Polish workers in the UK - how do you save and how much do you send home?

I'm doing some research for an essay into how Polish workers cope with high rents in London and how they manage to send money home.

With rents in the capital at an all-time high and many Polish workers in poorly paid jobs they must have to work very hard to have much money left.

I'm aware of flat-sharing and working extra shifts, but what else do Polish workers in the UK do to save money?

I'd love to hear your stories.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

My flatmate, who is Polish, gets by by living in low cost squalid conditions (my flat) which helps slightly with more mortgage (or my expensive cheese habit). He only works one job. He sends nothing home, buys a new phone every month, computer stuff, gym equipment, and generally has quite an easy life. Tha b******!

Is that the kind of thing you were after, or...

There are ten of them living in my basement, working every hour of the day and night, sending most of their hard-earnt wages back to Poland where they are all saving up to buy a new part for their old tractor.

haha, no not really. i'm not wishing to stereotype.

there have been some unusual stories in the press about Polish builders using a public toilet to catch a few hours kip before shifts -

blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/05/stamford_hill_d.html

as the source is the daily mail it must be taken with a pinch of salt... still, i'm just genuinely interested in stories like these and whether there is much truth in them.

thanks.

There was a thread about that on here - I unpicked it like an old bootlace and showed it for the waste of print that it was.

So, do you want me to make something else up? I had quite an imagination, but I do prefer truth as it's usually more interesting than fiction, so ignore part 2 of my post. The first thing I posted is almost true - actually in 5 months he's only bought 3 new phones.

edit: I renovated an old mole burrow in my back garden. One of them has to pedal an exercise bike to provide heat and electricity whilst the others mine coal, clean my boots for me...

student girl they do what ever other person living and working in England do i.e. live in cramped conditions, buy baked beans for one penny and work so much that there isn't time to spend it. I am of course talking from personal experience.