# How I lived on £1 a day for a year



## Murt10 (11 Sep 2008)

Not sure if this is the correct forum, but anyway. Article from the Mail about someone doing just this.

Wouldn't fancy it too much myself, a year is a long time, but I suppose for some, needs must when the Devil drives.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/consumer/article.html?in_article_id=451669&in_page_id=5&ito=1723



Murt


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## so-crates (11 Sep 2008)

Bit disingenuous, she didn't live on a £1 a day unless she had property fully paid for already.
Sounds a bit excessive though, when she only spent £1350 on the present for her brother


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## rmelly (11 Sep 2008)

so-crates said:


> Bit disingenuous, she didn't live on a £1 a day unless she had property fully paid for already.


 
Exactly...no mention of utilities, council tax...

Plus she admits cheating:



> I mused, although I resisted the urge to purge everything in case it came in useful during the year.


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## z103 (11 Sep 2008)

Doesn't a large part of the world live on less than £1/day?
Just move to one of those countries for a year.


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## RentDayBlues (12 Sep 2008)

Rmelly, she did live on £1 per day and did not cheat, the quote was out of context, full quote below: 

"Food soon became a worry. At the start of my challenge, I examined my dusty cupboards. They were littered with out-of-date tins. 'Why exactly did I need five jars of lime pickle?' I mused, although I resisted the urge to purge everything in case it came in useful during the year."


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## rmelly (12 Sep 2008)

RentDayBlues said:


> Rmelly, she did live on £1 per day and did not cheat, the quote was out of context, full quote below:
> 
> "Food soon became a worry. At the start of my challenge, I examined my dusty cupboards. They were littered with out-of-date tins. 'Why exactly did I need five jars of lime pickle?' I mused, although I resisted the urge to purge everything in case it came in useful during the year."


 
The quote wasn't out of context, I didn't see the additional text as relevant, and still don't - even with the additional text the meaning is the same.

What about the question of utilities - electricity, water, gas, waste disposal plus council tax etc? Were these included in the £1?


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## rmelly (12 Sep 2008)

leghorn said:


> Doesn't a large part of the world live on less than £1/day?
> Just move to one of those countries for a year.


 
Maybe, but would you be expected to include the transport cost to get you there (and back), averaged over the year?


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## Blossy (12 Sep 2008)

Maybe i misinterpreted the article, but i though her point was on how we spend so much on unneccesasry luxuries.. ie coffee, glossy mags and an awful lot more, i dont think it was actually based on spending 365 pounds to survive for a complete year, assuming the house u live in and the taxes u pay would be considered a neccessity for life then the pound a day was for daily expenditure, food yes is a neccessity but wagamamas is not.

im also assuming she had medical expenses, insurance etc. all that she paid for out of her wages!

In my opinion, she went a bit to the extreme, thumbing to france!!! but she managed to have a social life, etc without the extremeties.

it was achallenge she set, me personally i would have purchased my brother a fancy vase and went on a well deserved holiday!!


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## zxcvbnm (12 Sep 2008)

rmelly said:


> The quote wasn't out of context, I didn't see the additional text as relevant, and still don't - even with the additional text the meaning is the same.
> 
> What about the question of utilities - electricity, water, gas, waste disposal plus council tax etc? Were these included in the £1?


 
Ah come on - give her a break.

Obviously it doesn't include stuff like you mentioned above.

Presumably she means £1 a day for food and entertainment.

It's still a remarkable achievement.


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## rmelly (12 Sep 2008)

zxcvbnm said:


> Ah come on - give her a break.
> 
> Obviously it doesn't include stuff like you mentioned above.
> 
> ...


 
You say 'obviously' and 'presumably', but as so-crates pointed out - it is disingenuous. Fair play to her for the achievement, but lets have all the facts and not just what they want us to hear.

The article itself should have addressed this - a short paragraph saying it did or didn't include blah blah blah.


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## square1 (12 Sep 2008)

I think this might be the fault of the article. I heard this lady on the radio during the week. She was upfront about the fact that she paid her years rent before she started. I don't remember her mentioning her bills but I'm sure this was the same situation. Still a great achievement. Could be a bit of inspiration to stop spending a fortune on lunches etc!


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## Flax (12 Sep 2008)

My take from the article was also that we waste so much money on coffees and croissants and that sort of thing.

Certainly I could save a few grand a year by getting rid of my treats! They make me happy though, so I'm ok with them...


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## GeneralZod (12 Sep 2008)

I think this was also on the BBC news web site and she admitted it didn't include accommodation and utilities costs.


