How I lived on 1 a day for a year (that's around 1.

20 euros)
1. How do you think she managed it?
What would you do? Make a list of cost cutting ideas to reduce your weekly
expenditure to survive a year on 1.00 a day.
Your group objective is to persuade the class your ideas are the best.
You will need to present your suggestions to the group.
Consider the following:
What is your weekly expenditure?

What do you spend money

on each week?

How could you reduce

expenditure?

What creative alternatives

do you have?

2. Now read Kaths tips and compare your ideas with hers.
2.1 Use these tips to write a magazine article on how to
live on 1 a day for a year
2.2
Compare the article you wrote with two other
articles:

A news article
A magazine article
Note the differences in:
Style
Language
Content
Metaphor
Colloquial language
Appealing to the reader

How a cash-strapped teacher beat

credit crunch by living on 1 a day
for a YEAR after drunken bet
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1052710/How-cashstrapped-teacher-beat-credit-crunch-living-1-dayYEAR-drunken-bet.html#ixzz1mBc9HD68

By Daily Mail Reporter 6th September 2008

Anyone finding it hard to cope with the credit
crunch will find little sympathy from teacher Kath
Kelly. The cash-strapped teacher had an alcoholinduced wager with friends that she could beat the
credit crunch by living on just 1 a day for a whole
year - and won.
Miss Kelly, 47, ate at free buffets, shopped at
jumble sales and scavenged food discarded by
grocery stores and restaurants. English teacher
Kath Kelly had a bet with friends that she could live
on 1 a day for a whole year - and won. She
picked fruit from bushes and trees and collected
117 in loose change dropped in the street - a third
of her annual budget. She even managed a free
trip to France by hitchhiking through the Channel
Tunnel. And to cap it all, she found love while
working as a volunteer on an organic farm during
the holidays.
Miss Kelly was sharing a house in Hotwells,
Bristol, when she complained to her friends over a
few glasses of wine that she could not afford a
wedding present for her brother Danny. She boldly
announced that she would survive on 1 a day for
the 12 months up to the wedding.
Thrifty: Kath picked fruit from bushes and shopped
in jumble sales to live on 1 a day
'I woke up the following morning and instantly
regretted it but it was too late - I'd told my friends
and now I had to go through with it.'
With her rent and utility bills already paid for the
year, her budget had to cover transport, food,
clothes and socialising. She soon learned to spot a
bargain and after working at the English Language
Centre in Clifton, where she teaches for 20 hours a
week, she regularly visited super-markets and
butchers at closing time to buy reduced food. She
added: 'I had a freezer
full of stuff. I was out all
the time with a bag on
my back and if I saw
bread for 10p at the end

of the day, or reduced vegetables - anything - I bought

it.'
Miss Kelly would hunt down market researchers in the
street as they often have samples to give away.
Kath's daily shopping bills, consisting mostly of fresh
fruit and veg, would often come to just under 1. She
ditched her mobile phone and cycled to friends'
houses if she wanted to speak to them, leaving a note
if they were out. She used the library for free internet
access and developed a taste for mince pies - which
she would stockpile at Christmas when they are given
away at stores.
'I went to the public lectures at Bristol University that
had a buffet afterwards, and I went to the library's
100th birthday where they had a buffet as well. I was
the queen of the buffet.
'Every time there was a public event and a crowd was
needed, I was there.
'I dragged my mates out to free events, too.
'I couldn't buy rounds at the pub or anything like that
so I'd take them to art openings and book launches.
Miss Kelly says one of her best tips is to hand out
small gifts where you can - what you receive in return
will usually be of a greater value. Her trip to France
came when she decided to visit her brother, who was
restoring a house in Brittany.
'I hitchhiked to the Channel Tunnel, got a free ride as
the passenger of a French woman and hitched to
Brittany,' she said.
'On the way back I travelled on the ferry with a lorry
driver, and even had dinner at the drivers' canteen.'
By the end of the year Miss Kelly was able to use
some of the 10,000 salary she had banked to spend
1,300 on a lifetime membership to the National Trust
for Danny and his bride Sarah. She had also formed a
relationship with 38-year-old Bruce Taylor, manager of
the farm where she worked as a holiday volunteer.
The couple now live together in Bruton, Somerset,
and Miss Kelly has written a book about her year of
living frugally - How I Lived On Just A Pound A Day,
published by Redcliffe at 6.99.
She now grows her own fruit and veg, and says the
experiment has changed her outlook.'I'm a lot more
sensible with my money now and live a completely
different lifestyle.'

Vocabulary
1. Find words in the news article with similar meaning to the following:
Heres a clue: Macmillan online dictionary and thesaurus
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/cash-strapped

Word/phrase

definition

synonyms

not having as much money as you need

an agreement to win or lose an amount of
money
a period when a countrys economy is in a
bad state and banks are not willing to lend
much money
an event where people raise money by selling
things that are no longer wanted.
small coins that you have with you
the amount of money a person or
organization has to spend on something
careful about how you spend money so that
you do not waste any
to do something that you have planned or
agreed to do, especially after not being sure
you want to do it
to try to find a particular thing or person
to reach a particular total when everything is
added together
to get rid of someone or something because
you no longer like or need them
spending very little money and only on things
that are really necessary

2. Find the following words in the text and select the correct meaning from the choices. Check the
grammatical form of the word

to drag

a round

1.

pull with difficulty

2.

pull someone against will

3.

make someone do something

4.

touch ground

5.

when time seems slow

6.

in computing

7.

search water with net

1.
2.
3.
4.

(one of) a series

bullet/shot
complete game of golf
drink for all in group

5.

slice of food/sandwich

2. Hyphenated Compound adjectives. Find 2 examples.

Hyphenated Compound adjectives
noun
noun+adjective = compound adjective

cash-strapped

Now create your own noun+adjective = compound

adjective
teacher
bet
year
wedding present