To have a thread for us poor folk?

[UsPoorFolk]

I'm really happy for people who have enough money for food/holidays/bills/savings etc...

But it sucks having nothing for anything extra in life, including increasing bill cost.

Anyone else.

@nutty123 oh my gosh, I'm with you on that one. I nearly cried over a Lasagne in Tesco a few weeks back. It used to be £5 then I went in and it was £6.75!!!! It just caught me so off guard that I had to bite my lip the whole way round to stop myself bursting into tears. It's just so awful having to think "can I get that this week?" 😣

You need to email them and remove any implied right of access.

That's FMOL wibble.

Also, Sanitary products!!!!!! Why the fuck have they gone up so much!?

Maybe but it works.

ITV hub, My 5, BBC iPlayer (I'm too much of a wimp to not pay the TV licence!)more 4, UKTV and there's one called Pluto TV.
My phone isn't that great memory wise so I have only one or two installed at a time. I think they're all the ones that you get on smart TVs anyway, but I have an older TV and a Chromecast so need to download the apps to use them.

I’m currently on mat leave, when I decided to keep the pregnancy from a summer romance in which he was gone before the test was dry, things were just about to go bottom up, I had no idea how badly at the time, but sadly if I’d found out I was pregnant any more recently I think I would have seriously considered a termination.

I have a good job, hold my own and don’t get any benefits (beyond child benefit) but I feel like I’ve been pushed into a corner, there will be no holidays etc (havent been anywhere since 2019) new updates to the flat or clothing (me) until further notice. I’ve even decided to fast fasting to help curb the need for food. Trying to see the silver lining in the weight loss(!)

this doesn’t feel sustainable; at all, it’s not going to be long before somethings seriously got to give, the government seem to think we all want a life of Riley, when actually we don’t want their greedy mindset, we just want to put the heating on and enjoy our little lives without feeling like we’re on our knees.

they have the power to help but refuse to. It’s all backwards, and hugely frustrating when you don’t have a choice to better yourself, not that I need to mind, like I say I’ve got a good job. But it’s clearly my fault for wanting a life! Picking poor choices in men; I’m not extravagant, I don’t have anything fancy, I don’t want anything fancy. I just want to go to bed relaxed without worrying about feeding my children and heating the home!

Soakitup37 that's exactly it. It's not about the big ticket items, the new cars and overseas holidays, designer bags and such. It's about being able to have the heating on when it's cold, afford the diesel to get to work, the bottle of wine on Friday night.

But mainly about not having the worry there in the background ALL THE SODDING TIME.

we cancelled sky, buy no extra treats, do boring meal planning and batch cooking, my husband started working overtime so earns £400 more per month we are still struggling! food shopping's so expensive now and i refuse to pay for the more expensive things so we go without & make do! gas and electric are obscene even though we have cut use & haven't had the heating on at all! Knowing the worst is yet to come is just depressing!

I don't find that at all, every item of furniture (except mattress and t.v) in my house is second hand as are my curtains, rugs and kitchen equipment. Even my wallpaper came from charity shops. Everything is really good quality, some of it never used. When i first moved into my house i had nothing but my clothes and personal bits and bobs, i enjoyed the game of furnishing my home from Freecycle, charity shops and anywhere i could source items.
Please find it in yourself to look for and accept anything you need, your life will be that little bit more comfortable if you can. x

@Soakitup37

Exactly, there's a narrative that you want the moon on a stick if you dare to want to be able to afford your travel to work and some dinner - and from people who are funded by the taxpayers for both when they earn probably twice or three times as much to start with!
I mean how much is it Liz Truss is now getting for being an ex prime minister for about 15 minutes and was out on her ear for not performing? And let's face it the bar isn't exactly high is it!
You did that in my low paid industry or just about any job and you would be getting nothing at all, not even notice, and if you didn't find a job straight away, 5 weeks with no income waiting for UC, and that's only if they decide you didn't make yourself unemployed and you get sanctioned. Why do other people who live by a much better set of rules to start with feel the need to tell the poorest among us off all the time for our 'unreasonable' wants, that they have without question already? It's ridiculous.

Sorry to clear this up. I love 2nd hand stuff from market place and the likes - because I've chosen to do it. What I find uncomfortable is people offering me stuff because I'm poor.

