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Original poster

You know your really skint when......

311 replies

boilingpoint · 24/05/2011 14:28

You go to tescos to get a few bits to last the week before payday but you have to put some of it back as you don't have enough money....

You have pasta every single day for dinner...

You cash in the change pot....

Am i alone?

OP posts:
NettoSuperstar · 25/05/2011 18:28

I once (and please don't flame me) ordered DD's Christmas presents from a 'professional' shoplifter. God I felt shit, but I wanted DD to have the things she wanted.
I never did it again, I saved with Park through the year after that.

When DD was younger, we'd sit in the dark on a Monday night, and when the door went, DD would say, 'shhh, it's the lady pennies' The lady pennies was the provvy loan woman, who I couldn't afford to pay that week.

I made up a fun game, living room Olympics, which was really a way of keeping us warm, I'd also suggest hot chocolate and duvet days for the same reason.
I'd buy the cheapest chicken, and whilst it was roasting, I'd take DD's kid's table into the kitchen and we'd play boardgames. Again, to keep warm.

She isn't fooled by that now.

KatieScarlett2833 · 25/05/2011 18:30

I would never flame you for doing what you had to do, Netto

I wish I knew one of those during the poverty years Smile

expatinscotland · 25/05/2011 18:31

'I once (and please don't flame me) ordered DD's Christmas presents from a 'professional' shoplifter. God I felt shit, but I wanted DD to have the things she wanted.
I never did it again, I saved with Park through the year after that.'

Oh, I've bought stuff from a professional shoplifter. A friend knew him. Not for presents, though.

I still go to certain boot sales where you can get products on the cheap, probably for a reason. Stuff like razor blades for DH, for example.

ohnelly · 25/05/2011 18:48

When you spend the birthday money off your mum on petrol Sad

NettoSuperstar · 25/05/2011 18:50

There's no boot sales here that are accessible without a car.
My friend does one once a month though and has said I should go with her and sell my home baking.
She loves my baking, and if I say so myself it is pretty good!

The PS I knew lived further up my street. She'd chap the door and empty her bin bag in the hall.
I'd take some toys but never anything for myself, and then asked if she could get X and Y that DD wanted for Christmas (a leapster, pink furbie and Barbie horse)

NettoSuperstar · 25/05/2011 18:52

ohnelly my birthday is exactly a month before Christmas.
Apart from once, when things were OK, it's always been spent on presents for DD.

expatinscotland · 25/05/2011 18:53

Go with her to the boot sale!

We had this Chinese gal who used to come see the doorman at work, selling things. Of course, he didn't advertise this, but let's just say, her business was booming and she also ran a customised order business with free delivery Wink.

DH has a good friend who has another friend who also runs a side business specialising in custom-ordered items with free delivery. Cash only, though :o.

mumnotmachine · 25/05/2011 19:00

This thread has brought tears to my eyes, people struggling to put food on the table in this country is sooo sad.

I've never been in a position luckily where we've literally had to pick straws to see who eats that night, but have got through some very tough times when I wasnt working.
We are by no means flush now, I still watch every penny, and there will be no treats for kids over half term- have had to spend over £300 on car this month, and its got its MOT next week, plus DH had a bump a couple of weeks ago which we now have to find nearly £400 excess for.

Ive always had a fear of not being able to put food on table- I have always kept a well stocked food cupboard of basics so we can at least eat if things go horribly pear shaped- but it has bailed out my friend on more than one occassion when the benefits office have messed her money up..

NettoSuperstar · 25/05/2011 19:02

I'm going to, if only to see the looks on people's faces when they taste my cookiesGrin
I'll sell them at cost X 3 I reckon.
I buy all Smartprice ingredients and bake them into delicious soft cookies, which you can't buy here at all.

Lots of friends of friends of people they know here too Wink

mumnotmachine · 25/05/2011 19:03

(I have raidedc the penny jar before payday on more than one occassion and gone through self serve at midnight so avoid "the stares" of using the SS like a slot machine!!)

mumnotmachine · 25/05/2011 19:06

AFAIK you cant sell homemade food at a bootsale unless you have some sort of certificate/licence from a health officer?

TheReturnofDorothyParker · 25/05/2011 19:07

You sit at the square table in the Gonk

McPie · 25/05/2011 19:07

My birthday is the 22nd and I cannot remember the last time I got to spend any birthday money on myself, christmas was the same MIL gave me a Tesco gift card and we bought food Sad. I have seen myself eating pasta for breakfast as it was the only thing I had in the house because the cost of a loaf of the wheat free bread I eat, to stop me being in severe pain, would feed 3 DC's and DH a meal.

NettoSuperstar · 25/05/2011 19:08

Hmmm, are there likely to be certificate enforcing people there?
My friend says other folk were selling baking.

KatieScarlett2833 · 25/05/2011 19:08

If Daz can sell nicked stuff then surely homemade cookies should be OK?

mumnotmachine · 25/05/2011 19:12

It may well all depend on the boot sale?
The one that I used to go to there was a man who sold homemade stuff (absolutely amazing stuff!), but he had to stop as he needed something from the Environmental Health
He only missed a week of the bootsales and he was back then with certificates displayed all over his table.
This was at a big organised regular bootsale though- and there are allsorts of people "under cover" there looking for bootleg stuff etc
I suppose if its a small local bootsale it might not be such a deal?

