ITV. Fri 9 Jan, 8-8.30. PART 2 NOW Living Without Money

PasturesNew

His rules:
- Spend not a single penny
- No begging, borrowing, stealing
- No cheating
- Do this for real

I don't know the bloke's name... I'm rubbish with names.

PasturesNew

He's got a ticket to a new city 120 miles from home and has set out with a sleeping bag, toothbrush/toothpaste and some jim jams.

PasturesNew

Water: he needs a drink, looking in a bin. Found a bottle, will now fill it up with water in a pub.

Food: 8 hours since he ate something, back of a curry house. The bins, but they're locked.

10pm on his first night: not eaten anything, he has to find somewhere to sleep. Said hello to some fellow rough sleepers and they chased him off aggressively. "That was a bit of an education, I think I've just learnt a lesson. Don't dabble too much in what you don't understand. In my poncey, middle-class way I just went up to them and asked them what the form was and thankfully he didn't chase after me"

He's sleeping in a park it looks like. And it's not raining.

tessie_bear

this all looks horrible hes braver than me

PasturesNew

Into some public loos, brushing his teeth in those funny recessed hand cleaning holes - he was in the ladies loo.

Trying to get a free breakfast, he was told there's one at a church, but it's gone.

Oliver James, Author of a book Affluenza: People who have put too much importance on things are most likely to suffer from depression/anxiety and do some substance abuse if they start to lose them.

Oliver James suggests people try just one week to really limit what they are allowed to spend. He says they will very quickly realise what IS needed and what's not.

He's now scavenging for something to eat. He just finished off the dregs of somebody's cappacino and half a teacake they left at Starbucks.

He's now got a bag containing free aftershave, eau de toilette, free moisturising cream/cleanser.

He's now eyeing up some chocolate biscuits on the pavement. Yes, he ate one.

Betty/Peter Pickstock picked up pennies off the pavement for 22 years. Friends/family also chipped in. They have collected £369,850.31 in that time.
They drive around collecting coins in their car and have to use a shopping trolley to get the pennies to the bank.

He is in Bath. He went to talk to somebody and gets a coffee. Needs a bed for the night and he's off to get to a house he's heard about where he can squat. Tried hitching, but had to walk in the end. He's hitching now saying "Please give me a lift, I am not a mass murderer, honest". He's just been splashed by a passing car. But he found the house. Minging. He doesn't want to stay there but it's getting late so he'll have to.

PasturesNew

He will have to find somewhere else to sleep for the next night, he wouldn't stay there again.

He had a plan, get on the Internet, a website for couch-surfers. He's managed to get 15 minutes of free internet time. He's barely eaten for 2 days, but doesn't know what's wild and safe. He met Fergus Drennan the forager, who lives mostly on food that's found in the hedgerows etc.
1] Stinging nettles. "It's like tasty spinach"

Off to a farm: Exotic Jelly Ear Fungus + Wild Hawthorn Berry Jelly with honey and hazlenuts.

2] Found a hazlenut on a tree.
3] Hawthorn berries, for dessert
4] Edible jelly eared fungus for the main course, he found that on some dead elder

Fergus is doing the cooking. Making noodles from foraged acorns and wheatflour he made earlier.

He had an email from somebody calling himself Cloud on the couch-surfing website. He met Cloud and his gf. He is now on his own in their house, been told eat what you like, drink what you like and he is staying there for the next couple of nights.

Next he met a Freegan. Alf Montagu survives on food found free in bins, skips and by the roadside.

Cake rescued from an M&S bin. He dropped out of his high powered advertising job 9 years. Now he travels about in a camper van using old cooking oil as fuel.

He scoffed free cake there. Went looking for a bike at the local recycling centre, where you get all sorts of things for free. Alf suggests a bin raid for clothes and shoes.

He's got clothes, a nice black top and a cake in the shape of a dalek which he will give as a gift to the people he is staying with.

He's survived, but now, can he thrive?

http://www.itv.com/tonight

Streeet

You should get a job doing subtitles!!

PasturesNew

Streeet wrote: »

You should get a job doing subtitles!!

Jobs are for puffs.

longtimelurker_2

Streeet wrote: »

You should get a job doing subtitles!!

I agree!

I definitely wouldn't need the TV if you did this all the time PN.

amcluesent

Didn't Portillo once do a PR stunt of living on benefits for a couple of weeks?

Anyway, it's all very well dumpster-diving in Bath. Would there be such rich pickings in Middlesbrough?

mvengemvenge

PasturesNew wrote: »

Jobs are for puffs.

You calling me a puff???

I remember when Matthew Parris did his original World In Action in about 1986. He survived on a week's benefit and said, basically, it was quite easily achievable. These kind of things are ok to do as a one-off, to prove a point, but to live with virtually nothing for week after week, month after month, is a different story.