Living off £1.78 a day?

ravenskycostello

Hello!

So, I've just finished university (at long last!) and have entered the seemingly deadly world of looking for work. At first I thought, "Hey, I've got a good degree, transferable skills, and £300 in the bank, more than enough to last until I get a job!"

Then, obviously, I became acquainted with the real world. Yeah, not going to happen. My rent came out three days later, my foster parents are down-sizing, and being over 21, I only get verbal support/help from the Leaving Care team. So, off to job seeker's, right? That'll be up and running in no time, I'll have enough money for my rent, bills, food and fags, not a problem.

Dang it, this real world stuff is a pain, isn't it?

So yeah, I'll be getting £86 a week, all benefits included. Take out the £247.50 a month rent, roughly £50 a month bills (it's actually just over that, for all the house is tiny - storage heaters. They really shouldn't put "central heating" on the list if it's storage heaters. They should put "You'll be warm if you're rich, and by then you'll be poor") and £15 a month Virgin, and I'm left with £12.47 a week, so £1.78 a day. And I'm a smoker.

I've cut my smoking down, switched to tobacco, and started buying the cheap filters which are really slim, so I can get a lot of mileage on a pack, now, but that's something I'm going to have to try and stop fully. I can't do anything about the Virgin bill, either, because I've been begging my housemate to switch us to something cheaper since we lived at our last house, but she apparently thinks getting one sky channel, which she watches once a week (at most, sometimes the telly doesn't even get turned on for a month. I know - I unplugged it and it took three weeks for her to tell me it had stopped working) and could easily use her parent's Sky package to watch it at home when she goes on the weekend, is more important than me being able to afford to live each week.

I'm rubbish at budgeting, but I need to get good, and fast.

So I was hoping that maybe you guys could help me? Or at least, give me some tips on how to make my bills smaller (without upsetting my landlord) and make the most out of the food I can buy? I already live off value tinned food, but I'm spending too much (on chippy, I think) and I need a way to curtail it. Any help I could get would be brilliant, otherwise I'm looking at 11p noodles seven times a week, lol.

Thanks for any help!

ljonski

its not clear but why are you not claiming Housing Benefit ? is it still available for under 25's ? What about a hardship allowance ? Have you been to CAB for further advice or post on the benefit section of this site ?

RAS

Hi

There are several threads on really cheap eating - from Five for Fiver charity challenge the most recent £15 for a month - impossible.

Really cheap food costs 2p per 100 calories, but a lot costs 10p per 100 calories. So the minimum you need is £69 per 30 day month to get enough calories @ 10p per 100 cals, if you are a bloke. You are on £54 so it really is gong to be a challenge.

How about telling the housemate that the Virgin package has to go, unless she pays the whole bill? Might concentrate her mind?

Value tinned food has its place in all this but rather than 11p noodles, you need 30-39p packs of pasta (cheaper per meal and more calories), rape seed oil @ 1.29 (loaded with good stuff like olive oil rather tan the bad stuff like corn and sunflower oil) and 40p per kilo rice.

Will be back soon.

quintwins

Tell your housemate you can no longer afford virgin and will not be paying, if she wants to keep it she has to pay the whole bill herself, Really if she was any sort of a friend she would understand.

Well done on sutting down smoking thats a step in the right direction.

Google a girl called jack, it's a blog about a woman who feeds herself and her son on £10 a week which is less than you have (if i post a link mse will prob remove my post) Go shopping late at night for reduced items, you mostly get bread and the veg no-one wants for 10p, i got 2 bags of bakery bread 2 loaves of bread, 3 packets of 4 mini pork pies, 8 mini sausage rolls and 4 bags of soup veg the other day it costs me £3.60 and most of it is now in the freezer. Soup veg can easily be used in pasta sauces, currys or casaroles you don't have to have soup (just aswell as i don't like veg soup)

I would avoid tins unless it's value rice pudding(cause it's yumm and filling) you can usually knock something healthier up for not an awful lot more.

A good stable of a budget is value porridge, if you can stretch to it sainburys do a bag of frozen mixed berries for £1.39 betweek the 2 you could have a filling breakfast for 2 weeks including 1 of your 5 aday for less than £2.

Lunch i would get passata (shop around last time i checked asdas was cheapest) and make soup, make it more filling with some cooked pasta or some 10p bread.

Dinners i'm afraid for the most part you will have to avoid meat as it's just too expensive and try a veggie option.

Theres is a £7 meal thread on here aswell i'll go find you a link.

found it

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4084527=

ljonski

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4414903
read this thread

graduate2012

ravenskycostello wrote: »

Hello!

So, I've just finished university (at long last!) and have entered the seemingly deadly world of looking for work. At first I thought, "Hey, I've got a good degree, transferable skills, and £300 in the bank, more than enough to last until I get a job!"

