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

[boilingpoint]

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?

Suncottage: What a lovely man your father was, I am sorry for your loss xx

When you give blood just to get the biscuits and crackers.

You do a moonlight flit from privately rented house ?(£1k per month for five years) into a HA flat in the biggest tower block in the area but are eternally grateful to the local council.
Still skint though :) but not as bad now.

What a thread...I'm hardly flush now but it's making me remember how horrible it was to be totally broke.
Worst time ever...I was very ill after a miscarriage. (Now ex) H went over to the phone box with our last 2 10p pieces, all the money we had. With one, he called his bank, who had said they would arrange an emergency £50 overdraft, to see if it was sorted yet - no ATM nearby to check. It was. With the other, he called the out of hours doctor about me, who told him to call an ambulance. It was only much later that evening, after I was admitted to hospital, that he realised he'd left his bank card in the phone box. He walked the 5 miles home, and next morning walked the 5 miles back to where the hospital - and his bank branch - were. At his bank they told him that the entire £50 overdraft had been spent at Iceland that morning. He reported it to the police, who refused to believe that he hadn't spent it himself - "if we come round to your house I bet we'll find a freezer full of food". Despitehim telling them they were welcome to cone and check, and that our freezer was empty because we didn't have any money for the electricity metrer, they refused to issue a crime number so he couldn't claim the money back from the bank.
He walked in every morning for 8 days to the hospital, where I was being treated for blood poisoning, and sat in the local library between visiting hours. I saved him half of my hospital meals. Then he walked home and sat in a cold, dark house.
At the time I was a student (I also worked, but on a zero hours contract, and there had been no work for weeks). There was some kind of problem that year with Student Loans being issued (this was Scotland in 1996) so lots of students were struggling. I had been eating at the soup kitchen my college had set up before I got ill. Ex-h had my bank card so he could check every day if the loan was in - I will never forget him walking in on the 9th day with flowers and a massive bar of chocolate because it had gone in. He got the bus home that evening and had chips for dinner!
If I ever feel skint I think back to hiding hospital dinners for him and count my blessings.

We used to hide in the bath when the bailiffs came knocking - we lived in a bungalow so they could walk all the way round it and look in all the windows except the bathroom one.

I still remember the day they took our telly and my Mum cried for a whole day.

My Mum also volunteered to be the jumble sale co-ordinator at our junior school every year so she could get first look at all the clothes.

She also got suckered into those working from home scams. She spent £40 once on a envelope labelling scam - they sent them all back and said they were not correct as it was all so specific it was impossible. She cried for a week after she lost that money and she realised it was a scam.

Absolutely second all the praise on here for people's courage and toughness. I agree with the poster who said that it's far more important to help out people on a small day to day basis as demonstrated here than to be strongarmed into a government imposed charity tax at source. This thread has inspired me to be more observant of some ways that I could help people out.

Whatever: You have certainly made people think by doing this post and I for one will be opening my eyes a lot more on not just concentrating on my own problems, especially as there is so much more going on in the world.

Knowing I have about £2 left in the bank account, but also knowing I need fuel to get to work and that the Tesco self serve petrol station will still let me fill up the car. So I end up being over my overdraft by however much fuel I've put in, then getting bank charges for going over my overdraft.

The husband having to go away to work (works away all week) with literally no money at all. His company pay for his hotel/fuel but he would eat a massive breakfast, then take yoghurts and muffins etc away from the breakfast room so he could eat later.

Hating the sound of the post coming through the door. Feeling sick if there was a knock at the door.

Loads of things, many of which are in this thread. I hope I am never there again. I used to be so materalistic. Now we have money I can't bring myself to squander it. The feeling of being broke stays with you for a long time.

This thread is a real eye opener. I thought we were the only ones using the self-service till to stuff it with coppers and making soup out of broccoli stalks. It certainly feels that way in real life. Some of your stories are heart breaking. I pray things get better for all of you soon.

