Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Ah, that lovely January skint feeling!

40 replies

confusedofengland · 04/01/2019 09:11

Just checked my bank account & I have 30p to last until Monday Hmm We had a fair amount of money saved before Christmas, but had forgotten that the balance of our holiday had to be paid by 31st December, so fortunately we just about covered that.

I have plenty of food & don't need to buy anything before Monday, so will be totally fine, just hate that skint feeling!

Having a declutter so hoping some things will sell, but no bites yet. Can't wait to start my new job once checks are completed Smile

Anybody else feeling skint?!

OP posts:
jinglewithbellson · 04/01/2019 09:22

Aarrrggghhh know the feeling and I've got until mid jan to go.
Hey ho.
Dreading the next two weeks

IncyWincyGrownUp · 04/01/2019 09:33

I was at a 42p balance for the best part of this week. It’s odd knowing there’s enough of everything, but no buffer. All sorted now though.

Original poster
confusedofengland · 04/01/2019 09:38

Incywincy that's exactly the feeling. Glad it's sorted now.

Jingle mid-January is a long time Shock Hopefully you can get by till then? I only get Carer's allowance on Monday, so about £67, but it should be enough to buy food & fuel until the next week. Hoping that school doesn't spring anything on me once the Dses are back, though Hmm

OP posts:
Original poster
confusedofengland · 04/01/2019 10:02

And now DS2 has just lost a tooth so the Tooth Fairy needs to find a pound coin before tonight!

OP posts:
jinglewithbellson · 04/01/2019 11:02

Confused that's the sort of thing that happens to me Hmm
Yes I'm having a think later and will have to juggle around some small funds I have in random places to get us through.

Plenty of food in the house and fuel for me fine but dh may need a small top up.
Sure il sort it. The shit side of Xmas eh Hmm
No matter how much I budget it still happens every bloody January

toomanygreys · 04/01/2019 11:07

Same and my dd who was 13 yesterday and I saved all my December wages to give her a decent birthday just walked in my room and asked me to get her some school shoes as hers have split 🙈. She's had two weeks to tell me and waits until I'm skint.

Original poster
confusedofengland · 04/01/2019 11:52

Toomanygreys what a pain! It's the little things like that that cause problems, isn't it? Actually, you've reminded me that DS3 needs school shoes, so I'll have to trade in some Tesco vouchers & get some from there. I'd rather buy Clarks as I find they last longer, but I can't at the moment Hmm

OP posts:
MrsPear · 04/01/2019 11:57

Ah yes - h is from a different culture so his Christmas is new year. So we had 2x birthdays in October, 2x Christmas and the cost of moving house (rent privately in London) due to ds1 moving from mainstream to specialist. Skint doesn’t cover it.

Original poster
confusedofengland · 05/01/2019 10:37

MrsPear that sounds tough! Hopefully your son being in a new school will make it all worthwhile.

I sold something for £10 today, hooray! That should counteract the £2.50 I had to pay for Dart Charge - I had money on the account, but forgot that we had changed cars, so I got a PCN, but they let me off as it was my first offence Blush

OP posts:
beckyh2502 · 05/01/2019 10:55

I wish I had 30p left! I have a 4 month old daughter. I lost my job at 3 months pregnant & could only get a 9 hour part time job. My partner was made redundant in July & was lucky enough to find employment straight away BUT it is self employed & currently earning about £300 a fortnight! I get £13 a week in tax credits, £145 a week Maternity allowance & £20 a week CB. I wish I could afford to fill the cupboard & pay off a holiday lol.
Sorry for the rant lol, I hope you have a lovely time.

jjemimapuddleduck · 05/01/2019 11:00

I get paid on the 24th January and we have about £120 for food. That sounds loads it there's 5 of us and it's nearly 3w!!

We budgeted well this year (or so I thought) & used extra earned funds (from various cash making projects) for gifts and most of the food, but it didn't seem to go as far as I'd anticipated!

Original poster
confusedofengland · 05/01/2019 11:05

Becky have you checked you are getting all the help you're entitled to? Also, you can ring tax credits & explain the situation to them & ask if they can pay based on your current situation (They may or may not, but it's worth asking).

I know we are very lucky to be in the position we're in now, but it's taken ages to get here. DS1 is now 10, but when he was a baby DH was earning £300 per week, travel costs of £100 per week, mortgage of £800 per month! Thank goodness for hand-me-down clothes & toys & reduced yellow sticker food (actually I still do both of those). So I understand where you're coming from & hopefully it will get better for you too. At least babies are happy with the simple, free things in life Flowers

OP posts:
Echobelly · 05/01/2019 11:07

Me too - we don't celebrate Christmas but we went on holiday and between that and some kid-entertaining costs things will be very tight this month. The thing is, I got paid early before Xmas, so now it's a long stretch until I'm paid again. I'd really like to get some stuff in the sales as DD and I are short of a few winter clothes, but I don't even want to use my credit card (I never actually use the credit, just to slightly put off payments) as it has holiday stuff on it and is already large for this month, and it's another week before it ticks over into the next payment period. But I'm aware that I'm still a lot better off than many people, obviously. I still have just enough to cover the basics, but no treats.

