Living on nothing fo a year.

Fishcake_Random · 11 December 2006 at 6:28PM

I read in a magazine (in the libary naturally) about a lady who is living frugally (sp) for a year. She has spent less than £2500 for a whole year not including bills. I really fancy trying this next year maybe a little less extreme but it would be a really intresting challange.
i already grow my own veg and fruit and save money where i can.

does anyone know any good websites with tips on everything and recipes ect

so far i have frugal living and stretcher. does anyone know anyothers?
I`m planning on only paying electric, rent and my phone/internet package.

any ideas/advice would be really gratefully recieved.

Thanks in advance
Fishcake

lynzpower · 11 December 2006 at 6:30PM

freecycle.org

anything you need and plenty you dont given away for gratis to save the planet :beer:

Pink. · 11 December 2006 at 6:38PM

Hi Fishcake_Random,

The first one that springs to mind is www.downsizer.net

Another one mentioned on Old Style quite a lot is www.rivercottage.net

Pink

Fishcake_Random · 11 December 2006 at 6:55PM

thank you guys.
you have been duely thanked.

fishcake.

Bogof_Babe · 11 December 2006 at 7:01PM

I wouldn't call £48 a week (£2.5K a year) "nothing". Many posters on here live on this or less for a whole family. If I interpret your post right, you do mean just for food and day-to-day expenses, given that bills are excluded?

Anyway best of luck with your challenge, but it shouldn't be too hard if you are a single person and have £48 a week to budget with.

Prudent · 11 December 2006 at 7:09PM

Pink-winged wrote:

Hi Fishcake_Random,

The first one that springs to mind is www.downsizer.net

Pink

This site reminded of my parent's stint on a croft (goats, hens , home grown veg and homemade wine jam etc). I think their choice was much inspired by the comedy series the good life. Then it was called self sufficiency and they seemed to have lots of friends doing the same thing. Has it now been relablled down sizing?

Fishcake_Random · 11 December 2006 at 7:11PM

I intend to live on a little as possible.i think i could could cut that amount down to £5 possibly £10 a week.and there is myself and my partner doing it.
obviously soe weeks are free some are going to be more. its just an experiment really. lol
i`ll try keeping an online update on here might make an intresting read.

fishcake.

Bogof_Babe · 11 December 2006 at 7:23PM

Yes please do keep an update going on here, it will be a great thread. Don't forget there are loads of cheap recipes on this very board (follow the links to Squeaky's indexed collections...
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=56978
(sorry, I'm not sure how to do the short links).

You sound like you have the right attitude to start with, so I am really excited for you both. Go for it! :beer:

culpepper · 11 December 2006 at 7:40PM

self sufficientish is a good site (UK based) should be a link to it on downsizer that pink winged posted.
motherearthnews is an archive of live off the land etc Emagazines .
The dollarstretcher which is us based but has thousands of articles to browse through.

Blairweech · 11 December 2006 at 7:54PM

Would this be Not Buying it by any chance? I've been meaning to have a look at this, the concept seems quite interesting. BUT, apparently she was really frugal anyway, as opposed to a total spendthrift, so it wasn't that hard for her.

Anyway, this seems a great idea - please keep us updated! I'd be very interested to know what you do to resist temptation!

alec_eiffel · 12 December 2006 at 1:06PM

Blairweech wrote:

Would this be Not Buying it by any chance?

There is an interview with Judith Levine of "Not Buying It" fame here -

http://moneybloggerpodcast.blogspot.com/

From what she says here she wasn't all that frugal before hand, she mentions on this interview that she had CC debt to the tune of $8000 that she paid off during this year. Neither her nor her partner had much in the way of retirement savings either.

This interview did change the way I perceived the author as I'd seen her on tv a couple of times but almost dismissed it, but she has an interesting way of looking at things.

There's also Linda Cockburn, author of "Living the Good Life". This family tried to not spend any cash at all for 6 months. This gets more into self-sufficiency and all that than Levine but she's pretty interesting too. There's an interview with her here -

http://www.worldtalkradio.com/archive.asp?aid=8129

I'm aiming to not buy anything unnecessary in the next year too, should be fun!

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

Living on nothing fo a year.

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