h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Living on £53 a week as an exercise is very different than the reality of it. And it is just not that you are poor, it is the psychological and emotional impact, of being out of work, having to sign on and they way that you are portrayed.

Also to make it more realistic I think while he is doing this experiment something should break, like a boiler or a washing machine, good luck getting that fixed or replaced

Now *that* is a very good point Peanut. Then he'd be well and truly screwed.

I prefer the boiler option myself, you are shafted if that goes

With the washing machine you can hand wash and likely he could ask a friend or relative if he could do a wash a week round theirs and claim that it was just an inconvenience

I've had another idea, his starting point is as if he has been unemployed for 3 months, in which the tax and insurance has come up on his car and he can no longer afford it

You're both dead right. It's the not knowing when it will end that makes it different from anybody doing it as an exercise. As a student, when I had a year without central heating, I could tell myself it was only a year (and only in term time).

If it had been for the foreseeable future... completely different thing.

sprout