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 :(

@GrandTheftWalrus

I have sky as we got it when money was a lot better so we are stuck in a contract now. Our phones are fancy smartphones which we got 2 years ago and are now on sim only contracts.

I will be phoning sky tomorrow though and looking into the bt broadband.

Also I'll try the aldi formula again for dd.

The difficulty with this is of you get the Aldi formula and she won't drink it you've wasted that money. Do you know anyone who uses it who would give you a scoop to try the one bottle with?

I don't unfortunately @whitefire I just got a tin of her usual yesterday and that'll last a while anyway then I'll maybe try the aldi one. She'll be off formula in about 6/7 weeks anyways

@Palloom

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.

I feel sorry for anyone who has to get rid of their existing pet but if more people have a stop and think before getting a dog that can only be a good thing imo. I've seen so many irresponsible dog owners since all the lock down stuff.

I'm so sorry op to read your post. I don't normally comment on posts nowadays, but I wanted to say to perhaps contact Christian's against poverty and the food bank. No one should have to struggle and go without.

I shop at Asda and I simply cannot accept the survey results claiming that it is still cheap. I swear that I am getting a trolley worth under £50 two years ago for upwards of £80. I have a good head for maths but I simply cannot work how they have done it. I suspect that everything has shrunk in size, sometimes really subtly, so it will run out quickly and you will end up having to order more of it. I also find that the eco packaging weighs a bit more than the plastic it has replaced and the data stated on the packaging doesn’t always split between the two. I cook everything from scratch so it should be a lot cheaper for that reason alone. The cheapest products never seem to be available most of the time so research based on data from their website isn’t going to paint an accurate picture. I don’t have a car so Aldi and Lidl are not realistic. I noticed that Aldi prices quoted on Deliveroo are higher anyway.

I sometimes wonder about 2or 3 families getting together and buying in bulk - only one person would use car to do big shop and everyone could share the produce - I am thinking season veges, frozen veges, beans, tinned tomatoes....
My heart is out to all of you - you are teaching your children a lot, you are very very resourceful. Be proud. This shouldn’t be happening. It is not your fault. 💐

To be honest this thread hit home. I usually consider myself lucky but have been struggling recently and ran out of money on the 30th April. I get paid on the 1st. So I had one day without, I had about 50p in my account. I went to the supermarket (only a small one locally) and the spaghetti hoops were 52p. I couldn't remember exactly how much was in my account but knew it was 50-something so scanned it and tried to pay and it declined. I put it back. I then found two small pork pies for 30p in the reduced section, which was a blessing in disguise as they were 284 calories each which was actually way better than the spaghetti hoops would have been. But it's the fact that e.g. if I'd needed loo roll or whatever I couldn't have got any (I would probably have gone to a pub toilet and taken a little bit in all honesty). I'd run out of washing up liquid and had to wait until April to get that. I often have a few days like this a month but usually I have food in and haven't run out, that's the difference. TBH I considered staying up until midnight and then going to get food but few options are open here at that time (unfortunately no supermarkets are open at that time, it's small shops). It was just a bit shit having the spaghetti hoops decline as it must've been literally 1p or 2p short. If I'd just had £5-£10 for that day I'd have felt a lot better, it was running out to that point that felt bad. I just feel sad because years ago it now feels like was some kind of golden age when there wasn't this kind of worry, things felt manageable and I'm scared that it's going to get worse. Trying to be positive at least we are going into the summer now and I plan to turn my gas off as soon as it's warm enough. I barely use any electricity, it's the gas that worries me.

Yeah it's shite, we are going to be living off the fsm vouchers for the next 2 weeks . Luckily they've just exempt me from bedroom tax due to the youngest having autism. What sort of shitty thing is that ffs bedroom tax. I can hardly get up and move home even if someone wanted to do an exchange

Luckily I've just been able to cancel the very expensive virgin package my ex left me paying for and I've gone with a cheaper Internet provider and firesticks

I'd like to cancel the TV licence but I know someone who did that and started getting fines, they won't listen when she says she only watches Netflix and prime so I'm too scared to cancel

Oh, and I get no choice where I shop with the vouchers, they just issue morrisons ones now, at the beginning we could choose lidl which was better

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?

We don’t want to live in a small flat in the city

Well there’s your answer! Plenty of people are happy to live in smaller properties in cities, with the benefit of being able to walk / cycle / take public transport to work. They’ve not been gifted some extra magical good fortune, they just have different priorities / have made different choices.

@GrandTheftWalrus my DD went onto cows milk at 10 months, she refused formula and the HV said it was absolutely fine as long as she ate well including dairy and took vitamins. In your situation I’d use the last box of formula you have to transition her.

I now buy 20P pasta but all sold out. Things have gone up so much.

skyblue sorry you found yourself in that situation. Could you go to a food bank at the end of this month, just so you know you’ll have somethings in, if you do run out of money again.

