To think you're not poor...

[RunningjustasfastasIcan99]

AIBU to think you're not poor if you can afford SKY TV? Felt a bit irritated that on "rich house poor house" this week the "poor" family had massive Tv's in the kids bedrooms and sky tv. I know they didn't have a ton of money and were in the bottom 10 %. But really?

Its called INEQULALITY o.p. through our social system. Children sense they're poor ,feel different and it affects their self esteem, can encompass them which prevents social mobility . With all the cuts to education, health and other services, this is going to widen and effect your society.
To begrudge is unkind, hopefully you have learnt on this thread. Nobody knows when they will have a poor day. You can't fix everything but maybe donate £25- 30 yourself to a food bank/charity if you feel that strongly. Perhaps volunteer at a youth club because if they were open, kids might not be on net or watching sky. Go without subscriptions because we should all try to do something for those struggling to help themselves.

And whoever said sky gives a lot of bangs for your bucks, fecking hilarious , well said 🤣🤣🤣

My largeIsh tv was just delivered to me out of the blue one day. Bit like the "bank error in your favour" in monopoly.

Id love to know how people are getting Sky TV and phone and Internet for £35 a month when my Sky bill for just phone line and Internet is £47 a month and I get no TV bundle

The boy who gave my son the Xbox is the one who is still with a tumour in his head, Mrs. He knew my daughter from the unit. I am friends with him and his family now. It's not uncommon for children afflicted with certain forms of brain or sinus tumour to still have a tumour present, even after treatment, and many, many of them are left with disability following treatment.

Great post, inashizzle.

inashizzle people probably say that about me. I'm a single mum (although I'm not sure why you mentioned that, could have just said people). In reality I got a gel nail kit complete with loads of polishes, the uv lamp etc for my birthday almost 3 years ago. I do them myself (when i have time as I work full time).

It’s harsh labelling someone in the lower 10%
I liked them, they do a lot with their kids. And have stuck by each other.
I admired them
Glad they enjoyed their week and bought a laptop
Yay!!

They can’t afford to eat out, go to soft play, theatre, cinema.... list is endless

I actually bought my dd a pony when I was a single mother on benefits. We had an economical place to keep it and its upkeep was just a bit more than the cost of one trip to the cinema a week. Fortunately Channel Four never heard of me.

It used to be prisoners that everyone begrudged having any kind of comfort, then it was people on benefits, now it is the poor in general.

I’m a huge TV fan and the idea that people need Sky or they’ll be bored is crazy to me. I mean there’s SO much stuff available to watch for free (or the cost of a TV license). Loads of TV series (new and old) are uploaded to YouTube or Dailymotion. I can generally find two or three things at any one time that I’d happily watch on Freeview. I like digging out random shows on BBC iPlayer (I’ve got about 100 downloaded to my phone ATM that I’d like to watch at some point). Then there’s UKTV Play, All 4, ITV Player and My5.

I often see threads from people who are tens of thousands in debt, who have cut right back but are keeping Sky/Netflix because it keeps them entertained. I just don’t get it? If you can’t find anything to watch on free TV, you’re just not looking hard enough.

@lostinjapan I completely agree! Nobody is saying that they shouldn't have entertainment, it's just the argument that why should they feel they have to spend a lot of money to get it?

FFS! We don't all spend a lot of money. Freeview isn't available in all areas. Sometimes I am not up to doing anything but switching on something mindless rather than going looking for something stimulating. That's usually at 3 in the morning when I've been woken for the umpteenth time and know that I need to stay awake, or I haven't managed to get to bed and know I will be needed in half an hour.
Yes, it's just an opinion you're offering, but so many people have pointed out that your opinion isn't as clear cut as you so obviously think it is and yet you remain entrenched in the same bloody hole!

@Gilead- apparently 98.5% of the population can access Freeview according to their website. The areas that can't access it are probably more remote and therefore more expensive and so the homeowners there can afford to go for a more expensive option. It's not like a huge percentage of the population can't access it

We use Freeview. Nope, still can't get up any ire for people who subscribe to Sky or believe they aren't poor. My own personal experience has shown me otherwise.

MrsCD good for the website. My cheap and rural area on the East Coast gets rubbish reception for Freeview. According to their website, it's fine here.

I agree with you OP and I think people have deliberately twisted what you’ve written.

