What does feeling skint mean to you?

[ssd]

Honestly?
Just asking after recent conversation with someone close who feels skint (3 days ago) and today told me they've just spent £500 on furniture.

It makes me realise my skint and their skint is world's apart.

So what does feeling skint mean to you?

I have been (pre-kids) in the position of worrying that my slippers were getting holes in them , because I didn't have any shoes. We ate because we gathered winkles and limpets (which are disgusting btw!) on the shore, but we had nothing. Thankfully we had a fireplace and we could burn driftwood, otherwise we'd have frozen to death in the winter. (sorry if this reads like competitive suffering, but this is really how it was!).

These days, there is always a lurking fear of not being able to feed my children, but there isn't the lack of hope that really eats at your soul. I am careful enough for it just to be a vague fear, rather than a definite possibility.

When I see something I fancy online and have to think about waiting weeks to get it, by which time no doubt my size will be out of stock.

One year for Christmas dinner we had pasta and tomato ketchup because that’s all we could afford! My oh also used to get up at 3.00am to walk 2.5 hours to work and then leave at 2.00pm and walk 2.5 hours back as we couldn’t afford petrol, it was so hard, also having no gas or electric for four days so living off super noodles that used to be 9p for dinner and tea!
Luckily we are in a better position now, circumstances change so so fast for good and bad and now I’m lucky my fridge is full, we can afford gas and electric and the nightmare of a few years ago has passed!!

When the money I have is less than or equal to the money I need for housing, bills and food. Anything over and I'm not skint.

Skint to me was going without dinner all week so my daughter could eat, making sure there was never any lights left on so I could stretch the money on the electric meter. It meant selling my brand new camera at cash converters for £10 so I could buy washing powder and other essentials so my daughter was clean and fed for school. It meant crying down the phone to the housing association because I couldn’t afford to pay my rent and they were threatening to evict me. It meant using rolled up toilet roll because I could afford tampons.

Thankfully I’m not in that situation anymore. My OH owns a very successful business and we lead a very comfortable life. I feel I appreciate it a whole lot because of how different it is to my old life.
Some people, through no fault of their own, have no idea what being really skint is.

I was really really skint back in the late 90s. Used to sit in my bedsit in darkness for days as I didn't have £6 to top up the electric meter. Would sneak over to the pub opposite to help myself to wodges of toilet paper. Eating whole packets of cheap biscuits as they were filling and I couldn't afford ingredients or electric to make a hot balanced meal. I would go into work and hope to god that it was someone's birthday so there would be something to eat. I remember my colleagues laughing when I brought in a packet of custard for lunch as that was all I had in the cupboard.

I was also pregnant at the time. Every single bill I had was in arrears, my bank account was frozen and my credit rating shot to bits. When DS was born I would do a trade with a friend where I gave her a couple of quid a week for her milk token to be stamped for formula and given to me. Really grim times which improved when DS's father left and I became a single mum. He was spending every single penny on drink and drugs and any protest from me would ensure a beating. I couldn't even afford 10p to call Women's Aid.

When he left for another woman i managed to claim top up tax credits and honestly couldn't believe how much money I had. I managed to repay all my debts, clean up my credit and even started saving after a couple years and bought a house. These days 'skint' would be less than £500 in my bank account I think. I'm very anxious about money.

Pawning my engagement ring and eternity ring and never getting them back I had to lie and say they were lost. I’ve never forgiven myself for that.

So many sad stories on here.
For me skint is no take away coffees, paying for petrol with cash and counting up as I go round the supermarket (2011).

I was homeless as a teenager so 'skint' to me used to mean stretching my last £5 to feed me for a week.
Although, now I consider myself skint if I've less than £100 after all my expenses. I also get nervous when my savings drop under £1k but I'm a homeowner with a DD now.

Having to use a cheap candle (not a scented one, the plain white ones 4 or 5 to a box for power cuts) as lightning because you don't have money for a light bulb. Living in a house with some rooms with no electric light because the house needs rewiring and you can't afford it. Ice on the inside of the windows, rooms with broken floors due to water leaks which weren't repaired.

Depends on the stage in life you're at I suppose, if you have less than you're used to and it causes problems then I'd say skint but for instance -
In my early 20s me and dh used to share clothes and worked opposite shifts so we could buy 1 bus ticket and both use it. I would write a check to cover a bill purposefully missing off my signature so they'd return it and give us longer to pay.
30's skint was walking to the shops for shopping so as not to waste the petrol needed to get to work, and going round the shop with a calculator to make sure I had enough to cover it. Not going out with friends because the money was to be spent on dd/food
Now (40s) skint means having enough to pay the bills but not enough to go to the pub or out for a meal however still enough to pay for food/kids hobbies.

Just depends where you're at in life because my 20 year old self would think I am rolling in it but I still feel skint if I want a Costa and can't afford it.

