To feel depressed at how skint I am?

[Smolgoose]

I was furloughed for 8 months over the past year and a bit on 80 percent pay and it has tipped my precarious finances into total shit. Money is tight anyway on full pay (I only earn 16000 a year) so I've had to make up the shortfall with overdraft and credit card.

Endless expensive things keep happening, like the car needing repairs and it's starting to really get me down. I have £50 to last till the end of the month which is doable just about, as long as I stick to cheap food.

I've taken on an extra part time job cleaning that starts later this month, but I have no idea how I'm going to physically do it on top of full time work, as I've had health issues recently.

I just feel so depressed with it all.

share your bf netflix?

This thread makes for depressing reading.

Im not going to add to all the suggestions listed here already, but just wanted to say that I'm sorry that things are so hard OP. I hope that things will improve for you.

@CirqueDeMorgue I have used similar and maybe it's different where I live but it's absolutely not enough to feed yourself. Yes there's always loads of bread but that's not great if you don't have a massive freezer.
I'm a yellow sticker Queen and I have a rota of shops I go to at certain times. I also get the £1.50 Lidl veg box. However I completely understand why someone working in retail on their feet all day wouldn't want to spend their evenings working or driving around to get 10p carrots when they're only 40p normally.
I think MN lacks understanding about what being skint is really like. They picture it with their big kitchens, chest freezers and the security of another paycheck coming. The reality is not wanting to stock up your fridge too much incase the electric is turned off due to lack of funds (happened to me twice this month) the lack of time or energy after working two jobs to meal prep on a Sunday, the feeling of your wage coming in just to immediately be withdrawn after bills come out and the lack of any fun whatsoever due to feeling depressed and skint. It's no fun.

not everyone can achieve these extra qualifications that bring a pay rise.

You can definitely talk to your credit card company about reducing your minimum payments or having a payment holiday. Explain your situation with furlough, that you're back to full time work now, but that you just need a few months to catch up with yourself. They will help.

Yes don’t cancel Netflix, we all need some joy in our lives.

The reality is that £16k pa doesn't afford anything other than a basic lifestyle. OP either needs to accept that and budget hard/live frugally, or she needs to up her income. She can't expect to live as if she is earning £30k pa, when she is only bringing in £16k.

I don't want to kick the OP when she's down, and I have massive sympathy for the impact furlough, which is completely beyond her control, will have had on her. However the penny needs to drop for her, that the lifestyle that she wants (not having to scrimp and save) isn't ever going to be affordable for her if she continues to only work basic hours on minimum wage. So longer term, she needs a goal to up her income, whether that's changing jobs, working for promotion in her current job, working more hours, retraining etc. Fiddling around with cancelling £5.99/m Netflix etc isn't a long term solution to her problems.

100% this

@Spidermanssecretary

When people are really struggling I think this is when you see the worst in people. Can you let a stranger sleep on your sofa? Can you drive around picking up surplus gone off food which you won't be able to make a meal from? How many of these posters would actually do this if the going gets tough?

I use Toogoodtogo quite a bit. It's excellent. The food is never out of date, and is excellent value. It also helps food wastage which is good. Some is restaurant food, some is groceries. I don't think you should knock this one unless you have tried it. Have a look at the app!

@Pewpew

Yes don’t cancel Netflix, we all need some joy in our lives.

Why does she need to pay for Netflix though?

There are loads of free streaming sites and apps out there to use.

For the people saying that watching videos uses up a lot of data and about the connection , I can thoroughly recommend Voxi. You get unlimited video streaming on a number of apps like Netflix, UKTV player, Prime, channel 4 (not BBC I player though) for 15 a month as well as 8gb of data, unlimited social media unlimited calls and texts. The connection is amazing too. way better than most broadband , it doesn't even buffer. There's no contract either. You can hotspot to a laptop and watch the shows too but you can't cast to a TV or it comes out of your data allowance. I haven't needed to buy broadband. My income is about 970 a month with a DD and I manage. I use a few spare hours a week to do matched betting to top up my income when I want something extra.

dont dwell on it, op, try watching your money from cleaning grow, your bills reduce, see hope there

OP definitely contact your utility suppliers and ask for reduced rates due to financial difficulties - the water one especially you should be able to reduce.

Bin the labour contributions, that's a luxury you can't afford.

If you live alone, I hope you've got the single person discount on the council tax? That's an extra 25% off.

Contact citizens advice bureau to see if you'd be entitled to any benefits at all that might help.

Don't be afraid to use food banks, they're literally there for these kinds of situations.

Definitely speak to the credit card companies to freeze the debt for now.

Joseph Rowntree's minimum income calculator suggests a person in OP's position needs to spend £51.17 a week on food to have an acceptable standard of living:

www.minimumincome.org.uk/results/

That would be possible I guess if the credit card was paid off, so the credit card is part of the problem. But what was the OP supposed to do last year when her income was so badly affected?

Why can’t you move in with you partner while you look for somewhere new together? A longer commute may not be such a problem as you already have a car, and the increase in petrol costs will be more affordable as you will be able to reduce all your other outgoings. Even a commute of an hour or so each way will be less tiring than having to do extra cleaning jobs etc after work.

