The Campaign Builder's Guild

So my sister has moved halfway across the country to study, leaving me alone in the flat with the rent and the power bill on my $440 (Aussie bucks) weekly income...

Never lived alone before. Bit out of my depth and looking for advice from the wiser and older folks about the forums. Aside from getting a different job (just breaking even at present) what other moves should I be making as a solitary 21 year old in century 21?

Learn to cook and learn to use the freezer. Food's cheaper if you buy it in bulk (and freeze the excess), and cooking's more convenient if you cook in large batches (and freeze the leftovers).

Depending on your current eating habits (mainly: whether you eat out frequently), you stand to save a great deal of money.

In terms of food, if you eat a fair amount of red meat, consider cutting it down to once a week or so.

Make Ramen, but don't drink the soup-water, and add vegetables and small amounts of meat- that is actually reasonably healthy and extremely cheap. And it tastes better than Campbell's soup.

Keep a log of your expenses for at least one week; write down everything you spend- then review it for cuts.

Eat in. Don't eat out more than 3x/week.

Make sandwiches or soup to take to work.

Also, turn off lights when you leave home or a room and turn off the power strip for your computer at night (that drains power). Hot water also adds to your electricity bill (just to keep in mind while bathing or showering). ; Although it is summer in Australia now, when winter comes you may want to keep the temperature about 5 degrees colder than usual-- and wear sweaters.
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Make sure you have good friends who you can call up and spend time with at places like walks in parks, wanderings around the city, and cheap movie theatres every now and then.

Good Luck.

Yeah, the stuff you do at work is the secret killer.  
Coffee and a bagel every am is 25-30 bucks, soft drinks 3x the expense if bought singly...

and I will also say that moving away from bachelorhood can also cost a bundle.

Quote from: LordVreegYeah, the stuff you do at work is the secret killer.  
Coffee and a bagel every am is 25-30 bucks, soft drinks 3x the expense if bought singly...

and I will also say that moving away from bachelorhood can also cost a bundle.

Especially if you decide to start raising little clones of yourself... those things eat alot.

Buy bulk, learn how to cook (well), if you've got spare space, consider getting a roommate?

I will basically second what others have said about the food situation. I'm actually younger than you, and don't live alone, though, so I'm not exactly the demographic that you asked for advice from... but yeah vegetables are pretty much dirt cheap, and the cook-a-big-pot-of-food-and-eat-it-all-week tactic is sound.

EDIT: just exchanged your $440-a-week into sterling so I could have an understanding of it's actual value... and, based on when I wasn't sharing food with housemates and so just shopped for myself, unless food is a lot differently priced over there you shouldn't need to spend more than about $55 on food a week, which leaves you with more than $380 for everything else. Dunno if that helps with your budgeting :)

I find it helps to buy thick but good books for cheap. Also, video games with high replay value. Discount / used box sets of TV shows or movies (really old ones can be especially cheap and unless you're a special effects hound, they're just as good.) Basically, buy entertainment in bulk. That's one of my main methods of saving money.

Food really is the thing to watch, especially food out of the house.

...problem solved

Quote from: Nomadic...problem solved

Until you die of malnutrition.

I misread that as "die of humiliation" which I think is just as appropriate.

I) Divide your expenses in categories (Food, Rent, Electricity, Leisure,etc, no more than 5-7) and calculate how much are you probably -and reasonably- going to spend in each one. Then buy one envelope for each category and put your money there.

II) Use the money in each envelope JUST FOR THAT expenditure and nothing else. That way, you'll be more aware of how much money you have and can spend (trust me, when you have all your bucks in one place, money seems endless until it's gone).

III) Give yourself a month or so to tweak your initial estimations.
It can be cumbersome from time to time, but it worked for me at least :D

IV) Save the remnants in each category at the end of the month, creating a "buffer" to deal with unexpected expenses.

All other advices about cooking, lot of veggies, batch-cooking, etc are completely true.

I had a legally gray suggestion (at least it's very gray here in Canada - less gray in the States and I'm not sure about Australia) but I've been slapped on the wrist, heheh.  But I very much second Nomadic's comment below; Steam often has excellent deals, especially on older but excellent games (like Psychonauts!  SA, if you haven't played Psychonauts, you should at least have a look at it!).

On a more serious note... buy video games through discounters like steam. Food wise try to buy lots of cheap stuff in bulk and spice it up with a couple nicer things.