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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

£3 busfares will ruin me

313 replies

Deportationsensation · 30/10/2024 14:56

Busfare cap to increase to £3. That’s £6 a day for buses. £10 extra a week.

My food budget for 1 person is £10 a week. So that’s my food money gone to pay for buses.

I can’t work more hours. I do what I can in working part time because I have health issues that would not qualify for PIP but affect me every day. Not qualifying for any benefits other than probably food bank use. Which I will now have to do.

AIBU to just start wondering what is the point? Life isn’t supposed to be like this. Some of us are just trying to survive with no enjoyment in life at all.

OP posts:
PuddlesPityParty · 31/10/2024 05:37

XenoBitch · 30/10/2024 21:46

A few other people mentioned the PP who made the point that she was disabled so could work full time, so OP could. Why did you pick on me in particular?

Show quote history

Because my replies were nothing to do with that!! You’re not reading what I put or what the people I was replying to put. You keep harping on to me about it but nowhere was I involved in that conversation!! The PP who mentioned it was not the person I was replying to. Like I said READ what you’re replying to first.

Whatifitallgoesright · 30/10/2024 23:27

Deportationsensation · 30/10/2024 18:51

mumsnet never fails.

I have replied because I was WORKING.

Hair extensions were a gift because having nicer hair is the one thing that makes me feel better since I can’t afford new clothes etc all the time. theyre bought for me each year by my DM for my birthday.

Yes budget is usually is £15 but is now £10 as I do an extra day at work (same hours just spread out) meaning additional busfare.

and to one of the first posters who said I should work more hours, the last time I did that things got so bad I attempted suicide.

I don’t know why this site claims to be supportive. Vipers indeed.

I knew that was going to happen. Some people have no idea. Lucky them.

Spendysis · 30/10/2024 23:00

Have you checked you are getting everything you are entitled to have you applied for pip? As £10 or £15 per week for food isn't enough on a long term basis
Are you paying off debt? If so could you negotiate a payment plan

OneBadKitty · 30/10/2024 22:59

People aren't being fully supportive because you have started a thread complaining about bus fares but give no reasons as to why you are living on such a tight food budget.

ThisOldThang · 30/10/2024 22:58

Runssometimes · 30/10/2024 18:18

@AutumnLeaves24

a report from the cabinet office 2009 had these figures

COSTS
Road building and maintenance £9bn
Excess delays £10.9bn
Accidents £8.9bn
Poor air quality £7bn
Physical inactivity £9,8bn
Greenhouse gas emissions £2bn
Water pollution £5bn
Noise pollution £5bn
Total £57.6bn

INCOME
Vehicle excise duty £5.4bn
Fuel duty £24.9bn
Other taxes £17.8bn (VAT on fuel, car sales)
Total £48.1bn

Shortfall £9.5bn/year

and fuel duty has not increased since 2014. Public transport goes up every year. AND active travel infrastructure investment has actually been cut and is literally a fraction of what is spent on road infrastructure,

that’s also before you account for the costs of pollution on health,

remember that E-vehicles generate no VEH but as they are so heavy it’s thought that they damage the roads more which is something we all pay for to repair.

What a load of bollocks.

COSTS
Road building and maintenance £9bn
Excess delays £10.9bn - not a cost for the taxpayer.
Accidents £8.9bn
Poor air quality £7bn - number plucked out of the air.
Physical inactivity £9,8bn - not a cost for the taxpayer and no different to sitting on a bus or train.
Greenhouse gas emissions £2bn - number plucked out of the air.
Water pollution £5bn - number plucked out of the air.
Noise pollution £5bn - ??? not a cost for the taxpayer.

Total £57.6bn £17.9bn

I've honestly never seen such a shameless and desperate attempt to prove something with numbers.

PickAChew · 30/10/2024 22:55

I didn't see her mention weight loss jabs anywhere.

HecatesBees · 30/10/2024 22:48

Astrabees · 30/10/2024 21:27

She can’t afford to eat because she is spending her money on private weight loss jabs!

Source?

