to think that some items/services are luxurious and you should not claim poverty whilst simultaneously watching sky and tapping around on the old broadband.

[QueenHerod]

I am getting peeved with hearing how awful their lives are now they have to cut back to eating smart price carrots in a tin etc meanwhile they are subscribed to things that I would not consider a necessity.

Like sky tv and broadband etc.

AIBU?

Yep, plus spending money, gear etc. They are meant to raise the money themselves! ha ha.

Yeah pinktulips I totally agree!

We have enough money to pay our bills and get a decent shopping in for us all and when we get the Child benefit we buy any essentials we may need for example this month DS needs shoes and I need a winter jacket so will pay for that.

But if we have any left over and we dont need anything else we DP and I treat ourselves to a takeaway and a few drinks. Keeps us sane and picks us up a bit IYKWIM.

Wasn't there something about the g'ment planning to pay upto £700 to teh poorest families to make sure every child has access to t'internet?

I wasn't paying much attention, but it would seem as though the goverment see it as an essential.

I agree nobody needs sky - I mean you can always go to the pub to watch an important match

not having adequate beds... does having ds on a mattress on the floor because we haven't gotton around to buying a bed yet count
more than one pair of outdoor shoes... why do you need multiple pairs?
warm outdoor clothing... i haven't gotton around to buying myself a coat (for 4 years) but everyone else is well wrapped up
and not being able to afford school trips... well, dd's was only 7 euros last year, i splashed out and brought ds too it was so cheap

so what does that make me..... 3/4 poor but mostly through laziness

tinned carrots are cooked so dont need hardly any fuel costs

broadband is not that expensive

especially if you divide by hours spent on the internet lol

sky i agree isex pensive cos its onlt woth it for football which means an expensive opkage i do miss it tho

if ididnt have broadband iwould have no social life no boyrfiend and no means of possibky getrtingsg a job

I remember being berated for being rich for having a fax a few years ago. Couldn't afford a car at the time, or a house, mind you.

It's just senseless to pick on one thing which you might perceive as a luxury and decide that negates any other financial probs.

That SUV for example - I've no idea how fuel efficient they are, but it might have been given to him by a relative who had outgrown it, be incredibly reliable and always pass its MOT without a problem and if he has a job where having an enormous anti social vehicle is a must, then maybe it does make sense to have that. As opposed to a humble little Daewoo Matiz I once had whcih cost an effing fortune to keep on the road because it was so unreliable and inefficient.

You just don't know what people's logic is sometimes. I find people who don't turn their heating on, even when I find it freezing cold, indescribably mean. I would rather eat tinned carrots than live without heating. But lots of people think cutting heat down a sensible way of conserving resources. I don't think they should turn their boiler on and give their kids some heat and comfort and stop buying chicken to fund that - I might choose to do that, but I am different from them and my preferences might not suit them. I consider heating a necessity; they don't. Some consider Sky TV a necessity. I don't.

Have you tried Freecycle pinktulips? I havent used it myself but everyone seems to suggest it on here LOL you might get a bed from it.

If Im sounding patronising just slap me one.

I don't mean to honestly Im in the same boat, althoughg my mum gave me a bed.

Abouteve - It seems these expensive trips are being planned by several schools at the moment. Dd has just mentioned one from her school (in 2 yrs time ) - cost £3500!

farking ada - i have never paid these astronomical sums for a whole family holiday

have recently discovered chopped frozen onions FABULOSO!

Yes - same as Abouteve - they are meant to raise the funds themselves. Havent been given any further details - yet!

This one is in 20 months time. They did one a couple of years ago which was £3,000 bad enough but may have been possible as she has a part time job, but £4,250 is way OTT.

These companies must be making a fortune. School are endorsing it etc. I'm sure it all very character building etc but I'd rather she wait and use the money to do a gap year.

mamadiva, i check it occasionally but there's not a huge pool of people using it round here so rarely anything good (plus i hoard all our things so feel mean taking from other people lol)

must browse beds online actually while it's in my head, he hasn't fallen off his mattress in a while so no longer have the safety excuse. so hard to find a nice bed for a boy though, they're all either cars or ugly pine numbers, so much easier getting dd's. dp gives out beause i'm too picky

It's ridiculous telling the kids they can fund raise, then a teacher admitted that on the last one most if the kids/parents paid for it themselves. It's just a glorified holiday with a bit of endurance/project work involved.

