To have cried in asda

[Littlemissdan]

Is it just me that the whole cost of living thing is getting too much for? I actually had a (very small and no one watching!) cry in asda when I saw some reduced bakery goods because I didn’t know if I could afford them alongside my entire smartprice shop. £30 I had for a 2 week shop including nappies, and it just broke me that I actually had to wonder if I could afford a 55p treat for my kids. I can’t believe we’re living like this, 3 years ago we were comfortable and now I’m relying on the free school meals half term vouchers.
Not really looking for advice or budgeting advice here, just a bit of solidarity really :(

I don't know if this is the case in your area, but when I was helping at our local Food Hub we could deliver to people who couldn't be there in person

@MurmuratingStarling and a round of applause for you for such a good post. Thank you.

I start a new job tomorrow - it’s 100 mile round trip plus £9 for a toll. Thankfully I’m only in tomorrow to meet & greet and pick up my laptop then it’s going to be mostly WFH.

Second those bin bags, they’re great.

I’m entering week 2 of having cut the top off the toothpaste. 2 fucking weeks! That’s not like the teeniest tiniest dribble of milk in a carton!

The tories need to feel they will lose the next election over it and possibly have to deal with civil unrest.

They've changed the law to make civil unrest illegal and punishable by imprisonment. They're changing electoral processes and boundaries to ensure they can't lose the next election. This solution, which everybody has always assumed is available to deal with problems of low-income living standards, is no longer available. It was removed while everyone was sleeping off Brexit fever.

And anyway, the Tories' poor polling is modest and probably reversible. Enough people seem to think they're doing an OK job.

The stories and comments in this thread are outrageous and heart breaking. But in the interests of reality, people without money need to understand that most people who do have money don't give a shit about them. If they did, things wouldn't have got to this stage.

[quote stuntbubbles]@MurmuratingStarling and a round of applause for you for such a good post. Thank you.[/quote]
Aww thanks @stuntbubbles

[quote Kitkat151]@ReadyToMoveIt do you live very rurally? I live in a small market town...we have Morrison’s, m&s food, Lidl, Aldi , Iceland , home bargains and b&m all within a 10 minute walk from my home ......Can’t imagine not having local shops[/quote]
I have a Co Op within walking distance. The Co Op is expensive.
My next 'selection' of shops is 10 miles away (tesco, asda, aldi)
So, a car, or a bus (ha! rural so every 2 hours if they are running)
But I can't carry much (disabled) so a bus isn't very practical either.

I'm sitting here cold with fingerless gloves on. I remember growing up with a coal fire (and an outside too / tin bath to start with!) but that was in Kent. I'm now in Scotland and its bloody cold (6deg currently)
My teens are still in bed asleep. Good, they are warm. When they get up I'll make them some porridge. I'll put the oven on a cook a roast later. A cheap chicken & a chunk of gammon, & lots & lots of veggies. It'll feed us most of the week (leftovers, sandwiches, scraps stirred through pasta & risotto, soup etc), & I can use the hob too as cheaper.

OP I'm glad you found some nice bakery goods for a treat.
It's shocking, in the worlds 4th largest economy, that it made you cry.

£10 of petrol now is about 1.2 gallons of fuel. My car on a good day does 45mpg. 25 miles each way really isn’t a long trip for many people to work

A fabulous post murmuratingStarling exactly why I like MN.

Asda and probably everywhere else has gotten really expensive. I work there and so notice things going up in price week by week.
We're living pay check to pay check at the moment and I really fear how we're going to live in the winter

@Puffalicious

A fabulous post murmuratingStarling exactly why I like MN.

Thank you. I do appreciate that. 😘

I think people are being unfair to the electric bike poster. The op spends ten pounds a day on her commute. That’s 200 a month. You can pick up a send hand electric bike for that,

I wonder what sort of bike that is because I can't see anything like that price here (cheapest one £500, the more expensive ones >£1500). I would also budget to have someone check the safety of a secondhand bike.

secondhandbikes.co.uk/electric-bikes/

Putting aside extras and luxuries, it's the fact that people can't afford the basics now that is the worry.