Not being able to afford to put the heating on when there was 3ft of snow outside. I was working full time too but didn’t have enough to live on. My dog and I sat wrapped in blankets trying to keep warm. Or going round to a friend’s house “for a cuppa” knowing it’d be warm.

So true Hogfarmer

As a child/ young teen I knew to the penny how much money I had and how much things cost. Interestingly as did my DM.

As I student I knew to the nearest pound (so would choose the sandwich which was £1:50 rather than the nicer £2 one). Thought about cheapest route for travel that sort of thing.

As a young professional I could probrably have told you to the nearest £100 my bank balance- had to be a bit careful at the end of some months.

As a young Mum, I probrably knew to the nearest £10, lunches, coffees, days out and swimming lessons were carefully considered expenses.

I've saved at least 10% of everything I earned since I started work (before I left school) so I've never not had something in savings and live well within my means.

Skint for me is very relative but it would be a month when I have to dip into savings for something essential, although TBH I don't think I've ever told anyone I was skint or otherwise, my financial situation is not something I talk about.

I do think a lot of people say they're skint when what they actually mean is they've spent a lot on luxuries this month or don't have enough to buy all the luxuries they want. Or don't want to do the thing they're being asked to spend money on.

Only having enough money to buy bread and some beans for tea

Nearly not being able to get to work as no money to put on Oyster Card. Had to play dumb just to get through barriers/or on bus.

Used to have to turn down invites for after work drinks as was too embarrassed at not even having a spare fiver to get a drink.

Fortunately, I am in a better position now but it was like that for a good few years.

When people at my work say they’re skint it seems to mean zero pence but I say I’m skint all the time but I never am. To me it means I’ve got too much stuff I need to spend money on so I’m prioritising my money at that time.

When I was younger I was skint a few times (zero pence) but to me that was something bigger than skint , more like fucked (temporarily)

I think your born good with money or bad with money. Those good with money can always seem to wriggle out of a tight spot.

I think it’s like chasing your losses when gambling a bit. Those good with money completely put the breaks on when they’re skint. I once ate nothing but rice for 3 weeks when i was younger (honest to god ) because I’d changed jobs from weekly to monthly and had about £10 to live on all month. I was always someone who’d jump into another job or have 2or 3 jobs to get myself out of scrapes when I was younger too.

But I think people not so good with money do the equivalent of chasing their losses and borrow, borrow, borrow. Which, it very hard to escape from.

Skint for me is end of the month, when all bills have been paid but current account is down to last £50. I realise from this thread, that this isn’t skint and will stop feeling shit about it and count my blessings a bit more.

When I was younger and my dd was young it meant scraping together the last £20 from my overdraft and loyalty points to pay for food,nappies and milk for the week. After I'd already borrowed money from my parents to help with debts and bills.
More recently it meant living in my overdraft and living off credit cards for food halfway through the month and never being able to repay it.
Most recently its where I can cover the bills and minimum payments and food but have nothing left to pay off any debts or for anything unexpected, and often having to still borrow money from my parents for food, kids clothes/shoes or school trips. I appreciate I'm incredible lucky though to have parents who can and will help out otherwise we would have been seriously fucked at times so luckily have never been without electric or food completely.

I'd prefer short term skint but will be fine after payday to soul destroying never ending broke anyday. We're fingers crossed managing to slowly claw our way to the surface now but it can all change so fast.

having to work.

When I was a student and didnt always have money for food/electricity meter and medicine.
In fact I've been skint more quite a lot of my adult life but more like not being able to get my hair done than absolute essentials.

I've had a few moments of skint in my life. The first I was literally robbing Peter to pay Paul every month, bailiff threats landing through the letterbox several times a week, and surviving on £1 ready meals as I couldn't afford to run the cooker or buy any other food. At its peak I owed £23k in unsecured debt, my salary was £14500 and I was just 21 years old.
Then after I had had my son, his dad wasn't working and refused to claim jobseekers, I just had my maternity pay and a benefits top up to support two adults and a baby and I was on the cusp of just managing to pay for everything. Then the housing benefit office decided they had over paid and reduced my payments. At the same time British Gas decided I had been under paying and doubled my payments. Suddenly I was juggling payments and building up debt. My mum bought a weekly delivery of food, I wouldn't have eaten if it wasn't for her.

Feeling sick with worry and having to live on pasta and nick loo roll from the pub I worked in.
I was 23 and sharing a room in a shared house with a friend.

No fun.

Not being able to afford luxuries ie anything beyond our fixed costs. I got into trouble with relatives after I described us having to go on severe austerity in six months preparation for when we started our own business - we had cut all discretionary spend but in their view we were playing at it - we weren't, we genuinely were worried about not having any income for months- I think they thought we had millions in the bank. We no longer talk about our actual lives anymore.

For me it means not being able to afford what you need to live. The rest is a luxury.
I'm very lucky in that I'm what people might consider to be 'comfortable' in that I don't need to worry about an unexpected bill (unless it's a lot of money!), but having been brought up in a household where we had to be very careful with money, I have learnt not to take it for granted.