that we lived on London Living Wage; pt 1

Day 1: Bought lunch for two days from Sainsburys for £5.66. £2.83 per day so I'm down to £10. I've been invited for work drinks and then I'm going to meet a mate for drinks. This is where it gets tricky. You're hard pressed to find a glass of wine below £4 in London. Going to have to stick to a two drink max tonight and then tap water. 

EXTRA: Family and friends' special occasions. I paid £23 for an upcoming hen do. She's a good mate, and I'd already committed to the event but if you're living on this wage long term, I imagine you'd have to think a bit harder about committing to these things. Pretty sure some spends (family birthdays? Mothers Day?) are unavoidable though.

Day 2: So as it turns out I didn't stick to a two drink max. Boy, I really didn't. I also had dinner. And a side. Oh alright, I also had some Sake (for the first time; tastes like a normal spirit but without the horrible kick. It's pretty good). Lesson learnt here is that I need to fight the naturally occuring rebellious urges against my self-imposed regulations. Also, no Sake on a week night.

 

Day 3: I paid back £25 on my credit card. Definitely an avoidable spend. I should have actually paid the £25 last month rather than just postpone it until this month. That aside, it's a Saturday. I'm allowed to up the daily budget knowing that Sunday will be spent hungover in bed wanting nothing more than water. A £5 Brixton cocktail, a beer here, a few wines there. I got out a drunken £30...

Day 4: ...and woke up with £30 in my pocket. That never happens. Spent a tenner on recovery coffee, lunch and intelligent newspaper. Nothing wards off drunk guilt like coffee and smugly broadening your current affairs knowledge.

Day 6: Circuits class. Paid for a few months ago, and we got one suspiciously cheap deal, but you probably wouldn't be able to afford classes like this usually at £7 a class.

 

EXTRA: Exercise. Presumably something we should all be doing each month if you're trying to stick to health guidelines. True, running outdoors is free so that's a way of making this cheaper. Still, over winter (and well into March this year, apparently) it's f***ing freezing, so unless you're massively dedicated and have an excessive, broad spread of warming bodily hair, you might need to pay for either a gym membership or some sort of classes. And you're going to need sports gear of some sort for this which will cost. 

 

Day 7: Dodgeball. As above, this was paid for a while back. We headed to the pub after, but I (in hindsight, quite rudely) made someone else pay for beers. That Saturday night £30 still going strong. 

 

Day 8: Busy at work, so not able to get out to spend at lunchtime and I've been bringing packed lunches in. Win for the old wallet and for my organisation. Dinner with my Mum and Sister. Mum paid. This is easy peasy.

 

Day 9: I picked up a minor Dodgeball injury in the week and by this morning it had developed into the fattest lip you can imagine. Like Thierry Henry, but only on the bottom left and probably less sexy. When I text my mate Jo to re-jig our pub plans to save humiliation, she told me she had a black eye. Good job we didn't go out in public together. It would have looked like the peace treaty after some cat fight. She came over for dinner and bought a bottle of wine. 

 

Day 10: My brother came to stay over as we were going out for a belated birthday event for my sister. Turns out I woke up with a bug and so had to stay in. Didn't eat anything, so that was pretty cheap. 

Day 11: Paid £45 for a massive grocery shop and as a contribution to some vegetable, herb and flower planting we did around the flat. Spent the day trying to recover for work.

 

Day 12: Made it into the office, feeling slightly healthier but with a simple packed lunch. Busy again so didn't make it out of office. Came home for a bit, got ready for a date and then had baby food flicked at me by a 5 month old. 

 

EXTRA: Dating. I figure it's probably much easier to live on a smaller budget if you're settled in a relationship and spend less going out on dates, or just generally out somewhere you're going to meet people. You can of course commitment to being a lifetime bachelor/ette or you stay at home and maybe trawl the net for prospective partners, but neither of those really float my boat. And if the latter is your boat floating preference, I presume these dating sites cost a dollar or two. I'm going to stick to dating every now and then, and as a modern, self-sufficient sort of person, I'm planning on financially contributing towards the date. I'd imagine the whole £13.50 budget, even if we just go for drinks rather than food. We are in London after all, and at this time of the year, it's not park-bench-with-a-bottle-of-White-Lightning weather. 

