The step by step guide to UK frugality - Introduction

This post is born out of frustration.

Frustration of being bombarded with information, frustration from USAcentric tips, and frustration from a sort of person who cannot understand that there is life outside of a city.


 Whilst browsing reddit's frugal board it hit me- these people are not poor. Their moneysaving advice is designed for people who are kind of okay even if they don't follow it.
And that's fine, really. It's just not the same. It's playing at it, more of a thought experiment than real life.

 In the space of a couple of days I collected this advice (all upvoted):

• Not having a holiday for two years is "brutal".
• Selling your spare stuff is more hassle than it's worth and you should just give it away.
• This $150 rice cooker is a great investment (a rice cooker. $150. Multiple people recommended it. Srsly.).
• You don't live that far from the shops- just buy stuff every day instead of going shopping.
• And my favourite- you should just go down to your local Sri Lankan shop for cheap rice.

  And then there's the fact that everything is from the perspective of Americans. Our cultures are similar, but they're not the same. The shops don't match, and what can be cheap in one is not cheap in the other.
 Fortunately there is information out there. But it's scattered, biased, and usually overwhelming.

 So, my thought, my idea is to make a step by step guide. A slow easing into change based on my own experiences. It won't be perfect by any means, but hopefully it will help.

And yes, I will be liberally including referral links. This won't cost you anything, in a lot of cases it will give you a boost, so I'd be grateful if you'd click them, but if you insist on being stubborn then I can't stop the google machine from being used against me. 

Onwards Aoshima!