Brits confess to dining from hedgerows, doing odd-jobs for money and recording every expense for a year

London, Friday 17 July 2009; The recession has led to an increase in British self-sufficiency and neighbourhood enterprise, according to a new survey from price comparison site, Kelkoo.co.uk. The survey of 1,600 Brits asked people to reveal the lengths they were going to in order to boost their finances. It showed that 82% of Brits are saving money by cooking meals from scratch, 72% believe in growing their own food and 70% are considering turning their own skills into money by offering services such gardening, cooking and cleaning to friends and neighbours.

As part of Kelkoo’s survey, respondents admitted to spending more than 9 months finding the best deal on a purchase and many wrote in to explain the lengths they had gone to in order to pinch the pennies. One respondent has been saving money on vegetables after discovering that a hedgerow weed was edible and others said they’d been making jams from hedgerow fruits. Another took a 48 hour coach journey rather than flights to cut the price of their holiday, a savvy person admitted to selling neighbours’ unwanted belongings on eBay and someone said that they had recorded every purchase they had made for 12 months, no matter how small, to help them with their finances.

58% of those questioned are saving money by mending their own clothes and 38% are opting to wear second hand clothes. One lady even refused to purchase maternity-wear and simply wore her husband’s clothes for nine months, whilst another replied that she had been cutting costs by making all her husband’s shirts and ties.

70% of respondents believe using their self-sufficiency skills would be a good way of making money, with gardening, child minding, cooking and cleaning being the top services that people thought they could sell.

Bruce Fair, Managing Director of Kelkoo UK said, “The fact that Brits are using their own skills to help their finances just shows real resilience and great enterprise. We’ve seen an increase in people who are taking more time to compare prices but it’s incredible to see the more extreme lengths people are willing to go to!” 

“Consumers might be cash-strapped at the moment, but there are always ways we can boost our finances, especially by doing more jobs that we would otherwise pay someone else to do for us or by thinking how we could do jobs for others. Research from earlier this year showed that people still want to treat themselves to 1-3 luxury items each month which they are clearly making possible through saving or earning money elsewhere.”