PurpleSky300 · 30/10/2024 22:40

Only £10 per week for food isn't enough. I don't know what kind of other support you're getting in terms of working benefits but I'm surprised that you haven't been referred to a foodbank a long time ago.

TheDeepLemonHelper · 30/10/2024 22:30

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

Marsh3melz · 30/10/2024 22:28

@purplebeansprouts only in MN land.

Viviennemary · 30/10/2024 22:08

Completelyjo · 30/10/2024 20:09

Yes budget is usually is £15 but is now £10 as I do an extra day at work (same hours just spread out) meaning additional busfare

In what world doesn’t an extra day at work mean you have £5 less a week in total?

OP means that her hours are spread over 5 days instead of 4. So no extra earnings. But more busfares. Can't understand why only £10 left for food unless lots of debt repayments.

purplebeansprouts · 30/10/2024 22:06

XenoBitch · 30/10/2024 17:30

Apparently, OP works as a childminder. You can't fire up Teams and do that from home.

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She can change jobs, no one is stuck in one job

stichguru · 30/10/2024 22:03

Would you qualify for a free bus pass? If so, it would half your bus expenditure.

samarrange · 30/10/2024 21:55

Ponoka7 · 30/10/2024 21:28

If you earn over £393.45, you don't get anything as a single person.

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OP claims to have only £10 per week left over for food, after spending £20 on bus fare, so if she is making over £393.45 per week, I'd like to know what she is spending the other £363.45 (92%) on that's a higher priority than eating or getting to work.

Marsh3melz · 30/10/2024 21:53

Maddy70 · 30/10/2024 15:00

Its a cap. It may be cheaper

It's not most single journeys don't cost £3 that's the joke! A day return was £4.80 last time I bought one.

AngelInBlueJeans · 30/10/2024 21:48

Katemax82 · 30/10/2024 21:17

I didn't bloody vote for them!!

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Katemax82
Glad to hear it, full applause 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 (and no this isn’t sarcasm, I genuinely mean it).
Those who told me they were going to vote Labour pre election, I honestly begged them not too, and they are the ones crying into their hankies…idiots 🤯😡

XenoBitch · 30/10/2024 21:46

PuddlesPityParty · 30/10/2024 21:24

Perhaps you should contribute helpfully to threads instead of spouting nonsense constantly.

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A few other people mentioned the PP who made the point that she was disabled so could work full time, so OP could. Why did you pick on me in particular?

Oblahdeeoblahdoe · 30/10/2024 21:36

If you're that badly paid you'll be getting a pay rise with the increase in the minimum wage.

LePetitMaman · 30/10/2024 21:33

Ponoka7 · 30/10/2024 21:28

If you earn over £393.45, you don't get anything as a single person.

Show quote history

No.

That's the minimum you will get as a single person over 25.

Ponoka7 · 30/10/2024 21:28

LePetitMaman · 30/10/2024 19:00

So why exactly do you not qualify for universal credit?

Show quote history

If you earn over £393.45, you don't get anything as a single person.

Astrabees · 30/10/2024 21:27

She can’t afford to eat because she is spending her money on private weight loss jabs!

PuddlesPityParty · 30/10/2024 21:24

XenoBitch · 30/10/2024 21:19

Stroll on, and be mad at someone else.

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Perhaps you should contribute helpfully to threads instead of spouting nonsense constantly.

Autumnalsun · 30/10/2024 21:22

I’m sorry to hear that OP.

I understand you have health issues but could you condense your hours, so you are doing longer hours over fewer days?

BIossomtoes · 30/10/2024 21:19

Clavinova · 30/10/2024 20:47

The Conservative manifesto pledged to extend the £2 cap on bus fares in England for the whole of the next Parliament;

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/london-tories-conservative-party-parliament-england-b1163628.html

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They lost the election because nobody believed their promises. Where exactly was the money for the spending spree the manifesto promised going to come from?

XenoBitch · 30/10/2024 21:19

PuddlesPityParty · 30/10/2024 20:27

OMG! You need reading lessons. I said the people I replied to were both defending the OP. Neither of them were saying bad about her disability. Please, I beg, actually read and digest before responding.

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Stroll on, and be mad at someone else.