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!

I sometimes catch myself hoping that the more complacent posters on here will lose everything. Their well-paid jobs, their well-paid partner, their home. They'll have to move to temporary accommodation and get Universal Credit or Working Tax Credits. They'll get low-paid work or work or a zero hours contract. Everything will be a long walk or an expensive bus ride away. The corner shop and the local supermarket will be expensive. And then they'll have the chance to look after their hungry children in the school holidays and still put away several pounds a week so there will not just be money for fares and food and clothing and utilities and rent and for appliances to be repaired or replaced but also for towels and tampons.

I use a mooncup now, but prior to that I would flood a super absorbent night time towel in about 90 mins for the first two days. At night time I would need double protection. A budget towel would be of no use.

There were times when I was hard up and didn't have money for sanpro, so would stock up on loo roll from work.

Sometimes people have to choose between X or Y. It could be something costing £2 or it could be something costing £15. If you have limited funds you have to choose one or the other.

When I was unemployed I used to look down the sofa, search handbags etc for money. I would notice if the value products in the supermarket had increased by 5p. When you're poor every penny makes a difference. Some people do not have enough money to buy everything they need every month.

I'm not going to stop buying my teenage daughter underwear or force her to wear stained undies when she finds it gross and humiliating.

Seriously?
How about teaching her how to wash her undies so they aren't stained?

Thank you freq, makes sense.

If you ask me, they need to be free from all schools, and a discrete way to ask and receive.
If none at home, at least you only have to improvise for the journey to school.
Weekends/sch hols issue again though.

This thread makes grim reading. Rather than contribute further to this pointless, goady discussion, I’m going to go to my local supermarket tomorrow and buy a tonne of sanpro to donate to the red box appeal. I count myself very lucky to have never needed such support but I can clearly see the reasons why others might.

The figures do seem high to me, but I acknowledge that I have no idea of the reality for some - and do realise that it's actually very expensive to be poor. Many cost-saving avenues just aren't open to those on very low incomes.

I am very surprised to read on this thread that some people throw their underwear away after one wear due to stains.

Of course that will ratchet up the monthly, period-related cost.

The alternative is hand-washing in cold water, which is free. Isn't it?

This might have been an interesting discussion, except that most of the OP's posts have been deleted due to breaching talk guidelines. 🙄

PeckhamPauline

Life's hard enough as it is, I don't see why on earth anybody would do that if they don't have to.

Clearly this mum can afford to buy her daughter new knickers. It's 2018. Let her buy her daughter some new flipping knickers without rubbing them down on a washboard and darning the holes.

The level of ignorance on this thread is scary.
The lack of empathy sad.
Some attitudes are shameful.

But let's be honest, those kinds of homes are rare.

If you did my job you'd know this really isn't the case. It's a lot more common than the government and even the media would lead you to believe

Life's hard enough as it is, I don't see why on earth anybody would do that if they don't have to.

Oh my word. A bar of soap and a minute under the cold water tap. If this is the hardest thing our daughters will ever have to cope with, they will be very lucky indeed.

I never understand the I'm alright so there's no issue approach. It's very self centred.

I'm very fortunate to have light cycles in some respects. I wouldn't be an arse to friends who get really heavy flow and tell them they don't because I don't.

Same for period costs. I'm lucky if my period costs me £2 a month. I use a moon cup and occasionally pop some painkillers or use a liner or 2. That doesn't mean others aren't spending £8 on prescription meds and going through boxes of sanpro and needing to change every couple of hours.

Not everyone in poverty is on benefits and refusing to find full time work while watching their huge flat screen TV all day long. Plenty of people in poverty work.

For example:

Two parents, two teenage girls. One parent works full time earning minimum wage, the other is unable to work due to disability but has been rejected for PIP so receives no income.

Income is £1900 from wages, Tax Credits, and Child Benefit. Rent is over the Local Housing Allowance so no HB, they may qualify for a discretionary housing payment but the application hasn't been processed yet. Tax Credits were overpaid last year when Parent 2 became unable to work due to disability so Parent 1 increased their hours, their income meant they were paid too much so they are paying back £30 a month. Gross salary is just over £15200 so they don't qualify for free prescriptions and because they receive a small amount of Working Tax Credit (£22 p/wk) they don't qualify for free school meals.