@Londoncallingme

Get an electric bike for work?

I am not struggling to this degree financially, and have no kids but I couldn’t in any capacity afford the huge outlay of an electric bike for work. I suspect this is a suggestion too far - electric bikes are pricey as hell so if you are struggling with a 55 pence bakery treat a bike for a few hundred quid a best to probably more like in the thousands, ain’t gonna cut the butter.

To the person who wrote the original post, I am really sorry it is so hard. I don’t really have any suggestions. I don’t have kids yet so I have less pressure on me. But sending you a hug from afar. (Probably not much more help than the electric bike suggestion, but like the electric bike suggestion, well intended.)

The electric bike message is so utterly stupid I cant believe anyone would say that.

Would you benefit from not working op? If childcare costs are sinking you it may be worth seeing what you’ll be eligible for either cutting your hours or not working?

(I'm conscious that I have recently posted asking about new bikes for my kids - they will be paid for entirely out of their DLA. Ive also posted about a 'dream holiday' in Malta. It is just a dream but it keeps me going)

@MrsGHarrison87

So basically you're doing a weekly shop for £15 including nappies? How? Try cheaper shops.

What dumb advice. This is already a v cheap food shop for her and (I believe two) kids. Aside from a food bank, she couldn't get it much cheaper

I'm honestly intrigued as to what jobs these posters do where a commute of £10 per day is considered expensive. Or how do they afford to live so close to their work?

Any job DP and I do is either located in a city or on an industrial park on its near outskirts. Although we live near a railway station, there is simply no viable public transport to get you from or to there that doesn't add another couple of hours onto your journey. Even then it would be more expensive than driving.

DP for instance would have to walk to the station, which takes 40 minutes, but theres no footpath so it would be at the side of a main road. Then he would get to the city centre in about 40 minutes but then have to get 2 buses to another part of the city centre where he works. The whole commute would take him around 4 hours per day.

I used to live 8 miles from my work in the city centre. Walking to the station and at the other end took 2 x 15 minutes and the bus took 1 hour to cover that distance, because it stopped at every single stop and got stuck at traffic lights. No train. So the whole commute took 3 hours per day. It wasn't safe to cycle, as the roads were narrow and fast and it was dark most of the time in winter.

We don't want to live in a small flat in the city itself. None of these options offer much quality of life.

Countries like Switzerland and The Netherlands allow employees to deduct their travel to work expenses from their personal income tax bill. I don't understand why more people in the UK aren't aware of this, considering how awful public transport and roads are in this country.

See if you have a local community table (what ours is called) on Saturdays shops and individuals put food m, household products outside the council office on tables and anyone can help themselves, no vouchers they just ask people to only take what they can use that week so no filling your freezer. Through the summer we have lots of homegrown stuff, I got a bread and jam yesterday just as they were closing as nobody had wanted them (I'm not low income so I put money in the voluntary payment box which goes to the food bank)

Use the scan and go gun. It helps you keep track as you go around and then you know if you are on track.

It’s all relative though isn’t it.
When you’re crying over 55p discounted items in Asda and only have £15 for food every week, £10 a day to travel to work is insane.

@FloralsForSpring

It's hard when you've had to add it up for a long time so you notice the prices going up and get to the end of the shop and have to wonder what to out back.

It is the worst feeling. I hate going to the shops because of this.

@BashfulClam

Use the scan and go gun. It helps you keep track as you go around and then you know if you are on track.

Only certain shops have them, my local one doesn’t and it’s a huge store

Having pets will become impossible very soon. A luxury and they will be a status symbol.

How could anyone in the situations outlined afford to feed a pet and pay vet fees etc. It will be heartbreaking for many to have rehome their dog/cat and that saddens me too.

@SucculentChalice this is exactly our situation . Hour and a half walk to the station, then no buses at the other end to get anywhere near the workplace , and a single train ticket is £22 !