£3 busfares will ruin me

[Deportationsensation]

Busfare cap to increase to £3. That’s £6 a day for buses. £10 extra a week.

My food budget for 1 person is £10 a week. So that’s my food money gone to pay for buses.

I can’t work more hours. I do what I can in working part time because I have health issues that would not qualify for PIP but affect me every day. Not qualifying for any benefits other than probably food bank use. Which I will now have to do.

AIBU to just start wondering what is the point? Life isn’t supposed to be like this. Some of us are just trying to survive with no enjoyment in life at all.

Would you qualify for a free bus pass? If so, it would half your bus expenditure.

She can change jobs, no one is stuck in one job

OP means that her hours are spread over 5 days instead of 4. So no extra earnings. But more busfares. Can't understand why only £10 left for food unless lots of debt repayments.

@purplebeansprouts only in MN land.

Only £10 per week for food isn't enough. I don't know what kind of other support you're getting in terms of working benefits but I'm surprised that you haven't been referred to a foodbank a long time ago.

Source?

I didn't see her mention weight loss jabs anywhere.

What a load of bollocks.

COSTS
Road building and maintenance £9bn
Excess delays £10.9bn - not a cost for the taxpayer.
Accidents £8.9bn
Poor air quality £7bn - number plucked out of the air.
Physical inactivity £9,8bn - not a cost for the taxpayer and no different to sitting on a bus or train.
Greenhouse gas emissions £2bn - number plucked out of the air.
Water pollution £5bn - number plucked out of the air.
Noise pollution £5bn - ??? not a cost for the taxpayer.

Total £57.6bn £17.9bn

I've honestly never seen such a shameless and desperate attempt to prove something with numbers.

People aren't being fully supportive because you have started a thread complaining about bus fares but give no reasons as to why you are living on such a tight food budget.

Have you checked you are getting everything you are entitled to have you applied for pip? As £10 or £15 per week for food isn't enough on a long term basis
Are you paying off debt? If so could you negotiate a payment plan

I knew that was going to happen. Some people have no idea. Lucky them.

Because my replies were nothing to do with that!! You’re not reading what I put or what the people I was replying to put. You keep harping on to me about it but nowhere was I involved in that conversation!! The PP who mentioned it was not the person I was replying to. Like I said READ what you’re replying to first.

Neither are sustainable unless you have other sources of free food.

You wouldn't just walk normally then? Less painful. More efficient. Less strange looks.

I'm a bit surprised public transport costs will rise as I thought the whole point was to help with CoL and reduce pollution and reliance on cars.

I do empathise @Deportationsensation

Thing is fuel prices have gone up so to subsidise to £2 is probably no longer sustainable. OP I suggest looking to see if there is a way to save on a bulk ticket or something and try and save for one of those. I know it sounds awful but christmas is coming up could you ask for cash instead of gifts this year from eg your mum?

I don't know what your qualifications or skillsets are but could you consider different work that, for example, lets you work from home so no bus fares and you could then use the time you would have been commuting to work - so reduce costs and increase hours at the same time?

OP could you ask your mum this Xmas to get you a bus pass? Not exciting but bit would save yiu long term getting you a month ahead if she did this and maybe some vouchers for a supermarket? Means by time you are paid again you would have the spare money to get your bus pass again without leaving yourself short?

Would a daysaver or bus pass work out cheaper? I agree the increase from £2 to £3 is a lot.

I’m 9 and a half stone.. why would I need weight loss jabs?

i get you’re trying to be helpful but this is quite literally what I mean by what is the point? I’m not being pedantic but genuinely what is the point to living a life where you have to ask for a bus pass do Christmas and the only thing you can do is go to work.

But you have to be realistic about your expectations. Spending money, whether directly or indirectly, ie by choosing that as a gift, on something as unnecessary as hair extensions and false eyelashes is utterly ridiculous when you can't afford to eat properly. It makes people lose all sympathy for your situation.

Because people who are actually living on the breadline and in poverty have already explored every option available to them. I don’t need women to pick apart my finances.

This isn’t one of those threads that goes ‘combined income for 60k but we hardly have anything left’. I don’t have debt. I don’t have a car, a phone contract, any direct debits at all. I don’t have Netflix or Disney or Amazon. I’ve said I have as little money as I do because I work in part time due to health reasons that aren’t recognised by my GP, the DWP. No one has taken me seriously.