I remember years ago my local tesco had free nappies in the changing facilities.
I needed a few one time to last me to pay day and remember going in an was none left. I was gutted and cried cuz I knew I would starve and had to buy a pack with the little money I had.
The whole way walking there I was praying that there would be some sitting out

Hard times teach us how to live on less so when better days come we won't be wasteful and they will come

PS eating the 600 calories, it was just for one day so I thought it was OK. I ate more the next day to make up for it once I had money. If it had been any longer than that I would've had to look into some other kind of option.

@Londoncallingme

Get an electric bike for work?

Yes cos someone struggling has 500-1500 to pay for an electric bike 🤦‍♀️

Jesus, some people on here have no idea.

If you use any supermarkets, even occasionally and you are able to, download their app. I have the co-op one, which I rarely use but i get to pick two offers every week. If you use the Sainsbury's smartshop app you can get some items with a fairly significant saving, works in their local stores too.

I use my Tesco Clubcard points to pay for Disney plus.

@LunaTheCat

I sometimes wonder about 2or 3 families getting together and buying in bulk - only one person would use car to do big shop and everyone could share the produce - I am thinking season veges, frozen veges, beans, tinned tomatoes.... My heart is out to all of you - you are teaching your children a lot, you are very very resourceful. Be proud. This shouldn’t be happening. It is not your fault. 💐

I am so sorry @Littlemissdan and all the others who are struggling on this and other threads.

I have been thinking along similar lines to @LunaTheCat above. I can force a situation where communities need to work together more, sharing food in a common heated hall rather than everyone acting alone. The situation is terrible and really shocking when others own multiple homes, and even multiple yachts and a few prats are indulging themselves by flying to the moon. However, I wonder if one good thing that might come of it is a better community in terms of people looking out for each other and sharing in a way that has become very unusual now. This 'every man for himself' missive is one thing I dislike about today's society.

We don’t have sky,netF or anything else. Free view provides enough for our needs. Why do people say Netflix is cheap when you still need to factor in tv licence to watch it

@AHungryCaterpillar really? The 4 nearest Asda stores I’ve been to all have them, one of them isn’t that big. I love it as I don’t have to queue at the checkout and my bags are packed as I go.

£10 isn’t that unusual, my train costs £8.40 a day or £6.68 if I use a season ticket.

Tilltheend99

It’s worth checking out what the local churches do as well. On a Friday I walk past a church where they leave containers of fruit, veg, bread etc just put it the street for anyone to help themselves. I always think that is quite handy as some people might feel embarrassed to go in and ask for help. Look for different community groups on Facebook too“

Second this. I’m not religious but also noticed the local churches “market” one day. Much less red tape than food banks, fresh food and groceries to anyone in need plus a community kitchen where a two course meal can be bought for £1 a couple of days each week, kids free. All donations and volunteers, overseen by a local chef.

Also re the electric bike comment, how does the OP get a weeks shopping home on her bike? Plus in really heavy rain that sounds miserable.

Lizzie, I'm OK now, thank you, however what I'm thinking of doing is buying some basics like long life milk, cheap cans of tuna, frozen bread and so on so that if/when it happens again I have basic food for the days that it happens. It is ALWAYS at the end of the month, like clockwork. I have all my bills/direct debits lined up for the few days after the 1st of the month so literally every bill goes out and I can see what I'm left with. I'd just run the food down way too much and run out of money.

Once I got paid I got the washing up liquid which was on offer at pretty much half price so I got two. I also got loo roll, everything I needed (I hadn't run out of that but I was down to one roll on the last day). TBH I'd wondered about washing plates with face wash or shower gel but just not sure about that (the face wash is unscented).

I just hope this month will be OK as I didn't pay council tax in Feb and March which was quite a big difference. It's band B so it could be worse I guess.

The other option could be I see if they do payment cards and I put £10 on one of those and put it to one side/save it for the end of the month. That could last me a few days and might prevent it happening again.

The payment card and buying some basics pasta/tuna/long life milk, is a really good idea Skyblue. I hope this month is better for you.

[quote BashfulClam]@AHungryCaterpillar really? The 4 nearest Asda stores I’ve been to all have them, one of them isn’t that big. I love it as I don’t have to queue at the checkout and my bags are packed as I go.

£10 isn’t that unusual, my train costs £8.40 a day or £6.68 if I use a season ticket.[/quote]
Oh it’s not Asda it’s Tesco’s my local store that doesn’t have them, I think Asda does but it’s 2 bus rides away from me so not worth it

@paulaparticles

I remember years ago my local tesco had free nappies in the changing facilities. I needed a few one time to last me to pay day and remember going in an was none left. I was gutted and cried cuz I knew I would starve and had to buy a pack with the little money I had. The whole way walking there I was praying that there would be some sitting out

Hard times teach us how to live on less so when better days come we won't be wasteful and they will come

I'm so sorry. This moved me to tears. It's unbelievably sad that people go through this.