to not understand why so many poor people...

[nybom]

...are being called "poor" if they can afford:

• cigarettes/drugs
• dogs
• large amounts of takeaways/ready meals
• ready cut fruit, brands, air freshners and other superfluous crap, kids drinks/other products specifically tailored to kids
• to go out drinking
• FF babies
• to leave lights on, have electrical appliances on standby, not to use energy light bulbs, to keep the water running, to put on half a load of washing, to leave heating on at night
• to maintain artificial nails, to have hair extensions
• buy loads of beauty products
• to leave their car engine on whilst going shopping/standing in a traffic jam
• to have themed children's birthday parties with loads of props
• and most of all: have CREDIT cards so they can overdraw

i'm talking of regular habits not just occasional behaviour...

several of my friends are on benefits, so the observations are firsthand and not just assumptions.

a friend of mine (single mum on benefits) got a party bus for her DSs last birthday party (besides loads of presents), this year he's getting a wii (and loads of other presents). WTF?

why don't these people simply save more?

i on the other hand spend less than 100 pounds on a family of four (whilst buying high quality, fresh, organic products) by buying 50% of my shopping reduced/offers, at local markets and a lot of things (like toiletries) from pound shops or discounters. we buy value toilet paper (amongst other things); and i go to the hairdresser twice a year, and only to the beautycian for special occasions such as weddings. the children don't get any toys or clothes from us, as there are enough family and friends who don't know what to buy for christmas/birthday parties. so the kids basically don't cost us anything. we have one credit card and we make sure NEVER to overdraw because of the high interest rates.

i simply don't get it...

notsoteenagemum

how?

i don't think so she said she can't get it cos our incomes too high

What a horrible thread OP
lets hope the recession doesn't hit you hard and you end up poor!
Then according to yourself you will have to stay in and have no treats,fun,life etc.

nybom if you think life is so great on benefits, why don't you leave your partner or husband and have a go at leaving on them?

then maybe you might actually get how those poor scum are affording all this.

Yes. You have offended me with your ignorant, ill-informed views. And with your arrogant assumption that buying toiletries in the Pound Shop is good budgeting. It isn't. Shampoo in Asda is only 59p. Us poor people know that, and therefore we can save enough money to get our hair done

well sack your husband give up the house and get yourself on benefits.

Join the fun bus.
come on. not only are we soooo well off you get loads of wanky people like you who come and think they should tell us what to spend all our wads of wonga on.

{sigh}

Tis the school holidays.

If the OP is not British she may genuinely think that she is not entitles to child benefit.

She can now claim it and buy ready cut fruit.

Someone tot up how much the maximum a couple with 2 kids could get on benefits (without working at all, maximum disability for everyone in the family etc).

If it comes up to being able to support a 20 quid a day weed habit and all of the above stuff without credit being used in crazy ways I will eat my hat (I don't actually have a hat so maybe some toast).

On the toilet paper front I am the most selfish wife/mother ever. I love love love that Andrex Shea Butter stuff, but it costs too much. So I buy cheapy toilet paper to put on the roll for the boys/visitors and buy a small packet of the lovely stuff and keep it beside the toilet in a cupboard for my sole use. Now THAT is mean and selfish .

How do you know if you get child benefit? Is it just factored in? It would come under the definition of public funds, yes? I have a big stamp on my passport that says NO MONEY FOR YOU FOREIGNER!

Dangerous BUT....

I do not agree that people on low incomes cant afford good food.

take away kebabs are more expensive than lentils.

also whats with the obsession with individually packaged drinks - multi packs of can of coke and fruit shoots etc etc.

Oh, and a full moon I see. It surly brings out the worst in mumsnet. Threads like this prove it. Get off your high horse OP.

Perhaps nybom could do with help seeing as her mighty wealth inhibits her from enjoying such luxuries.
I personally will donate to Air Fresheners for the Affluent just for her.

poor people = "people with little money" (see thesaurus), no?

So OP, why are you friends with these people if they disgust you......and do you think they'd actually want to be friends with you if they knew what you really thought of them.

I think you mean a dictionary...

Can I interject here and say that it's bad form to drag grievances around the board

Eye thenk ewe

Jem a thesaurus is a rich person's dictionary ROFL

You cannot claim child benefit for your child if you and your child are not entitled to it due to visa restrictions. That is true.

But it is not means-tested so if your child is entitled to it, there's no such thing as your income being too high.

If YOU personally are married to a UK national but still on FLR(M) or some other time-constrained visa, then your British spouse can claim Child Benefit on behalf of their British child.

Read your own thread and see.

well im a single mum of 2. i get maximum of every benefit plus disability allowance for my son.

I am loath to explain myself to someone like the OP because quite frankly its none of her fucking business what i sspend my money on.

if its such a great time then she can get her GP to diagnose autism (because she strikes me as thesame sort of person that believes such illneses are faked just to get more moeny) then she can get even more money. she can come find out how we manage for herself.

If your not willing to do that then fuck off back to your your ivory tower

Well, we're poor. We are a working poor family. We have credit cards (thank crunchie! Otherwise we'd have had rent arrears when the Tax Credit people cocked up before DH got a job that fit around my day shift). I FF'd, too. DH smokes rolling baccy (he gets it for a fiver a 50g pouch from his Polish work colleague).

So shoot me.

referring to any set of people as one homogenous mass is rude

so poor people is rude

please don't patronise me.

i can absolutely assure you that referring to your friends as 'poor people' to their faces would be deemed rude

but it still soooooooooooo rude to class them as the "poor people" like the peasants or something,how long have you lived here or what age were you when you came here?

Maybe that'll give us an insight into what may be errors cos of different languages etc

People who claim unnecessary benefits (fraudsters) and poor people are not the same thing. What's the point of the OP?

rude people,+ people with little sensitivity, tact, empathy and manners, no?

see, i;m getting chippy now.

grrrrrrrr