What's the least you can survive on?

[Neveralonewithaclone]

I'm just thinking about ww2 rationing, tightwad tips and wondering how little money a person could live on and survive. I read that the budget for food for prisoners is less than £3pd (obviously you have to factor in economies of scale).

So for myself i could have porridge for breakfast, splash of milk, sprinkle of sugar. Lunch jacket potato and beans. Dinner lentil and vegetable casserole. Drink only water. I'd liberate toilet roll, napkins and sugar, salt, condiments from McDonald's. Terrible economy soap, shampoo and roll on. Basic toothpaste and toothbrush. It would be very grim.

Don't do this it could become Tory policy 😁.

I really hope it doesn't!!!

My cousin was saying that she went through a desperate time as a single mum in the 70s. She would ask the butcher for bones for her imaginary dog, go to the market and the end of the day and see if veg sellers would rather sell her stuff for virtually nothing than pack it away and make soup.

Well that's all well and good, until somerhing goes wrong.or you need new clothes.For food for me if I had to I think I could live off about £25 pw. Long term I might get rickets, I would certainly be iron deficient.

And once her toddler son piped up with 'but mummy, we don't have a dog'

I lived on Universal Credit for years. Made the best of things but, fuck me, it was miserable. It was £67 a week then, now it's the princely sum of £98. For food, bills and everything, though the council did pay part of my rent. "Survive" is the right word, every penny pinched. I did steal toilet paper!

What can you add to stave off rickets and iron deficiency? Perhaps iron and vitamin tablets on prescription if you explain to the GP.

In the late 90s I lived in the YMCA. I was saving to move out and hated myself so ate very little, I allowed myself £10 per week for food. Breakfast was cheapest cornflakes and UHT milk, lunch probably didn't happen, dinner was cheap instant potato, sometimes a small cornish pasty as a treat. Unsurprisingly I was a size 6/8.
Now my cupboards are full and my kids will never be hungry.

I've lived on income support as a lone parent, it was really rough. I also stole toilet paper, a really good day was liberating a huge toilet roll from kfc (backpack).

I found that other single mums and I really helped each other out with clothes and equipment.

For instance lending a coat for the winter but needing it back for the next winter when their next kid would have grown into it.

Back in the mid 90s being on benefit and being dirt poor.i remember not having anything to eat for five days kept fainting by day 5.

An A-Z multivit & mineral. The Savers one's good, £2.49 for 90 tabs. I took them religiously, as a fresh and varied diet couldn't be relied upon. Ate a lot of rice and pasta with tinned tomatoes. Protein was budget mince, unhappy chicken, tinned fish or eggs.

I'm a nutrition bore and managed quite well in that sense, but had to massively increase my carb intake and the vitamin pills made up for what was missing. You're right about the bargain-bucket toiletries, etc. It's all so dull.

I get that good community spirit but people shouldn't have to live like that in this day and age.mps will spend more on expensed lunches than some people have to live on for a week.

Let's add an a-z vitamin then. I found the GPs and health visitor really good if you begged and explained. Prescription 'calpol' and nappy cream.

I know they shouldn't have to live like that at all. I think being a child of the 70s helped being used to libraries and parks with a sandwich and squash for days out and hot water bottles and mending clothes not being unknown.

HoL £300 expenses pd isn't it?

I've lost skills over the years and should knit and sew and grow stuff. I will draw the line at darning (which my Dad taught me).

I'd probably only wash my knickers with soap in the sink and just air the rest of my clothes.

Likewise born mid 60s kid of the 70s much simpler times but in saying that I'd like to think we'd progressed as a society since then.yip Hol £300 for signing in.

😮

I would eat the same every day for economies of scale:

• porridge made with water
• grated cheese and coleslaw sandwich on brown bread
• pasta with red sauce and cheese
• one banana a day

My shopping list:

• Porridge oats
• Cheddar
• Coleslaw
• Brown bread
• Pasta
• Red sauce x 2
• Bananas

Pretty crap nutritionally, but very cheap.

I agree a small outlay on AZ vit and min tabs can be a health saver in these circumstances.

Grated carrot mixed with grated cheese instead of coleslaw. Carrots last well.