How to live on 65 per week?

Billy_two_speakers

Penny-Pincher!! wrote: »

Would it be worth going on a water meter?



PP
xx

:eek: we are getting water meter fitted, not by choice they are doing all property around here, our bill at present is £290 they have told us that proerty like ours with 2 adults 2 children ... in this area on meters is £700

I contacted them, and found out you can ask to stay off the meter for 2 years while you adjust to having a meter or, if you have certain health problems and need to use extra water you can have a capped bill

you need a letter from dr one from hospital and letter from council in my case they said, and if I get them they will cap it at £370 per year for that your not allowed a sprinkler in the garden and you pool must not be bigger than 10,000 ltrs :rotfl:

dmg24

Billy_two_speakers wrote: »

:eek: we are getting water meter fitted, not by choice they are doing all property around here, our bill at present is £290 they have told us that proerty like ours with 2 adults 2 children ... in this area on meters is £700

I contacted them, and found out you can ask to stay off the meter for 2 years while you adjust to having a meter or, if you have certain health problems and need to use extra water you can have a capped bill

you need a letter from dr one from hospital and letter from council in my case they said, and if I get them they will cap it at £370 per year for that your not allowed a sprinkler in the garden and you pool must not be bigger than 10,000 ltrs :rotfl:

For most people a meter works out cheaper. This is almost always the case when there is only one person in the house.

Decluttering

I'm only on page 3 of this thread so far and there's one thing I haven't seen mentioned so far...would you be able to cope without internet in your house? I don't mean that to sound condescending, I just know that it's something I would personally prefer over a TV. If you have a library nearby it might be worth visiting there to get online when needed instead of paying to be hooked up at home.

EDIT - I'm now on page 8 and I've realised that getting rid of your internet connection wouldn't be an ideal solution, all the best in your search for a job / paying your bills though, it must be very difficult.

jasmin10

I have read all the posts with much interest and would like to add a couple of things I have done to save a bit each month.

The thing I did first was to get rid of BT so that I didnt have a land line and calls to pay out for. Obviously I cant live without my Internet (I would miss MSE too much lol) I have Virgin install my broadband so that I access the internet, this costs me £18 p month. Someone may know of other cheaper providers but Virgin are the only ones I know of that offer fibre optic Broadband without having a landline. For my calls I use my mobile. When I want to phone my relations in Australia (1p per min) or any 0800 numbers I use Skype. If I need to phone a company that has an 0845 number or the like, I go onto their website and email them for a call back to discuss xyz.

Just these couple of things alone save me a fortune in itself. I understand that you are stuck in a contract with sky, perhaps when the time comes think about Freeview etc if you are in the correct area.

Some excellent posts on this thread. It is so hard and I really understand where you are coming from. It is truely amazing sometimes how we end up managing. I know I have amazed myself in some of the money I have saved,

oh another thing I found today by going through paperwork, Jan is the last payment for Council Tax for a couple of months. That will be a free £145 for a couple of months. It really makes me smile to think of that. Maybe your in one of the councils whose council tax period runs from April to Jan.

Good luck x

littleowl

Hello, Not sure whether this will help but I ditched BT some time ago and have landline, Internet and mobile with o2. The total comes to around £22 per month plus I have to put £10 on my mobile (PAYG) every three months to qualify for the cheaper Internet. Not sure whether this offer is still on o2 but it might be worth checking. The deal also includes all calls to UK numbers and most other countries. If you can't change now because of your contract it might be something to consider for the future. I also use Skype which costs nothing to the UK or abroad.
I do not have a television, I use iPlayer and 4OD etc to watch television programmes the next day so that saves on the television licence etc.
Good luck!

vintagegirl

grumpyoldwoman41 wrote: »

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....

ive been reading your thread with interest and its my fear that this would be me too so well done for being so positive.
one suggestion i have is that you mentioned having a dog walker..... is that perhaps something you could advertise as doing yourself in the meantime while you job hunt.

you would be walking your own dogs anyway. sorry if its no use
love to you x

mel12

Sorry to hear you've lost your job I agree £65 is very low - I get about £90 a week after rent and council tax, and I find it difficult on that.

A couple of suggestions:

(1) The amount you can get on tax credits is only slightly less than you can get on JSA - and you can still get housing benefit/ council tax benefit if your income is low enough. Plus you can earn about 6K a year before the tax credits start being reduced.
if you get really fed up of the JSA and not having much luck finding any work an option could be to start your own business with low start-up costs (dog walking or whatever), and you'd only have to make about £5 a week to be better off than on JSA [this is my game plan if I lose my job!]
*tax credits are worked out on your income for the entire year, so you might need to wait till the new tax year in April to do it.


(2) You can legally watch catch-up TV online (iplayer, 4od etc) without a licence so long as you dont watch live tv. If you can manage without live TV, you could get rid of the television set and save the TV licence money, Sky etc fairly painlessly. I'm on a low income too and this is what I do.


(3) 'hidden' benefits - extra stuff you become entitled to if you're getting housing benefit or JSA - a lot of these are local so its worth looking into it.
You already know about PDSA free vet care for your pets,
also free prescriptions, eye tests & dental treatment
my local council has an 'access to leisure' card - giving free evening classes, reduced entry charges for the sports and other activities etc

(4) May not be an easy time to start - but actually putting a bit aside, even if its just £1 a month - especially if you can save with the credit union, giving you access to a loan in an emergency - such as a problem with JSA payments or something (nb not suggesting you actually take a loan if you can avoid it but it gives you the option). Credit unions lend based on your ability to save so past debt problems are usually irrelevant. It will take a while I know, but building up a slight savings buffer can really help- with things like being able to bulk-buy for example.

(5) I use a PAYG mobile, with £10 a month. If I can't afford the £10 one month, I have the option not to top it up.
With regards to the contract issue (and sky) - I'm wondering if you're planning to go bankrupt anyway - how much they can do if you cancel the contract and stop using the service/ hand the phone back if necessary - could any debts if they won't stop charging you be included in br anyway? (not sure on this point or the implications for future services- but something to look into)

(6) is it possible to get 3rd party liability only cover for dog insurance at a cheaper rate than one including vet care (which you can get from the PDSA)?

I apologise if any of this is impractical - like you say its about finding your own solutions, just a few ideas that you can take if they're helpful or leave if not. Its a question of setting priorities and choosing what you most want to keep if you can't afford everything, everyone has different priorites.

mel12

Also just read the bit about bus fares on your other thread - is cycling an option? I couldn't possibly afford to travel by bus but cycling gives me a lot of freedom (it all goes a bit wrong at this time of year due to the weather tho). I realise its not a practical option for everyone

Theres a few places around selling cheap second hand bikes. Or try freeagle /freecycle for free ones (the name changes depending on which part of the country but they're basically the same thing) - this is also good for stuff like slow cookers etc

nickinoo

littleowl wrote: »

.
I do not have a television, I use iPlayer and 4OD etc to watch television programmes the next day so that saves on the television licence etc.
Good luck!

Do you not need a license to watch those?

mel12

Nope
http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/playing_tv_progs/tvlicence