Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

...or does skint mean different things to different people?

71 replies

PinkyandtheBrainyOne · 30/05/2017 20:07

Sometimes I'll be asked out for drinks with work friends and reply that I can't because I'm skint. They'll then suggest I come for "just a couple". Now personally, when I say skint, I mean I have no money - or no extra money - to go out with.

But it does seem like some people mean skint in the sense that they don't want to dip into what money they do have. I hope I'm making sense. Basically, I'm wondering what side of the fence the majority of people side on?

Thanks.

OP posts:
witchofzog · 30/05/2017 20:58

I think it is definitely different for different people. When ds was a baby exdp wasn't working and we always had to put the last week's food and petrol on credit cards. We were on our arses. Another friend who married a doctor told me with a straight face that they were skint because they couldn't afford to go skiing that year. I was Hmm. But she wasn't being nasty or rude. She has just never experienced what being truly skint is

Gillian1980 · 30/05/2017 21:02

For me it's when I have no "spare" money.

Every month we have to budget carefully to the penny and have nothing left for extras or emergencies. So if someone asked if I wanted to do something I'd turn it down on the basis of being skint.

It does seem to be a relative concept to many people though depending on their circumstances.

FlyingElbows · 30/05/2017 21:03

My sister has a very different interpretation of "skint" to me. We were literally on the bones of our arse scraping coppers to buy bread when Mr Elbows was made redundant. My sister came over and told us she'd treat us to a takeaway although she too was skint. She sent Mr Elbows to the cash machine to withdraw the money for the meal whereupon he discovered that her idea of skint was in excess of 35k in her current account!! She's still the same to this day, completely oblivious to what being skint actually looks like.

Strummerville · 30/05/2017 21:05

I mentioned to my mum once that we were skint (we had enough food etc, and bills were paid, but yeah, nothing left, bank account empty). She said "oooh yes, me too, after buying [list of expensive furniture for completely revamped living room] I've had to dip into my savings this month!" Grin

She is lovely and probably did feel skint!

DP and I still joke about having to dip into our savings Grin

RelentlesslyPositive · 30/05/2017 21:07

For me, being skint means having no money to spare. At the moment, I am not able to work (for complicated reasons) and I have a deficit of about £700 each month. I am already claiming all the benefits I'm entitled to, but can't get any help with the mortgage or the bank loan that my ex left me with. I have enough savings to get through the next two months, and then I may not be able to meet the mortgage payments and could lose my children's home!

Both schools have offered me food bank vouchers, and I have refused, saying that I haven't run out of money yet. There is still enough in my current account to last the summer, if I am careful, and I may be able to sort my job out before then. But I can't spend money on day trips, or coffee, or even school shoes right now.

I know I am lucky. I have friends who are really and truly skint, and scratching around for odd pound coins to pay for electricity with.

It's definitely all relative. And, at the risk of sounding glib, the really skint people in our society and in the world at large aren't able to come on mumsnet and give their perspective on what skint means.

SouthernComforts · 30/05/2017 21:08

I'm rarely skint but I do use skint to mean "I've allocated all my money to things". I wouldn't accept money from anybody though!

Judydreamsofhorses · 30/05/2017 21:11

My partner was made redundant last year and still isn't working, so compared with this time last year, we're "skint". However in comparison with some people we're very well off as I earn a decent salary, just that our circumstances have reduced drastically with a 60% drop in income, savings now gone. I agree that it means different things to different people.

HappyAxolotl · 30/05/2017 21:15

Skint in my personal experience means either literally coppers to last until payday with a pack of pasta in the cupboard to eke out until then, or when I have some money but it is earmarked for other things. So yes I'd consider myself skint the month before/after a holiday when all my funds will be/have been poured into that and I can't spare money for unnecessary fun spends.

