LinkBack URL
About LinkBacksno need to be silly!Originally Posted by malfunction
me point is, it is posible
Is possible in all areas of the UK
Possible, but not in London
Not sure
Impossible.
no need to be silly!
me point is, it is posible
The post talks about broadband, car, tv, insurance as if they are necessity, the thread is about, living hand to mouth, not taking out an ISA or Watching Sky sports in the back of a 4x4.
The simple answer is, yes it is possible but I'd be gobsmacked if you could do it living by yourself, even in the worst parts of the UK. Factor in water, heating, council tax, gas etc (I'd say most of these are pretty essential in one form or another) and you're going to be hard pushed to eat any solid foods more than once every few days.
You can live off cheap pasta, beans, bread etc but it's just existing rather than living. I've never lived in utter poverty (thankfully), but I know how to live on the cheap when necessary, £5/day isn't going to be enough when you need to put a roof over your head. It certainly becomes a lot easier when you have a person or two to share the cost, but by yourself, I can't see it happening personally.
ASUS P5K Premium || Q6600 || 4Gb RAM || 8800GTS
I'm with ferral on this one.
£5 a day is not a lot at all. The fact that we are taxed on pretty much everything doesn't help, and they seem to be introducing taxes left right and centre, to be honest, scares me.
I don't earn a bad wage, but I am almost on the breadline. I have no savings as everything is poured into my house and commuting to work. I really don't see how people can do it. I'm already in "affordable" housing. Paying all necessary bills, my outgoings just for running my flat are around £900. (mortgage, rent, council tax, water, electricity, gas, insurances) I get a little bit of help from the fact I have a lodger, but it's not much, barely covers my rent.
All my taxes/ student loan and season ticket come to just about half of my paycheque. That's before council tax, car tax and anyothertax that the government all seem to think we're able to pay.
Making ends meet in this country is hard work, and especially if you're doing it alone with no assistance.
Your hardly on the breadline, you may feel like you are because you have a mortgage, car, insurance , student loan + a million other outgoings.
a friend of mine moved over here to live for a year from Austrailia. hes only young. He came here and had a Bar job (no supprises) min wage. He got a room paying £20 pw inc council tax in a shared house, because the land lord knew that the room was tiny and he hadnt been able to rent it for some time so he took what he could.
like i said before its not about quaility of life or if you can be comfortable on £5 per day, the question is can you survive.
Well I spent about a year being homeless & even then (about 13 years ago) it would have been tough let alone now.
I'm in the same boat as Ferral, four kids, rising costs, not rising wages. Every year living costs seem to outstrip earnings making us worse off year on year.
[
Zak33 (25-03-2008)
The thread title implies quality of life, hence the use of life.
I think the point thats being made about people like myself, 'rai and Ferral feeling like we are on the breadline is because we've gone well out of way to get where are, gone through university and what not, it just seems the more you work the less you get when in other places of the world its the other way round and I'm sure people work even more than 60 hours a week but get paid less than what we do, the point is, we work so hard yet we have little left at the end of the month for ourselves, meaning it feels as though we are merely surviving when given our imput we should have more of a life.
Where I'm from, if you mess up in school you are in seriously big trouble as there is absolutely no welfare system what so ever not saying its right, but generally people that have something, have it because they've earned it.
But in reply to the original post, yes, you CAN survive on £5 a day but living the life I live, I do enjoy fine, expensive food and a vast selection of warm clothing to wear, my gadgets, my PC games library I wouldn't even dream of surviving when I can live
Last edited by BEANFro Elite; 09-10-2008 at 10:14 AM.
tiggerai (25-03-2008)
Yes, i'm not on the "actual" breadline, but I feel like it. I have budgeted everything down to the last pound.
It's about quality of life, and at the moment everything revolves around whether I can afford it. Can I afford £6.85 for my Antibiotics the other week as it will come out of my food budget, can I afford the drugs and other things that I needed to be able to go to work last week. Yes, i could stay at home each weekend and not spend any money, but it's not much fun is it? life should be for living, not just surviving.
I am trying my best to survive by myself. It's bloody hard work, and I've worked hard to get to where I am... but each time I think I'm getting somewhere (a pay rise, gosh!) then petrol prices go up, council tax goes up, interest rates go up, train prices go up, energy bills go up... and I'm worse off than when I started.
5 years ago I would have been in a good position. What the hell has gone wrong?
The £5 a day question boils down to the whether it can be done in theory, rather than if you could keep it up indefinitely. In the short term it would be a different matter, if you had expectations things would change & you'd have something to look forward to, to give you an incentive. If you thought that would be your lot in life, I don't think you could keep up much of a positive outlook. (well me anyway). People here saying they don't see their families etc for working so much is far from ideal, & as tiggerai says if what you're getting back doesn't reflect all the effort you're putting in it's dispiriting.
Also age makes a difference, you can put up with more when you're young & have more energy/optimism.
Last edited by sammyc; 25-03-2008 at 03:13 PM.
If you had to, you could. Carry all your worldly posessions in a rucksack - or cycle panniers. Sleep in a tent - (most places, you'd need to put it up after dark to avoid parkies or the old bill...) Live off bread, cheese, fresh fruit (no cooking). Use swimming baths for a shower.
This type of frugality has long been the mainstay of the independent traveller, hitch or cycle and you can see a lot of the world on very little cash. Incidentally, £5 per day is about the interest you'd get on £35,000 savings...
Last edited by greenalien; 25-03-2008 at 07:00 PM.
Not generalising - and in different industries this may be different, but If your wages are not rising by at least the rate of inflation each year then that should be a clear indicator that it is time to look for a new job. We are in a time of of record low unemployment - lowest for over 30 years - the rate of inflation is a bear minimum in this day and age - don't except anything lower!I'm in the same boat as Ferral, four kids, rising costs, not rising wages. Every year living costs seem to outstrip earnings making us worse off year on year.
Also in London (as im sure the rest of the country is concerned) no, £5 is easily not enough to cover everything.
I don't mean to be funny, but "job hopping" is frowned upon in most industries... There's only so long you can stick it out, i agree, but if you don't... you get labelled as a job hopper.
I was in 2 jobs before my current one and was asked about it, having to leave to get better wages. You can't win at the moment.
this thread is superb.....rate it today
I think it depends on how you present it - I was in my last job for just over 3 years and I was asked why I stayed so long (following on from me saying that I was looking to move on because there was no opportunity for progression in my current role)
if you stay 18 months in the roll, no one is going to label you a job hopper, least not in developement.
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
I have only ever worked in the IT/Banking industry so just going by my experience the reverse of your experience is the norm. Allot of the time it can frowned upon if you have been stuck at a job in a comfort zone for far to long (over 2 years) and i have witnessed this both in interviews as both a candidate and now as a fellow interviewer. Showing that you have been in different jobs shows you have been able to pick up and learn a new architecture/system and been able to move on start all over again.
In the end the most interviewers decide if you worthy of the new wage being offered, and not much consideration is put into if you are "wage jumping" but more importantly that you have experience and the correct "skill set" for the role.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
