The hardship fund I did not know existed

Nothing here sells anything and nothing here takes a commission, and on the money side of this that matters more than usual.

What helped most was one member here who had done this on a similar budget and simply told me the practical order to do things in.

My experience of the health service as a student was much better once I stopped treating it as a last resort.

What helped was finding out exactly what I was entitled to, which took an afternoon and turned out to be considerably more than I expected.

The address problem was mine. Moving three times in two years meant every arrangement had to be rebuilt each time.

Doing this without money is a completely different exercise and most of what is written assumes a car, a fridge and a stable address.

The bit in the middle is the bit I needed to read.

The thing I underestimated was how much energy the logistics take when you have no slack in your week at all.

My experience is that this is doable on very little and that it requires more planning than anybody with money would need.

The holidays are the difficult part. Term-time arrangements do not survive four months at a different address.