£33 per month for food!

HappyMJ

SailorSam wrote: »

Perhaps Op you could have a look on Freecycle for a bike, that will help save bus and taxi fares.
I have a carrier and panniers on mine so you should be able to carry most of what you buy.

Haven't found one yet... I could buy 1 but that would cost about £200 for a half decent bike plus at least £50 in accessories and £52 for the insurance including theft, public liability and recovery. I've lost 2 in my lifetime to theft so it's not an option to skip that. Maintenance cost me about £70 per year when cycling around 70 miles per week.

dave4545454

ready_to_jump wrote: »

Due to redundancy I have to try and survive on £33 per month for food.
I have and do buy food at the right times, and in the right places, but still struggle......

I'm 52, live alone, with a mortgage, do not want to lose my home, how do I eat for £33 a month?

If I get a job interview, I am totally stuffed because i have no money for a haircut....................

easy, my food bill for a month is £12. it can be done if you shop around.

as for money for a haircut, i have never spent a single penny on having my hair cut ever. my mum cut it when i was young and ever since i've cut my own hair. do it yourself, you'll save a lot of money

dave4545454

ready_to_jump wrote: »

do you not think I have reduced my outgoings to the absolute minimum, the next reduction is to cancel my home insurance and tv licence..............

i don't think you can cancel home insurance if you have a mortgage. however, you should definitely stop the tv license. tv license people have zero powers, just never let one into your house

passatrider

dmg24 wrote: »

Absolutely, but we have all had times when life has dealt us a bad hand, so we can say from experience that the only way that things are going to get better is if as individuals we make a change - no one can do that for us.

I have just been out for dinner, and whilst sat in a quiet restaurant a man came in and shouted 'Hello, I'm here!'. He got a few odd looks, but then people actually said hello back and we had a bit of a group conversation (Brits abroad!). Whilst I am not suggesting that the OP walks into an interview with the same gusto, it shows the influence an individual can have just through having a positive attitude.

I hope you didn't pay for dinner with taxpayers money??:rotfl:

dave4545454

PasturesNew wrote: »

Aldi eggs, 10p each
Lidl bread, 47p/loaf
Random bag of Asda spuds £1.37 for 2.5Kg (can buy cheaper)
Asda own brand beans, low sugar/salt, pack of four 99p. 3 portions/tin.
Cheese is £5/Kg, but you don't need a lot if you grate it.

you're paying far too much for bread. i wait for supermarkets to reduce their bread then grab as many loaves as possible to freeze. i've never spent more than 30p ever on a loaf of bread and often end up with quality loaves such as hovis/warbuton rahter than lidl's rubbish quality own brand.

dickydonkin

dave4545454 wrote: »

i don't think you can cancel home insurance if you have a mortgage. however, you should definitely stop the tv license. tv license people have zero powers, just never let one into your house

You are still breaking the law though - so perhaps not very good advice - and if a search warrant is obtained - you have no choice but to let the 'tv license people' into your house - although I concede that enforcement officers do not have much power.

When access is denied, then as I understand, detection equipment will be used to secure a prosecution, although there is the option of a search warrant - albeit a rare action.

The rest of us law abiding citizens who pay our TV licence will subsidise you.

SarEl

Of course, another option is to cancel the TV licence and sell the TV - that way you will not be breaking the law, you will not be risking a fine, and at least for a time you will have some money for food.

SailorSam

And if you want to watch a Tv programme there's always the Iplayer on your computer, i don't think you need a licence for that.

donquine

Living on pennies is not a fun experience, but it is one that can be achieved with the help on this website. If the OP hasn't already been there, a trip to the DFW board and Old Style board should provide some short term immediate solutions.

Looking more long term, having only £33 a month for food must be a fairly miserable experience, particularly if the OP previously had a well paid job and is used to a larger food budget. Yes, it's important to address the immediate issue of being able to pay the bills and not starving to death, but there's more to consider than that.

Without knowing where the OP lives, it's hard to comment sensibly, but £120 a month to live in a house alone strikes me as dirt cheap. Furthermore, the Job Centre forces you to start applying for each and every job after a few months, so to be unemployed for two years and claim JSA successfully, suggests that there simply aren't any jobs going nearby.

A low cost of living and a lack of jobs, indicates that the OP is living in a part of the country that has been hammered by the recession. To find work, the OP may have no choice but to move. I realise this may sound radical, however assuming the OP has genuinely spent the past 2 years trying to find alternative employment, it may well be the only solution.

OP, do you have any friends/family who live elsewhere in the UK, maybe in some of the larger cities? Could you apply for jobs c/o their addresses and possibly stay with them for a few months if you were to successfully land a job? You could potentially let your current house and then using the income from that and the extra income from working, rent a room in a shared house in a part of the country with better prospects. You wouldn't necessarily have to sell your current home, which I suspect what is currently holding you back. Becoming an accidental landlord is not a walk in the park (pop over to the House Buying, Selling & Renting board for advice), but it may be a good option for you nonetheless.

Best of luck in finding a way out of this.

catgil

dave4545454 wrote: »

easy, my food bill for a month is £12. it can be done if you shop around.

as for money for a haircut, i have never spent a single penny on having my hair cut ever. my mum cut it when i was young and ever since i've cut my own hair. do it yourself, you'll save a lot of money

How can you live on £12 a month????