Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Buzzbox

... just a general question out of curiousity, have anyone taking part in this challenge actually looked at renewable energy such as that nifty new gadget called !!!!!!!!!!?

P.S - I like this challenge...almost addicted to see what you guys do next

Frugaldom

Good afternoon, what a lot of busy bees we have been since yesterday. I did read the article in the Scotsman (uum - eternal cynic that I am also commented) and was amazed that anyone could find accommodation for £3000 per year that covered everything. That's only £57.53 per week for absolutely everything, which is exceptionally cheap. My last house share / room rent was £75 per week inclusive and that was in 2002!

Confession time - last night I HAD to switch on one of the heaters, so I chose the smallest room in the house so we don't freeze to death getting out the shower! It used 7 units of electricity, which is equivalent to nearly 50p per night!!! This is the smallest heater in the smallest room in the house on cheap rate electricity. I'm going to work out how much I would need to pay up front to cover a full year of rent & utilities. Back soon with the shock revelation.

Edited in: OK, living in a 3 room house, if all 3 of us split costs equally to pay everything up front for a year then it would amount to umm.... £3200 each plus the £366 living allowance, as per the book.:rotfl: So now I'm ashamed of the fact that it costs us £4000 for 3 of us for a year when it could clearly be done for £366 x 3 = £1098, which is actually just my grocery budget. :eek:

I wonder if I could get DS to pay me that? That would be £3200 a year dig money plus buy his own food? :rotfl: Oh, and we live rural, so none of the other freebies would be available near us. But now I MUST get that book from the library - I always walk to the library.

Prudent

nykmedia wrote: »

Confession time - last night I HAD to switch on one of the heaters, so I chose the smallest room in the house so we don't freeze to death getting out the shower! It used 7 units of electricity, which is equivalent to nearly 50p per night!!! This is the smallest heater in the smallest room in the house on cheap rate electricity. I'm going to work out how much I would need to pay up front to cover a full year of rent & utilities. Back soon with the shock revelation.

Sometimes its just worth economising on other things to keep warm. I have just worked out my annual combined gas and electricity and its £801 per year or £2.19 per day. I think £1.75 per day of that is dd's hairdryer and straightners :rolleyes:

Frugaldom

Prudent that is really good for your utilities! Ours is about double that when I factor in winter heating. I'm still working on the figures after reading that article, as the 4k in this challenge includes all the utilities - screening spending diary as we speak as there certainly could be a new challenge coming up - it's called trying to get grown-up kids in fulltime employment to pay their way. My DS would need to pay £68.20 per week and I can't help but laugh at his reaction if I'd to suggest that! :eek: :rotfl:

What are the general views on how much to charge kids for their keep?
How does anyone else work it out?
Anyone?

System

nykmedia wrote: »

Edited in: OK, living in a 3 room house, if all 3 of us split costs equally to pay everything up front for a year then it would amount to umm.... £3200 each plus the £366 living allowance, as per the book. :rotfl:

:rotfl:sooooo going to have to work out mine now

i think next years challenge should be called 'the neverending challenge' - or is that a bit depressing?

bad news - i missed jumbling today cos of my fingeritis
good news - my mummy went without me and got me a jumper - and brand new boots which cost 30p!! :T well done frugalmum

Frugaldom

I'm back again

I've closely examined my spending diary to see if it would be possible to live on £1 per day, as per Ms Kelly's book. And it is entirely plausible for a frugal lifer or someone with some form of security backing them and some simple preparation work, like stockpiling and plenty of free time for foraging and attending events where there's free food.

First of all, having an available £3000 in savings to pay up front plus a teaching job whilst living in a room rent situation suggests that the wardrobe department wouldn't be threadbare nor the person ill, so probably no new clothes or shoes needed, probably a stock of makeup and no medications or prescriptions to pay (other than emergency dental work that appears to have taken her over budget, but we don't know by how much.) I'd also expect there to be no need for buying household items as there was no household, it would be the responsibility of the landlord or, being shared facilities, easy to borrow or, even, acquire via some place like Freecycle.

