To have frugality fatigue. (Cost of living.)

[KnopkaPixie]

Just that really. To do so well with finances for nearly a month then get an unexpected expense out of left field, pretending that lentil dahl is absolutely delicious, to have signed up to do surveys on YouGov and the rest and have made sod all, can't work any more hours, can't cut costs any more, can't claim anything off the state and to be kicking myself for not saving more when I had the chance. Just a moan really.

I never wanted to be that kind of miserable gît that resents every penny or knows, "The cost of everything but the value of nothing" But that's the way the value brand cookie is not crumbling right now.

Perhaps a bit woo but sometimes I wonder whether a real poverty mindset becomes a self fulfilling prophecy and perhaps a more speculate to accumulate mentality might do me better? Not any manifesting flapdoodle but just an idle thought.

Incidentally, for anyone wanting help in budgeting Shirley Goode wrote a few books about it and also tells you how to work out how much things cost. Obvs the pricing will be out of date and I wonder how many items were cheap as chips back then but now expensive??!!

I think Delia also wrote a frugal cooking book.

Yes, poverty reduces choices. No argument there.

You've got a brilliant writing style quite cheered me up!

It is true though, none of us on MN are homeless and living in a cardboard box.
You need to think of what you've got not what you haven't.

I wouldn't buy books anyway, what a waste, I'd still get them from the library. Don't want them cluttering up everywhere.

That's harsh. I get it. I like perfume myself and I like spontaneous buys when fed up.

Agreed, if I knew you I'd be very happy to bring around cake and tea and chat to you all day OP.

Take a look at Style and Beauty and weep into your dahl.

Unfortunately, I fear it’ll get worse on Wednesday after the budget. Brace for impact…

Are you in a hostel? My friend was in the same position when she was evicted from her house she couldn't find anywhere else. Now her and her 2 teenagers live in a room smaller than my living room. I hope you get somewhere soon.

Every summer we buy a pot of coriander and basil and plant in a big pot outside. They grow to be enormous and I pick them and freeze all summer as they keep growing. Put the basil leaves in a plastic bag in tve freezer and when frozen just bash them a but so they crumble and take up no space. I know you need a garden to do it, but you do get a huge amount.

This is a thread for people with "frugaility fatigue", which is what I have and I am therefore perfectly entitled to post.

Lots of posters on this thread are also not struggling to feed their kids.

The money to buy good perfume is money I studied for and graft for and it used to be a pay-day treat that I cannot afford any more. I miss it. And I'm perfectly entitled to.

In fact the only thing that has not been reduced every month are my overseas sponsorships, UK charities, international charities and more recently an actual increase in contributions to feed children in Palestine. I'm fully aware that others are poor and spend quite a sizeable chunk of my own money every month. So you can jog on.

Nothing is delicious when it's all you're eating.

@KnopkaPixie I'm sorry, it absolutely fucking sucks. I haven't eaten yet today because I have no idea what I want and I'm sick of eating the same basic stuff.

Yes, all of this! Just being able to drift around the shops buying little odds and ends, nothing major. It’s the constant watching of the bills, debated about the heating going on, mentally adding up the shopping (and putting stuff back on the shelf😥) not going “for a drive and fish and chips cos of the cost of it all. As many PPs have said, it’s bloody exhausting and depressing!
I feel that joy and spontaneity has gone from life. We have think everything through before we do it. Miserable way to live.

Ok, this sounds woo-woo, but when I was having a difficult time, I wrote down a list of what I needed…financial security, a better job, a proper doctor to see me through some health issues. I thought about happy memories for a while till I felt more upbeat. I then unplugged the phone, pretended I was calling the universe, and just asked for those things…didn’t prescribe how they would happen, but that they would happen. Over the process of a couple years, all those things came true. Tosha Silver writes about this process in a book called Outrageous Openness, and although it isn’t scientific, it worked for me.

I hope things get better and easier for you soon.

sorry - misquoted.

Here we go again 🙄. The "squeezed middle" are not suffering food poverty ffs, so how can it be "the worst place to be financially"? Get some perspective!

