What can't you afford?

[Marleymerm]

Last week at work my colleague told me her recent eye test showed she needed glasses, but she couldn't afford them, she's known she's needed them for a couple of years but said she doesn't have the money. We both work full time in office jobs and neither of us have expensive hobbies or social lives, we're both pretty boring.
I realised this morning I haven't bought new shoes for months despite the ones I have coming apart, because I can't afford them. I've picked up pairs but put them back down when I've thought of what else I need instead.
When I asked this question to my friend about what she couldn't afford she told me her monthly prescription! She hasn't got it for 3 months.
It's a weird time we're living in so everyone's doing without something. But do you have any necessary things you need but can't afford?

@RudsyFarmer Not at all. I am not offended. I am calling you out for making light of a serious medical condition as a sop for getting a free eye test. As if a saving on a twenty five quid eye test is going to move the dial on being able to afford rising bills.

We’re very lucky to have free prescriptions in Scotland, free eye tests too but the cost of glasses is still a problem.

We’re very lucky that there aren’t many essentials we can’t afford (yet). We have had to cut a lot of non essentials but have been able to keep some. We would really struggle to afford full time childcare so we are very lucky to be able to both compress our hours and have grandparent help. I doubt we could afford a second child but luckily we are happy with our DD. We can’t really afford to have the very large trees in our garden cut back or a new boiler (our current one is extremely old and inefficient) so just keep putting these off.

Do you not have access to the internet?

If you're interested it is all a matter of public record. If you're trying to imply the Tories' haven't taken vast amounts of help away since 2010, I CBA to play.

this was for @LokiDokiArtichoki

@elvedon This Peter Oborne video is incredible. Thank you for sharing.

Re glasses, there are online suppliers that sell glasses for less than high street opticians. I'm not saying they're suitable for everyone, but they sell proper prescription glasses, not off the shelf Poundland reading glasses and will help a lot of people to get glasses for less.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/cheap-glasses-discounts/

All the whataboutery on this site is very tiresome. It stops people giving suggestions that will help 95% of the population for fear of a small minority who aren't able to use the suggestion shouting them down.

The state of the country is incredibly depressing. We’re very lucky, I’m about to start maternity leave and we can only afford it because we moved to NE Scotland from London a year ago, and just managed to buy our first, very small, home before interest rates went wild. If we were still in our private rental, our rent would have been £700 more than our mortgage and I’d have to have gone back to work when baby is 6 months old. Having said that, we’ll be living to a tight budget as living in north Scotland with two small children in the house we will need to have the heating on at least two hours a day, and we need to keep the car going as we’re rural and would be stuck without it. The u-turn on energy bill support means we could end up in a difficult position come April as our fix ends in March, and I really wish we’d fixed the mortgage for 5 years not 2. We’ve decided not to do grown up Christmas presents & instead just make it a nice time for our toddler (first Christmas he’s really excited about), but I know we are so much more fortunate than so many others. I’m so glad we left London when we did, the house we were renting for £1300 a month in 2021 has just gone back on the market for £2000; it’s totally unsustainable but obviously not an option for everyone to up sticks to rural Scotland to save cash!

Dentist, opticians, petrol.

I’m also on a pre-payment gas & electric meter and my electric has just gone I have £5 emergency and not a £ to my name to top up until the weekend.

To those who are asking what support has been removed since 2010 - there are many systems that have been impacted and write it all here would be a thesis. The impact on health, education, social care, socio economic positioning and employment at population level is significant (I work in Public Health and Research). So let's focus on food security and poverty as a micro view - this report sums up the main fiscal policy decisions on the last decade and their impact on access to food and socio economic position:

www.hrw.org/report/2019/05/20/nothing-left-cupboards/austerity-welfare-cuts-and-right-food-uk

Including but not limited to:

1. Since 2013, the government has introduced an arbitrary financial cap on the amount of welfare benefits a family can receive
2. From 2016, the government has implemented a freeze on most working-age welfare benefits to “workless” (unemployed) households, so they did not keep pace with inflation
3. Wage stagnation
4. In 2017, a “two child limit,” curtailing any child tax credit (a means-tested cash benefit) to families for any child after their first two (with some exceptions, i.e. multiple births, adoption and children born from rape).
5. Transition to the Universal Credit system, the government’s signature welfare policy that began in 2012 to replace a complex set of six “legacy” social security benefits. Food aid providers, academic researchers and nongovernmental welfare advice providers have established clear links between the restructuring of the welfare system and a marked increase in food poverty among low income families
6. Removal of SureStart that was targeted help for Early Years Children meant help with budgeting and cooking was removed

Dental care. Don’t have NHS dentist, can’t afford private.