Itsnotwhatitseems · 30/05/2017 21:18

well I had that situation this weekend. I had £20 to last me until 2nd June, I worked out I could just about cope, then my son insisted I went out for his girlfriends birthday meal with her family. I said I was skint so couldn't...in the end he paid for me to go because she really wanted me there. (her birthday isn't for another week but she is away so I thought I had time to sort out my finances then it was brought forward)

BonnieF · 30/05/2017 21:18

Saying "I"m skint" is much quicker and easier than saying "I've already spent all of my budgeted disposable cash for this month, so I can't justify any further expenditure on non-essentials until payday"

Which is different, of course, to being genuinely unable to afford to buy a loaf of bread.

isseywithcats · 30/05/2017 21:18

not now but for a time skint to me meant after paying bills, rent, etc having £15 a week to feed myself

jennyyard · 30/05/2017 21:21

Skint to me is having less than 1k in the current account and 10k in the bank.

museumum · 30/05/2017 21:23

Too skint to go out for a drink might mean not enough money to buy a round, but it might mean enough to buy your own single half or soft drink.
Some people are very temporarily skint (I'm freelance and can wait ages to get paid for work) while others are more permanently skint.

chitofftheshovel · 30/05/2017 21:24

Skint is my way of life, in a way. But we have a roof over our heads and food on the table.
I will also not let the kids know where the money is at, or ever say we can't afford something. I just steer towards free days out but unexpected expenses are a fucker.

InvisibleKittenAttack · 30/05/2017 21:27

I use skint to mean "I have no available fun money" or "all my money is allocated to other things so I can't do fun things/buy nice extras."

KungFuEric · 30/05/2017 21:28

Yeah, it's a shorthand way of saying you won't/can't do something that involves cash output.

Sometimes because you've budgeted differently to those around you, and you'd rather not have £5 coffee & cake if you can see an end goal of a Mercedes, that's a valid choice.

Sometimes because you've genuinely got insufficient funds for the basic outgoings and life is particularly tough at that moment in time.

honeyroar · 30/05/2017 21:31

Once when I was on reduced hours at work and earning a lot less my friend sympathised that she was having to budget too, then spent £130k on a personal indoor riding arena. Her parents left her millions, she doesn't have to work!

Another friend also moans that her husband's ex wife gets most of her husband's salary and they have to scrimp, then in the next topic tells me how they took their parents on a foreign trip when they got engaged and spent £1000 on a meal at a posh hotel!

I'd love to be as skint as them. When I'm skint I'm wondering how to feed everyone and pay the mortgage.

nicp123 · 30/05/2017 21:34

My interpretation of skint: A person struggling to: buy enough food on a daily basis, pay for travel expenses, not earning enough to spoil themselves or their children with designer gear, gadgets and jewellery and probably borrowing money to pay the bills.

melj1213 · 30/05/2017 21:39

Skint to me means I have no "spare money" or a very limited amount.

If I have £600 in my account and rent is £300 and bills are £300 then I have enough money to live on with nothing spare. These months I'm too skint to do anything

I have £620 in my account then I have my rent/bills covered and have a spare £20 left over. These months, whether I'm too skint to do something depends on what you want to do. Want to go for coffee? I can afford that. Want to go to the cinema on a 2 for 1 deal? Again, as a one off I can afford it. Want to go for dinner & a movie or a night out? I can't afford it.

chitofftheshovel · 30/05/2017 21:39

Skint is my way of life, in a way. But we have a roof over our heads and food on the table.
I will also not let the kids know where the money is at, or ever say we can't afford something. I just steer towards free days out but unexpected expenses are a fucker.

M0stlyBowlingHedgehog · 30/05/2017 21:40

Haven't been skint for years. Skint to me was being down to my last fiver as a student and having someone nick the bread and cheese I'd bought with it, then having to go busking to earn my train fare home for Christmas.

QuimReaper · 30/05/2017 21:42

I'm having serious déjà vu on this thread - did we have a similar thread a few weeks ago and did some of the same posters post on it?

bottledatsource · 30/05/2017 21:45

Skint to me is washing your laundry with no detergent and every meal is value beans on toast. No phone or tv, staying in bed to keep warm. reading library books, take kids to the park. play noughts and crosses.

YoshimiPt2 · 30/05/2017 21:45

I was thinking about this today as had to cancel meeting friends as im "skint". I didn't really think what it sounded like when I said it. None of my friends would ever run out of money. We're all 40+. I hope I didn't embarrass them. One very lovely friend offered immediately to treat me.

I had originally planned for the trip out but I have just enough money for essentials and it makes me so nervous. I have a series of spreadsheets that run a few months ahead that I update daily. I hope to be in a different position in a couple of years.

I hate complaining as I was lucky to be very well off for a long time. But being penniless is truly shit.

Mummyoflittledragon · 30/05/2017 21:56

I haven't been skint for years. Skint is having to put food back because you don't have enough money in your purse/bank account to pay for it all. She

Swipe left for the next trending thread