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## delboy159 (12 Sep 2008)

I listened to her on Ray Darcy and she was very up front about the rent/electrcity/heating bills being in a seperate bracket.  The £1 a day was purely for food and entertainment.  

Fascinating thing I took from it was that she used to frequent the local library to use the internet for free - good thinking!!!!  I mentioned it to my better half and she decided to do the same as she was fed up paying the €2 for 30 mins in the local internet shop....  The library charge the same €2 for 30 mins!!!! Very different country we live in....

That woman might have lived on £1 a day in England, but she wouldn't be able to live on €1.27 in Ireland, in my humble opinion!!!!


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## ubiquitous (12 Sep 2008)

Does anyone really believe this sort of Reality TV/Book & TV Series PR rubbish?

Twenty years ago a prominent RTE "personality" claimed he had survived in the wild by killing a lamb with a "rock in a sock" only for his "achievement" to be exposed as a fake. 

Do we ever learn?


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## sam h (12 Sep 2008)

> Certainly I could save a few grand a year by getting rid of my treats! They make me happy though, so I'm ok with them...


 
And if you can afford them, then so be it....enjoy them !!

But it never ceases to amazed me how many people come on to Money Make Over and scoff at the idea that their morning Starbucks, bi monthly highlights, weekly magazine etc are anything but essentials!!  They couldn't physically do their job without spending €4 on a triple mocchacino skinny latte.


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## rmelly (12 Sep 2008)

ubiquitous said:


> Does anyone really believe this sort of Reality TV/Book & TV Series PR rubbish?
> 
> Twenty years ago a prominent RTE "personality" claimed he had survived in the wild by killing a lamb with a "rock in a sock" only for his "achievement" to be exposed as a fake.
> 
> Do we ever learn?


 
Am I the only one getting visions of a Gladiator style reality show to dispose of RTE 'personalities', based on this 'rock in a sock' concept?


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## ubiquitous (12 Sep 2008)

rmelly said:


> Am I the only one getting visions of a Gladiator style reality show to dispose of RTE 'personalities', based on this 'rock in a sock' concept?



Only Roger Melly, the man on the telly, could think up something like that


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## minion (28 Sep 2008)

Fair play to her.
Myself and my then girlfriend spend a year living in a tent, on a beach, on a small island off the coast of India in 1995.  The locals would bring us food which they knew how to grow and catch, which we paid for by the month in advance (you could buy a months food for the cost of a cup of coffee in Dublin now).  That year i think the total amount of money we spent was £800 (actually we had bought the return flights the year before and had to pay for another one when we didnt take the original return.  So those arent included in that amount) between us and that was including our trip around india beforehand.  We had been to a few islands and when we were on this one we just decided to stay.  I wont name the Island because its paradise and we found it by accident and just stayed.  Someday i may go back.  The place is paradise.

Of course its not practical now as i need to earn a living and others depend on it. But if you planned to take a year off do something like that.  You just need to find somewhere untouched by tourism and out of the way, but with locals to buy stuff off and you're sorted.  And if it happens to be an island where you are living on the beach for the whole year then all the better.

Now thinking about it makes me want to go back.


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## jackswift (28 Sep 2008)

delboy159 said:


> I listened to her on Ray Darcy and she was very up front about the rent/electrcity/heating bills being in a seperate bracket.  The £1 a day was purely for food and entertainment.
> 
> Fascinating thing I took from it was that she used to frequent the local library to use the internet for free - good thinking!!!!  I mentioned it to my better half and she decided to do the same as she was fed up paying the €2 for 30 mins in the local internet shop....  The library charge the same €2 for 30 mins!!!! Very different country we live in....
> 
> That woman might have lived on £1 a day in England, but she wouldn't be able to live on €1.27 in Ireland, in my humble opinion!!!!


 Yes I was in Manchester in july I went into a shop to buy a meal for 4 total cost was £4 and that included a daily paper and a magazine and water for tea I didn't know at the time that they were giving out the daily paper for free in the afternoon. What are the chances of that happening in Ireland? The same would cost at least €15 and you pay for the paper whatever time of day it is.


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## DeclanP (28 Sep 2008)

jackswift said:


> Yes I was in Manchester in july I went into a shop to buy a meal for 4 total cost was £4 and that included a daily paper and a magazine and water for tea I didn't know at the time that they were giving out the daily paper for free in the afternoon. What are the chances of that happening in Ireland? The same would cost at least €15 and you pay for the paper whatever time of day it is.



