£49 week challenge - everything in!..Nearly

beautifylife

Thanks to those who have replied so far. Hoping that I will get some more responses over the next few days. I am wondering if people aren't responding as they are unsure what more to suggest or if I just need to give it a bit more time.

Lets see.

merlin68

You do realise that you need to be registered as self employed and pay £2.50 national insurance a week as well. You'd do better on JSA surely, with just declaring any income. Then you would get £67 a week plus a fiver of any earnings.

VJsmum

OK my top 10 tips for my best friend

1. get a slow cooker (tho as a veggie this may be of less use)
2. buy "whoopsies" (yellow sticker reduced items as much as possible)
3. Batch cook in bulk
3. Use your freezer for the above 3
4. Close all doors and curtains to cut down draughts
5. invest in a fleece blanket to have round you if sitting or on bed when in bed in very cold weather
6. Use as many money off vouchers as possible
7. walk / cycle everywhere you can
8. Drink water
9. Don't use a tumble dryer
10. Use £ shops or Home Bargains for toiletries, cleaning products
11 (I am a quantity surveyor so always over estimate :rotfl:) only buy clothes you need and use charity shops / jumble sales / friends cast offs or clothes swaps

Edit - definitely over estimating as i have 2 no. 3's :-)

MaggieBaking

beautifylife wrote: »

Thanks to those who have replied so far. Hoping that I will get some more responses over the next few days. I am wondering if people aren't responding as they are unsure what more to suggest or if I just need to give it a bit more time.

Lets see.

For me at least I haven't offered any advice because you're clearly doing better than me - you should give me advice! I think £49 a week is very impressive, including bills.

I suppose if I was scratching to give you some advice I'd recommend using Quidco to switch over any utilities they do great cashback. You can give up your TV License and just watch TV shows on the computer (as long as you don't watch anything streaming live on BBC) you can watch BBC iPlayer.

I remembered something I read years ago about someone surviving on £1 a day... A Google later:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/article4687192.ece

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7783919.stm

And her book... Perhaps you can find it from your local library? http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Lived-Year-Just-Pound/dp/1906593124

beautifylife

Great to have more responses here ok:

Merlin68 - yes aware of NI conts, however if your income is below the threshold you can register to be exempt which I have. You do lose out longer term on contributions but hopefully when things take off I can make up at a later date.

I understand the JSA route and did do that for quite a while, running my business on the side. The job centre actually encouraged me to pursue my business because of my specialist skills.:rotfl: I am trying to keep ALL my options open right now, so I am also looking at job option simultaneously. I do understand your logic and it was mine for a while too.

My JC experience was soul destroying, drained my motivation and in my experience use tactics which are questionable and unhelpful. I understand they have a job to do with limited resources, expertise and knowledge.

Keeping my busines going is a priority as this is where my passion is, but as the tipping point book says - sometimes you need a slight change to make a big difference. People often give up just before their breakthrough. Thankfully determination is one of my strenghts!

But honestly I didn't really want to use this post to get into that, this route is a personal choice, while at the same time I know all who respond want to genuinely help and I am grateful.

VJsmum - great list, thankyou, I realise I am doing all, except the tumble dryer which I don't have, mine go on the line! and slow cooker, looking to get one freecyle is I can or a bargain somewhere? Where do you get your fleece blankets, I found on the Asda site they do them for about £3, is that where you get yours?

MaggieBaking - thanks Maggie for the explanation and encouragement I appreciate it. I see this as a two way process, if I can share anything that might help I'll do that too.

Yes I had considered looking at cashback when I change my utilities, it's a good reminder not to forget, easy to do! I got rid of my TV licence many months ago so that is sorted. Good to have iplayer for the odd prog though.

Thanks for the links I'll check them out, understand you had to dig deep thanks for the effort.

In terms of preparing for winter I was wondering where the best places to buy:

Thick slippers
Thermal underwear
Fleeces
House Coat/dressing gown
Hot water bottles
Oil Heaters
I can source them but wanted to find the cheapest and best quality I can. Any ideas welcome.

The other challenge I have is getting around, as I don't have transport right now I take the bus as it's usually a £4 round trip I limit it as it eats in to my budget. Is there anyway to get a concession? I know you do with JSA bus fares are 1/2 price.


Thanks again.

