Learning to live on unemployment benefit of £60.50 a week (about $115). That has to pay for electric, gas (methane for heating & cooking, not car fuel!), water, food, phone, travel costs, loan and for the moment, council tax (which is £60/month so 1/4 of my total monthly benefit is gone already!) - hoping to cease paying that soon though. My mortgage is fortunately covered by insurance so I won't get reposessed, plus I have a lot of equity in my property, it will never drop down to what I paid for it so I could sell up as a last resort - there are people here who will buy your house instantly at about 25-30% below market value, not ideal but...
I'm eating a lot of rice and pasta to keep the food bills down, I'm growing my own veg but they wont be ready for harvest for a few months yet. I've discovered freezer packs of meat which usually consist of cheaper cuts but you get a lot for your money! Greengrocers here often sell fruit and veg cheap when its going past its best or if they've had to trim bad bits off, also good bananas if they've become single! I check the reduced sections at supermarkets and we have food clearance shops too where they sell top brands really cheap when they're close to the best before date or if a batch wasn't up to standard but still useable! For other foodstuffs and groceries I buy the 'no frills' value labels. Takeaways are out now!
And I confess, I collected disposable napkins to use for hankies - there's something rather endearing about blowing your hooter on an image of Colonel Sanders lol!
