6. Consider a pay-as-you go mobile
If you’ve ever argued that that a mobile phone is a necessity rather than a luxury – great news, you win! This year it was reported that statistically everyone in Senegal and Algeria now has a mobile phone. Something everyone has loses its luxury status. What can end up being completely over the top, is the type of phone you can’t afford and the packages of minutes, texts and that internet access measured in megas that no one understands which are by-and-large sold by liars. Point is, if you hand over £50 a month to your mobile phone company, that's £600 a year - or around £1,000 of your gross salary. But you can buy phones for less than a tenner and top up with a pay- as-you-go vouchers for not much more. Algerians aren’t all using iPhones, you know.