Living / surviving on JSA £72 pw

whiteguineapig

if you need anything always try asking on freegle, there are often bikes etc being given away

McKneff

GreyQueen wrote: »

Hi Meteor, I'm in a one bed council flat and working. I've just calculated the difference between me on JSA at £72.40 with the rent and council tax paid and me working and paying them in full myself and I'm ahead of the JSA income level by £55.37 in work.

First off, if you are on rateable value for water and paying via your rent, and you are single, I would recommend you try to get on a water meter asap. If a meter can't be installed, there's a halfway house called 'assessed charges' which is a lot cheaper than rateable value.

Secondly, the £25 p.w. food/toiletries/cleaning materials looks pretty high to me, esp as you've split out your pet food from it.

In terms of cleaning, you can clean anything at home with washing up liquid (2 big bottles -750 ml - of Moaning Fresh brand for £1 at P0undland) and with Tossco Basics cream cleanser for 32p if memory serves. If you have a very greasy life, you may want to add a kilo of soda crystals to that, under £1, will last for months. Washing powder is cheap enough, and Liddly's Formil is very good and a neglible cost for a singleton household - use half the recommended amount, too.

The odd bottle of toilet cleaner at circa 80p can be bypassed by gloving up and using a scrubber in the pan. Dedicated gloves and scrubbers for the WC use, naturally. If you have none, get a pack of mircofibre cloths from the £ store, keep one for dishwashing, one for cleaning the bath and basin (won't need more than water on it) and one for damp dusting everywhere else.

Toiletries I keep very simple; soap, deodorant, toothpaste and floss (basic brands), ladies monthly supplies and that's about it. Most months I spend nothing on toiletries at all, some months it might be £2-£3 tops.

Just looked at my 2014 spreadsheet and my weekly spend which is food, cleaning products and consumables like TP was £9.83, in 2013 it was £15.17.

Firstly, try to benefit by bulk buying. Can you get a 25 kg sack of spuds, for example? Typical price £6 in most areas, will last you many months. Downbrand savagely; Sainsbugs value teabags (40 for about 30p) are excellent and Hasda's SmartPrice ones for about the same price are good, too. If you buy kitchen roll, stop immediately, it's a silly and wasteful habit. Ditto wipes for anything.

If you have access to supermarkets, note their closing times and be prepared to hit them up an hour or so before closing for YS bargains. 70 mins before Sunday's 5pm closure is especially productive in my experience of my Tosspots store. Can mostly get bread for 11p a loaf and often many other things at sweet prices.

Hie thee to the freezer stores like Icelandia and Farmious Foodius. FF is selling 2 tall cans of Princes pink salmon for £3. One of these cans, combined with cooked mashed potatoes, chopped parsley and one egg to bind will make 12 substantial fishcakes, two will be a filling meal. Freeze the rest. Icelandia sell big bags of frozen peas for silly money - I have an allotment and even I don't bother growing peas, they're so cheap to buy. Get 4 pinters of milk for 89p at Ice or Liddly, watch out a FF because they're 2 litres not 4 pints, and that's less volume, but you can get 2 x 2 litres for £1.60 there. FF sell 15 eggs for £1.

Have porridge for breakfast, costs pence, highly filling and nutritionists rave about the good things it does for you.

If you have a greengrocer or a market, look out for damaged produce or over-ripe bananas going cheap.

I don't bother with the buses in my city, unless you have a bus pass, they are extortionate. Do you have pushbike? If not, and you can ride one, ask around for an unwanted one. If you can't cadge a freebie, basic bikes can be had 2nd hand with change from a tenner, I've seen them change hands at a bootsale for a fiver. Add a hi-viz waistcoat (£land/ 99p Store) for safety and off you go.

Re stamps, a lot less relevent to jobseeking these days, lots of stuff can be done online. And you can even hand-deliver stuff if it's in your town or city. Dress nicely, rock up with a nicely-presented envelope, try charming the reception staff. Being the person who bothered to walk up might give you an edge over other applicants.

Best of all, Good Luck!

Post of the month, if not year, here folk.


Every single MSE er should read this post and learn from it.


Thank you.


Annie

Meteor

Thanks for the replies.


Some Good tips: GreyQueen


Like:

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

Try and remove a few £ from your food/household budget to try and build up a small pot of savings; even if it's £3 a week for 10 weeks that gets you £30, which is enough for an emergency clothing/shoes/etc purchase.

charlies-aunt wrote: »

You can apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment to get some help with your Council Tax even if your rent is covered.

Would be a great help.

Horace

The jobcentre might be able to help you with fares especially if you have to get the bus to the jobcentre.

I live on JSA and it is tough, however, I signed up to something called Orchard which is run by Tesko and I get invited to participate in samplings so I will be sent vouchers - today it was 2 tins of soup at £1 each (I had a £2 voucher) and some breakfast cereal for £1.55 (voucher was for £1.45) at Christmas I had one for a joint of meat worth a fiver and as the joint was a little more than a fiver I only spent £1.50 on it.

I shop in Aldee too as they have super 6 offers on veg and meat. I eat their mature cheddar too which is £1.74 a pack and it tastes like Cathedral City. I also buy a large box of Aldee's washing powder (non bio) and it has lasted me over 12 months because I only ever use half the amount. Bottles of hand soap, washing up liquid, toothpaste, shampoo, meat, veg, some bread and cereals, flour and eggs come from Aldee.

I make use of yellow stickered items in the supermarkets and these can be good buys so I will portion meat when I get it and put it in the freezer. I also blanch veg and freeze it - especially if I buy a big bag of carrots.

FF has some good offers on occasionally so I stock up with them too.

If you have a slow cooker then it is time to start using it or you can pick up a cheap one from Wilko for about £7 - I use mine all the time for casseroles and I leave it on low all day.

jk0

PasturesNew wrote: »

Looks like eating the dog's the quickest route to making the ends meet.

My dad used to tell a story about a family facing starvation in the last century in central Europe who had to eat their dog. When they had all his bones left, someone said, 'What a shame. Rover would have loved these.'

whiteguineapig

1st smile of the day, thank you jk0

[Deleted User]

Like already been said, cancel the TVL. No one who is on a small budget should pay this.

catkins

Have you checked to see what the 1 bed housing allowance is in your area? I know where I live the allowance is £530 a month and it is just about impossible to rent anywhere privately that cheap, not even a bedsit. Actual rents start at more like £650 and are still pretty scarce

moneyistooshorttomention

catkins wrote: »

Have you checked to see what the 1 bed housing allowance is in your area? I know where I live the allowance is £530 a month and it is just about impossible to rent anywhere privately that cheap, not even a bedsit. Actual rents start at more like £650 and are still pretty scarce

That had me googling as to how well (or otherwise) the local housing allowance would match the rent actually paid.

Now, I am assuming it would be accepted I am entitled to at least a one-bedroom flat (ie over 35) and I checked out two areas. My Home Area = £500 per month allowance, but rent would be at least £550 and therefore a shortfall I would be expected to cover from my personal benefit:eek:. Like just how?:eek:

Current area (recently moved to) and the housing allowance is nearly £400 per month and I should think rent I would be paying "if" is £350 per month, so it would be covered and money to spare...

The phrase "social engineering" is coming to mind here:cool: - as in get people to move from their own Home Area to a cheaper area and use the threat of "Do you want all your rent met if you become unemployed or don't you?" as a stick to make them do so.:mad:

Mojisola

If you 'might be signing on' but are still earning now, start to cut back now and build up a small reserve.

Practicing at living off a low income when you actually have a bit more coming in makes things easier.