Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
overthemill · 24/05/2011 17:50

you take money out of the kids' university savings account :(

ZXEightyMum · 24/05/2011 17:56

Totally get you RottenTiming. I've forever looking for ways to sub my parents. They have made some disastrous financial decisions and I often do the turning up with stuff for "my" lunch which will make a few evening meals for them too Smile

KatieScarlett2833 · 24/05/2011 17:59

DH has just brought home;

Cheezy Pasta (for me with bacon and onion, thanks to earlier post)
Maltesers and Minstrels (in those laughingly named "share size" packs, as if!) for pudding

And we have more money now than we have ever had in our lives.

You can take the gal out of social slum housing.........Wink

AppleyEverAfter · 24/05/2011 18:05

Yes KatieScarlett, even on pay day, with overtime included, I refuse to buy branded tins of chopped tomatoes and get the Smart Price variety instead! Grin

KatieScarlett2833 · 24/05/2011 18:09

Appley I love a bit of Aldi myself.....Grin 19p for beans, magic!

Then I go to Dobbies and spend squillions on nice bread and locally sourced foodstuffs, and Crabtree & Evelyn room sprays.

Mentile · 24/05/2011 18:13

When your health visitor is so sad at your situation that she brings you her own baby equipment. And she and the midwife buy a gift each for your baby. When your health visitor applies to a charity on your behalf just to buy some basic items for your home.
When you can't afford to eat so fill up on free cups of tea at the family centre.

plebshire · 24/05/2011 18:14

when you have to take your contraceptive pill back to back because you can't afford tampons.

complexnumber · 24/05/2011 18:19

I started off reading this thread with a very smug attitude.

The attitude has changed and I have hellava lot of respect for people who are holding things together on very tight bugets?

A serious question though; How do people afford computers and Internet when they struggle to find money for a pint of milk?

BooyHoo · 24/05/2011 18:21

my internet is on a contract so i can't get out of it. i tried not paying it and they threatened to send the baliffs. the computer is my dad's. given to me as he bought a new laptop.

BooyHoo · 24/05/2011 18:22

also, genuine question, what the hell made you feel smug about reading how people really struggle???

Sistermoondance · 24/05/2011 18:35

I don't have much spare money now, but only as I am fortunate enough to have bought a house with dh and had my baby dd. Now with mortgage payments, council tax and utilities I can't believe how other families can manage and am thankful we decided not to push ourselves to the limit and stuck to a perfectly nice 2 1/2 bed mid terrace! We would have really struggled if we'd have gone for a 3 bed with a decent sized kitchen and garden like we were tempted to.

However, when I was a student and for about 3 years after I lived off £25 week after paying rent- and had to pay all bills from this too! So...

Couldn't afford to drink alcohol or smoke (and so now teetotal and non-smoker, so this was prob a good thing), well except for the occasional 50p a watered down pint of snakebite and black (shudders)
Lived on tesco stripey pasta and tinned toms
Was forced to repair clothes
Spent hours and hours hand washing clothes as couldn't afford laundrette

Now I actually have a little disposable, I nearly always manage to pay for coffee if I invite out one of my friend that I know is struggling, or take round biscuits / treats if I go to their house. And ask if there is anything their DCs need rather than buying random presses for their birthday!

Lots of repect for all those currently struggling and being inventive

Mentile · 24/05/2011 18:36

I use my friends wi-fi with my phone which was given to me by my BiL who had upgraded.
Also when you are pleased to be going into hospital because then you won't be using your own electricity etc. And you know you will get 3 meals a day.

DilysPrice · 24/05/2011 18:45

Plebshire that's brilliant.

My mother's offering is you know you're skint when the dog eats half a pack of food a day and the weeks when you only have to buy three are the good weeks.

I am so rubbish at subbing broke mates (I try, because a fair number of the DC's friends' parents are skint but am pretty crap, I really struggle with that kind of subtle social stuff) so have picked up useful tips here. The DCs are the problem more often than not - I know the score, but they don't and it's often difficult to head them off from saying something unintentionally unhelpful or hurtful without labelling their friends as "poor" or ourselves as "rich", the very last thing I want is for them to get some kind of Lady Bountiful complex.

