Like Bird, I didn't quite understand what sort of experiment I'm involved in, so I might be imposing my own shape on the question.
In the scenario, I don't have to and am not allowed to work. So at least the second most significant element of the experience would be having a lot of time on my hands (after being in greater danger than I am presently in my life, which the scenario stresses through its references to gangs and such).
So what I think I'd try to do with my time is volunteer. I have sufficient culinary skills to work in a soup kitchen. I have basic fixer-upper-style skills. I could tutor kids. So I would make contact with the public school and the local parishes in town (Blackpool has four Catholic churches; even Durant has one), and nose about for how my labor could be put to good use. I might have to seek out sources of funding for materials and borrow tools, but old lady who needs a ramp installed? done. People will be suspicious of a do-good interloper, but if I can convince the parish priests of my sincerity, maybe they can set people at ease on that account.
If the idea behind money is that I have pretty much only enough for basic survival, then that's what I'd do. If the budget is sufficient that by scrimping, I can free up some funds for discretionary purchases, one of the first would go to safety--an extra deadbolt on the door. I'm not too worried on that front, b/c presumably I don't possess much worth anyone's stealing. After that, I'd save up to be able to buy a round of drinks at the local pub for whatever lucky bastards were there on the day I pulled the funds together. (I'd go at a time when there were only three or four present.)
Blackpool and Durant each have a public library, so I'd get a borrower's card. Hunker down after dark and read.
I'd pick Blackpool b/c I'm an Anglophile, so whatever touring I was able to do, even if limited to the town itself, would flesh out my knowledge of English history and culture.
I grew up in a town that had <2k.
