How to live on 65 per week?

DavidHayton

Hi, sorry about your situation. Some ideas:
Do make use of the local library. My library is much warmer than my house, free lighting and free newspapers.
Food ... do not be too proud to find out when shops discount short-dated stock. My local co-op knocks 50% or more of the cost of short-dated stock first thing in the morning. Much of this can be frozen.
Keep an eye on your electric meter so that you become familiar with what costs you money. I was horrified by the effect of my electric shower. It is fine to save hot water in a flask to save boiling the kettle, but an extra minute in the shower will undo all your good work
If you have broadband, make sure you make the most of Quidco/Topcashback free cash. Its your view pay you 70p per survey. Small amounts but they can add up and in the context of £65 per week. Also, is there anything you can sell on ebay? Perhaps stuff that you have just picked up in a jumble sale???
Just some ideas ... there are no magic solutions.

Best wishes ... david

FatVonD

PasturesNew wrote: »

The OP doesn't qualify for those. The daughter is 20, so an adult.

For the OP to get WTC she'd have to work 30 hours/week and be earning under about £13,500.

Then... she's still got to find an actual job and win it.

We've no idea what job the OP did previously, she's in a council house, so rent's dead cheap, but it might be possible for her to become self-employed at some point if she's not getting interviews/offers as she'd only have to start with a target of beating JSA+rent+CT, which is easier than trying to do the same in a private rent (which renders it frighteningly unachievable).

One step at a time...

Thanks, Pastures New, I'm *so* out of touch!

BitterAndTwisted

GOW41: you need to turn that central heating OFF! I survived last winter on one hour a day of heating and that was only one radiator and hot-water for about 15 minutes a day for bathing. My bill came in in February at £65. Granted I was wearing thermal undies 24/7, fleeces plus layers of thermal socks but IT CAN BE DONE. My one luxury was the electric blanket on for ten minutes at night which was money well-spend in my opinion.

Start ruthlessly de-cluttering and set aside absolutely everything you can get up on ebay. New clothing can be bought from charity-shops quite easily when absolutely necessary. I've only spent about £30 on clothes in the last 12 months.

grumpyoldwoman41

Frankly, I absolutely loved my job as such but absolutely hated the place I was working at and in a way I am glad to be out of there.

I do not want to go back to my exact line of work (IT Training) but want to stay within some sort of teaching.

I would absolutely love to work withn a charity sector with perhaps adult education in basic skills or IT but in a set up where I can actually HELP people to better themselves rather than train very stuck up staff on systems they have to use but have on interest in.. a bit complicated.

Taking on any job - perhaps. The problem here is that while working my expenses go much higher up so the job needs to be able to cover those - as we all know, travel is expensive for example, I also used to have a dog walker while I was working as can not leave the dog alone for 9-10 hours per day.

But as PasturesNews wisely said - one step at a time......

I am very happy with today as bringing all down by £119.50 per month is a great start - although still long way to go.

The idea about selling the phone is brillinat as I can put the sim in another phone (got a spare one at home) but have some cash from selling the Blackberry...

Do not have an Ebay account, need to work out how to do it, never bought/sold anything on the Ebay so possibly something to learn.

Slow cooker and steamer will get more use now (once I dust them properly) and the bread maker too....

Thanks again everyone for your encouragement and help here....

red_devil

look at up your income board on here.

Indie_Kid

Do you have nectar and boots card? if you need to buy things from Boots and places that accept Nectar card, you can buy things using the points you've got, instead of money.

novagirl

There's a company in the Netherlands that reimburse your money spent on fruit and veg each month up to £25. You just send them your receipts and packaging and just have to fill in a survey. Don't know if they're still taking people on but it's worthwhile and would help you out Will get you the link to the bit on the forums

TASTE RADAR
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2246819

grumpyoldwoman41

Thanks - do nto shop at Boots, more of a poundland person here really....

Added up my bills as they stand now and this is what I get:

Gas £ 30.00
Electric £ 20.00
TV License £ 12.00
SKY £ 43.00
BT £ 37.00
Mobile £ 25.00
Pet Insurance £ 30.47
Internet £ 12.18
Dog tablets £ 30.00
Water Rates £ 25.22
Total £ 264.87

JSA £ 281.00

Left after bills £ 16.13

Need to cut some more somewhere as obviously can not live on £16 per month for myself ant the furies...

Will be talking to SKY again tomorrow and to the BT - my BT is high as called a lot of mobiles abroad at some point and they calculated my usage based on that as I owe them money, I pay the same amount, £37 per month till it gets paid... sigh....

katiesmummy

grumpyoldwoman41 wrote: »

Thanks - do nto shop at Boots, more of a poundland person here really....

Added up my bills as they stand now and this is what I get:

Gas £ 30.00 Electric £ 20.00 TV License £ 12.00 SKY £ 43.00 BT £ 37.00 Mobile £ 25.00 Pet Insurance £ 30.47 Internet £ 12.18 Dog tablets £ 30.00 Water Rates £ 25.22
£ 264.87

JSA £ 281.00

Left after bills £ 16.13

Call sky again- you should be able to get that to £20 a month or under, think you should try and cut the mobile again- call and ask whats the best deal they can give for say £15 a month, although I think part of the reason you are paying a lot is because you have an expensive phone.

Why are you paying £37 for BT and then another £13 odd for internet? ETA I have seen your edit on previous post- its worth asking if you can reduce the payment for the time being.

Your dogs meds will hopefully be cheaper via PDSA or whoever is your local animal charity and to be honest at the price you are paying you can't afford the pet insurance.

grumpyoldwoman41

With the dog I have I can not afford not to have pet insurance I am afraid.... 38kg of a dog ... Cats I have cancelled now.

Dogs meds are so called supplementary, herbal really and not really prescribed by the vet - but they do help her a lot for her joints, doubt I could get those via charity vets...

BT is a big problem....Need to find out exactly how much do I owe them really and possibly spread it over longer period of time (and bring the price down)...