Market place is great. If only they delivered !!!

I agree. Is MN populated with DM journeys or interns from the Tory party machine?

I'm feeling this too. We have two teen DS's who eat quite a lot and I have health conditions and get PIP / ESA.

Going to the weekly food pantry later- lucky to have this within a short distance of the flat. You pay £5 for a family or £3 for a single person, and get about 2 bags of food.

I have a couple of things which might help others, firstly I sometimes shop with Iceland who seem to do free online delivery. I think it is a minimum £40 for this but not sure, would need to check.

They send me emails with discount codes and there is one today for £10 off a shop, it is valid until 30th November so for a while yet.

It is WB2COHF and you add it at the checkout.

Also, I bank with the Co-op who do a good easy to use bank account where they pay you a little bit each month for having e.g. a payment in and some direct debits.

They are doing a 'refer a friend' offer where if you swap to them we both get £125. PM me if anyone is interested as you would need my info for the form to be the 'friend'

See www.co-operativebank.co.uk and follow the links. Might save us both some money and I recommend them, been with them for years and they are an ethical bank as well.

@Orangesandlemons77

Yes Iceland you have to spend £40 but they do have good offers. Also you cannot book more than one delivery at a time so no booking up Xmas orders now.

It's worth checking delivery passes from the supermarkets and if you do shop online there are often freebies.

I've been with EE for my phone for a while, I swapped to sim only but because I have been with them so long they give me loyalty discounts, this year my monthly payment has gone up to ... £3.24 for unlimited calls and texts and 80 whatever of data.

Hi!

Two bills have bounced today and they won't be the last. Haven't been brave enough to put the heating on yet. I can buy food but I'm walking around Aldi with a calculator and anxiety. Oh, and Octopus want to up my direct debit to more than I earn in a month.

I work full time but it's min wage and varying hours, I honestly don't know how much longer I can survive.

Are the free food apps any good for you? Depending where you are you may be able to get a couple of days from them.

@Elderemo seriously. Shut that shit down with octopus. If you’ve not even got your heating on then there’s absolutely NO way you’re using that much and they need to STFU. I pay quarterly on demand because I’m not giving those fuckers access to my bank account for them to take what they fancy. Read your meters weekly at home and you’ll probably be surprised at how little you’re using.

if you can face a phone call - I always find cancelling the DD brings them to heel. 😉

I’m a single mum and have worked so hard for the last 20 years to get off benefits. I’ve just got to the top of the earning bracket and am no longer eligible, which I feel lucky for, but it couldn’t have come at a worse time. I’ve never worked harder and been more skint than I am now.

My friends keep saying ‘we need a girl’s holiday - don’t worry, it can be somewhere cheap like Benidorm or Malaga’. Mate, I can’t even justify the £90 to renew my passport.

Do you have a smart meter?
I'm with Bulb, who Octopus just bought out and they tried to up my DD to nearly £200. I cancelled the DD and now just pay exactly what I owe each month. Last bill was £106.

I would love to be able to do my food shopping without adding it all up on the way round! I know compared to some we're doing ok but we both work full time and it just feels we should be doing really well for all the hours we put in 😔

I do the same Tessabelle. I’ve had periods in time where I’ve had to be really careful with money and always prided myself in being able to look at a trolley of groceries and estimate the bill to the nearest £2-3 - it’s just always so much MORE these days.
I’ve switched to Lidl, but even then what I used to spend on a big shop only stretches a few days now.

Just had a phone call from the housing association. It's always nerve wracking answering the phone to them.
Amazingly they are going to apply for a discretionary housing payment for us to try and clear the arrears! They have been really good to be fair.
Our cost of living payment went in today too so ive paid the gas and electric in full.

It's been a long time since we didn't take a calculator around Asda with us. We do a shopping list for the week which comes from a menu we do so that we only buy what we need.

It's never-ending, this constant worry about money. We have nothing in savings, so if something goes wrong and we need to replace a big item, like a fridge, say, we'd need to do without and save up first. We fall into that grey area of not being eligible for benefits, but not earning enough to be comfortable.

I'm a bit jealous of you guys that have 'nice' charity shops etc to buy furniture from. All of ours tend to look like tat.

I have key meters. I find them easier and know exactly where I am with them.

Might try not paying for water.

Uncalled for. Shining was only asking a question