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AIBU?

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Original poster

Period poverty

305 replies

ChocolateAndMoreChocolate · 23/07/2019 12:44

AIBU to remind you period poverty exists?

Came on this morning, did not have any sanitary items. Asked my DM to send me £5 until payday (Friday). She could only PayPal so I tried to withdraw the funds and I’m on a 72 hour wait!

So no view of having sanitary items for 3 days... and now I also hate pay pal Sad

OP posts:
OtraCosaMariposa · 23/07/2019 14:44

Why hasn’t OP come back

Probably because her OP has had the desired effect and she's had messages from people offering to "bob" her money.

People who are serious about this issue or indeed other issues such as poverty, homelessness or health issues affecting women should be supporting charities like Refuge, Shelter, Action Aid, local food banks. Not virtue signalling by paypalling money to randomers on the internet.

JacquesHammer · 23/07/2019 14:46

Probably because her OP has had the desired effect and she's had messages from people offering to "bob" her money

Actually I didn’t message her. I suggested she message me if she wanted. She hasn’t.

People who are serious about this issue or indeed other issues such as poverty, homelessness or health issues affecting women should be supporting charities like Refuge, Shelter, Action Aid, local food banks. Not virtue signalling by paypalling money to randomers on the internet

If only that had been covered on the thread. Do read, it’s helpful.

suzy2b · 23/07/2019 14:47

When i had teenagers living with me i always made sure i had loads in the cupboard 50p a packet from lide or aldi can't understand how people can't afford 50p

JacquesHammer · 23/07/2019 14:49

can't understand how people can't afford 50p

Not everyone lives near an Aldi or Lidl.
Not everyone has the money to get to cheaper shops.
Some people have to budget to the absolute pence to get through the week/month.

Skyejuly · 23/07/2019 14:54

If you do not have 50p then you dont have 50p. It happens PP.

Also not everyone lives near the cheaper supermarkets!

TwistyTop · 23/07/2019 14:54

Do you have any old clothes/towels, that sort of thing? There are many ways to fashion your own sanpro. Have a Google, you'd be amazed at what you can come up with in a pinch.

VikVal · 23/07/2019 14:57

@NoBaggyPants

Yes but there are churches everywhere in the country, not all faiths are everywhere in the country. Calm down, nobody was hurting feels!

I just believe in poverty, period. No pun intended. In this day and age though if you can't afford sanitary products then there is on all likelihood going to be a lot of other things you most certainly can't afford.

Kolo · 23/07/2019 15:00

Some people should feel very lucky that they’ve been kept so far away from poverty that they can’t even grasp that someone might struggle to find 50p, even for an expected monthly event.

I’ve had times in my life where I’ve been down to last 50p and had to decide between eating that day, or something else, like san pro. It wasn’t through lack of planning, it was lack of money to plan with!

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 23/07/2019 15:00

Why hasn’t OP come back

Too busy counting her loot from naive people.

JacquesHammer · 23/07/2019 15:02

Too busy counting her loot from naive people

Dunno, it’s a bit tricky to send money to people when you don’t have their bank details. How do you think it’s getting there, carrier pigeon?

Derbee · 23/07/2019 15:02

You can buy menstrual cups on amazon for under a fiver, with free delivery. If you’re really so hard up OP, you could use the fiver your mum sends you and not have to think about buying ANY sanitary products for the next year.

wiggywog · 23/07/2019 15:03

Just to point out
Mooncups are available from eBay for £1.97 delivered

If £5 is in your PayPal account it would be a very good investment

Frequency · 23/07/2019 15:03

can't understand how people can't afford 50p

Lucky you. I can understand it. I've been there. Sometimes there isn't a spare 50p and you used all the pennies from down the back of the couch three days ago to buy bread and milk.

Fortunately I am in a better position now but it was a tough few months caused by a benefit sanction that was wrongly applied. I was living off £35 a week CB for two months until I managed to find fulltime work. Things were still tight for a few months until they reversed the sanction six months later and paid back what they owed me.

Shit happens and it usually effects those who can least afford it the most. During those two months 'just 50p' was 50p more than I had most days. Those two months are why I now have heaps of sanpro, a freezer that barely closes and more tinned food than I could eat in a year. It frightened the shit of out me. I now overstock everything I ran out of and couldn't afford to buy. Sanpro, no matter how cheap was one of those things.