I thought you needed a bed for you LOL.

Looked at your profile an dyour LO's are gorgeous! Love your little girl hair fro some reason LOL cute. IYKWIM.

Is it a toddler bed or normal singl you want?
My son is the smae age and he has a cotbed which is a kind of beachy colour although it is supposed to be pine. LOL. Typical mothercare.

thanks it's even longer now, think i may have o give in and let my hairdresser friend trim it for her but being my pfb i'm being all weird about it.

i am eying up a super king size for us as after feb there will be 3 kids coming into our bed at various points in the night but not sure i need one

i wouldn't mind pine for ds except dd's is dark oak and they want their room painted purple so think i should try and match his to hers a little. see this is why he hasn't got one...... mommy's too fussy.!

am at the school trip thing, what an insane amount of money for a teenager to have to 'fundraise'... why can't they just go for a week? a month is awfully long no?

Im sick of listening to my neighbours moaning about tightening their belts and the taxman when they have four cars for two adults and a Yacht. We live in a small town where you can walk most places. Their kids walk to school for example. And NO they do not have parking space for FOUR cars. They park in front of other peoples houses and then leave their own driveway empty all day. Then they invite their freinds to park on our street outside of our house while they piss off on holiday. Rant over.

LOL

Why do they have 4 cars?

I'm just mildly interested, it's not urgent...

I think part of the problem , OP, may be your name. It sounds so . . . .majestic, for want of a better description. Reminds me a little of Marie Antoinette.

Having said that, I sort of agree with you.

When I started out, I was very very broke (for years), and was happy to accept whatever donations were going in terms of furniture etc. It was years before I had a holiday, and I remember well hoking down the back of the sofa for pennies so I could buy milk.

Someone close to me has recently moved into their 1st house, and is on benefits. I have offered to give her tonnes of fantastic stuff, in really good condition - beds, fridge, freezer, washing machine, hoover. But she has refused, saying she wants to buy new stuff. She has just furnished her entire house from top to bottom, all brand new. I haven't said anything, and am chuffed for her that she has a place of her own, but I must say I do find that attitude a bit strange - I suspect she may have got into a fair amount of debt over this.

For my part, my salad days have made their mark on me. I am still very frugal, and hate waste of any kind. My DH is amazed that I never, ever throw food away - I always find a way to use it.

Having lived and worked in places where poverty means "there's a very real chance my children will starve to death" rather than "hmmmm, should I maybe lose the Sky sub" I'm a bit bemused by the indignation on this thread.

None of the things mentioned on this thread are necessities. They're all luxuries. Food, water and shelter are necessities. Sky and broadband aren't - however useful they are, however much they improve your quality of life.

So we're talking about a level of poverty that still allows some luxuries. Why does it matter which particular luxury people go for? It's their business, surely.

On the other hand, if the OP's family members really are prioritising their subscriptions (luxury) over food (necessity), that's a bit different and not v. smart I would have thought.

My BB and TV combined only costs me £5 when you consider that the phone costs £25 and that was what I wanted in the first place.

How do you know that someone complaining about money isn't tied into their package because they got it when they could afford it? I tried to leave Sky once, they wanted the remainder of the years subscription - I was trying to leave because I couldn't afford to keep it on, if I could have afforded to buy myself out I could have afforded to keep it on.

surely id you're poor becuase you're unemployed (rather than poor becuase you get the minimum wage) then having broadband massively ups your chances of getting a job- onine applications etc?

if you're poor through being a stuent aprent then you need it to study

If you have kids realistically they need it- where once we got photocopied stuff home now we just gets lists of web sites to look at

a very good post, welliemum .

'surely id you're poor becuase you're unemployed (rather than poor becuase you get the minimum wage) then having broadband massively ups your chances of getting a job- onine applications etc?'

people on min wage like to look for new jobs, too, or additional jobs.

Oh yeah I know that ExP but yo know what its like on here- 'deservig poor' and 'not'- I dnt like that crap but if you dont dfferentiate it descends and we've ahd that too much this year getting repepetitive now