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• References
(1) https://pocketsense.com/restricted-budget-8444362.html (accessed in April 2024)
(2) https://www.pairsoft.com/blog/nonprofit-budget-restricted-funds/ (accessed in April 2024)
(3) https://count.co.uk/essential-vs-non-essential-spending-how-do-you-prioritize/ (accessed in April 2024)
(4) Park, C. (2011), A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation, Oxford University Press Inc., Oxford & New York
(5) https://www.thebalancemoney.com/the-50-30-20-rule-of-thumb-453922 (accessed in April 2024)
(6) https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/70-20-10-budget (accessed in April 2024)
(7) https://www.miza.app/70-15-15-budget-rule (accessed in April 2024)
(8) https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/budgeting/budget-planner (accessed in April 2024)
(9) https: //nanonets.com/blog/what-is-spend-management/ (accessed in April 2024)
(10) https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/57a089de5274a31e000013e/SocialProtection.pdf (accessed in April 2024)
(11) https://www.ibm.com/blog/observability-vs-monitoring/ (accessed in April 2024),
(12) https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/what-are-energy-transition-minerals-and-how-can-they-unlock-clean-energy-age (accessed in April 2024)
(13) https://theconversion.com/africa-now-emits-as-much-carbon-as-it-stores-landmark-new-study-226522 (accessed in April 2024)
(14) https://www.globalissues.org/news/2024/02/05/35910 (accessed in April 2024)
(15) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1228533/number-of-people-living-below-the-extreme-poverty-line-in-africa/ (accessed in April 2024)
(16) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1228553/extreme-poverty-as-share-of-global-population-in-africa-by-country/ (accessed in April 2024)
(17) https://hrss.cpa/budgeting-for-the-holidays-guide-to-keeping-your-finances/ (accessed in April 2024)
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• Help CENFACS Keep the Poverty Relief Work Going this Year
We do our work on a very small budget and on a voluntary basis. Making a donation will show us you value our work and support CENFACS’ work, which is currently offered as a free service.
One could also consider a recurring donation to CENFACS in the future.
Additionally, we would like to inform you that planned gifting is always an option for giving at CENFACS. Likewise, CENFACS accepts matching gifts from companies running a gift-matching programme.
Donate to support CENFACS!
FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ NOBLE AND BEAUTIFUL CAUSES OF POVERTY REDUCTION.
JUST GO TO: Support Causes – (cenfacs.org.uk)
Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.
Thank you as well to those who made or make comments about our weekly posts.
We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support throughout 2024 and beyond.
With many thanks.