SisterOfDonFrancisco · 05/01/2019 11:09

I've not got a penny as rent is due on Monday. All my hope is pinned on dh being paid on Monday but he's self employed so depends on if his clients pay on time or not. I'll have to wait until 21st before I have money to pay other bills or buy food. Can't wait to get back to work and have a more reliable income.

GOTBackThisYear · 05/01/2019 11:15

We were down to our last tenner and The wages don't come in til the middle of January. We'd had car breakdowns and unexpected bills come in after we'd bought all the kids gifts.

FIL wanted taking to DBIL's which is 2hrs away. It's a yearly thing and we'd already agreed long ago. Now we've used up most of our fuel and when we were there, couldn't leave BIL paying for all our food etc so I had to borrow £30 off my mum to buy bits. Mum's almost as skint as we are so was very sympathetic. We did have a nice time but DH had an accident and couldn't drive us home after a trip to A&E so we'd to add on extra days. Now we're home I've put the last £21 away for the kid's school lunches when they go back (cheaper than making lunches to take) but I'll be making my own bread this week and we're on tap water for drinks. Luckily I keep an okay stock of pastas and other dry foods in so we'll be eating.
Every bloody year crap happens just before Christmas that sucks our spending money up. I feel sorry for our DS who's birthday is just before payday. He gets a few gifts and then we take him and his friends out for a birthday trip a few days later when the money comes in. He's always got to wait a few days for his full birthday treats.

One day we'll get better at this.

Morgan12 · 05/01/2019 11:23

Totally mucked up budgeting this Christmas and we now have £200 until the 20th. Should be ok as we do have plenty shopping in. Will just need bread and fruit etc.

Rulesrulesrules · 05/01/2019 11:25

Poor you, you had to pay for your holiday 🙄

FourFlapjacksPlease · 05/01/2019 11:29

Rulerulesrules - it's not a bloody poverty competition! There is always someone worse off, but it doesn't make you feel any better when you don't have the cash for a pint of milk does it? Save your eye rolling for someone who deserves it I reckon.

Yesornono · 05/01/2019 11:37

@FourFlapjacksPlease OP has stated they have plenty of food in the fridge...so on the scale of mumsnetters problems it’s not all that bad!! She has the rest of today and tomorrow and then they get paid!! Some ppl don’t have that pleasure of knowing they are being paid in 2 days and enjoy a fully stocked fridge 🙄🙄🙄🙄

FourFlapjacksPlease · 05/01/2019 11:53

Yes, I can read thanks. I find the constant 'well it's ok for you, we're having a bowl of dust for dinner' comments really pointless.

If we were all limited to having a moan only when our lives were worse than absolutely everybody else's - we'd be a pretty quiet bunch. I can have empathy for someone with no cash until Monday and I can have empathy with someone who has no cash for a month - the 2 are not mutually exclusive.

Enjoy your eye rolling!

Original poster
confusedofengland · 05/01/2019 12:04

Fourflapjacks thank you for sticking up for me.

This was meant to be a light hearted whinge, and I know others empathise because they have said so above.

As stated before, I know I am lucky to be in this position, as I have myself been in the position of having no money for the month, or indeed longer, but this wasn't supposed to be a competition. I apologise if anybody has been offended, it wasn't my intention, please don't feel you need to keep reading if you are offended.

OP posts:
2019HereWeCome · 05/01/2019 12:12

We are permanently skint and will be until the end of 2022 at the very earliest when all of our current debts will have been cleared, fingers crossed that circumstances don't change for the worse. Until then it's a struggle just getting to the end of the month even on a normal month. Looking at my account I have a tenner left of my overdraft and have no more money coming in until the end of next week. Dh is the same but he doesn't get paid until the 27th, after which all his direct debits will come out and he'll immediately be skint again. Before then, we have some debt repayments to make and the gas/elec bill to pay as well as weekly food shopping and fuel for the cars, without which neither of us could get to work so we'd be in an even worse situation. All that and, after vouchers etc that we'd won throughout last year, we only bloody spent about £100 on Christmas all in and it was a fairly miserable affair.

Crunchymum · 05/01/2019 12:18

Well I'm just at the end of my ML so down to zero pay and we have two birthday's this month (DC2 and DC3 are both mid January and just a few days apart Shock)

Thankfully we knew all this and planned accordingly. Only upside of January Birthdays are you can get cheaper bits in the sale!!

We have some CC debt, we've moved house twice and I've had x3 ML in past 7 years so it's crept up. 2019 is the year to get the CC sorted!!!

Original poster
confusedofengland · 05/01/2019 13:21

January birthdays are pretty rotten all round, Crunchy. We have 1 nephew, FIL & a close family friend in January, as well as DH. I don't yet know what we'll do for the others but for DH I'll do a candlelit meal of whatever we have in & get him a present later (tbf he does the same for mine in October)

OP posts:
beckyh2502 · 05/01/2019 17:51

@confusedofengland I have no idea to be honest! I can never seem to get a hold of anyone to speak to them to see & the website is awful if one of you is self employed!
I will try giving them a ring to see if they can do anything but I doubt it lol.
My OH is currently only earning around £300 a fortnight and I will be going back to work on Monday on 9 hours so I really hope they can help out a bit as our bills come to more than we earn at the minute