The BBC Good Food website has cheap meals

Ffs it's like poverty bingo on here!

The problem is high rents and low wages, telling people to save £8 a month by cancelling the sole form of entertainment is not helpful at all, telling somebody in poverty that she should be managing all groceries on £100 a month isn't realistic. Being poor is expensive, grocery bills can be cut by bulk buying and batch cooking but all of this requires outlay, fuel and adequate storage.

Also "do dog walking" is a ridiculous suggestion, another ill thought out glib answer. Dog walking involves insurance, advertising, vehicle business insurance, fuel costs and most importantly being available at regular times to fit in with customer needs. It's not something you can just pick up randomly in between shifts. I ran a dog walking business for ten years but if anyone with equal experience wants to prove me wrong I'm happy to hear it.

OP, it's bloody hard to manage living alone on low wages, I absolutely empathise. Moving in with your partner is probably your best bet short to medium term (as long as it's a strong relationship) and please do get good debt advice. Long term, retraining is the most realistic way to improve your situation but this needs planning and I understand that's not easy when you are depressed and struggling

All the best

Ive been skint op, I have Google pay which can be used in most stores so I cancelled my debit card so all the recurring card payments would stop. Then on the new card I worked out which subscriptions I wanted to keep.

So I live on a fairly tight budget - and am a huge fan of moneysavingexpert.com so would recommend starting there.

Things that have saved me money which may help are:
Swopping audible for Libby - free local library app
Market research/mystery shopping - I earn a fair bit through this, either in free food and drink for example or online research panels (Code3 Research and Research Opinions are worth a look - both pay £50-80 a session)

Quidco/Top Cashback are both credible cashback sites - shop via here every time you make a purchase.
Shopmium/Checkout Smart both give you coupons and free items at Supermarkets - send me a PM and I'll send you a link which gives you a free item.
Prolific for online research for academics - pays out about £5 a weeek.

I also do batch cooking, meal planning and yellow sticker shopping, plus I buy and sell via Facebook and ebay.

I use Monzo banking to keep all my money in pots and try and keep on budget.

Being skint sucks big time - I have three growing kids and they cost me a bomb, but I probably make an extra £200 a month through this sort of stuff. It's still butt clenchingly tough when a big bill comes in but we manage to do a bit of good stuff too.

I really feel for you OP coping with money troubles is incredibly difficult.

Going by your own figures in your posts - you have about £300 left over each month after your main expenses - then you say you spend approx £100 on food - so that leaves £200. (that's if I've kept up with your posts correctly?)

One of your main expenses each month is the credit card payments - so I'd try and focus on paying those off as soon as you reasonably can. Like others have said - make sure you transfer to a 0% card and try to overpay as much as you possibly can - and try not to add any more spending too them. Paying off an extra £40/50 per month could make a big difference.

Longer term - perhaps moving in with your boyfriend may help as you will be sharing all your household expenses. Make sure though - BEFORE you move in you make a budget between you and agree who pays for what - or how much you each contribute every month to the household bills so you both understand your combined budget. Keep any left over income separate so you can each have your own personal spending to chose how you spend any spare monies.

Wish you the best of luck

@Minezatea

Joseph Rowntree's minimum income calculator suggests a person in OP's position needs to spend £51.17 a week on food to have an acceptable standard of living:

www.minimumincome.org.uk/results/

That would be possible I guess if the credit card was paid off, so the credit card is part of the problem. But what was the OP supposed to do last year when her income was so badly affected?

But it also says that for a decent standard of living that a single person in OPs situtation needs to earn £19,229 pa, which OP does not (and she's spending more on accommodation/CT than they recommend even on that salary). This is my whole point. In order to have a good standard of living, OP needs to bring in a good wage. She does not earn enough to support the standard of living she desires. She needs to either scale back her expectations to basic living or increase her income to pay for a better standard of living.

Who said you aren’t entitled to universal credit? By my calculations going off what you posted you can get some each month.

You can't really afford to live alone. I agree with moving back in with your parents. You can't afford to run a car.

I can't believe people are suggesting I move back with my parents, I'm in my 30s!!!

Thanks for everyone who has made useful suggestions, I've taken note of lots of the ideas here and feel better about improving things.

@mrsm43s your really not being helpful. I know the reality is that I don't earn much and life us expensive, but it isn't right that an adult working full time should have to live in poverty. I ALREADY have low expectations. I'm hardly living extravagantly, and the main issue is that I was expected to be able to live on £900 à month whilst furloughed. I never spend money socialising, I never go on holiday, I don't drink, I don't smoke, it's hardly extravagant having Netflix and an audible subscription!

Also my job is not unskilled - it is retail, but specialist and I have a degree in a field that relates to it. Wages in this country are shit and a lot don't tally with the level of skill involved, surely everyone knows that?

Also to everyone who is saying to ditch my car - I live in a rural area, so this is not realistic. Bus fares would add up to a lot more than petrol etc. I bought my car for £500 six years ago, so if I sold it I would get barely anything for it.

@Welikebeingcosy

Libraries usually have a free video streaming service with your membership and there's some good shows on UKTV player for free.

😂 I know this is supposed to be a helpful suggestion but crikey! How does someone relax and watch i player in a library