To not accept that there is 'period poverty' in the UK.....?

[rosetree7]

Fully expecting to be told I am BU, but I genuinely do not get this 'period poverty' malarkey.

Some reports say periods cost £42-45 a month (£500 a year.) Never in my life have I - or anyone else I know - spent £42-45 a MONTH on their period. Not even a tenth of that actually.

Some of the things they (supposedly) spend money on are tampons and STs (obviously...) You can get a pack of sanitary towels for less than a pound. Less than 50p in some shops!

And also mooncups.

Although mooncups cost £16 to £22, most mooncups will last 10 years, so you'd only buy 3 or 4 in your lifetime!!! And they also spend on pain relief - but paracetamol and ibuprofen are 16 to 26p a packet from Wilkos. And plenty of other shops sell them for a similar price!

Oh and apparently, they have to keep spending money on new underwear every month. What a load of shit.. I have bought 18 pairs of underpants in 5 years, (at a cost of around £25 for the entire 5 years!) 5 pairs of them are dark coloured - and I wear them for my periods. Never in my life have I bought new underpants for every new period.

So what is this all about? And how on earth are they coming up with such a ludicrous figure as £42-45 a month?! I mean, some girls are apparently using toilet roll as they 'can't afford' sanitary towels? In most cases, toilet roll is more expensive than sanitary towels FGS!

Or perhaps Boxset is one of those for whom even sterilising the poor wouldn't be enough, maybe she/he would prefer if we just took their children away or since they come from poor stock maybe Boxset would like to drown them like they used to do with unwanted kittens?

As a woman who - for the last 20 years - has suffered with endometriosis I find it hilarious that anyone would doubt the cost (and when I say cost I mean hefty cost) of periods over a woman's lifetime.

I've frequently flooded clothes that have had to be thrown away, I get through underwear like there's no tomorrow and despite having gone through it for 20 years, am still suffering.

The absolute ignorance it takes to declare "my periods don't cost much so nobody's periods possibly can" is astounding. OP is either being very goady or very stupid. Either way OP isn't coming off well and perhaps needs to open their eyes to the fact that for some girls and women, their periods rule their lives in more ways than OP clearly understands. Ignorant tool.

I bled for an entire year waiting for surgery to stop it. That was fucking expensive.

My son's school struggles to buy paper and books for the kids thanks to fucking PFI. So no they can't help the girls with sanpro.

I remember my mum being that skint when I was a teenager I sat on the toilet for 2hours while she went out trying to borrow a couple of ££s for some toilet roll and a pack of pads so I can definitely see how period poverty is a thing.

The report the politician took the £42 from wasn't about poverty, it was about what the average period spend is for women across the board and included things like DVDs, chocolates, sweets etc.

People in poverty do not buy DVDs to make them feel better when they're menstruating, so the figure doesn't really apply to them.

Most period poverty campaigners agree the cost is around £10-£11 per month, on average, excluding the DVDs, sweets etc.

It jst highlights how many people are living lifestyles or having children they can't afford if purchasing pain killers and tampons is beyond the budget.

Oh ffs circumstances change. If you are left in the shit without money for weeks at a time due to no fault of your own extras like san pro could just as well cost £100 a time if you have nothing at all in the first place.

Lifes a bitch sometimes it could happen to anyone.

So the op doesn't have period issues... but definitely has some other ones! Never seen an op have so many of their replies deleted

Think Boxsetandpopcorn , Savvysaver and the rest of the mindless, frothing mob of poor-bashers would prefer it if poor people had their children taken away or maybe she/he would like to have them drowned like they used to do to unwanted kittens?

I grew up in period (and general) poverty.

And no, there wasn’t even a spare 50p/£1 to buy a pack of pads or tampons (which, if a pack of 10, wouldn’t have lasted me a day and a half of a 9 day period if I was lucky - if the first 50p wasn’t available, the other 5 packs weren’t affordable either!). There wasn’t enough money for food, either, or enough money to ensure we were adequately clothed. We couldn’t just magic it up because it was needed for sanpro, the money just wasn’t there. My mum was already skipping meals to share out the little food we had, there weren’t any cutbacks to make.

I had, at the time, 3 pairs of pants to my name, so they were regularly handwashed anyway, to dry overnight, so did the same when the inevitable movement of loo roll led to stains. But, if you have so few clothes, the extra wear and tear means they get minging and raggy pretty quickly.

I can well believe that period poverty is ongoing. Luckily, I am far removed from that situation now, and I can afford whatever I and my dds need, but I know that that is simply luck, and that there are far too many people still going through what I did.

There’s no point in bandaging on about how people don’t “need” to replace their underwear every month, or sheets, or whatever. The £42 quoted isn’t a minimum threshold - it’s an average, taken from figures given (in part) by peop,e who obviously can afford to do so (as I can, thankfully, now.) My dds don’t wear stained underwear, and will not as long as I am around and buying their clothes (which is not to say they are thrown out immediately, of course stain removal is attempted). I may not replace a sheet instantly, but it will get replaced, and that cost when it is is due to periods.

Have skim read this, but OP - how clueless you are. All I read in your OP is "me" and "I" - I've never given birth vaginally doesn't mean I can't imagine what a 3rd degree tear might be like. Have some empathy, and awareness and consider how YOU are not everybody.

OK. It seems like a fairly even split for now. We've made a few deletions so we'll leave it to run for now and will look in on it again in the morning. Thanks for your reports.

Which bit of people don't have any money do you not understand? Its not just people on benefits,. people in low paid jobs are really struggling and using food banks.

Dunno. Maybe they're waiting for their universal credit t start? Or maybe you're just a twat?

Not you, upstart

Why aren't all these parents who fail to provide Sanpro being investigated for neglect?????

Because the majority of them aren't neglectful parents. They're feeding their DC, clothing them, caring for them, but they're struggling to make ends meet. Do you really think bringing neglect charges against them would be an effective use of resources when Social Services are already stretched to breaking point?

But people on low incomes get topped up with child tax credits. You know. For the child.

Stop goading.

I’ve had the same mooncup for many years... why would I need to replace it after 10?

BishopBrennan is right, people have to wait 5 weeks for universal credit. And people who get working tax credits don't get it for months with 5 weeks in them.

Record numbers of children are being taken into care and its driven by poverty. Its costs the taxpayer more to keep them there than it would have to give their parents more benefits.

''Record number of children in care as social services reach 'tipping point'
Rise linked to household issues, such as poverty, poor housing and substance misuse, which experts say have been exacerbated by cuts to local services intended to tackle them''

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/social-care-crisis-uk-children-figures-per-day-a7995101.html

Mumsnet HQ if you leave this thread up, then could you put a notice from Mumsnet at the top saying why you've left it?

Why aren't all these parents who fail to provide Sanpro being investigated for neglect?????

Maybe cos its the government's fault they have no money to buy any?
Wouldn't do to admit U.C. and disability claim refusals are one of the main causes now would it?

But people on low incomes get topped up with child tax credits. You know. For the child.

And they're not the vast fortune that the Daily Mail would have you believe.

And the child also needs food, a roof over their head, clothes and shoes, heat and hot water, bus money etc. Once all that's paid for the money is gone.

Sometimes, there just isn't enough for the basics no matter how you do the sums.

For most women, that is obviously a massively inflated, exagerated figure. For some unusual cases (it seems usual on here because threads are self-selecting), it will cost more. Sure.

For most women with standard periods lasting 4/5 days, a fiver should do it most months. Come on.