Trading Places

First we have learned that living on £65.4 is hard, saving impossible. Its now a week since the project finished and I am really appreciating the coffees and casual visit to the pub. How can we make this better? we have had some excellent feed back from Rickerys and Hazelhurst which I have gathered below.
The group took the event seriously and had sensible suggestions,
1. The idea is that money that we spend on ourselves is budgeted we should therefore take a fee for heat, light, insurance clothes hair cosmetics etc clearly some of the participants would blow the budget and that is not the idea so we should have a fixed fee of say £8pw? for this.
2. Transport is another difficult area. One participant decided to cycle everywhere as cars are so expensive. Should we say no cars and only public transport or do we make it expensive to use a car?
3. A number had business lunches and we agreed that its is not fair that these count for nothing and indeed there should be a penalty, not a subsidy so how about each corporate meal is £ 5?
4. The next question was how does Fredericks raise money? My proposal is that before signing up to Trading Places we should do a survival budget covering current expenditure on oneself but not money spent on mortgage wife/partner. Say this comes to £300 pw and you spend £65.40 then at least 50% of the balance should go to Fredericks ideally 100%. If you go over there must be a penalty so if you spend £ £165 ie £100 over you should pay double on overspend so £200. I think the key is a simple starter pack which is filled out before the event.

There were interesting observations from the experience
“ when I went out to the shops at lunch time everything yells buy, buy, buy- but I could not, I felt excluded”
“I was physically exhausted with not time or energy for recreation”
“ organic was out of the window so was quality we are on survival budgets so cost became key”
“There are very few free things we can do with the children all seemed to involve the car which is expensive”
“To survive the cheapest option is to stay in and do nothing, this in itself is very isolating”.
So next year? we look forward to your imput we want to make this one of the most valuable experiences you can undergo as well as a new way of fundraising.

Well, we’ve had a lot of fun, and I have failed fairly miserably to keep to budget. As well as having a lot of laughs, there has been a serious vein running through all of this. Not only ‘how do you live on JSA?’, but ‘how on earth can you save on it?’ Well you can’t.

That’s why Fredericks is here, and with help from Rickerbys, Hazlewoods and all our mentors, volunteers, partners and funders we can continue to do this for years to come. A very large thank you to all the partners who joined in, and all the cheques you are about to write!

Now, may I suggest you enjoy the tennis, soccer, the weather and everything else without having to log down every expense!

They think it’s all over…it is now!
Well where do I start. I feel that the trading places challenge is also a good opportunity to promote team building, as we should all support each other. Well basically quite the opposite has happened and me and my fellow colleague (Mike Lewis) spent all morning yesterday NOT talking. Do you want to know why? Well in the true spirit of camaraderie I brought in an extra nectarine for Mike yesterday, knowing how expensive fruit is, I thought he would appreciate that. He did. But then (after eating the nectarine) said that he was going to bring me in an apple but thought they were too expensive to share. Queue MAJOR argument.
However by 2 o’clock I realised friendship and the England game were more important, oh and I needed a drinking buddy and off to the pub we both went. Several pints later and England score, which ends in us both being covered and I mean covered in beer. Not mine I hasten to add as it is far too expensive to waste. Several more pints later and we head out in the sunshine, with Mike a little worse for wear (he just can’t hack the pace!!!).
The conclusion is I have no money left…none…not a penny…all spent on cider…but I enjoyed every minute of it!

Hmm, got in for work for 7am, so I will be able to go on the team building exercise on Wed afternoon at 3pm….. but who chose this week to be doing trading places? Oh dear, just could not resist going to the pub in Cheltenham to watch it on the big screen, with a drummer to keep the punters lively & the vuvuzela’s to keep noise levels high, at least they drowned out the commentary but not the singing! THIS MEANS I’ve probably blown the budget? At least I can console myself in the fact that England won (unusually we won!), that this will raise some money for Freddie’s & in my beer, especially as that its probably now been inflated by 50%.

Lovely way to keep fit cycling into work & at least with what I save on petrol, I will be able to buy a beer! And at this time of day, the roads are totally clear, so not been cut up by any car drivers today! Getting a bit hot though with all this cycling, now realized that is because my hair means I look like an ageing hippy, but definitely cannot afford to get that cut this week!

How can a hotel with over 250 rooms only have 3 irons and one person on reception at peak times? If they make any more economies this hotel chain will have its guests making their own beds. Literally – with a few sheets of 4×2 and a tube of Araldite. Meeting an entrepreneur for lunch, looking like a crumpled sheepdog. Me that is, not him.

A day in London starting off by not even offering to pay a bill (see Paul below). Its hot sticky and have become a victim of Travelodge’s (yes £1.50 for a bottle of water) booking system so end up going to cdfa conference with luggage. More dehydration, but loads of free coffee and tea (and free water). Heaven. England win (double heaven), have to celebrate with a pint. 1 minute of pure pleasure for almost £4. That’s a big chunk of the budget, but we don’t win very often. It’s Thursday – only 24 hours to go. Have not yet had the courage to tot up all the scribbled notes, but its not looking good. I think I will owe Fredericks a cheque tomorrow for my overspend. I spend half my life persuading others to part with their money to support our work, so it’s only fair. (Why don’t Starbucks do a skinny jsa latte for 50p? – I will write to them.) Wait a minute – that’s 10 shillings. Used to have a good night out for that.

