How skint are you ?

[Jbrown76]

Inspired by this thread on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/s/iR5TPqfSR7

Pretty skint. House move in November, Christmas in December, tax bill in January. I'll be ok in a couple of months with less going out.
I make ok money (not by MN standards though) but everyone just takes it away from me 😭

Thanks for quoting me - I’m the holiday poster, not the £10k in savings poster - but I think our definitions of skint are different, and that’s ok isn’t it? I clearly outlined in my post that I was feeling skint but not poor. If you can’t find money for essentials I don’t class that as skint, I’d class that as poor. Skint to me is having less disposable cash than usual but will have access to some soon. Being poor/living in poverty is a whole different ball game.

the thing I found with mat leave well the second one where I did actually have a job to go back to was the trying to get ourselves back on an even keel when I went back to work after being off.

You'll get it in time though

£400 to last until the end of the month but £21k in credit card debt from 2 lots of full time childcare until my kids were 3 - I worked but very minimally and ended up in 25k in debt. So I'm trying not to spend much of it so I can whack it towards the debt.

This time last year I was in a pawning jewellery that my Granny had left me to buy food kind of position. I remember walking round the shops thinking that I literally couldn't afford anything. So much has changed now and even though I've got huge amounts of debt I can now see a way to pay it off before too long. I still walk around the shops telling myself I'm skint but that's because I want the debt gone and am throwing as much as I can at it.

£18 in my account to last until Wednesday. £1600 debt and £0 savings.

Then you’re incredibly lucky. I’m in my 30s and already worrying about my pension. The fact that you might get a sizeable chunk when you retire is very lucky indeed.

Not terribly skint/ not rich either. I have no debt, apart from mortgage, probably about 1K in the bank. I'm having boiler issues and the roof needs tlc so might need to consider a loan to pay for that.

I can promise you I have lived in a £100 pound overdraft for so long and been a minimum wage employee forever. So I understand living on coco pops and finally saved up enough to lock some money away and now I can remember how it feels to not be able to afford stuff. And it’s crap.

£6 in the bank - £4 of which is for DS' lunch money on Monday.
I have £3+ in my purse.

Thankfully there is fuel in the car and food in the fridge and I get paid on Wednesday. I have definitely been far worse off in the past this close to payday.

I recall not that long ago having to ask my parents to transfer me 30p so that I had £1 to be able to use the supermarket petrol pumps when they didn't take the full amount off right away.

That's kind of my feeling about it too. It's a temporary and changeable state.

I think some months you can be skint, and others you can be flush, so to speak. If we don't have surprise boiler problems/big bills we weren't expecting, then on normal pay, we should have money left over before payday.

Some months, we might find we've done really cheap food shopping, and we're actually quite comfortable just before payday.

This is not the same thing as being poor/living in poverty. Long term financial struggles, eg. to even put food on the table, month after month.

Oh god I feel really embarrassed at this. I’m on £40k with no kids, and run my accounts dry every month including right now. My bills are fairly high but I guess your post puts in perspective how much unnecessary spending I do on top

Overdrawn. Don't get paid til the end of the week.

Quite skint. Had to dip into meagre savings to pay a hefty dental bill for DH. I actually don't mind that so much, but when DH is equally happy to plunder them for a day out, or shopping for things that can wait, it makes me nervous in case something else expensive goes wrong.
Savings are less than a month's expenses, in case anyone thinks I'm being stingy with a couple of million stashed away.
There's enough food in the house until payday, and petrol in the car. It could be much worse, and it has been.

It's so shit being skint, I've been there and it was horrendous.

I do have £0 in all of my many current accounts and about £8k in debt on credit cards which sounds terrible but we are very comfortable. All our cash is in interest bearing accounts, much more than we owe out.

No money until payday but have food, and the bills are paid and I have everything I need
Petrol is low but not needed so I'll get that when I get paid

Very skint here. £7 in my current account to last me until Wednesday when I get paid and no savings. I've got just enough fuel to get me to work and just enough freezer food to make some random meals. I need to buy milk and bread with the £7.
It's really frustrating to be working full time in a stressful job to be in this position every month. I earn a good wage but I'm a single parent so only one income and it just doesn't stretch.
I'm determined this year though to have a small amount of savings for emergencies. Even if that means taking a second job.

I'm -£50 overdrawn
Have £1500 in savings that I don't like to touch.
Pay day is next Friday, but have done a food shop, almost a full tank of petrol and I'm going for a job interview on Monday that pays £5k more, so hoping things are looking up for me.. meanwhile Mondays child benefit payment will last me the week if I'm frugal.

It sucks having one income as a single parent, no nearby family help, very little recourse to public funding by being in full time employment and receiving a pitiful amount from child's father.

What it would be like to just be comfortable and not have worries about going overdrawn etc.

Oh do off and just accept that some people studied hard, work hard, get well paid and don’t spend every penny they earn on things they can’t afford.

We've spent all our pay for this month but are dipping into our little £1000 pot until payday on Thurs. We have overspent a bit this month though.

We don't have any savings other than the £1000 but that isn't savings, its money we were gifted to do a few cosmetic home improvements/treat ourselves.

We also have minimal debt bar our mortgage though so I feel very lucky, given I spent my 20s up to my eyeballs in debt. Plus we have parents who are very willing and able to help when needed.

This thread makes me feel super fortunate, I'm not skint and don't know what it feels like to worry about putting food on the table, so feeling far more aware of reality now

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

£200 in bank till mid February
No savings
How on minimum wage supporting young adults with severe learning disabilities? 🙁

£900 in the bank (but payday 15th)
£3136 credit card debt
£276 savings (which will be used to pay off credit card debt if no emergencies come up before then)
No holidays booked
Money in the bank is for food (family of 5), buses and taxis to work, school dinners, phone bills, internet, tax, childcare, driving lessons (£70 a week), insurance etc. Partners wages all go on mortgage, and other bills, so little disposable income out of the 900.

I have £130 in my bank which is really good for me, payday is on Friday but it's going to be a really bad pay due to having 2 weeks on the sick after a miscarriage. Paying off a lot of debt too so I'm trying not to spend this £130 so it helps next month. It'll be 5 weeks Friday since our last pay 💀