Then, obviously, I became acquainted with the real world. Yeah, not going to happen. My rent came out three days later, my foster parents are down-sizing, and being over 21, I only get verbal support/help from the Leaving Care team. So, off to job seeker's, right? That'll be up and running in no time, I'll have enough money for my rent, bills, food and fags, not a problem.

Dang it, this real world stuff is a pain, isn't it?

So yeah, I'll be getting £86 a week, all benefits included. Take out the £247.50 a month rent, roughly £50 a month bills (it's actually just over that, for all the house is tiny - storage heaters. They really shouldn't put "central heating" on the list if it's storage heaters. They should put "You'll be warm if you're rich, and by then you'll be poor") and £15 a month Virgin, and I'm left with £12.47 a week, so £1.78 a day. And I'm a smoker.

I've cut my smoking down, switched to tobacco, and started buying the cheap filters which are really slim, so I can get a lot of mileage on a pack, now, but that's something I'm going to have to try and stop fully. I can't do anything about the Virgin bill, either, because I've been begging my housemate to switch us to something cheaper since we lived at our last house, but she apparently thinks getting one sky channel, which she watches once a week (at most, sometimes the telly doesn't even get turned on for a month. I know - I unplugged it and it took three weeks for her to tell me it had stopped working) and could easily use her parent's Sky package to watch it at home when she goes on the weekend, is more important than me being able to afford to live each week.

I'm rubbish at budgeting, but I need to get good, and fast.

So I was hoping that maybe you guys could help me? Or at least, give me some tips on how to make my bills smaller (without upsetting my landlord) and make the most out of the food I can buy? I already live off value tinned food, but I'm spending too much (on chippy, I think) and I need a way to curtail it. Any help I could get would be brilliant, otherwise I'm looking at 11p noodles seven times a week, lol.

Thanks for any help!

Can you sell textbooks on Amazon? I sold a few and new editions sold for quite a bit.

Best wishes

monnagran

Commiserations. I can only tell you that at one particularly skint time I ate nothing else for 2 weeks apart from Jacket potatoes and baked beans, and when I found a couple of bob, (yes, it was that long ago) in the pocket of a seldom used coat I bought a bit of cheese to liven it up.
We all survive and you will too.

Concentrate on the £12.47 a week rather than try to portion it out to days. Spend your money on value pasta, value porridge oats, a bit of mince and some milk. It's boring, but you won't starve.
You don't need the Virgin package so do what the others say and refuse to pay for it.
Give up smoking - I know, I know! but you simply haven't the money for it and think of the food you can buy with the extra funds available.

Survival is a real achievement these days, so go for it. I don't know where you are in the country, but ask around and see if there are any charity run food banks or cooked meals available. Here, a church does a cooked meal for anyone who is desperate - you don't have to be homeless - and gives a bag of donated food away to everyone who turns up for the meal. It's worth finding out about about.

Good luck, we'll all be rooting for you.

x

Butterfly_Brain

I agree with other posters that you should tell your housemate that you will not be contributing towards Virgin. If she wants it then she will have to pay for it.

Do you have an Aldi or Lidl nearby? both offer great value for money.

suzybloo

Here is a list if items that would come in at around £12, as per my supermarket, it's not ideal but gives you an idea of what you could get for the week.
1x burger 400g loaf 0.79
3 bananas 0.45
3 smart price apples 0.45
4 baking potatoes 1.00
3 carrots 0.27
2 onions 0.18
Stork marg 1.09
Asda value cheese slices 0.54
6 cage free barn eggs 0.85
4 pints milk 1.00
250g scotch steak mince 1.40
Free range chicken leg 0.75
3 tins branston beans 1.00
Tin tomatoes 0.54
Asda smart price long grain rice 0.40
Tin smart price custard 0.17
Tin smart price pudding rice 0.12
1 kg smart price porridge oats 0.75
Smart price custard creams 0.31
40 chosen by you tea bags 0.70
smart price strawberry whip0.12
This would mean you could have toast or porridge for breakfast, beans on toast, cheese sandwich etc for lunches. Teas could be baked potatoes with cheese and/ or beans, mince split into mince with carrot and onion served with potato, or American bean pie, or make the mince into a chilli if you have herbs etc, and serve with rice. Use the other half of the tinned tomato to make a tomato sauce for your chicken, or the onion and carrot for a chicken stew. Puddings for a change could be the tinned rice, or custard with banana or stewed apple, or the angel delight type pudding, with sliced banana. and a good cup of tea and a biscuit for supper.

Have a look at my supermarket and play around with various things to see what you can get for your money.

Hope this helps :-)

415SanFran

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