How to live off £50 a week

sal_III

£13/m for Nationwide account, is it a FlexPlus by any chance? In which case you have a bundled mobile insurance for the whole family and no reason to pay for another insurance. Probably not going to help you soon with 20 months left on your current contract, but something worth considering for the future.

Katiehound

sal_III wrote: »

In which case you have a bundled mobile insurance for the whole family and no reason to pay for another insurance. Probably not going to help you soon with 20 months left on your current contract, but something worth considering for the future.

I think, might be wrong, that the contract for the phone is the cost of buying it & the call bundle, not actually including insurance.

That's where the Nationwide comes in: phone & travel insurance

makes my PAYG, emergency only job which cost maybe £16¬! look rather 'old hat!!';)

northwalesd

Katiehound wrote: »

I think, might be wrong, that the contract for the phone is the cost of buying it & the call bundle, not actually including insurance.

From post 4 it looks like the phone package does include insurance.

nicetomeetyou wrote: »

I'm tied into the contract for another 20 months

The account fees includes insurance for my phone.

NeverendingDMP

When you are at weatherspoons are you out with your support staff or with friends/yourself. If with staff this may be ine of the reasons why you are finding the budgeting harder and you may need to factor in extra to allow for staff bus fares or coffee.

Katiehound

nicetomeetyou wrote: »

I'm tied into the contract for another 20 months (refering to the phone)

The account fees includes insurance for my phone. I looked on gadget insurance quotes and it was nearing £14 just for phone insurance, with nationwide I also get commission free cash withdrawals aboard,

No, the word account surely refers to bank account which provides both phone & travel insurance?

In which case the phone bundle seems extortionate

northwalesd

Katiehound wrote: »

No, the word account surely refers to bank account which provides both phone & travel insurance?

In which case the phone bundle seems extortionate

My apologies, I think you are correct.

A_Lert

From my own experience, £50 a week is reasonable for one person's grocery shopping. It does seem to end up a bit more expensive per person if you're alone compared to a family. But if you're eating and drinking out a lot that's going to eat up the money quickly. I agree with what was previously mentioned - meals out and other discretionary spending should be a separate budget item from your home groceries.

Nic246

Keep a spending diary. Make an excel sheet of previous months spend and see which areas you could cut down on.
I did this, and noticed that I was spending far too much on "unnecessary food" such as takeaways or meal deals, when I could have made the food myself which is much cheaper.