My challenge - living on virtually nothing!

8pnoodles

I don't even know what format they are on at the moment, tapes, CD, whatever, think one is a CD rom?

I intend to do proper german lessons mid to late next year after this "not spending money" experiment has ended.

So I was going to sell them on at that point. If I can make copies I will though, thanks for the idea!

monkeylugs

8pnoodles wrote:

I also want to learn how to write websites.

All other suggestions gratefully recieved!

Sorry haven't read all other replies yet, but there is a free course here: http://www.creatingcareers.net/channels/courses/it3.asp dunno how good they are though, but it might keep you out of trouble

Right - off to read rest of messages now

homersimpson_3

first of all you cannot exist on nothing - you will have to buy food to live, pay bills etc-and it is nonsensical even to try!. but you can live very healthily on a small budget. don't even think or attempt to starve yourself by living off just bread and carrots or whatever- your body needs energy and nutrients- if you don't get them you'll get ill, lose your job and have no income which defeats the object of saving money to pay bills. something like the following should suffice:
always have breakfast- (important meal of day and if you don't you'll only end up with hunger pangs forcing you to buy things from shops which means you end up wasting money)
always take packed lunch to work- works out much cheaper than buying sandwiches in boots, gregs or wherever. if you don't make them one day don't beat yourself up over it- happens to everyone (including homer)
make sure you have a proper tea/dinner and have lots of snacky foods.
fill up freezer and cupboards as soon as you get paid so you won't starve to death! if you run out of money. some of basic foods ok - largely depends on taste. £20 per week should be plenty for a single person.

8pnoodles

The aim is not to live on nothing, it's to live on virtually nothing.

Most people make a budget and stick to it. I am trying a different approach, trying to see how low I can go, how little I can exist on and still yes, stay alive and keep my job.

This means not spending any money if possible on going out, entertainment, as little as possible on food. My bills are pretty much fixed.

I intend to keep this up for probably an absolute maximum of six months. So when I tell my mates I can't go out and spend lots of money with them, they know it's only temporary. I feel less guilty saying no I can't go out to something or other when I know it's not a permanent way of life, just something I have to do for the moment. I am slowly becoming more comfortable with saying no.

I'm hoping I get the chance to be extremely creative.

I'm also hoping that when I stop this experiment I will have learnt how to live much more cheaply than I thought possible.

Lastly I'm hoping that by being fairly open and honest about my debt and really detailed about the way I'm going to handle it, that other people in debt get encouragement or inspiration, and admitting you're in debt becomes less of a taboo. I am happy to tell people how much debt I'm in where I work now. It's amazing how many tell me their stories too.

apprentice_tycoon

I think that you have a good workable plan, you seem to be prepared to see this as a survival challenge SAS style and it's good that you are going to keep your blog going for all to see.
I think that it would it be a good idea to break up your austerity for a weekend every month so if you get really fed up with it you know that you have a break coming up, you will be able to cope better if you know that you have proper breaks planned rather than getting so cheesed off that you have a blow out and then feel bad about it

8pnoodles

I find it odd that people do feel the need to "treat" themselves and have to spend money on nothing once in a while.

I completely see your logic about breaking it up a bit but that kinda defeats the object of what I want to do. We shall see how it goes though!

I am going to aim for treating myself without spending money. Making myself feel good/happy wthout the need to go buy stuff for the sake of it.

I know it's extremely idealistic. But I'm interested in if it's possible?

And as I've said I only intend to keep this up until January, or maybe six months at the most.

I'm going to find Christmas a challenge! Luckily I've already bought my bloke his present. I'm thinking of making fudge and sweets and stuff for everyone else. Found a cool website that tells you how to make bath bombs and bath salts (I actually used to work for Lush making bath bombs as a temporary job once!).

From this website I love the flavoured vodka idea. Years back a mate of mine used to make mars bar flavoured vodka, so I think I've found my xmas pressie for my brother!

I love this website!

madfrenchgirl

Hey 8pnoodles!

How old are you? I know I am not in debt but as I said I am trying to save as much as possible for buying a house! Shall we become support friends?

LOL

8pnoodles

I'm 30. Maybe this is my mid life crisis?

Ultimately yes I'd love to be able to save money to buy a house too. My parents gave me a present of £2.5K a while back to be puttowards a deposit for me to buy a house. I'm not allowed to use it for anything else. but the very second I'm out of debt I'm suddenly on my way to saving up!

How much are you trying to save?

Feel free to post comment on my blog, you can do them anonymously or just put your name in under "other", you don't need to register or anything. That goes for everyone, I need all the support I can get!

madfrenchgirl

Well I am 23 (24 in December), and OH is 25! We used to rent separate rooms in separate places until we became friends with his landlords (who are 30ish) and they moved to a bigger house and offered us to live with them in their big double room. We are only paying 350 for the 2 of us for rent and bills but we also help them with redoing the house up.

We both have salaries of 18 and 19k, I get paid fuel from my company (I am a consultant) at 40p a mile, so gives between 350 and 400 pounds a month. It covers for both our monthly fuels at least (he drives about 44 miles one way and I drive in traffic jams towards London).

I already have savings of about 11k, my mom is ready to lend us 10k (I am a unique child and that was a divorce settlement money), we are hoping to raise about 34k in total so we can buy a house in Southampton (right next to his job) for a maximum of 140k. We want something that needs doing up (no double glazing, no central heating, redecoration, etc...).

AND we want to make overpayments on the house once it is done up so the bank does not suck the living life out of us!

Bargain_Rzl

8pnoodles wrote:

I'm 30. Maybe this is my mid life crisis?

Ultimately yes I'd love to be able to save money to buy a house too. My parents gave me a present of £2.5K a while back to be puttowards a deposit for me to buy a house. I'm not allowed to use it for anything else. but the very second I'm out of debt I'm suddenly on my way to saving up!

Do you have this £2.5k or are your parents looking after it for you until you're in a position to use it?

If you have it and it is currently sitting in a savings account, surely there is no harm in using it to reduce your loan (I notice that you've just started a new thread about how your loan is currently costing you £50 a month in interest alone). Is your loan flexible enough to allow you to make this overpayment?

You would not going against your parents' wishes, because you are not using it to reduce your actual debt - just as an offset (in other words, you then have to think of your debt-free date as when you have £2.5k in the bank again, not just when your debt stands at £0). Pay off £2.5k of the loan now. It will save you money in the long run.

You seem really motivated about this, so it really could work for you.