Need to Survive

[Donnie]

I'm in need of some dire help, I have £20 to last me till May 2nd...this £20 has to be my money I live off till then

I was wondering if any of you people can give me some advice on how to make this £20 last.

I'm not at all good at stealing and I always get cought because I'm clumsy, so I was just wondering if anybody knows any good ways of how they budget or can give me some cheap kick ass recipes. I'm not veggie or vegan btw.

[which doctor]

Be a freegan.

http://www.freegan.info/

[bunk]

Try going to small bakeries just before they close. If it's like my local one, they will have a bargain bin where you can get bread for hardly any money.

[Donnie]

I already pay about £25p for bread at my local Aldi super market store. I live in the city and so there are no bakers or butchers (well from what I've seen anyway) all there is is big expensive food stores and health shops, lol.

But I'll go on a mission to find a bakers and a butchers store. :)

[Delirium]

Get a guide of the local wild edibles and do some hunting. (Depending on where you live, your mileage will vary)

I suggest you buy a large amount of some kind of grain (rice?), that would probably be the best $/calorie trade off.

[Donnie]

I've found a Kiwick Save, tin of spagetti hoops for 11p, now thats a bargin, lol. I'm off today to get all my really cheap food. :)

All I need to do now is pay my rent, lol.

[Black Dagger]

Well there's obvious stuff like, cut down on your electricity and water use as much as possible - don't flush the toilet unless you do a shit (or at least until you feel that it's time to start fresh :P), get water from public taps/places you dont have to pay, shower at the same. Some sports grounds have showers in the locker/change rooms, and some gyms (like the one at my local uni) have showers in the change room which you can get into without having to show or swipe a gym members card or anything.

Start dumpstering food, head out to the backs of supermarkets (Aldi is a great place! Because of their return policy - they dont re-sell anything if it gets returned by a customer- they throw out a huge variety of items, from fruit, vege, to confectionary, appliances, and cd players!) from about 10-10.30 pm, take some allen/hex keys or a spanner to help, a lot of dumpsters aren't locked though. A good location near where i live stays unlocked until the garbage truck comes at around 11.30 after which the dumpster is locked, so just try and learn the routines and best places to go, sunday is usually a good day.

The best places are shops that sell perishable goods or supermarkets in general, and places like Aldi whose stock is made up of stuff that only has a month or so to go before expiry. Small shops and convenience stores are usually bad places to try because they sell most of their stock, supermarkets on the other hand throw away something like 48% of what is brought into their store!

Remember that 'expiry' or 'use by dates' are in fact sell-by-dates, and in the vast majority of cases have nothing to do with the actual lifespan of the food, i'm eating dumpstered butter biscuits that expired four months ago and they're fine! Stay away from things like meat and dairy products (for the most part). I did dumpster a shit load of flavoured custard though - last week- and it was fine. But stay away from dairy that is warm or if you know it has been sitting there for a while.

A lot of places get food and other goods that are to be used or sold in-store the next day, delivered late at night to the back of their premises.

Remember that you can freeze stuff like loaves of bread, for long periods of time and then unfreeze them when you need them. This strategy is good if you dumpster say a kilogram of tomatoes which can be frozen for a month or so. If you've got too much stuff, don't waste the excess, give it away to someone who needs food or freeze/store it to eat later when you have less food.

Bakeries and places that make their produce daily will often throw out the days stock at the end of the day, ready to make more fresh stuff the next day, so check places like that out, bakeries/bagelries being prime examples.

Aldi sells really cheap noodles, buy a lot and some frozen veges, mix together and cook for a cheap meal.

Staff rooms at a variety of places, uni campuses are great for these as they're usually deserted and are easy to access, have sugar, tea, milk and other stuff.

Never buy toilet paper, there's plenty in public spaces and businesses that have toilet facilities.

Do some research on the free food that is available in your city. Food not bombs do two meals a week in my area and they're free! Ask around, ask the people at food not bombs (if there is one near where you live) and they'll probably be able to give you info on other places you can get free meals or even good places to dumpster. Hare Krishna places are great for very cheap (and usually big helpings) and even free food if you're willing to help wash up or the like. Also try your local 'Chinatown', there are usually places that can be found that are cheap (for restaurants, between 5-11 aussie dollars) and also have big helpings.


If you're going to buy food the cheapest places to buy fruit and veges are usually markets, i.e. the fruit and vege markets! Supermarkets are usually the worst places to buy fresh food, ditto with meat, which is usually cheaper at butchers (or markets). And if you are buying at supermarkets try to go at or near closing time, there are usually sales on meat, and other perishables that they want to get rid of.

Try to eat less meat, it's really expensive (but nice :P).

Talk to your friends, a lot of people that you know are probably members, uni students or workers at places that can give you access to stuff that you need. For example, uni students usually have access to free internet on their campus, as well as a free book and movie borrowing. Uni's are also great places to get free food, lot's of free bbq's (sometimes even free beer!) etc.

You can use the membership cards of friends at gyms to work out, or use the showers :P - or to get access to cheaper goods. Related to this, workers, you can a borrow a friend's staff discount card or ask them to help you with your dumpstering. Alternatively, you can get a job at a bakery (or similar), or a supermarket to improve your access to discarded produce.

I'll see if i can come up with anything else.... later :P

good luck!