1. Being able to cycle or walk to work means living close enough in the first place
2. The library would need to be within cycling /walking distance
3. The major high street stores would all need to be within walking/cycling distance for make-up & perfume samples etc
4. You need local bookshops to attend launches or art galleries to attend exhibitions etc.
5. Nightlife/social circle would need to be within walking distance and everything pre-arranged by word of mouth if there is no phone
6. For free chicken carcasses etc from a butcher, there would need to be a butcher within walking/cycling distance
7. Hitch-hiking alone for a holiday in France with no expenses for passport renewal, currency exchange, insurance, travel of any form - can't understand this part at all. All passengers need to pay somewhere along the line as far as I know.
8. All cards & presents would need to be homemade for everone for all occasions and no allowance made for wrappings, postage or delivery.
9. Why didn't Ms Kelly simply purchase the £1300 lifetime NTS membership for her brother from her savings?
10. I'd like to invite her and her new partner, the organic farm guy, to take the 4k challenge in 2009 - if anyone finds someone who knows them, please invite them here.

I think Ms Kelly's lifestyle change came about as an idea for a book after reading the MSE or similar forums, but I'm a cynic.

Come on - it has to be someone on here, who is going to own up to it? :rotfl:

lyndasharp

Hi again! Catching up on two weeks of messages is going to take me a while, so thought I'd just say hello then go back to the heap of washing / junk emails etc etc... Had a fab time in Scotland, lots of walking and didn't get rained on! Ireland was also fab though a bit more rainy and I didn't get the job :-( Hopefully I'll have a new 6 month contract waiting for me when I go into work on Monday.... if not I've had a couple of offers of temporary work so it won't be a total disaster....

The chickens are laying eggs, hooray! I'm going to bake a cake tomorrow! Our next door neighbour is so impressed she's going to get some chickens too!

bails

Ha ha, I love the frugal minds now working overtime on this scenario, it's been bugging me all day :rotfl:
JB, sorry the finger is hurting so much, great bargainhunting by Frugalmum though :T I am so darn jealous of your jumble sales!! I'm thinking neverending does sound a bit depressing...
Sorry you didn't get the job Lynda, hope the contract comes up and glad that you managed to avoid the rain on your hols, a real achievement in itself I'd say!
Nyk, I'll get in my car now, drive to Bruton and start calling out 'Oh, Poundwoman, where aaaare you?' *stalker status elevated me thinks*
Weezl and AM are on 50p a day for food each (plus 50p for Fergus the Foetus cos he's got to eat too )
The book was only published today so not in our library or local bookstores even yet.

redglass_2

nykmedia wrote: »

And it is entirely plausible for a frugal lifer or someone with some form of security backing them and some simple preparation work, like stockpiling and plenty of free time for foraging and attending events where there's free food. Quote]

Well, she was in shared accommodation, so not a huge lot of space for stockpiling. But she still had very cheap rent, especially if she was in an area posh enough to afford her access to all those cultural events she attended. Bristol has a mild climate, so low gas and elecky bills are possible. But how did she manage in France? It's not especially cheap there, and people don't take kindly to Brits scrounging about trying to get everything free. Did she stay with a friend, and if she could only spend £1 a day didn't the friend get a bit fed up? Possibly she paid her way by teaching English, since that seems to be what she does for a living - but in that case is it really a holiday?

Teachers usually have work to take home, so she wouldn't have plenty of free time to do all that running about after free makeovers (free makeovers? I don't know many frugal types who are very bothered about makeovers) and chicken carcasses. OK, maybe she works part-time, in which case she could. I'm still cynical. It seems to me the sort of story you'd concoct if you wanted to get everyone talking about your book, and she's succeeded in doing just that. I'll do like everybody else - get the book from the library and see what I think...:D

bails

She does work part-time and I got the impression that she didn't stockpile beforehand as it was a drunken bet she then stuck to. Her brother was doing up a place in France so she went to see him. The experiment was in 2006 so prices would've been cheaper but even so... I'm just really intrigued to see how she managed it!