Juditt

People get it for £35 because they have fairly recent signed up to it or sometimes if you threaten to leave you can get a deal. We pay 69.50 a month, I just checked,for sky multiroom and cinema, we have downgraded a few times and got it cheaper but it only lasts for 6 months and there is only so many times we can do this, we have had sky since it started 30 years ago. We get broadband with BT which is £30, £47 sounds a lot so probably change your provider if you are out of contract

Redforfilth I said single parent because that's a 'subclass' that gets targeted for being feckless with money by the media and then all the high and mighties. My niece was poor raising two fine boys, had sky, looked after herself with treats, going out and paying for nails, spraytans , all rent , food. She had SKY lol She did a degree, masters degree, has a professional job and more than paying back into the system . No one begrudged what she had and never told her what to do. She also volunteered in a homeless shelter. Not feeling so poor helped her self confidence. SKY didn't hold her back financially !

Sky (and frankly all suppliers) of broadband are more expensive outside major cities. Was brought up in the South East. NTL phone (pre broadband- am old)including TV channels was cheaper than just BT line rental. Moved to rural Devon and it was BT, directly or indirectly- similar in a Shropshire market town for more money and lower speed than South East England prices. Competition, increased infrastructure.

expat.

expat

'However it was an opinion thread and I don't think I was in the wrong for giving an opinion'

No, you're not, and no one ever said otherwise, but it's revealing.

inashizzle peoole obviously do judge though just lool at this thread. It's sad isn't it that so many people think poor people deserve to be miserable all the time!

These threads always baffle me.
I have said it loads of times before but as its true I may as well repeat it,
I have worked in the community, with families, for AGES.
That means visiting them in their homes, getting to know them, having information about their lives that their neighbours DON'T have and quite often their families don't have either.
So you know when OPs on threads likes these claim to KNOW that this family claims this, and that family doesn't work and the other family are faking the other?

I actually know most of the story instead of guessing or assuming based on my own personal prejudices.

I must have been involved with hundreds of families over the years and I don't remember a single one where the parents were straight down the line lazy fuckers who pissed away their children's money on Sky packages and Red Bull.

The vast, VAST majority do their very best under incredibly difficult circumstances and their kids always come first.
Some have made rubbish choices, some continue to make them whilst others are doing their best to sort out the mess they are in.
When you meet ones who continue to fuck up you work out the reasons why within a couple of meetings and it usually makes you marvel at how they have come this far rather than make you despise them.

I have met some people I would like to smack in the head but they tend to be absent parents on the peripheries rather than the ones doing their best. I can count on the fingers of one hand the parents that I really didn't like thought shouldn't be allowed near their own kids. They were extreme cases.

Boil down this long rambling post and what I mean is that people living in poverty are not more stupid than you and they are not there because the cba to be rich. They love their kids as much as you do and care about their futures as much as you do.
Weirdly they tend not to be as jealous of 'you' and 'you' are of 'them.

It is so, so easy to get into a financial pickle. I've been in one and it's only really good fortune that i got out. I made unwise decisions in my early twenties when I had to relocate for work, about buying a car (which was absolutely necessary) and getting an unfurnished let which I meant I had to buy all the furniture I needed. I bobbed along just about, keeping my head above water, but there were times when I went hungry because I was limiting my portion size to make the shopping money go further, or cold because I couldn't get a fire lit or afford to switch on the heating. I survived and came through because I was earning, I was single so had no one else to consider, well-educated enough to get a job paying well over minimum wage, and eventually I met my now DH and became a DINKY, and was therefore able to make much more headway at repaying the debts I'd run up. Then, after we were living together DH got a tax rebate and insisted on using it to finally clear them (entirely at his own instigation and against my protests, before I'm accused of sponging) because he wanted us to be able to save for our wedding and house without debts hanging over us (even though there were just mine, of course).

But if I'd had a child to feed and clothe, if I'd lost my job, if the car had proved unreliable, if I'd become unwell? Well then I could have been in real trouble. And that was from a relatively small debt. My credit card companies kept extending my limits even though I wasn't using them at all, and if I'd had a hungry little boy in need of shoes, a warm coat, a safe car seat and all the rest, I think I'd have taken them up on it. How could I have not, if I'd needed to buy a car seat for him, a pushchair, clothes that fit? Even buying secondhand, those things add up. And then where would I have ended up? In a bloody mess, that's where. I worked hard to clear my debts but I was also so lucky to have been in a position to do so (and obviously incredibly fortunate to have a relationship with someone willing and able to help). I won't judge people less fortunate than I am. That could so easily have been me.