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AIBU?

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See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

to be shocked that Jack Monroe

359 replies

samandi · 29/10/2013 16:19

was on £27,000 a year just back in 2011?

This is a woman I associate with desperate poverty and yet in the space of one and a half years ? she managed to go from having a prosperous job at a pretty young age to struggling to feed her son?

At the age of 22 she had about a £20,000 net income, which is more than many people can dream about. £27,000 is way more than I've ever earned in my life and I'm over ten years older than her.

Am I being unreasonable to think this detracts a bit from her message? Or am I just living in a different world.

OP posts:
GarthsUncle · 05/03/2014 08:18

Thought of another one - he may already be taking care of other children - his own or younger relatives...

NMFP · 05/03/2014 08:20

I have tried a few of her recipes and they are fine. Lots of store cupboard ingredients, so good for people who can't shop frequently or can't store fresh food easily.

I think if she's done one thing it is showing people how to use cheaper ingredients and still produce perfectly good, filling food. (I now buy value kidney beans as standard).

EmpressOfTheWellOfLostPlots · 05/03/2014 08:22

I think the father's posted upthread. On this page.

mijas99 · 05/03/2014 10:00

Jack Monroe is the acceptable middle class face of poverty

That's why the middle class newspaper readers love her, as does the middle class supermarket who sponsors her, and she is a goof topic of conversation for the chattering classes

However, she is completely atypical of the poverty situation in the UK. British people are uncomfortable seeing real poverty as it often involves untidy houses, fags and alcohol, drugs and shoplifting and people who cannot eloquantly right about how to source some cheap buffalo mozarella. Hence the pathetic reaction in the press to Benefits Street

We really have not moved on since Victorian times

mijas99 · 05/03/2014 10:01

sorry, some nasty typos there!

tulipsaredelicious · 05/03/2014 10:19

She lost her job because she couldn't commute miles and miles to do night shift. Could happen to anyone.

It's just bizarre to criticize Jack Monroe. She's a single parent doing her best in difficult circumstances, she's highlighted the plight of poverty that so many are suffering just now, and she gives great recipes to boot!

We should be celebrating her success. Even off the back of the sainsburys ads, she still lives on just above minimum wage. She's a good person and a total inspiration.

Supercosy · 05/03/2014 10:20

I earn that much. If it weren't for Dp's earnings myself and Dd wouldn't be very well off at all after the mortgage, bills etc. I read the article about how she had her job and then lost it once she had her son. This then quickly spiralled into poverty because she wasn't expecting to lose her job, didn't have savings (as many people don't).

I don't think it detracts from her message at all. It shows it can happen to anyone. If my DP was unable to work due to illness (or I was for that matter) we would struggle for money, savings would be very quickly eaten up.

I think she's brilliant and her recipes are fantastic.

FunLovinBunster · 05/03/2014 11:12

Bloody hell there's some mean posts on this thread. If you can't say anything nice then how about shutting the fuck up??
As for people not being able to afford to buy the book. Borrow it from the library. Or group together with a pal or two and buy it between you.
All the best to Jack and her son.

EmpressOfTheWellOfLostPlots · 05/03/2014 11:29

It's her webchat in an hour.

Fannydabbydozey · 05/03/2014 21:58

Unreal bitching on this thread.

Competitive poverty and competitive saving whilst poor, talking about jack's "message" when she KEEPS reminding people she did it for herself as a diary of her shitty situation.

And as for the person wondering if she'll still cook cheaply when she has more money... Jesus. I grew up poor. There were periods where pennies made all the difference. My mum now has money. Guess what? No, she does not still eat poor. Last year we were seriously struggling. Now it's a bit better, of course I buy different things. Why the fuck not? Are you not allowed to have a good time after having a really shitty time? Are you not allowed to write about being poor if you are middle class? What if you are born working class but evolved into middle class and then got poor? Isn't being poor just fucking shitty for everyone who experiences it? Everyone?
Isn't it just the case that most people aren't able to write about it eloquently? The judgey pants are yanked so high they are choking some posters.

I'm utterly gobsmacked at some of the comments on here: how dare she have a baby when she was financially secure but then it all when wrong, how dare she have had tattoos when she had money just in case she suddenly didn't, how dare she write about cheap recipes when she was only poor for a year and a half, how dare she profit from her blog, how dare she be successful now...

Shame, shame, shame. Is it jealousy? Bitterness?

Well done jack for doing well and getting out of a hideous situation, and having the balls to be passionately involved in politics and getting your voice heard.

