To be so sick of being broke?

[PrincessC0nsuelaBananaHammock]

This is pretty much just a moan really. I'm already doing everything I can to try and improve our situation financially. Although nothing's working atm. 😑

Both DH and I work full-time, on minimum wage. Me 45 hours per week, him between 40-50 depending on the week. And we still can't make ends meet. I'm talking having about £50 left in the bank 2 days after payday because all the bills have come out.

Not entitled to any benefits as earn too much for UC (on MW? 😐). Kids are grown up (22 and 18) but still living at home. DD1 is in college and on UC and waiting to see if she's entitled to PIP for her autism. DD2 is starting uni next month and works part-time herself.

I'm just so fucking sick of the cost of everything. To the point I'm questioning whether I can afford to buy a £6 pack of Benadryl for my fucking hayfever! 😡

Applying for multiple better-paying jobs every week and getting bloody nowhere! Urgh.

Posting in AIBU if you want a moan isn’t the right place. People are going to comment as you’re spending a lot of money on unnecessary stuff and complaining you’re broke. Your young adults might be on £12 an hour, but probably have a lot of disposable cash as they are living at home for free. I agree in charging them a small amount towards food. That will help. Over £200 a week on food / toiletries is a lot, and you can definitely make savings there, especially as one person is on WLI. But clearly you don’t want advice, despite posting in a group asking if you’re being unreasonable. So crack on. In a couple of years you’ll be debt free.

All weight loss jabs are prescribed. They are a prescription medication. If you mean OP is not getting them on the NHS, well hardly anyone is. She had a BMI of over 35, the WLI are a massive benefit to her health. They are not a luxury.

I read posts like the OP's and it makes me so angry. I saw all those images of the Jeff Bezos wedding and just can't imagine their wealth. I saw that one of the Kardashians had taken a private jet for a 5 min journey. These people are just burning up resources and money while others struggle. The super rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer.
I'm sorry, I've nothing to say, but it's just so wrong, all the over consumption and greed while others struggle. Commiserations OP. I hope it gets better soon..

As others have said, it's just a brand name and it's (by law) exactly the same as the generic versions. You're just paying for advertising and fancier packaging. You can buy Imodium for a few quid or you can get exactly the same stuff (I think it's loperamide?) for about 59p. But although you've said it's not the point of the thread, it could be one important part of it. Budgeting includes looking closely at what you're buying and seeing if it's necessary.

You keep making comments like this, as if you don't actually understand that you are buying luxuries. You don't perceive them as luxuries but they are.

When you're paying off hundreds of pounds of debt a month other people wouldn't be spending hundreds of pounds on food, TV, the gym and MJ.

You are getting such a hard time on this thread. Yes, you have a few extras, but why shouldn’t you ? You are working FT and these little luxuries help get you to the end of the week and the beginning of the next.

The bigger picture is that you shouldn’t feel more comfortable on benefits than working, you should be rewarded for working and contributing to the economy. It is unfair that you are in this position.

You can lose weight for free. Yes it’s a lot easier with WLI so they are a luxury. I’m dieting and it would be a lot easier if I didn’t feel hungry. So that’s a luxury to me.

Why 'should' people be able to have luxuries or 'extras' if they can't afford them? Yes, it's unfair. But if you have the luxuries, there's no point in moaning that you can't afford the basics. 'Extras' are what you buy to treat yourself after you've taken care of the basic essentials .

I was born in the late 1960s. I left school at 18 with A Levels. I got my first job as a bar maid. I still have my wage slips. £2.13 ph. My rent (including rates - and water rates) was £17 for a room in a shared house. In other words, I only had to work 8 hours a week to keep a roof over my head.

Now? I have a (more than) full-time reasonably paid job - teacher. My council tax + water costs me more than an entire month's salary every year. My rent and gas / electricity costs me four month's salary every every year. These are basic necessities for a functional first world country, and that's five months of my 12 month salary.

My husband cares for our disabled adult son who has a life limiting and life threatening condition. It's hard work. High emotional cost. This means he's not able to 'maximise' his earnings through other work.

We probably spend about £175 a week on food (various food intolerances - diagnosed by the NHS - and a kid still living at home). That's another four month's salary. So now we're up to nine month's salary, leaving three month's salary for everything else - my transport costs to and from work, prescription charges, vet's bills for our little dog, clothes, opticians, dentist, etc. These are also not 'luxuries' and they swallow up something like two month's salary (mainly transport).

In other words, I work full-time but generally only see one month's wages every year to pay for the 'extras' like phone, TV, a short break away.

Our whole society is built on the lie that if you work hard, then you'll be ok, not scraping by, but ok. A fair days pay for a fair days work. That's how it's meant to operate. And fair doesn't mean just keeping your head above water, it means being able to make positive choices (what can I have?) not negative choices (what do I have to cut back on?).

Workers in this country are being shafted. If you can't see it, that's because you don't want to.

@ProudCat excellent points. You're a teacher. You're at the heart of society, like many others, keeping everything going. I bet you work longer hours than you're actually paid for?