Notice how many are/were working and yet utterly skint.

Yet we still read, on MN, 'There's no such thing as poverty in the UK.'

We've been more skint whilst we are working now then when dh left the forces and we were on benefits for a year.

Sobbing gratefully in the street because you've just found a fiver poking out from under the snow, just when you need it most, and it means you can eat.

Before working tax credit there was even less help for poor people who were working.

expat - I think lots of people have no real idea what it is like to be really skint. But as someone who has seen absolute poverty abroad, I would still agree that poverty here is not like the poverty in some really poor countries.

That make me so cross expat, we were so chuffed when DH got a job, I knew money would be tricky, but this is ridiculous. I?ve done the maths, we would be better off financially if we split up.

David Cameron talks about a stable family being the cornerstone of recovery for the country, sometimes I feel like having a DH living at home is a luxury I cannot afford! Never mind, at least if you are working you have the chance of promotion and getting on. Chin up and all that! Anyway I would miss him if he moved out.

I've seen absolute poverty, too, lesley. But we don't live in those countries. We live here. And there is poverty here. Plenty. As evinced on this thread.

You get to the checkout and it's £5.42 and you give them £2 cash and ask to put the rest on your card, because you don't have enough cash/money in account to pay for the whole thing by one method.

You feed the DC but just eat nothing but bread yourself because it fills your stomach and curbs the hunger a bit.

Glad I am not the only one who has raided the DC's money box! Always paid back though, usually with interest!

I have done all the things that have been mentioned here, and much worst, but only with no dcs. Massive difference! (my parents have done it with dcs). So, huge respect and best wishes to those who have to do these things while bringing up children.

Oh regarding the cupboards, i tell people in RL that i do it to save time but the truth is i'll get panic attacks if i dont have 2 months supply stocked 'just in case', i often just open the cupboards to check

lesley38 I agree no one should starve to death in this country. Tax credits do help but some people still fall through the cracks [self employed, students, crappy husbands etc].
And the thread title was about being 'skint', not poverty as such. Obviously different people will have different definitions of that, even within the same society.

I have seen poverty abroad yes, and national disaster too. But when my parents lost everything overnight and we slept in tents waiting for the Red Cross there was a big sense of community and altruism (sp). I think it is harder to be poor in a 'rich' capitalistic place.

Turning to petty crime as a student.

I used to walk close behind people through the ticket barriers so could ride the underground without a ticket. Not proud of myself at all but it was often the only way I could afford to get into uni.

I remember eating lamb for every meal for weeks, my father had just died, there was no money for stock feed and the market had fallen, so the sheep were worth less than they cost to feed. So we (and pretty much everyone in town) ate lots and lots of meat.

I once had $6 to last 3 weeks, I ate damper (i.e. flour and water) and golden syrup.

Thankfully though I have never been poor while having children to care for, it must be crushing.

We have far too much insurance, because I live in fear of it all being ripped away one day like it was for my Mum. She held on and is now OK again, but how she managed I will never understand now I know the whole truth of what happened after my Dad died.

Oh jeez.

I remember when I was about 14, my mum was having a really tough time and she didn't manage to buy us any christmas presents.

I came downstairs on christmas eve to find her crying, saying she couldn't bear not to give my little sister a christmas stocking. So we dug about the house and put one together from stuff we had in drawers etc, and I went out to the chippy and bought a box of Matchmakers. I really relished the challenge of finding stuff in my room for my sister, and it made me feel grown up.

My sister declared her stocking 'the best ever'! It was the first time I saw christmas from the other side.

still :( but also in awe of some of the resourcefulness of some of the posters.

fwiw I have also taken money from DS's piggy bank/bank - not proud, but likewise ensure it goes back/he has enough food/clothing etc.

I don't think many people who haven't experienced it understand the shame you feel when being really poor and therefore the efforts you go to try and hide it.