SwingYourPantsNow · 06/03/2014 13:09

Well said, fannnydabbydozey

Misspixietrix · 06/03/2014 13:24

No. I'm not Monroe's biggest fan but if it is true I think it encapsulates her message perfectly. Poverty can happen to ANYONE.

Laquitar · 06/03/2014 16:35

I will be very happy and proud if my children turn out to be like Jack: resiliant, resourful, truthful and to have a child as a guy or as a straight at 22 or at 42 .

It is very sad that any salary above 6.20@zero hrs contract is now considered 'huge'! There was another thread last week where it was 'normal' to work 12 hrs with no lunch or wee. Sad and scary attitudes.

Ubik1 · 06/03/2014 16:40

Absolutely it can happen to anyone.

I think she's great.

expatinscotland · 06/03/2014 17:00

What a shocking thread. So you're not really poor unless you are living in a dump, smoking and have an addiction problem.

ProfondoRosso · 06/03/2014 17:08

It is very sad that any salary above 6.20@zero hrs contract is now considered 'huge'! There was another thread last week where it was 'normal' to work 12 hrs with no lunch or wee. Sad and scary attitudes

Absolutely, Laquitar, abso-freakin-lutely.

Don't you all see? These are the kind of arguments the govt WANT us to have. Divide and conquer. Whose poverty is more honourable?

FWIW, I really like her. £27,000 is more than I've ever earned, but she certainly wasn't earning that when she started her blog. Sure, she's getting paid for what she does now (and who among you wouldn't want to be paid? Honour doesn't feed your child) but when she started out she had nothing and made the effort to share her ideas with others.

DilysPrice · 06/03/2014 17:08

Just wanted to add one thing that nobody else seems to have. This "massive" £27,000 salary, is only 3.8% higher than the new UC benefits cap of 500 pounds a week. Some small families (not 10 child extreme examples) have been forced out of central London to outer boroughs and are now looking at moving out again to the Midlands due to the successive application of the cap. It's really not a lot of money.

KirjavaTheCat · 06/03/2014 17:09

When I read that she was coming on for a webchat the first thing I thought of was this thread.

GarthsUncle · 06/03/2014 17:13

I think it was MN posting on this thread re the webchat that revived it!

AgaPanthers · 06/03/2014 17:25

"This "massive" £27,000 salary, is only 3.8% higher than the new UC benefits cap of 500 pounds a week. "

No it isn't. £27k gross is £21,178 net (but less than that a few years ago). The £500 week benefit cap is gross.

"Some small families (not 10 child extreme examples) have been forced out of central London to outer boroughs and are now looking at moving out again to the Midlands due to the successive application of the cap. "

I believe for that to be true you'd have to have at least 3 children (which isn't a small family by any reasonable definition) and not be working, nor have any one in receipt of DLA in your house.

Laquitar · 06/03/2014 17:28

YY profondo. Only bankers and city lawyers should earn above NMW. Fire fighters, teachers, nurses and the rest of us are greedy. After all 'In Bangladesh and in Rumania they would be grateful with this'.

A woman in London earned 27K? Shoot her. And she didn't save half of that? Greedy.

AgaPanthers · 06/03/2014 18:05

I think she was in Southend rather than London.

Laquitar · 06/03/2014 18:14

Ah sorry. I thought she was in London.
Oh well now people will say that she was even richer!

Misspixietrix · 06/03/2014 18:25

That's right expat because she's not the stereotypical 'undeserving poor' others feel it is okay to bash. It always amuses me when people bash the poor and then slag them off when they finally find success somewhere. I.e Monroe white Dee etc. I have said on different threads I'm not her biggest fan because I think she needs to grow a thicker skin if she wants to remain in the public eye (she bit hook line and sinker for Edwina on that benefits row show). She's doing great work though.

CailinDana · 06/03/2014 18:43

As an outsider to British society the British attitude to poverty seems very odd to me. Poverty isn't a disease. It's just a lack of money. I am absolutely boggled by people saying "it can happen to anyone" as though that's some sort of a revelation. I've been poor, then fairly well off then poor again. I'm fairly well off again now but I am constantly aware that my background or being a "good" person doesn't immunise me from poverty and so I plan for it. It's shit being poor but having seen a man cry uncontrollably in gratitude at being given a pen I am keenly aware that my version of "poverty" is still a highly privileged one.
Jack to me seems like a nice young woman who writes well and was picked up by the media as a sanitised version of poverty that the middle classes can relate to.
The poor do have a shit time in the UK not just because the benefits system is crap but because the culture associates poverty with personal failing.