Some of the squeezed middle have spent many a long year campaining volunteering,helping and now find they need the bloody help!!!

It's not a competition and the OP has every right to complain, but no the squeezed middle is not worse off than those in developing countries. I am from one such and have spent considerable time there.

Oh no, baby angel. I am naturally gorgeous. I am ginger, tall and thin. Have you ever seen those videos of a dead alien autopsy from a crashed spaceship in Area 51? I look like that.

''Dem bitches ain't got nuttin' on me."

There is more to life than barely getting by. Unfortunately, Austerity seems to be forever UK government policy. It stinks.

I remember a period of my life where all I ate was rice and pinto beans, sometimes with some onion/garlic thrown in, and I made tortillas. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, for about 2 years. I then got my graduate degree, got a job, and the first thing I did with my first paycheck was take myself out for a buffet that had roast chicken and all the trimmings. I felt like I died and went to heaven…I realised I was so hungry and must have filled my plate three times, and when I got home, I just slept for about 14 hours. After a few weeks of a decent diet, I realised why I had been so, so tired…I was malnourished, and this was in the USA always touted as the richest country in the world, but a country with little safety net. I don’t look at those days with nostalgia at all, just so so grateful I don’t have to repeat them again.

I hope things get better for all those posting who are having difficulties. I really do. Dhal everyday sucks, just like pinto beans/rice everyday do.

The problem with this is that everyone isn't lucky enough to live somewhere with a variety of supermarkets on their doorstep.

If someone has to put petrol in their car or travel on two buses to get there, the 50p saving from one brand to another doesn't add up. And if someone is living hand to mouth they can't make use of bulk buys or a month's shopping at one time .

Sure it's in general terms it's good advice but often people caught in poverty trap aren't able to make use of the best money saving practices available to those who are simply being frugal because of priorities.

Sometimes it isn’t even about budgeting if there’s no money there’s no budget. It is soul destroying, esteem crushing and absolutely terrifying. We went bankrupt in the end and homeless but knowing people couldn’t come at me or stand on the doorstep shouting with small children listening was something of a relief. I wish you all the best you are doing a great job.

I retired just before the cost of living crisis hit, I had a bit of wriggle room with my finances and enough for the odd treat and to go out every now and then. That money is now all but swallowed up by the way the cost of essentials has rocketed. I am aware that I am lucky not to have housing costs as mortgage was paid off by doing a load of overtime and I have no debts so of course I am in a better position than a lot of people. I was a young single mum under Thatcher and it was so grim, I was so poor but I was young, had energy and the ambition to make improvements for for me and my child so re-trained and life did get better. I did not envisage having an old age like this, and of course I no longer have youth and strength on my side I am good at budgeting and menu planning due to the years of being broke and but it is so dispiriting to be here again. Of course I have much more materially due to decades of working and I think what faces the younger generation now is awful, how some people manage to feed their kids is beyond me given the cost of food. I used to donate to our local food bank and to a couple of charities but can no longer afford to do this.

I try and freeze just about anything I can to ensure it has a longer life. This morning I sliced a couple of leeks (70p) and bagged them up for the freezer and also a bag of thyme (52p). They’ll last a while with no waste and really add flavour to otherwise simple dishes.

This is a good post about growing food…I grow some of ours, but it isn’t a money saver I would say, save a few things….herbs, yes worth it, and they can be in pots. Squash, courgettes, marrows, yes…you get a lot of production for a few seeds, and pumpkins keep. I grew mine in a cow manure pile mixed in with compost…they love it. Windfall apples/plums are fab, and depending on the variety will keep. Chiles in pots…you can save the seeds, but I have found you need a place with heat so they germinate, and that is an expense, but a plant will produce a lot to spice your food. Broad beans need space, but production can be high and they freeze.

I’m in a rural area too, and food is cheaper to buy out here from the local greengrocer. I’m not above asking the farmer to glean….whole lot of peas that the picker didn’t get, and I was v. Happy to have them. Though I am well off now, these old habits die hard. I remember not having much to eat.