I assume it's something that effects a lot of young women as between them my daughters supply sanpro to what feels like half the school each month because their friends get caught short and can't always get hold of mum.

shieldmaidenofrohan · 23/07/2019 15:06

If I've been caught short I use a thick wedge of loo roll until I can get something sorted. I know that's not ideal but at least it's something

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 23/07/2019 15:06

She not answering your pm’s JacquesHammer?

JacquesHammer · 23/07/2019 15:08

She not answering your pm’s JacquesHammer?

At the risk of repeating myself yet again, I didn’t PM her. I offered, asked her to PM if she wanted to take it up.

If only It were possible to see what has taken place on a thread earlier, eh?

shieldmaidenofrohan · 23/07/2019 15:08

Do you have a female neighbour or friend, op, that might be able to help you ? I know I would always give something to someone even if I didn't know them, it's horrible being without. I'd send you some but by the time you get it it will be pointless
Also, and I'm sure this has been covered, if you can't afford Sanpro then the food banks usually will help.

Frequency · 23/07/2019 15:15

Oh, and incidentally, while I was surviving barely on £35 a week I still had internet, an Xbox One, a TV, a smart phone, a dog and tattoos etc. Some of those things I paid for during better times. Some of them I was in contract for and apparently "Sorry, but HMRC are behaving like a bag of dicks and several of my clients are late paying" isn't a valid reason to break your contract. I still had to pay for my internet and phone.

Gingerkittykat · 23/07/2019 15:17

Sorry but you can obviously afford some kind of internet enabled device which is presumably costing more than a cheap pack of pads - it's just a matter of making better choices of what to spend money on.
Suggest you look at where you can cut back in other areas?
And plan ahead a bit better - no one should be so short they don't have a fiver to hand.
(Assuming you are not a child which is obviously different).

Fuck off.

Blaming people for poverty is wrong.

You have no idea how she got into this position, I'm imagining the device wasn't bought in the past few days and even if you are unemployed and on universal credit you need an internet enabled device to log onto your account or you get sanctioned.

Jeremybearimybaby · 23/07/2019 15:18

I'm skeptical of the OP, but I will take the opportunity to point out public buildings (in Scotland anyway) stock free sanitary protection, and encourage service users to take what they need. These photos were taken just now, from the toilet, at my public sector workplace.

Period poverty
Period poverty
Whitecandle · 23/07/2019 15:24

@Jeremybearimybaby that's amazing 😊 I live in Wales and haven't seen this... although I have seen free nappies at services.

K1ssIt · 23/07/2019 15:29

When i had teenagers living with me i always made sure i had loads in the cupboard 50p a packet from lide or aldi can't understand how people can't afford 50p

You're lucky to have never known anyone or been in this situation then if you can't understand how someone else doesn't have the spare money.

You're also making assumption that everyone can afford to get to Aldi. It's a £5 bus trip for me or an hours walk each way which I wouldn't be able to do due to a chronic health condition. Fuel isn't free either.

If OP has a car then the pp who suggested she has a phone and internet and should cut back would likely be telling her she shouldn't have a car if she's skint too.

When you consider a lot of people are being moved to universal credit and face a standard six week wait before any money is paid then yeah, I can totally understand why people can't afford 50p because they are receiving 0. Loss of job, change in circumstances, there's many things that can happen in life that puts you in poverty and I mean this genuinely, I hope you don't ever have to experience being in that situation as someone who has been there and used rags and leaked all over as I was so heavy, I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Livebythecoast · 23/07/2019 15:29

@Jeremybearimybaby - me too (skeptical).
I haven't commented on this thread but read them all. Given the OP hasn't come back especially as most have been kind and helpful, I'm a bit 🤔 too. We've had nappy ones etc, - is there a 'period one?' 🤷‍♀️
Hope I'm wrong and OP is getting something sorted.

shieldmaidenofrohan · 23/07/2019 15:33

If you are poor you may not have a car, or you may not be able to afford the fuel. You may not live near a supermarket. You might not be able to afford the bus ride to the supermarket - and certainly not just for one packet of tampons, the price of the bus fare raises the cost considerably. My friend lives in the middle of rural Devon, she is well off but if she wasn't, the nearest supermarket is 20 miles away so she'd have to make do with whatever the local shop stocked at a huge markup.

People often don't seem to realise that poverty doesn't just affect your ability to purchase things, it often limits your choices of where you shop and ergo what you have available to you. In exactly the same way that a woman living in a hostel room cannot cook a roast dinner in the microwave that is her only cooking facility

shieldmaidenofrohan · 23/07/2019 15:34

Sorry I forgot my point that it's not as easy for lots of people as just hopping in the car an£ grabbing a 50p pack of tampax from Aldi