SkipToTheEnd · 24/05/2011 18:52

Yes to the pasta. And also cheap cornflakes from tescos whilst the kids have the half decent stuff left in the freezer.

Yes to raiding the kids money boxes.

When you tell the kids that it's a lovely day to walk the 7 miles to nanna's because you know they'll get lunch and treats to come home with (despite the fact that you've got blisters that are bleeding from buying £2 primark plimsolls as you have nothing but wellies left to wear...)

expatinscotland · 24/05/2011 18:56

'A serious question though; How do people afford computers and Internet when they struggle to find money for a pint of milk?'

Because they got the computer and the contract for net access when they had better means. Now, they are locked into the contract for X number of months/years and if they cancel, it's passed to a bailiff if they don't pay up.

Hmm
fatlazymummy · 24/05/2011 18:59

complexnumber I'm not skint now so can afford the internet, when I was skint the broadband was cut off and the computer broke and wasn't replaced until I could afford it.

ednurse · 24/05/2011 19:19

Putting in enough petrol to turn the light off Sad

AppleyEverAfter · 24/05/2011 19:33

Oh ednurse, I put £3 of petrol in the other day because I was worried about running out on the Mway. Had to pay service station prices too. Double Sad

plebshire · 24/05/2011 19:39

I hate the petrol light Angry

I had to tell my tutor that I had food poisoning the other day because I couldn't afford the petrol to get to uni Sad

gapants · 24/05/2011 19:59

complexnumber really? Think think think before you post!

You eat pasta or rice for breakfast as their is nothing else in the house.
Bubble baths are created with washing up liquid as bubbles were a luxury you could ill afford.
Shoe soles are glued and re-glued as new shoes are too expensive.
YOur mum runs into the kitchen and cries as she hasn't got the 10p you borrowed from your mate to buy a mix up. That still haunts me now.

I am not skint now, but spent a good few years of my childhood skint and then of course when I was a student too. I had 2 jobs when I was a full-time student and have had a job since I was 14.

maras2 · 24/05/2011 20:09

Gapants.I've been there and am in a good place now.Please, what is a mix up.I'm sure there is W.Midlands term for it. Mx.

gapants · 24/05/2011 20:16

You know at the newspaper/local/corner shop, you get a 10p mix-up of ten penny sweets. Things like a fried egg, a flump, a foam shrimp, a white chocolate fish, a fruit salad, a black jack. I used to get mix-up sometimes on a Friday on my way home from school.

Bollockstoitall · 24/05/2011 20:18

You know your skint when all there its to eat for your Christmas day meal is egg and homemade chips Sad

maighdlin · 24/05/2011 20:23

ive done a fair few of those things.

some months i knew we were going to be skint so went to the Chinese supermarket for a giant sack of rice.

went to the shop and bought stuff that would add up to exactly 3.60 the amount i had in my account and paid by debit card.

shamefully DH has on some occasions got the really early train to work as there is no conductor for him to buy a ticket from. we don't even have the 1.90 train fare.

the dog went two days surviving on value cornflakes and milk.

plus millions of ways of keeping warm until you have enough money to buy oil.

fgaaah · 24/05/2011 20:25

When you go into Asda with £15 in cash to feed 2 adults, 3 kids, for over two weeks until payday, and you look longinly at the smartprice packets of meat because you know you can't afford meat for the kids sandwichs this week. And then you get to the till and have to put some things back because you've miscalculated (in your head - no cash to buy one of those cheap calculators - you keep hoping that the bank is going to offer a free one or your DH can steal one from work), it's come to nearly £16, not £15.

And then you come home to find the five pound note you left out for the kids next school trip has been stolen by someone - suspecting next door's kid but not being able to prove anything.

ho hum.

that was me in spring of 2009 - low point of our money worries. and we were both working at that point. one of the worst days ever!!

Sad