NettoSuperstar · 25/05/2011 19:39

I reckon I'll give it a go.
If some official type shows up I'll stuff them in my mouth and say they are for personal consumption.
It won't be the first time I've have to eat contrabandWink

mumnotmachine · 25/05/2011 19:48

LOL- go for it- I bet your goodies are delicious!!

expatinscotland · 25/05/2011 20:00

'My birthday is the 22nd and I cannot remember the last time I got to spend any birthday money on myself, christmas was the same MIL gave me a Tesco gift card and we bought food .'

Same here.

My ILs gave us £30 for our anniversary, but we're going to spend it on a Chinese takeway for the family and a shop bought pud :).

springydaffs · 25/05/2011 20:38

I haven't been so poor that there was literally nothing to eat - oh, hang on, yes, when I was pg with my first and often starved. I remember the joy of finding a fresh loaf of bread on a wall once - that was a wow day. Then there was the time I bought a pair of horrible jeans in the charity shop because all I had were smart trousers - I kept them on to wear home, put my hand in the back pocket and found a £20 note - that was a super wow day. I've probably blanked out a lot of the 'poverty' but there's been an awful lot of it. Seeing ex's bank statements re divorce case and seeing he was spending it on eg nights at the opera/ballet and regular £100 withdrawals at the cashpoint, at least once a day (wtaf did he spend it on??) when I was still at the stage of searching behind the sofa for change, and had been at that stage for years. He was also donating to some african orphan charity when he wouldn't stump up for his own. For years I ate brown rice and veg almost every meal which was actually good food - so my kids could eat properly. I don't have a hoarding mentality now though, I have a small kitchen because I don't need loads of cupboards because I am so used to buying food as and when eg I know when the supermarkets release the reduced food - what a godsend that has been for me for as long as I can remember. I also remember seeing inside other people's fridges and inwardly gasping in amazement at the amount of food. I don't need the supermarket bargain-bin at the end of the day now and I'm grateful for that - grateful for everything, you never forget what it's like to not have even the basics. It made me laugh when I read all those articles at the beginning of the 'downturn' about how you could save money - it was how I'd been living for years, then some (I should've written those articles myself and got paid for it).

springydaffs · 25/05/2011 20:44

though I'd use paras in an article, obviously Blush

helenthemadex · 25/05/2011 21:14

a lot of these have had me in tears, Im totally in awe of the shit some people have endured and its lovely to hear about the fantastic people who have been so generous to others. I believe in Karma and what goes around comes around hopefully these lovely peope will be rewarded in some way

my own are very tame in comparission walking nearly 3 miles in the winter to take the free nappies and wet wipes provided in the supermarket mother and baby room and toilet rolls Blush making one tine of beans and three slices of bread last for 3 days for me so dc can eat properly

weighing nearly 2 stone less at the end of my pregnancy because some days I just couldnt afford to eat.

sleeping, eating and everything else in my bedroom with my newborn dd because I could only afford to heat the one room and the rest of the house was only 5 degrees

receiving food aid parcels from the red cross, and literally crying with gratitude when a friend bought me a picnic lunch to cheer me not knowing I had no food in the house

I am very lucky things are better for me now, still not great but having had nothing does stay with you. I tend to stock pile tinned food and have an absolute terror of not being able to feed the kids, I am very careful about what I spend and rarely spend on myself

JeremyKylesPetProject · 25/05/2011 21:24

These were things I witnessed my mum doing when she was struggling to raise three of us alone after my dad died.

Breaking into the gas meter only to feed the same coins back in.

Making glass cutters til 3-4 in the morning. She got £10 for a thousand. Each one had to made by hand. I'd stay up to help.

Crying when I gave her my £5 postal order from my Aunt on my birthday so she could buy food.

Running from one of her 4 casual jobs to the other.

Making us tea and toast as a treat.

Accepting 3 year old tins of food from Christmas hampers.

Getting us to take it in turns to sit down on the only dining chair we had.

Fixing my school shoes with Duct tape and colouring the scuffs in with black markers.

Paying a woman from the local market £1 a week til her coat was paid off.

Happily accepting bags of childrens clothing, a dog chewed sofa and coffee table from a neighbour who then went and told everyone that we were tramps.

jennypenney · 25/05/2011 21:26

I read this thread earlier and couldn't stop thinking about it all day... so many people have been through the mill and I am so grateful for all I have. I still remember being the only one at school who didn't get to go to the Christmas pantomime when I was five. I remember going home as everyone else got on the coach and when I got home my mum gave me a big hug and a My Little Pony, for no reason at all, which NEVER happened. I never did work out why they could afford a toy and not a panto ticket but looking back I think grandma and grandpa might have had something to do with it.

CurrySpice · 25/05/2011 21:29

Goodness me what a stomach churning and thought provoking thread. I have had tough times but nothing like what some of you describe since I was a kid (when tbh I didn't really know how poor we were)

I take my hat off to you all and wish you better times now and in the future

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