to be shocked that Jack Monroe

[samandi]

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.

She's in the South East. It's very expensive here. At that wage she would have had very little help - certainly no prospect of saving.

She isn't claiming that she's an all-singing, all-dancing poor person's ambassador, is she?

I'll admit I don't know much of her work beyond the recipes she has on her website, and a few articles she's written. But I've never gotten the impression that she's flung herself the about in the media wailing about how poor she was.

£27,000 is a huge amount for a 22 year old to earn! >> To me anyway :-) Those thinking it isn't certainly live in a different world to me.

bisjo - well guessed.

The Skint Foodie is another frugality recipe blog. At one time he was earning a six figure salary, but he developed a drink problem, his marriage ended, his career imploded and he had a breakdown. The full shebang. It happens more often than you think. Poverty is poverty whether you were born to it or are new to it.

He too found himself on the bones of his arse and credits writing his blog with his mental health recovery. He's got some brilliant recipes!

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/29/soul-food-skint-foodie-blog

samandi Does it matter how long she lived in poverty for? It only takes a matter of days of not being able to feed yourself for it to start affecting your health, both physical and mental. And if you have a child to feed too then it must be all the more difficult and frightening.

And it's not like she's just got a job and some money behind her and gone 'ah well, that was a bit rubbish' - she's at the forefront of campaigns to end child poverty, she's been on TV talking about food banks and why we need them, etc.. she's still trying to help others who are trapped in the situation she was in.

im in the south east and 27k wouldnt go far,average rent in a normal area round here for a 2 bed flat or small house would probably be about 800 pm or thereabouts.

I think she has rather been set up as an ambassador for the poor, and the OP is right, in that she hasn't been long term poor and she is well-educated and I think she may have worked in the media anyway.

However, her story is interesting on its own merits, she is fighting very hard to keep her family above water, and I think she does very well.

But she has been poor. It doesn't matter how long it's for, she still has the right to say how crap it was, and she is now campaigning for other families who haven't been as 'lucky' as she has.

im in the south east and 27k wouldnt go far,average rent in a normal area round here for a 2 bed flat or small house would probably be about 800 pm or thereabouts.

Most people I know in their 20's, certainly early 20's, houseshare or share with a partner. Not saying that's what people should be doing btw, but it makes living a lot cheaper.

Yabvu. A salary of £27k is hardly the dizzying heights of prosperity. It is around the average wage, I think. If you no longer have that salary then what you previously netted in a year is somewhat irrelevant anyway. Hence people going bankrupt etc. past income counts for nothing once it is gone.

Wow - you are so unreasonable i dont know where to start. Christ

Take home would be about £20,000. She would lose about £4k from that for childcare on a 9-5, though as I understand it the job she gave up was shift work which would have childcare costs more in the region of £7 assuming a 40-hour week – if she'd been able to organise childcare (the fact that she couldn't was one of the main reasons she gave up work IIRC). That would take her down to £13,000 or full-time NMW levels. Deduct housing costs, another £7000 or so, she's on £6000 or £500 pcm to cover food, council tax, water, electricity, gas, phone, travelling costs, insurances, any debt repayment, clothing for herself and a growing child. Doable, yes (because she'll also have qualified for a tax credits), well-off, far from it.

Thisisaghostlyeuphenism - yes, not disputing her story doesn't have merits - I certainly found it interesting and like the sound of her recipes too.

Personally, I think this has less to do with how you think her message is detracted from, and more to do with how unreasonable you think it is that a 22 year old is able to earn 27k

It's a reasonable amount for someone who is qualified and lucky enough to land a job in their field, in the southeast, when it isn't anywhere near as impressive a figure in real life as it is on paper once you calculate tax and housing.

£27k is an incredible salary for a 22 year old in the South East, especially for someone who doesnt have an excellent degree (dont think she even went to uni)

It does detract from the message. Personally I think she was playing at being poor for a relatively short period of time and now is making a nice living from it.

It is a nice cosey image of poverty for the middle class. Mildly shocking but not representative at all.

The really shocking thing is that she had no savings and no family or friends who would help her out. That is the real problem with British society

I was earning more than £27K at 22, wasn't a single parent, didn't have a noticeably flash lifestyle but had the grand sum of £0 in savings. I earn a lot more than that now and still don't have much savings, yes I pay the mortgage but if I was out of work I couldn't cover it for more than 2 months. I don't think I'm a big spender either - no credit cards, car is old banger, no expensive clothes.

£27k may seem like a fortune to you, but most people spend in proportion to their income. If your income went up to £27K from £20k I promise you, you would not find that at the end of the year you had an extra £7k in savings. It just doesn't work that way.

I think the whole point of Jack Monroe is that she has been on an average wage with a successful life and then firstly was screwed by childcare problems which led to her falling into poverty overnight - it could happen to anyone.

Very interesting article. Sounds like a very enterprising women, good on her. Also very luckily for her son that she, unlike his father, made him her priority. Child support? probably not and unless he is living on fresh air, no excuse.

YABU and am surprised you can see over your judging pants tbh.

Are you ACTUALLY saying that people who have previously had good fortune in their work can't end up in poverty or if they do and write about their experience it invalidates their life story?

BTW I've sent her a link to this thread, perhaps you'll be less judgy if she comes over and talks to you about it.

FFSGetAGripTiggaxx

How many people house share with babies though? I only know one person that tried (a single mum) and it lasted 2 weeks iirc!

We have been very poor, the worst time DH was actually earning 24k, it was just a big pile of real life that meant for many months it was all going out again straight away. It was scary. Particularly with toddler DD, she would refuse meals, but there literally wasn't anything else to give her so she went to bed having eaten nothing.

I think the fact that 'good' wages in the 20k plus range are bugger all insulation to poverty should terrify the lot of us tbh. I certainly think differently.

The next time someone starts writing recipes for people on a very restricted budget I want written proof that they've done time in the Workhouse.

Indeed, if she'd just lived on £10 a week food budget for another year or two, I could have taken her seriously.

If you can't feed yourself and your child then you are in desperate poverty. It really doesn't matter how you got there. To be fair, if she'd been in that position for years and years it makes it less likely that she would have started the blog etc. But doing a blog is no guarantee that you'll make money, there's something like 40 million live blogs out there.

So if you think she went 'shit, am poor, I know, start blog and all will be well' then there was something like a - what? 10 in 40 million? - chance that would work out for her. She is (I think) a born communicator, who communicated her way out of a crisis and along the way managed to get some money and security for her and her son. Good on her.

I kind of agree with you OP, I had assumed she only knew poverty.

So there's a length of time that people have to be 'poor' for before their experience is valid?

In the southeast £27k a year will not go every far. She's obviously a skilled, talented, intelligent and resourceful woman. Good for bloody her.

Very not every FFS!!