£600 rent
£120 council tax
£90 gas and electricity
£45 water
£60 mobile phones (PAYG X4 for two parents and two teens)
£10 internet (classed as an essential for school work, job searches, etc)
£280 bus passes (2 x £90 adult, 2 x £50 teen)
£10 TV license
£100 school dinners (our local school doesn't allow packed lunch and it's £2.50 a day for dinners)
£80 clothes and shoes because kids grow
£320 food (£20 per person per week)
£40 medications (4 x prescriptions plus OTC)
£30 school supplies (paper, pens, folders, etc)
£10 dentist (two adults, two visits per year averaged over each month)
£20 hospital parking
£60 costs relating to disability (e.g., extra washing, extra central heating, specific clothing or footwear, specialist aids, etc)
£30 repayments on credit cards, missed, bills, etc from when Parent 2 first became unable to work

That's up to £1860 so far, awfully close to the £1900 coming into the household each month and of any of those bills listed fluctuate at all then they could quite easily eat up that £40 buffer.

From Terry Pratchett. It is easy to save money when you have money.

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

Ah well the daughters of the rich must have an unending supply of spotless new pants while the daughters of the poor must make do with rags or bog roll or - if they are really lucky - the occasional economy sanitary towel.

What about the costs of missing a shift at work? I assume that would fall under period poverty too.

I think you should be able to get a free Mooncup each time you go for a smear (so once every 3 years), plus mefanamic acid and other prescription drugs for periods should be free under chronic illnesses (loke diabetes etc). However since the NHS is already super stretched there is no chance of that. I guess it's just not a priority.

Ok so parent doesn't buy painkillers or pads at the supermarket. Only access is local shop or pay bus fare to supermarket
Local shop has branded only and mark up on painkillers and pads

I can easily see why there is period poverty. If your money is planned to the penny... and you come on early... where's the money for pads?

As someone who would flood within a double lesson aged 11, let me tell you that replacing a towel and pants hourly is not made up.

The £45 a month does seem high, but I spend atleast £10 a month and know that not everyone can afford that.

Period poverty is very real. And it's not only poverty of £ but of attitudes, education etc too.
Unfortunately, media headlines, like this one, lead to knee jerk opinions like the goady OP and take the credence away from the issue.
I grew up in a home where it wasn't mentioned at all but cash was plentiful, if I had had any access to it. Cash, shame, education, stigma, general teenage awkwardness... and that's just teens. There's grown women with no access to funds at all, even in affluent households. All needs addressing and supporting. In 2018, it's too sad that women live with period poverty.

I don't count my periods as quite as bad as some posters but still I use super tampons or night time pass. That's all the way through my period so value ones won't be any use. Plus my periods are 8 days long

Great example Mother but worry about getting into that old Tudor distinction of the 'deserving' versus the 'undeserving poor'. (I know that's not what you mean btw.) Poverty is poverty it feels the same and bites the same however someone got there. But your example does show that poverty in the UK is widespread, even the RCN has commented on the numbers of nurses forced to use foodbanks.

Household example number two.

Single parent, not working but looking for work, two teens still at home. No maintenance being paid by their father.

Income from Jobseekers, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit, Child Tax, and Child Benefit is £1425 a month.

£600 rent
£90 council tax including single person discount
£90 gas/electricity
£45 water
£45 PAYG mobile phones
£10 internet
£240 food (£20 p/wk per person)
£190 bus passes (£90 adult, £50 x 2 teens)
£10 TV license
£10 on ink/printing, envelopes, stamps, etc (for job seeking)
£50 on clothes and shoes
£30 misc. school supplies, trips, etc

That's £1400 and, again, a fluctuation in the bills, an unexpected sanction, or sudden expense could tip the balance.

Well due to PCOS and now implant I've rarely had periods in the last 18 years. Hell I've even had a whole year(more than once) without one. AIBU to not accept that monthly periods are a thing?

And let's not forget that periods can be total tricksy shits and can randomly change frequency, flow, and duration for all number of reasons especially when they're first beginning or nearing their end. So you could easily have teen daughters in a household starting their periods and having fluctuations in frequency/flow/duration for several months until they settle down into a regular pattern and then their mother nearing the end of her periods and having the issues with frequency/flow/duration that come with perimenopause/menopause.

Should note £600 for rent is a low estimate, in cities like London couldn't get a bedsit for that. And 20 a week for food per person again means having to budget ferociously. Also to those who will question phone, Internet etc important to remember need these for homework, job-seeking, applying for benefits, jobs, paying bills etc...