You could always get a hamburger in McDonalds and pick up one of those absolutely awful freesheets and while away the day one €1. What you would do after that five minutes had elapsed is completely up to you!


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## Swallows (29 Sep 2008)

Was she not getting ready to sell her story? this has been done before to make money by writing about it afterwards. It is not a true reflection of someone who genuinely would only have a £1 a day to live on, day in day out, month after month, year after year. During the time of the experiment I bet she was going out in the evening and eating in restaurants when she got hungry. Thats all it was, an experiment.


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## Yorrick (2 Oct 2008)

Have a good look at what you spend everyday.

Do you really need to buy a newspaper when you can get the news on radio/t.v. ?
You an get free coffee in most bookie shops and some of them do chips/sausages etc at lunch hour 
Bring a lunch to work. Dont buy water.

I know life may not be wonderful but if it means you get control of your finances it will be worth it.

Dont bother with the recycled toilet paper ! 
Thats probably going too far. Use the toilet in the nerest 4 star hotel


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## jackswift (3 Oct 2008)

Yorrick said:


> Dont bother with the recycled toilet paper !
> Thats probably going too far. Use the toilet in the nerest 4 star hotel


And what if the nearest 4 star hotel is 10 miles away?


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## cole (3 Oct 2008)

Yorrick said:


> You an get free coffee in most bookie shops and some of them do chips/sausages etc at lunch hour


 
I'd imagine the bookies wouldn't take to kindly to non-punters walking in off the street for lunch.
And if you're a punter then trying to save while gambling isn't really that far-sighted.


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## rmelly (3 Oct 2008)

cole said:


> I'd imagine the bookies wouldn't take to kindly to non-punters walking in off the street for lunch.
> And if you're a punter then trying to save while gambling isn't really that far-sighted.


 
Not if you're only betting on 'Dead Certs' - techincally it's not even gambling as you're guaranteed to win.


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## michaelm (9 Oct 2008)

Blossy said:


> In my opinion, she went a bit to the extreme, thumbing to france!!! but she managed to have a social life, etc without the extremeties.


I don't think thumbing would have been possible without extremities.


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## maura (9 Oct 2008)

delboy159 said:


> Fascinating thing I took from it was that she used to frequent the local library to use the internet for free - good thinking!!!!  I mentioned it to my better half and she decided to do the same as she was fed up paying the €2 for 30 mins in the local internet shop....  The library charge the same €2 for 30 mins!!!! Very different country we live in....
> 
> That woman might have lived on £1 a day in England, but she wouldn't be able to live on €1.27 in Ireland, in my humble opinion!!!!



In South Dublin County Council libraries the internet is free to use and you can borrow DVD's for a week at a time.  You can also read the paper and magazines while you are there and borrow books, CD Roms, audio books, cds etc for 3 weeks at a time at no cost.


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## irishreds (24 Oct 2008)

yeah not a chance this can happen, unless that is you dontpay any taxes and do not lead any normal life..


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## jwestave (2 Mar 2009)

im moving to Manchester - whats the directions to that place


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## monascribe18 (3 Mar 2009)

so-crates said:


> Bit disingenuous, she didn't live on a £1 a day unless she had property fully paid for already.
> Sounds a bit excessive though, when she only spent £1350 on the present for her brother


 
thats very excessive for a present IMO


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## monascribe18 (3 Mar 2009)

quoting   
Originally Posted by *delboy159* http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?p=705186#post705186 
_I listened to her on Ray Darcy and she was very up front about the rent/electrcity/heating bills being in a seperate bracket. The £1 a day was purely for food and entertainment. 

Fascinating thing I took from it was that she used to frequent the local library to use the internet for free - good thinking!!!! I mentioned it to my better half and she decided to do the same as she was fed up paying the €2 for 30 mins in the local internet shop.... The library charge the same €2 for 30 mins!!!! Very different country we live in....

That woman might have lived on £1 a day in England, but she wouldn't be able to live on €1.27 in Ireland, in my humble opinion!!!!_

_there are no charges in libraries for internet acess where i live_


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## sunrock (6 Mar 2009)

Its just a gimmick to show poorer people that they could live cheaper.
No chance of the top brass cutting back on helicopters etc,which would save the country millions
It reminds me of our politicians etc telling us how to save energy by turning off the heating etc when they drive in mercs etc.
Purerhypocrisy.
I know a lot of women who can live on no money.
They just get others to take them to restaurants and buy them drinks etc


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