TrixieB

Aldi have thermals in just now, have thrown out the flier but from memory I think they were about a tenner, not sure if that was per set of tops and bottoms or just one piece, if former, quite a good deal!
Hot water bottles - Poundland
Oil heater - how about halogen? throw out more heat imo and hardly use any electricity at all - I kept mine on all night and it only cost 15p for the whole night! I bought mine for £14 in instore last winter.
I don't know if you are male or female, but if latter, primark have huge fleecy "babygro" style pjs which I imagine are lovely and toasty - well until you need the toilet!! Around £10.
Bus - does your local bus company do a weekly ticket? Or could you borrow a bike from anyone, or ask on freegle/gumtree/cheapo from carboot?

culpepper

getting around...You already have a bike.
What sort of distances are you needing to cover?
If you have a trip where you can break it up i.e.get where you are going,then half an hour or longer before coming back,then you can most likely manage your maximum distance in each direction.
I used to do most of the shopping on mine with two big panniers. It was a bit slow going coming home but no petrol costs. If you can combine all your trips,it is easier. For example,if you must get to the post office ,you can use that same trip for shopping,library,doctors appointments etc
We got a trailer for my bicycle. if you are at all handy,you could make one as there are lots of tutorials on the instructables web site.
Then quite a lot more can be done as a trailer can hold so much more than a pannier.

beautifylife

Good ideas coming in thanks to culpepper and trixieB.

I'll check out poundland, Primark and Aldi - love the PJ idea.

Halogen heater sounds good, not heard of "in store" before are they nationwide I wonder? Sounds amazingly cheap. I could do with something to heat up either my bedroom or sitting room instead of putting on the central heating as it's so expensive to run being an old system.

I have asked my landlord if they would be willing to upgrade the boiler to a combie as the one I have is about 30-40 yrs old, there are some grants to be had but it depends if the landlord is willing to jump through the hoops (fingers crossed though).

In terms of transport, yep have a bike and a couple of panniers, I also sometimes use a backpack as well and fill it with light weight goods so I don't over balance! As I live in a "dip" everywhere I cycle is uphill but thankfully the return journeys are quick. Trying to get a bit fitter to get up the hills. Nearest supermarket takes about 40-45mins to walk one way, about 25 mins on the bike (but I walk part of the way due to the steep incline) on the way back it's about 15 mins downhill. I have to limit the weight because the tyres can only take so much.

I'm not particularly handy but will look into the trailer idea - every little helps, as they say. Thanks for the creative idea.

Buses - Checked out the weekly tickets they are around £18 I think last time I asked. I try to limit buses to once per week max less if possible e.g. once 2 weeks, (walk or bike where I can) = £4.30 for the day within the area. I also checked if they do eg. 2 day ticket cheaper but only daily or weekly ones.

If I need to go to network meeting's that is when it gets tricky. I either go on the bus or walk then take the train into the city. A few of these adds up financially, so I try to do marketing and networking through social networks where I can.

Ok to summarise the main points:
1. Check out Asda for fleece throws and any other suggestions, might get a few extra to line curtains in bedroom.
2. Poundland for hot water bottles and they also sell radiator foil which I plan to put behind radiators to reflect heat.
3. Wilkinsons sell sausage door insulators so will check those out
4. Freecycle for slow cooker (might check with friends too)
5. Tights with fleece lining and baby grow - primark
6. Instore - halogen heater - track down if available
7. Cashback for utilities
8. Check out all the links and see what will help
9. Check out trailer idea (might be out of my skill set but will take a look).
10. Check Aldi for thermals.
11. Bleed radiators - borrow - friend promise to help!
12. Get more 50p (or less preferably) recipes together for variety and efficiency when batch cooking
13. Look at using everything more efficiently - heat, light, cooker, fridge managment.
14. Also considering doing some surveying to get some extra income, can anyone advise here not sure which ones are best?

I'll have to plan my purchases as it will take a while to start to get things together. But if I have a plan then it feels more doable and I can work towards it and get things as I can rather than feeling concerned once winter hits.

Ok other questions:

Where is the cheapest place to buy printer cartridges (I use EPSON DX3800), stationery, stamps, envelopes?

Here are my best sources: Stationery: wilkinsons (good for notebooks), printer Cartridges (I use the refills - inkwarehouse), stamps - I know that superdrug have offer nearer Christmas with about 10% saving. Asda - printer paper.

Warm/thick slippers?
House coat/dressing gowns? (My ideas:TK maxx always good but around £14-17 Asda about £12)

Rug for sitting room floor as laminate floor at moment is cold - something around £20 max. Been checking out second hand shops but no joy, maybe freecycle?

Great - any other ideas that come to mind, keep them coming!
Thanks everyone :T

TrixieB

I believe Instore might be poundstretcher in some towns?

You can easily make a sausage draught excluder yourself if you have old jumpers or duvets or curtains lying about?

A tip from here I will be doing is putting thicker curtains up at windows and also putting one at top of stairs - upstairs flat - and one at bottom at the door, to keep the heat in the flat.

dressing gowns, again Primark/Asda/tesco etc. TBH I just nick a fleece from my boyfriend and we also have fleeces or wooly blanket/throws for snuggling under on the sofas

Also been given another double duvet so we will have one each to roll up in lol

beautifylife

MaggieBaking: great links, checked out the library and they have a copy just ordered so should get that next week. ahhh..:)