To feel fed up of being poor.

[laptopba]

Just that really. Feeling rubbish about how my life has turned out in relation to finances. Its bloody shit.

If you save £50 a month and your on benefits or something you cant really save anyway, not a massive amount for like uni or anything life changing like that.

my local council tax (I know its different all over the country) but in my area the council tax is free if you have less then 3k in the bank otherwise you pay it , and I am in London 3k will not get you far, you could maybe last 2 months on that at a push, if you had to.

people who are working and getting top up benefits and say its not worth working, I say just stop working, you know they, the businesses, the Tories are exploiting you because they can, what would happen if everyone working full time and needing top up benefits to get by , just went fuck it not worth it tomorrow and stopped working?

I'll tell you what wage will go up, people need to join more unions and fight strength in numbers.

@LetHimHaveIt it's brilliant. I really love it. Is found out local church and will get involved.
Thank you

@VelvetChairGirl

my local council tax (I know its different all over the country) but in my area the council tax is free if you have less then 3k in the bank otherwise you pay it , and I am in London 3k will not get you far, you could maybe last 2 months on that at a push, if you had to.

Can I ask, for clarity, if you mean that people who meet the eligibility criteria can only keep getting it free as long as they have less than 3k? Rather than it's free to anyone who has less than 3k. As I understood it as the latter and I'm thinking, surely not

[quote cuno]@VelvetChairGirl

my local council tax (I know its different all over the country) but in my area the council tax is free if you have less then 3k in the bank otherwise you pay it , and I am in London 3k will not get you far, you could maybe last 2 months on that at a push, if you had to.

Can I ask, for clarity, if you mean that people who meet the eligibility criteria can only keep getting it free as long as they have less than 3k? Rather than it's free to anyone who has less than 3k. As I understood it as the latter and I'm thinking, surely not [/quote]
yes

@Bluesheep8

I started saving £50 per month about 6 years ago and haven't touched it. Savings so add up quickly if you are able to do it little and often.

What if there isn't £50 to save?

Wow! I've had times in my life I couldn't even save £5 per month and that's will walking most places and everything cut down to the bone. I know I'm not alone in that.

[quote alltheapples]@Ariela antiques are very different from tatty old cheap furniture. And I see you did replace your 6 year old sofa. We had our IKEA sofa for 19 years before we replaced it. It really is not the same as not replacing antiques.
And we have a lot of old brown wooden furniture from the 1950s and 1960s. It is very cheap, but lots of people on MN who like antiques would never have it in the house.[/quote]
No, I replaced my (secondhand when we got it 20 years previously) sofa 6 years ago. Expecting this one to also last 20 years.

When we acquired our furniture 25+ years ago it was throw-outs, not antiques (other than the piano which has been in the family since the mid 1930s).

I get that not every kid can be top of the class, and not everyone can earn six figures. My post was about aspiration. So many people feel trapped in poverty but they spend all their energy complaining about it and feeling depressed. You can channel that energy into your kids instead - a much more hopeful and positive way to spend it.

If your kids are academic, great! Encourage them, push them, get them careers advice.

If your kids are not academic, then foster what they’re good at, whether it’s football, carpentry or communication. Oh and they don’t need to borrow money for uni just to have an “experience” - get them some work experience that matters.

Don’t waste time/money on world book day costumes or branded snacks. Keep focused on the long game.

I get that life is hard, I really do. But you can waste your life complaining or you can do something to make sure your kids have a fresh start.

@5329871e I agree with you completely. You don’t need to be academic or earn a six figure salary to be comfortable.
There are lots of routes into a job that can pay enough for a decent life. The key is to encourage working hard enough to achieve and to foster ambitions.
That all starts from young from doing chores, having conversations, doing homework well and getting out and about.

I hope you are feeling at least a little bit better today, Iaptopba. I know from experience that some days are worse than ever. This isn't something about which you can talk to just anyone but, on here, you can let it all out. Nobody should judge you.

Perhaps there is a little ray of sunshine today, maybe something nice will happen which will take your mind off problems for a while.

I'm sure things will get better but that doesn't exactly help you at the moment.

[cuppa]

@OneRingToRuleThemAll

Can you do anything to change it? Or is there a reason why you're poor other than life just being too expensive?

I started saving £50 per month about 6 years ago and haven't touched it. Savings so add up quickly if you are able to do it little and often.

