No idea how I'm going to do this

[Sugarhunnyicedtea]

So, it's a week to payday and I have nothing in the house at all. Just cooking a dinner of chips and beans for my son - that's it. I have 62p in my purse and no petrol in the car.
We struggle every month but this month is particularly bad, zero hours contract and no childcare in the holidays so pay last month was short, uniform and shoes to buy after a growth spurt, it's never ending.
I know you're not miracle workers but any ideas anyone?? I can't believe I let it get to this, I think I've been in denial

OP join the olio app.
Depending on where you are it can be great for people giving away edible food.
Some areas pick up the unsold bakery goods from supermarkets and distribute it.
I refilled my cupboards with mugs and glasses from a nice lady giving them away (my teens disappear them)
But mostly it's food given away.

Try your local supermarket at reducing time. I noticed my local morrisons does one at 3pm which I can manage to.

Hunt down loose change. I tipped my sons booster seat up the other day and £3 fell out

Maybe I'm just missing them Cunning.

What W00t said. There are a lot of people here who should be grateful they're doing ok rather than putting the boot in.

Op, I'm sorry to read this. It sounds really stressful.

Can you go to your local Asda or co op near closing time? They do crazy reductions at this time of the evening - I picked up some 5p crumpets in Asda and got a big basket of shopping the other week in co op for £7 including a chocolate party cake reduced from £10 to £1.

I said to dp at the time that if we were skint that's how I'd shop. All the best.

If you're near a Morrisons they reduce out of date stuff to 9p in the hour before closing. Always bread and rolls there.

Maybe I'm just missing them Cunning

There were at least two deleted yesterday - one outright included an email address in her first post so PayPal donations could be sent directly!

Is there anyone at all you could maybe borrow a bit from until you get paid again - you could then buy value rice/pasta/tomatoes/beans/flour to keep you going. When you do get paid again, you have to keep these items in all the time if you can. Is there anything like an old handbag or tops or whatever you could sell to friends - friend of mine a bit ago was having a hard time and selling stuff so I bought things which I didn't need to help out - maybe your friends would do the same. Best of luck - I know it's hard

Ooh and if you have a Pret near you they give away sandwiches free after 5pm.

Hi Sugarhunnyicedtea,

Sorry to hear about this. I hope things get better for you soon.

I assume you are in the UK with talk about nectar points.

Do you have a Real Junk Food Project cafe near you? therealjunkfoodproject.org/ or www.facebook.com/TheRealJunkFoodProject/

They are a network who collect the food that supermarkets are binning at the end of the day, and then turn it into lunch the following day for homeless and people in your sort of situation - before anyone say yuck out of date food! think about something like bread and butter pudding, which was traditionally made out of stale bread. Or croutons for soup out of stale bread - or cutting the bad bits of supermarket veg and making a soup or veggie curry.

The volunteers are often trained chefs and I believe the original founder was a chef. The food is NOT free it's usually Pay As You Feel but you can usually donate by doing the washing up, sweeping the floor, giving some old clothes. In Leeds, where they started, they even run a 'supermarket' and school breakfast clubs, all from food destined for the bin.

They will also give you portions to take home.

Hope this helps.

Really wish. I'd seen the PayPal address one now

Look for the mumsnet troll forum on Reddit chequered. I think most of the deleted threads got discussed there.

Bulk out with lentils. Actually works.

Ooooh thanks Daisies!

Being poor can be really, really lonely.

Yeah you can just google about your problems, but sometimes you want an actual conversation and to talk to other people, and the anonymity allows you to do that while keeping your privacy.

If you don't have anyone to confide in, or can't face telling friends or family the extent of your financial worries, places like Mumsnet give some relief.

I think some people on Mumsnet have not experienced that real frightening isolation that poverty can bring, and they don't understand posting threads for the comfort of talking with other people at all.

Our local Tesco has a machine near the entrance where you can print out your vouchers if you swipe your club card. Or try an online shop using Tesco/nectar points?

Small bag of porridge oats-you can make porridge with water.
A small bag of rice, a stew pack, flour and 6 eggs.

Vegetable stew one night with 1/2-1 onion depending on pack
pancakes (flour, egg and water)x2 meals.
Boil one carrot and some swede both finely chopped with some rice. When cooked drain, add an egg and flour, make into patties and fry.
Egg fried rice (1 egg)x 2 meals
If you have margarine then use a small amount of the veg diced and make some rough pastry. You have pasties.

It's not an ideal menu but will fill you. If you have anything left for bread (lunch and with patties) you can have toast. Any veg left can be turned into soup.
Do you have any store cupboard ingredients?
I used to do 1 egg, 2oz self raising flour, 2oz marge, 2oz sugar. Mix, put in a microwave for aprox 3 mins for pudding on days we had the crap meals/meals the dc needed to be persuaded to eat.
I would also alternate between good/more nutritional and really rubbish.

You can get through it.

There are ways of asking for tips and advice without coming across as begging. Yet, on these threads, they always start with the saddest, most heartstring tugging tales.

I'm passing no comment on this OP and her genuineness but on the ones that I've seen on MN.

"I'm really struggling after the summer holidays and our financial circumstances are really dire. I'd like some advice and tips please, I just can't see the wood for the trees." probably wouldn't get the skeptism but would get advice.

Good Luck Sugar
take no notice of the haters you are doing the very best you can for your ds all credit to you

My DH usually goes shopping in the evenings, around 8/9pm. He often brings back a large french stick for 5p or a pack of rolls for 10p. Lots of stuff gets hugely reduced late at night.

Littledrummergirl -pancakes! I have an egg and flour. Brilliant 😊

Also - poverty is really complex. Sometimes it's a very precise tightrope walk to stay in the realm of 'not poverty' where actually everything's more or less okay, but if you fall you fall hard, and with no cushion of savings it's very hard to get back on an even keel.

Say you have a car, that you bought when you were doing okay financially. The car gets you to and from work, and also to car bootsales on the weekends where you make a decent bit of extra cash per month. You lose your job, can't get another one for ages, and get very close to running out of cash.

The obvious thing is to sell the car for instant cash. But once you do that, you're taking several steps backwards. You can't do any more car bootsales. The agency offering you temp work cleaning with an early start means a two hour bus ride that would only take 30 mins drive. You need to fix up extra childcare because your commute has become so much longer.

Getting rid of the car has affected your whole quality of life, and being on a low income it is pretty impossible to just go and buy another in a month or two.

Being poor is really, really expensive.

Your doctor can refer you to a food vank as can social services.

I think if you sell something on eBay you get the money as soon as the auction is over, so long it's set more than the postage you could make a couple quid.

Tip for the future is to stash a couple quid about, I've always got an emergency fiver folded and stashed in the back of my purse and whenever I change handbags I leave some change and a tampon in the zipped section.

Check the Martin Lewis site I'm sure there was something about free KFC fries one day a week? And Facebook groups and websites like feed your family for £20 a week and similar have lots of tips.

Lentils for soup and Dahl is so cheap and filling

Why don't you get a credit card? Buy some jacket potatos and bean?

It's not going to cost you much in interest, bettt then staving