Some people can but diets don’t work for everyone. And some people lose easily on diets and some don’t. I was the former, and then became the latter. Didn’t do anything differently. And I’m not doing anything differently now I am on WLI. Still eating 1200 calories a day, still eating a low fat, balanced diet. What’s the difference? Well I actually lose weight now.

21st century poverty doesn't look like 15th century poverty. People can be impoverished while still watching a bit of TV and they're generally not dying of cholera in watery gutters. This is supposed to be a good thing.

I really relate with the OP. It just feels like an endless cycle of almost getting to the point where life is o.k. and then some crap happens. And you get through it, until the next thing. Rinse, lather, repeat. And of course I'm aware (and I'm sure the OP is too) there are people in worse situations, but sometimes a rant into the void is cathertic. The OP is nails though, I'd never be so brave as to write about it on MN 😅

Once the Pip comes through they can cover their own food costs plus their own expenses. This will help no end.

In addition can the other youngster up her hours at all or wd it compromise her academic grades?

Can you reduce or cancel any direct debits? Change your supermarket of choice? Buy own brand items only? Shop in the reduced aisles regularly? Buy yellow sticker foods?

Good points.

These people who said diet’s don’t work are losing on WLI though. And WLI is a diet; you’re consuming less calories, that’s how it works. People find diets often don’t work as they under estimate calories or sometimes your body might need a bigger deficit to actually lose. Diet’s are hard work and involve a lot of will power. WLI takes away that need. In my opinion, that’s a luxury to diet and not feel hungry or fancy some chocolate.

Hi OP, it is really hard at the moment. In regards to trying to find a better job, I did free online classes by night, obviously its not that amazing fix and not the big qualifications also bit hard to juggle, but i found having updated workshops or little course certificates on my CV that linked to the role was helpful. It got my foot in the door to employers that put their employees through development programmes and qualifications. I found over the years so many employers stating development but once in the role they never actually did it. So if an employer liked the workshops, they were likely an employer I could grow with.

And in all honesty when I had to stop everything, Prime was the only one I didn't, it was cost effective for us, not because of videos, but free deliveries and ability to get medicine/creams/essentials cheaper than in store.

Unfortunately everything is hard at the moment and tbh many seem to be at each other's throats with very blinkered views on the right way out.

At the end of the day alot of it is luck/circumstance. The right employer saying yes, the right opportunity or an unfortunate illness swaying the balance. But it feels far safer to think we are in control of that than realising we are all a slip, trip or redundancy away from chaos.

I’ve just told you that I am eating the same amount of calories….it’s not just about reducing calories, that’s the point. Insulin resistance is a huge problem for some people. It was for me. And I still feel hungry… don’t eat much chocolate but I never did before WLI…

Anyway, the OP is using WLI to improve her health. Improving health is never a luxury and it’s sad that you think that it is.

My son on pip gets it simply because he doesn't earn anything, and is on pip

Its not fraud if you are entitled to it. UC look at everything you can't fraud that (unless you wirk cash in hand or something)

Yes, especially as doing this now will reduce health problems which could be worse for her, not to mention extra pressure on the NHS.

So you’re eating the exact same but now losing weight but wasn’t before? Exactly the same? Maybe in a rare case this might happen, but the vast majority are losing as they are eating a lot less, because they have a reduced appetite. Which should save money on food too. I see WLI as a luxury, maybe many don’t, but it would he luxurious for me to lose weight without much hunger (but I already have a pancreas problem so would not risk getting acute pancreatitis for anything as it’s horrific).

Many could lose weight for free and save money but it is hard work. If you can afford the WLI and happy to accept the risks then why not. But when have little spare money it seems a luxurious splurge to me.

Yes, the same. I have been monitoring my calorie intake on My Fitness Pal (and Nutracheck before that) for years. Luckily I have a very supportive DH who could see that my diet has not changed over the the 20+ years we have been together. Otherwise I would probably have lost my mind as a result of the “just eat less” brigade…

As for the risks….well my cholesterol is back to a healthy level after 20 years. Yes, I had high cholesterol even when I was a very slim size 8. The seborrheic dermatitis that I have suffered from since I was in my teens has completely gone into remission. It was previously so bad that my dermatologist said that it looked like I had been burned - he knew I hadn’t but that’s how terrible my face was.

My plantar facitiis has also resolved so I can get out of bed without being in terrible pain each morning. And that was another thing that I suffered from at a healthy weight so nothing to do with being overweight. Now, those are the things that I know about. The HUGE reduction in inflammation in my body is likely to have other health benefits. So I will take the “risks”, whatever they may be. By the way, I’m not worried about gallbladder issues because I don’t have one!

Anyway love, you carry on criticising people on the internet trying to improve their health. Hope it makes you feel better about yourself…

Insulin resistance is for people with T2DM - it’s one of the symptoms and why those people are prescribed a GLP1 agonist. It makes your body produce more insulin

In those who aren’t diabetic it suppresses appetite

it has nothing to do with chocolate

Do you have the potential to earn above minimum wage? Retrain, apply for promotion, new job?