Seriously?? At the minute my money barely covers my bills and I can only get very basic food, let alone "Just save up man, you'll be fine"

@LoisLane66

The power of positive thinking. If you're down, the only way is up so look at positive ways you can improve your life a bit at a time. Are your health issues stopping you getting a job or have workplaces given you health issues? See your GP to get help with those issues and contact one of the many free 'back to work' programmes offered to those who want to raise their living standards. POOR, can mean different things to different people. If you have Sky/Netflix/iPhones/a car etc then you are not poor. If you can feed your family whether Lidl or Waitrose, you are not poor. It all depends on your outlook. If your determined to better your situation, you will find a way rather than wallow in self pity which will rub off on your children.

This is so offensive and ignorant I don't know where to start, so I shan't bother and hope the poster decides to educate herself by looking at the Rowntree Report, cpag or the one that explains what child poverty actually is, that would be a start.

Of course doing homework with kids and reading to them all helps. But it is not a magic route out of poverty for everyone. We all do what we can to help our kids, but some of those kids will still end up in poverty.

@5329871e

I get that not every kid can be top of the class, and not everyone can earn six figures. My post was about aspiration. So many people feel trapped in poverty but they spend all their energy complaining about it and feeling depressed. You can channel that energy into your kids instead - a much more hopeful and positive way to spend it.

If your kids are academic, great! Encourage them, push them, get them careers advice.

If your kids are not academic, then foster what they’re good at, whether it’s football, carpentry or communication. Oh and they don’t need to borrow money for uni just to have an “experience” - get them some work experience that matters.

Don’t waste time/money on world book day costumes or branded snacks. Keep focused on the long game.

I get that life is hard, I really do. But you can waste your life complaining or you can do something to make sure your kids have a fresh start.

football clubs cost money and carpentry? seriously where they going to do that in the bedroom?

you would be depressed too if your life was shit and what energy, people are not putting all their energy into being depressed and moaning they are depressed and moaning because they have no energy, they are exhausted by life and having to do everything manually and think hard about everything they do asking "can i afford this?" etc.

frankly this is insulting

So many people feel trapped in poverty but they spend all their energy complaining about it and feeling depressed. You can channel that energy into your kids instead - a much more hopeful and positive way to spend it.

you can not channel anything into being all rainbows and pissy unicorns if your depressed and struggling, bloody hell get a clue about mental health.

sorry I mean

you would be depressed too if your life was shit and what energy, people are not putting all their energy into being depressed and moaning, they are depressed and moaning because they have no energy.

@VelvetChairGirl

sorry I mean

you would be depressed too if your life was shit and what energy, people are not putting all their energy into being depressed and moaning, they are depressed and moaning because they have no energy.

Well if that’s the case then I guess your DC will be stuck in the same loop. You have my sympathy.

@5329871e of course parents try their best. But you are getting the reaction you are because you sound like Pollyanna.
The people fleeing Ukraine will also be trying their best for their kids. But of they are moaning about the impact on their kids, being told to look on the bright side for the sake of their kids is very insensitive.

Some very naive responses about education being the way out.

It doesn't help if your dc are disabled/learning difficulties and you are trapped as a carer.

@5329871e

What fresh start can dc aspire to with lifelong disabilities?

I worked hard at school. Qualified as a lawyer. It was all for nothing. Shit happens.

I agree that the poster who mentioned saving £50 a month is gettin a hard time.
Sometimes it's possible to save small amounts if you are a bit savvy I know that I could do this if I didn't spend on certain things.

Yes sometimes it's possible to save a little bit. I do try but there is inevitably always a higher hill or a one off cost that comes along and wipes it back down to zero

Our local council although didn't publish about it (sus) do a household support fund. I'm not sure if other councils do it but worth looking into it incase they do.

Ours have only just started doing it and because people published it on fb and they had a lot of requests they have temporarily closed the application to deal with the applications already there.

Anyone can apply but they will tell you if you're eligible.

For our council it was a one of evoucher payment for Morrison's to help with food, clothes etc.

I was also fed up being poor. So I worked damn hard until it stopped.

@2bazookas

I was also fed up being poor. So I worked damn hard until it stopped.

Lucky it worked out for you. I've worked damn hard my entire life from before I even left school. It's always been hard but I did. Have some saving behind me which were lost when I left my abusive ( and financially controlling) ex

@2bazookas

I was also fed up being poor. So I worked damn hard until it stopped.

Well good for you 🙄

Natwest do something called round up, where if you spend say 11.80 on your card they round it up and put 20p in a savings account