in getting so fed up of being skint and having to read about people who claim to be skint bbut are buying games consoles for their DC when mine will have to have whatever I can scrape from the charity shop or freecycle?

[conniedescending]

I know this is a bit 'living in a council house with flat screen tv' and I'v always been hugely against benefit bashing threads but I'm wondering if the worm has turned?

we are struggling to pay the essentials, my DH is working all the hours he possibly can in a job thats not going well at all (due to loss of customers due to aforementioned credit crunch) meanwhile I'm working from whenever he gets home till 1/2 am, 6 days a week trying to make up the shortfall.

Have had a disastrous week as washing machine packed up and my mum is on holiday so I can't use hers. I have a baby in cloth nappies so have had to buy disposables. Have spent all morning or the last few days handwashing clothes and deserately trying to get them dry which is impossible in this weather. Cant get to launderetter because car needs mot and we have no money to do that.

Then I saw some small toy items on freecylce that I asked for and hoped I'd get because the lady who was offering them has had several items from me (curtains, breadmaker and some hardly worn shoes). Anyway - she's not gifting me them (was hoping they may be okfor xmas pressies).

so I come on MN and read threads about people on benefits who are skint and have 'only' bought nintendos ds'or a wii...........

honestly have no clue how we are going to get through this - we have eaten into both our overdrafts, looking to increase income in everyway possible, have cut back everything to the bone. There is no safety net there now at all and I am starting to really worry.

We have a wedding we're supposed to go to next mth as well - god knows how we are going to make that, plus birthdays galore.

cant see the wood for the trees at the minute

Don't go to the wedding.

You're not the only one who feels this way.

Can you buy the presents on an interest free credit card and spread the cost in some way?

Are you talking about me? if so, the wii was bought on credit and has not yet been paid for and everything else I mentioned in that thread was bought for less than a tenner 2nd hand off ebay.

you have my sympathy.
may be those people have saved for these things. we did last year to get the things ds wanted(dd doesn't do xbox)

awww that is a bit rubbish.

times are tough at the moment, most certainly. i hope the trees clear a bit for you.

well, we're on benefits and wont do Xmas cos we can't afford it. No idea who you might be reffering too.
Make lists of what you can and can't afford. Can you walk or cycle to launderette?
I walk there with bag in a baby buggy (the one we got before we realised dd would never sit in it as she needed a wheelchair) and bus back.
Or catch a bus? Can you skip the wedding - and why does it cost you anything? Make stuff for people's birthdays (we dodn't give birthday pressies anyhow)
Sounds like you are a bit panicky.

if you're talking about me - yes i've bought the DS's a Wii - it's bought on credit, paying for it with the money that a friend is paying me back from our holiday in the summer (and that was paid for out of money from my grandfather's estate that was left to me - not a lot I hasten to add)

we don't have a flat screen TV either. Small old fashioned 21 inch screen.

maybe they payed into a christmas club all year, I have been putting money away all year.

I am not in a council house nor am I on benefits but I am skint and my dd will be getting a games console because I have put money away each week for it!

of course KM
whata stupid thing to say. a lot of people are stuggling at the moment, not by choice. stupid comments like that really help not
unless you are scamming the system, you won't get rich on the dole.

do you get a wide screen TV when you sihn up then

fingers crossed for you that you find a way out of the wood... maybe post for advice on moneysavingexpert.com?

I do know what you mean. We have family who whinge incessantly about how tight money is and yet drive two expensive new cars, own their own home, and have a foreign holiday every year. We are by no means skint ourselves but could never hope to afford those things. It really winds me up. Lately to remind them how insensitive they are I get competitive with the tales of woe, and always "win".

what is all this about flat screens anyway. we replaced or breaking tv and all we saw in asda(cheapest place) was flat screens

ermm 2shoes - Kerry is being sarcastic

NMC - I didn't get mine - better call up and enquire about it tomorrow when the lines are open

oh of course. I could tell......

I should break my TV. Am sick of all DVD's being widescreen now so we get a strip 6 inches high across the screen with little tiny people in and can't watch a film properly

btw we hadnt done xmas for 7 years up to dd being old enough to know what xmas was, simply because we couldnt afford it as I was really poorly and couldnt work. Even then she had bugger all apart from a £5 present from us and the rest from her grandparents, it used to make me feel awful as its like oh heres our cheapo toy and heres the television and dvd from your grandparents I know we were very lucky that they could afford to buy her stuff we couldnt but still.
, simply because we couldnt afford it as I was really poorly and couldnt work.

This year its my first on my own as a lone parent so I have had to make plans well in advance.

I may be one of these terrible people.

We are buying a second hand DS with money I have been putting by since January. It is the ONLY present we are buying as the rest of the money I tried to save went on those pesky things like food.

NDTH - - I'm getting mine on credit - it's I get interest free for 80 days, and the money I'm being paid back covers the interest free payments .

I love my littlewoods account for the interst free period, as it means I can get something "now" that I would usually have had to save for 3 months to get - and it doesn't cost me anymore.

Feel sorry for those that get stuff on credit and then pay the minimum payments only (which is a LOT less than the interest free amount).

WTF am I justifying myself to you anyway?