Can You Live on £1 a Day?

As President Bush's $700 billion bailout plan is rejected by Congress, the World's economy is facing even bigger trouble. In Ireland, hundreds of jobs are being lost every week so if you are having trouble making ends meet, you might find the following article useful:

Kath Kelly is an English teacher who recently spent a full year living on just £1 a day (£1 is currently $1.80 or €1.26; I used this currency converter). Kath Kelly paid her bills in advance and lived on £1 a day for her daily expenses. She lived mostly on freebies, and she says that her social life even improved during her "free" year (although I'm not sure a sane person would see drinking cheap booze outside as a social improvement).

Without going to that extreme, there are ways you can find to save money:
- Walk or cycle if possible instead of using your car;
- Bring the kids to the playground (if weather permits) instead of the cinema or overpriced activity centres;
- Plan your menus in advance, write a shopping list to avoid unnnecessary trips to the grocery store;
- Recycle stuff: here's how you can reuse you old toilet-paper rolls;
- Find out what foods are in season and that you can pick for free in your local area (apples, blackberries, mushrooms, mussels, winkles...);
- Keep your eyes open when you walk (my daughter has an eye for coins on the streets and she has a new addition for her money-box almost every day);
- Surf the Internet for free samples and enter free competitions (you might win something that you can keep or even sell on Craigslist, as Ebay is getting too expensive or so I'm told);
- Reduce you electricity bills;
- Don't spend money on stuff you don't need: make your own lunch to bring to work instead of buying the all-expensive, all-fattening Subway sandwich, don't fill your wardrobe with clothes you'll never wear, etc.

There are lots more ways you can avoid to spend money; I wrote an article a while ago on how to save money on your grocery shopping. Saving money is not rocket science, but sometimes it is difficult to resist temptation when you see TV commercials and all that's on offer in the shops.