 

Day 13: Non-date related, but apparently I'm still ill. My brother has also gone down ill from the limited amount of time we spent together on Saturday. I Had two malted milk biscuits and two slices of toast all day. Spent nothing.

 

Day 14: Apparently not eating and drinking very little doesn't leave you feeling all that energetic or healthy in the morning. Today looks to be a cheap day too at home in front of the TV. Planning on eating a whole meal at some point though, though that's already paid for. 

So after two weeks, out of my starting post-rent etc. budget, and mainly due to being ill, I've only spent £175.63 in two weeks. 

Average daily budget = £12.55. 
Result: UNDER BUDGET

that we lived on London Living Wage: Introduction

Thursday 28th February
February payday and the beginning of this year-long experiment, where we're planning on committing to a different lifestyle every month. This month, we'll be budgeting to live to the London Living Wage. 

The current living wage in London is £8.55 and, based on a working week of 35 hours, that would give you a salary of £15,561.00. A quick visit to listentotaxman.com shows how much of this you would receive each month:

So that's £1,092.79 income post tax and NI each month. I included Student Loan repayments in the calculator because I figure the inclusion will make this figure a bit more relevant to a lot of people but regardless, on London Living Wage, turns out you'll be paying sweet FA as you're not earning enough. Now to work out essential and extra (relatively unexpected and unavoidable) outgoings and what you'd be left with after these:

ESSENTIAL: Rent. This website (http://www.london.gov.uk/rents/) gives a vague indication of average weekly rental cost of a bedroom in SE16 (where I live); £109 - £129. Using £119 as a midway point, this works out as £515.67 per month, not including bills. I'm on £500 with bills. 

That's 45.8% of monthly income spent on rent. 

ESSENTIAL: Travel. I've got to get to work, guys. This is essential. Travel costs can be brought down long-term by buying a bike, but it seems unwise to blow that sort of cash in the month of this experiment. I'd be on bread and cuppa soup from day 4 if I did. I've walked and run my journey before, but at 6.4km it's pretty exhausting and I'm sure what I save in TFL costs, I'd end up spending on bananas, energy bars and sweat bands. A zone 1-2 monthly travelcard is £116.80.

10.7% of income spent on travel.

ESSENTIAL: Phone. The quality of your phone can obviously bring this category into luxury, but I'm pretty sure if you're trying to stay connected to your friends and potential employers if you're not working, this is an essential. My 2-year Orange contract works out most months around £25 after VAT. I also got a letter this month kindly telling me that my rates were going up to fit with inflation. And I mean, it's not like the biggest price mark-up in the entire world is the cost of texts. Sure, 12p is entirely appropriate when it costs less then 3/10 of a penny to the network. Just your average 6,000% mark up. No biggie. I imagine a more sensible consumer could get a £20 p/m deal. Old Orange faithful douche here is on £25 though. 

2.3% of income. 

EXTRA: Insurance. £10 a month for contents insurance/extra bills. Not an essential, but having once left our door unlocked all day (sorry, housemates) and arriving home with everything still in place, I'm pretty sure I've used up my luck. Also, apparently fires and leaks regularly occur in blocks of flats and I'm 100% certain I haven't coated my few valuables in fire/flood proofing spray.

1% of income.

EXTRA: Donations. £15 a month. Completely avoidable but it's good for the world and good for the soul. 

1.5% of income. 

So after all of these things, we're left with £425.99 for the month (39% of salary), working out at a daily budget of £14.01 (based on an average month of 30.4 days).

Obviously this can be lived on. Not trying to patronise anyone earning this or less (though this will probably be an accidental outcome of these posts); you can eat, work, sleep in a bed and talk to your loved ones, probably buy a Morse or Die Hard box set and some new socks/tights (as yours will undoubtedly develop holes/ladders over the next month. Boy, they don't make them like they used to). This isn't some big social experiment and only a slight comment on employment and wage law; I just spent £60 more than I earned last month and clearly need to cut back...This seemed like an interesting budget to impose (and achievable in a way that the actual minimum wage of £6.19 an hour isn't), and a way of working out where money regularly gets spent and if there are any habits that it makes sense to change. It's also conveniently only a 28 day month before the next pay day, so really I'm laughing all my way to getting that £60 back. Laughing.