AIBU..To ask for advice in how to deal with money when you have none?

[Pidapie]

We have just found ourselves in the slightly tricky situation of no money, and two weeks until payday. I think all our bills are paid for the month luckily, and we have a stash of nappies. But we have no money for food. I don't know what to do? I am not English, we have no friends or family nearby to ask for a loan or for food, so I am unsure what to do. We are so broke right now because we had to replace our broken car, as my OH works in the middle of nowhere and needs a car to get to work.

But now we're simply stuck... Can someone please give me some advice what we can do? Or even just some cheap meal ideas?

Can you get a referral to a food bank?

Your OH could ask his employers to give him an advance on his wages. Most companies will do that if someone's worked there a while.

Do you have family abroad who can transfer money?

Anything you can sell or take to the pawnbrokers?

eBay something on buy it now.

Do you have any supermarket loyalty cards like Nectar with points on.

Pasta bakes are cheap and filling. Beans/Lentils are cheap sources of protein, minced meat can be stretched with lentils/ baked beans etc to make into stews. Porridge is good and filling and can be made with water. You mentioned Nappies - are you ok for baby formula ( if you are not feeding yourself?) PM me with what you have in the freezer or cupboards. I will respond with some meal plans. The baby ( babies) is /are the priority.

Do you have any food in the fridge/freezer/cupboard? If you tell us what you have, people can give you recipe ideas.

I'd ask the bank for an overdraft, for starters. What do you have for food?

Overdraft is probably the cheapest way if possible and some banks will let you arrange over the phone

If you are certain there will not be cashflow problems at payday a payday loan may actually be good for this. You could probably get away with borrowing around £80 if it's just for food - so although the astronomical interest will be a pain it shouldn't be crippling

Yep, do a cupboard/fridge/freezer inventory. How many people are you feeding and how old is the baby?

Credit card?

Hun sign up for a interest free overdraft. We've all been there

Also people are much healthier when they just eat twice a day with no snacks so that is worth trying too. In our area there is a ot of good stuff in supermarket bins by the way though not everyone is happy to do that and not every area has that possibility.

The op may not be able to access overdrafts or credit cards (obviously if she can that's great.)

I guess you could try a food bank - isn't that only for a few days? Alternatively, anything you can sell?

Thanks for all the advice! I have recently sold everything that is sellable (most of our belongings are abroad, as we have moved back to UK not long ago, so there's not much to sell)

OH's employer declined an advance in pay :(

We've maxed out our overdrafts and because I don't work (have a little one) I am not allowed to get a bigger one, though it might be an option for OH.
Problem with credit card is that we don't have enough money to pay it off - we literally have just about enough to live on, and we don't live in luxury.

Thanks again for all the advice, I will try some of the different options, and go for foodbank if nothing else works.

Beans on toast, pasta, porridge. Jacket potatoes.
Have you checked whether you can get child benefit/ tax credits? Won't help in the next fortnight though. Go to your local CAB and ask them to check what help might be available.