Mine is I can't afford not to put my prices up.
Some of my costs have doubled and I have had to put my prices up for the cost element accordingly. I have reduced my profit to cushion it a little. Unfortunately the 30% increase in turnover needed to cover my higher bills have pushed my business into the VAT threshold, which means next year my prices will have to go up again to cover the extra tax. I wish instead of messing with income tax they reduced VAT to 15%, and put the threshold up to £100k to help small businesses and consumers.

DH has to have complex lenses and his optician ticks a box to say he needs them for work and his employer pays towards them. He has to look at little spreadsheets all day.

I sympathise with this as I had a high prescription for years before I got laser eye surgery, but if ops friend has only recently been told she needs glasses and is managing life OK without them as she's clearly getting herself to work and completing her work ok (whereas when i didn't have my glasses on I couldn't recognise my own family members, wouldn't have been able to get a bus etc to work let alone be safe to drive) then it's far more likely she has a low/straightforward prescription so the suggestions of getting cheap poundshop glasses or ones online make perfect sense as they are a relatively small outlay for a significant benefit.

@Marleymerm have you looked on Vinted /eBay for some shoes or Boots ? I was looking on Vinted last night lots of bargains

Sympathise about the glasses but would not recommend the cheap online ones.
Opticians on the high Street make sure your glasses fit properly and offer the full service.
We need proper opticians with staff offering the whole service.

I used this when going back to work. It's a fantastic service and I got her first job I interviewed for after. I'm sure the confidence in looking through part helped

This is the saddest thread I’ve ever read on here and I’ve read my fair share!

Those that are struggling with food please contact your local fast food services by email, I work for a large FF company, we tend to have a set amount we can give out each month. I find people struggling and donate a few meals for free. Your local stores might do the same. The email will either be online or on a receipt if you have one from a previous order. It’s not the most nutritional food but if you’re going hungry it’s so worth a shot.

RocketPanda In my wider area there's a community, privately run food bank which charges £3 for a full big basket of food. It's not means tested and doesn't requires proof of low income or anything. Perhaps worth looking into if there's anything like that locally? There is also another food bank which is run as a charity from local donations, and again, it doesn't require proof of income or having tokens etc. There might be other food banks in the local community to explore as well as the "official" ones.

For prescriptions if you need more than one item you can buy a pre payment and pay monthly. It saves you loads as I have 3 items each month

www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescription-costs/nhs-prescription-prepayment-certificates-ppcs

Out if curiosity what part of a prescription Asda dosent cover- i have cataract,astigmatism,-8.5in both eyes and got 2 pair of glasses for 160, wiuld have been 120 but added 40 so one set is the ones that are like sunglasses in the sunshine. Super thinned,scratch resistant etc. quote for one pair from vision express for the same was 400 lol

The worst part is that there is plenty of food for everyone but distribution of it is grossly inequitable
to the point that we have a situation of grotesque waste next to scores of people who cannot access nutritious food.

It is closely link to the pay gap, and it is a national disgrace.

In a civilised society everyone has the right to live with dignity, to access food, housing, appropriate health care and quality education. There are no excuses for this not happening. The cause is neoliberalism ie greed.

This thread is really upsetting. 💔

My mortgage next year if the rates go any higher.

Sorry I can’t see who mentioned hair dye but if you have a bodycare shop it’s significantly cheaper than £8.

@ShangPie

Agree with post that Smartworks are very good. When I was unemployed they got me kitted out. There is also a version for men but cannot remember the name.

My signing on officer (however/whatever you call them) was very good with info and got me in touch with them.

Also once you are at work (or still not) they have online and in person seminars and things you can attend which may be helpful.