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Cost of living

Stretching your budget? Share tips and advice to discuss budgeting and energy saving here. For the latest deals and discounts, sign up for Mumsnet Moneysaver emails.

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Original poster

You know you're truly skint when...

999 replies

ratflavouredjelly · 11/05/2012 13:46

I've decided to humour myself and start this thread laughs hysterically. Anyone care to join me with their stories. Maybe we can out skint each other...

So, you know you're truly skint when:
Shopping in charity shops are no longer ironic.
The middle of the month arrives and you panic about feeding the family.
You can not afford the petrol to work.
You're growing your own veg but cannot stretch to compost to enrich the soil.
DS and DD's shoes are too tight (something you never thought you would allow to happen)
Your bra is too tight, buying a new one is out of the question, so you just 'get used' to the pain.
Yadda harumph harumph

OP posts:

YourFanjoIsNotAHandbag · 11/05/2012 13:49

you learn how to make a tin of beans, a bag of pasta and some old veg feed 6 people
you stop taking milk in your coffee cos you cant afford the milkman

you learn how to sew

Original poster

ratflavouredjelly · 11/05/2012 23:00

sounds delish!

Ditto - you learn how to sew EVERYTHING, then try to sell what you make and realise your laboured craft is earning you less than the minimum wage LOL

OP posts:

inmysparetime · 12/05/2012 10:38

Your local greengrocer starts sticking extra fruit and veg in your bag after you've paid as he's seen you having to choose between things too many times.
Your 10 year old still wears age 2 shorts because he hasn't completely grown out of them yet (even though they look like lederhosen).

PullUpAPew · 12/05/2012 17:45

Every week you sell one of the plates from the dinner service your grandad left you because an extra 6 quid in your paypal account makes all the difference.

You and your DH come back from the shops and say 'chickpeas have gone up 7p a can this week' - three years ago we knew the price of nothing!

Shinyshoes1 · 12/05/2012 18:14

The Asda van pulls up outside the house and the eldest says 'mum are we skint' . That's just snobbery from my children unfortunately.

SuperScrimper · 12/05/2012 18:53

You pretend to your friends that you are too busy to take your DC to the local playgroup but really you just don't want to spend £2 getting in.

You stop going anywhere that involves driving as you can't afford anymore petrol this month.

TeaTeaLotsOfTea · 12/05/2012 19:04

You've run out of cat food mid week so they get dog food instead

You're hoping that there's enough chips to make chip butties for tea because there is litterally nothing else left.

You even turn the fridge off at night to save electric.

I buy jeans colour dye to dye the jeans dark again because I no way can afford new ones.

I have bra expanders to make my bras bigger.

Luckily I can already sew.

IAmBooyhoo · 12/05/2012 19:09

you and your best friend have been passing a fiver between each other for the past 6 months as one of you always needs it.

IAmBooyhoo · 12/05/2012 19:09

and you forget who owns the fiver.

fuckarama · 12/05/2012 19:11

Boo that's so true

springaroundthecorner · 12/05/2012 19:11

You raid the charity box that you have handed over to the lovely lady who collects every few months for the last 14 years and take all contents to the Coin Star machine in Sainsburys. You cash in the voucher to buy bread and milk.

You then wonder what you are going to say about it being empty next time she calls.

Badvoc · 12/05/2012 19:12

Colouring my own hair. It does not go well but I cant afford the prices at the hairdressers and a home colour is only £3-4.

Buying dc's jeans from e-bay. Buying clothes in the sales for the next season.

Eating lots of jacket potatoes and rice and pasta, eggs and beans.

Not going out. Ever.

Telling people I wanted ds2 at home with me for longer because we had to wait for the 15 hours free funding to send him to pre school.

PartOfAWednesday · 12/05/2012 19:16

When you get a black laundry marker and colour in the places where the leather has come off your dcs' school shoes, so you don't have to buy new ones until September.

SuperScrimper · 12/05/2012 19:17

Ummmm Springaroundthecorner are you saying what I think you're saying?

IAmBooyhoo · 12/05/2012 19:18

no answering the phone incase it is 'them wot you owe'. and if by accident you do answer, pretending to be the babysitter

IAmBooyhoo · 12/05/2012 19:20

i dontthink so superscrimper. i think she means it's one of those boxes given to people in their own house to collect their odd coins in and hand over when teh lady comes to collect. there is no obligation to give anything with those boxes.

RandomMess · 12/05/2012 19:20

I think she means one of those charity boxes that is yours and sits in your house that you put your own money in - not that other people have donated to!

SuperScrimper · 12/05/2012 19:21

Oh thank God for that!

RandomMess · 12/05/2012 19:42

You lose weight because you can't afford to eat!

TwllBach · 12/05/2012 20:27

You have to give the leftover chicken, that was reduced in the supermarket, to the cat and dog because you ran out of their food and can't afford to buy more until payday

Your car dies and you can't afford a taxi to work so walk the hour and a half there and back.

You had two bras that fit and they were both minging. One has been hanging by a thread for over a year and finally snapped at work of all places. The second has one strap that is literally cheesewire now and, two weeks ago, the underwire came through. Because you need to save the bra for special occasions like job interviews you resort to wearing bras that are two cup sizes too small. Everyone at work now knows your nipples more than they should.

You work like a dog over five months to save £500 so you have a safety net. You think you might be able to pay off a bit of your loan to take the heat off, or you might be able to get married, but actually, your car dies and you can feel the on set of panic attacks if youthink about it because there is no way you can save like that again. You need a car so it has to be spent, but then it's all over.

It's all just shit isn't it. Shit shit fucking shit. Sometimes I feel like it would be easier to just go to sleep for a very long time because I'm 24 and can't see how it will get any easier. As far as I can tell, this is my life now. Never being able to relax because we are always so poor, never moving forward because how can we start a family when we have days where we have to choose between feedin the animals and ourselves?

Sorry for my rant. I don't have it half as bad as some on here and a least it's just me and DP, no DC.

Bumblequeen · 12/05/2012 23:21

This reply has been deleted

Withdrawn at poster's request.

KiwiWorkingMum · 14/05/2012 04:43

This made me smile I'm not in the same boat and cringe for the lot of us! This is my virgin post on MN!

You know you are skint when: you pawn a gift from a friend to buy petrol for work, or you have a sick day because you can't afford the petrol for work!

you have 4 items of clothing for work for the last year and none of those cost above 10pounds. (queue ugly bobbley, faded, stretch. grey-used-to-be-black clothing!)

You rush to work on payday to put money in the honesty snack box, as you have no money for food, so pay it back on payday (thank goodness that's the same day the vendor comes by)

you go over your budget spreadsheet everyday wondering what you can not pay the next payday to catch up with something else so you are never uptodate with anything but trying your best not to get too far behind on anything either (juggling skills anyone? LOL)

KiwiWorkingMum · 14/05/2012 04:45

I meant to say I AM in the same boat! - jeepers great way to mess up my first post!

TwllBach · 14/05/2012 06:01

Welcome Kiwi

I'm with you on the clothes thing - the vast majority of my clothes have holes in/are unravelling/have pulls in or some other defect now. I am often too ashamed to leave the house for anything but work - which is handy because actually, I can't afford to do anything else

inmysparetime · 14/05/2012 06:13

You realise you have had your "new" top for 5 years, and even then it was from a charity shop.

You drink tap water with ice and a slice when you're out for a rare evening and pretend to your friends it's gin and tonic.

Your DCs think a week in Yorkshire is the holiday of a lifetime

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