I thought I would enter into the true spirit of the challenge and use public transport (a bus!) to get to work this morning. Starting with a walk to the bus stop carrying my bag, work and laptop….then I had to run for the bus….then the bus driver insisted on stopping at every bus stop for what seemed like an hour each time. The buses are every 10 minutes so I fail to see the need for this! It was hot and full of people. Finally arriving at work an hour later than if I would have drove. Oh and I had to pay £4.80 for the privilege! Thankfully our CEO text me this morning saying ‘have a pint on me’. I hope he factored that into his budget. (Editors note – this was an offer of a virtual pint.) Come on England!!!!!!

Having overcooked the miles going to my brothers last Saturday for his silver wedding I’ve been trying to leave the car firmly locked up in the garage ever since! So it was dust off the old bicycle & I’ve been trying to use that every day this week instead. Cars are definitely a problem for anyone living on £65 a week… Was going well with the cycling, beautiful weather to be cycling in & maybe even losing the odd pound, plus no use of the car. Tip for self for next week, when I return to the car driving world …. Give cyclists much more space!

Was hoping for a lift to Cheltenham Bridge Club last night but ended up giving my next door neighbour a lift instead! So even when I am over on the petrol allocation, even more miles cutting in to the budget! Club night at the bridge club kept me entertained for 3 and half hours, all for the expense of £1.50! Now that’s what I call value for money! Didn’t win though, I made a few howlers, too tired….i’ll put it down to all the cycling!

I am known as a chocoholic but not as well known is a craving for ice cream. Green & Blacks, Haagen Dazs or Just Rachel’s or even Booja Booga. Certainly canNOT afford any of those this week; all this cycling & great weather means I can look longingly at them…. But cannot even afford the cheapest ice cream this week, if I’m to come in anywhere near the £65 budget! So just have to keep dreaming!

After the Saturday raid on cash Sunday was much easier. By just staying at home one avoids the many temptations retailers entrap us with. I found some chinese takeaway in the fridge, as the family were out I was free to eat them as I like. This is the equivalent of a tramp raiding the bins. So with a twix, a lasagne and a packet of crisps and some cereal my total was a measley £ 4.80.
Monday was Wimbledon day. My wife had the debenture tickets even before my agreeing to do this – they included lunch and afternoon tea and I confess to a dry white wine on the roof at 7 to round off a lovely day. Sometimes you think it is worth just enjoying life and this sunny day was one of them. I spent no money at Wimbledon, the deisel was about £5. But who am I kidding?
Tuesday an early start to sit on the Beacon Judging panel. I indulged in the free breakfast not having had anything having got up at 6am. Choosing the best candidates was tough so I awarded myself a baguette at Waterloo – I drew the line at water for £1.50. Back to Fredericks HQ to sit on 2 panels (should we support a Yurt manufacturer? – we did) Quick change and into London. Jane and I had been invited to the new production of Hair more importantly they had invited us to dinner at L’escargot beforehand – would I like a glass of wine YES! what about at the interval? YES I would have had an icecream but this was not offered.
In London with Charles Dodwell to meet the authors of The Big Society. Charles and I were half way down the street before realising we had not paid for coffee, we just smiled. A meeting at Coutts and we had a water then lunch in Royal Exchange where I shamelessly stumbled on finding my wallet then on to Somerset House where I felt I should really buy our guest a drink having already bummed a coffee off Christine. My second last £20 note disappeared I got £13.80 back. I heard a roar in mid meeting and deduced England had scored against Slovenia. I raced back for my gym appointment. Supper was Waitrose Moussaka (£2.04) accompanied by…. water. Gosh this is tiresome.
Good night I shall be dreaming of Friday lunch time……

This will not be easy to come in under the JSA budget for the week! Even starting the week off with a working breakfast yesterday! Great chance to have some coffee, the first since this trading places started, got carried away as someone else was paying for the coffee & overdosed on it, so back on the water for the rest of the day!

Organic vegetables and especially fruit are just SO expensive! My wife are I were discussing if you lived on JSA all the time then how do you ensure you live healthy & within budget? Having already decided that on this budget we cannot have alcohol, coffee and especially any takeaway’s, plus a need to keep out of the restaurants/café’s etc the thought was we need to be more radical! So we have decided to dig up for victory! The grass on the lawn is coming up & we are going to create a vegetable plot! Might not be any good for this years trading places week but maybe next year? Plus all that digging might help my waist line?

Homemade soups are good, yesterday we were using up last weeks left over veg before it went off, by making lots of portions and freezing them for later, should be a vote winner, lots of food little cost?!? So that was a good way to be more healthy yesterday! & keep the costs down! And for dinner next door do not know anything about trading places but they dug there first new potatoes of the season & very kindly dropped some round for us last night so that reduced the cost! Maybe this vegetable plot discussion…..planning…. will see the light of day after all?