Forced by double redundancies. Strictly speaking for a period of six months our budget dropped 80%. How do you deal with it - well our shopping was slashed from £500+ a month for a family of five to £50 ( and yes it is possible but very boring ). All luxuries went out the window. We slash our gas and electric consumption by about 25% ( Mrs Westdene got more than a tad annoyed with my evangelical habit of turning things off - you know, if you put timer plugs on freezers and fridges you can set them to only be on for every other hour and everything is OK ? ). Went into mortgage arrears and we were given a little money every now and then by family members.
You'll be amazed how 40% feels entirely possible once you've dealt with 80% !
Who are the UK's "family members" who will bung Gideon a few quid when it starts to bite then?