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?

Freesat/freeview is obviously free with the TV licence and Netflix is about £7/month. We had the most basic Sky package in a previous house where standard signal was non-existent. It was more than £7/month. We don't miss it at all. Current house has a dish - we use Freesat!

In major urban areas Sky might be the cheapest internet supplier- it certainly isn't in most smaller towns and rural areas though.

Sky Sports and Movies packages are definitely not cheap!

Entertainment and escapism.
When you can’t afford a holiday/trips out/meals or nights out, having something to look forward to in the form of a programme on Sky can really make a difference to your life.

Lots of people mentioning benefits. The programme rich house poor house is not really about people on benefits. It's comparing lifestyles between the top and bottom 10% most of the participants work.

Second hand tv's aren't expensive and charity shops are full of them.

I won't give Murdoch any of my money for tv either. And I read The Times in the library.

In the 90s people would rant about poor people too.
They said that you can't be poor if you have a tv or a video or a telephone.

This applied particularly to single mums.
The media were obsessed with single mums having videos.

Up until a couple of years ago it was 'flat screen tvs' on MN. Oh my Lord but having a flat screen tv was THE indicator of feckless sponging.

Even the most rabid poor person hater had to finally concede that there was little choice but to have a flat screen tv as they had stopped making big fat screened tvs some years previously.

So now its Sky.
You can't be poor if you've got Sky.
People with enough and more than enough venting their envy about those who have less than them.

Again

How dare they?! Where are those wardens who used to go round telling you to sell a chair if you had 5 and there were only 4 in the house.

TimeToDash & LastNight

But you know according to MN these families simply do not exist and you have been suckered in by watching too much channel 5 and reading the Daily Mail!

It's quite odd that people can't comprehend how things are bought when they can be afforded, then something happens to the family who are left with less money.

On this show, the lady became ill and left her career after the TVs and consoles had been purchased. Her budget was then a lot less, due to less income. Didn't effect the paid for things.

When I had to leave teaching for a year due to disabilities, we had half our usual income. It didn't mean that all our TVs, consoles, expensive kitchen equipment and computers disappeared with a pop.

Don't you know that if you're working class you should have an old tube TV with only terrestrial channels? You also shouldn't own a smartphone or go on a cheap all inclusive once a year.

Fuck off with your goady thread OP.

I have Sky (we are not unemployed) for £19 a month..prior to that we had it free for a year through a legitimate offer. How do you know they are paying £50/70 a month? I wouldn't assume. Some people are even paying less than us.

I always thought the programme is about people's lifestyle in different ends of the wage scales.

'Do you remember when people would post threads on here about their finances and the first reply was always 'get rid of the internet'?'

Oh, yeah. Or 'Then how come you have a phone?' Even refugees fleeing war-torn Syria were slagged off for having a mobile. They were fleeing a war, not the 18th century.

Laurie
*You’re very wrong. £50 to entertain an entire family for a month?

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

I never thought about it like that. You comment has changed my perspective quite a bit.

I do Laston but they have had to move on from that too now. How frustrating that they are running out of Feckless Scrounger markers.

They will just have to fall back on 'you can't be poor, you haven't sold your spare chair' from the good old days

Sold your spare chair

How can you look a people who are struggling to get by and begrudge them the little they have? and feel "irritated" by it.

Oh, go fuck yourself.

Come on MrsJayy having more chairs than you need is pure profligacy!

Do you even really need chairs when you should be spending every waking minute looking for work, working harder so you don't need benefits or just on your damn knees worshipping the tax payers who fund your lifestyle choices!

I have sky. I don’t go out anywhere (without my kids, 1 of whom is disabled, barely drink, never smoke. The TVs and Xbox are secondhand along with the games. We’re considered poor. But of course not as poor as someone living on the streets or those in countries where there are famine and war. Poverty is subjective.

At least they are paying a Sky subscription and not streaming for free via a Kodi or similar. 😛

Y.a.b.u It's how they are poor in relation to others. Relative poverty. So a sky bundle is not going to be hugely more than paying for just broardbrand- which is now the fourth utility bill and a necessity. They can still use wifi for phones (I saw a tribe living in huts in 3rd world with mobiles on Chanel 4).
So they can't afford to replace a laptop right now - secondary schools have most homework online now so they would be poor . When labour were last in, pupils with low income were lent /given a laptop to minimalise that great disadvantage .

@Roomba 😂
But also aye 🤔

This is bothersome on many levels. As others have said it could be their main luxury and part of a package deal. Over the years we've collected a few tv's and although I'm not a particular fan of TVs in bedrooms there are a couple. Our tv in the lounge is 10 years old and cost £200, the others are newer but none cost in excess of £120. We now done have sky because the kids prefer Netflix, so that's our luxury. We are very careful, don't eat out or have expensive days out. It's very easy to judge and I imagine the editing is very selective.