You know you're truly skint when...

[ratflavouredjelly]

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

When your mother tells you she is sick of seeing you in the same top with holes in and your dh's fleecy jacket so gives you money for new clothes and then DEMANDS to see the receipt so you dont spend it on the dc/food!

When you find ?10 in the pocket of a coat you haven't worn in a year and it feels like you have won the lotto.

You cut the toes out of the baby's sleepsuits.

I read a blog only today about how to eat on £5 a week! He did live on brown rice and dhal and 'value' porridge and it sounded horrible!

He missed fruit and veg and coffee, but apparently lost weight and felt much better.

You have to mend the mends you did previously

though less clumsiness from DS would reduce this need

You use your birthday money to stock up on reduced bargains in the supermarket to store in the freezer.

You just laugh when someone asks where you're going on holiday this year.

some of these are depressingly familiar :(

I'm using the money my grandmother left me (a teeny amount, she had nothing either) to put food on the table each week. Makes me feel very sad that I can't use it to buy something more permenant that will remind me of her.

You raid the reduced counter in tesco's for meat to put in the freezer, and while doing so someone recognises you and utters "Oh I didn't think you'd be the type to be rummaging in there!" wtf?!

You re gift presents people have given to you. Not because you don't like them but because you have too.

You always run into the emergency on the electricity. It's only actually an emergency when you run out.

Your dc school uniforms lasts two years

You are so far into a massive overdraft the you will never pay it off and instead lose a fair amount to covering the cost of the interest on it.

Iceland is your most favourite shop in the world.

Your shoes have worn out heels and holes in the material but you can't justify buying new ones until you can't actually walk in them anymore.

Your eldest kids clothes are hand me downs, not new to be handed down.

Christmas and birthday presents are always second hand.

The thought of Christmas sends you into a state of depression from boxing day to the following Christmas.

all of the above ring true

when you sit down and look at your budget and realise youve got no spare cash till july

when you time your food shop to coincide with reducing times

when you sell anything thats not nailed down just to get some basics like milk and bread

when it takes you several weeks to pay for some minor school activity/outing

when you get excited when there are 5 weeks in a month because you work your bills on 4week months so its an extra weeks money

when you look forward to feb/march/april because theres no council tax or water rates for two months and yourll have a whopping £140 a month over

when you play "how far can we go on empty" when the petrol run out and theres still 2 days of school run to do

I am feeling you there debka!

Not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. We struggled on 2 salaries. Dp lost his job 5 weeks ago and I am facing the fact that I will have to pay for all the rent and bills and will be left for £20 to buy food for the month. He applies for about 10 jobs a day and has had 3 interviews so far but no one is interested. Even thinking about starting a family is just a dream. It's not fair. and

When you pray that the clothes DC have grown out of are not stained so that you can flog them on eBay.

When your DS asks if their dsi he got for his birthday was pre-owned because there was someone elses photos on it

headfairy

It may not feel good right now, but you do have something to remember your grandmother - you can feed the family in a really though time. Hopefully you'll be able to save a little in the future and pay yourself back to get something more tangible.

Yep - very little money at the moment here and the OP describes my life very well at times.

Sympathise with you all, there gets to a point when you really can't reduce things any further -
Watch every penny, and know off by heart how much each grocery item costs and realise instantly if things go up 1p
Run the car on fresh air until the petrol light is flashing like a christmas tree
Shopping later in the evening when they reduce things at the supermarket, even the kids are getting good at spotting bargains

Is a constant battle to survive :-(

You look at all your much loved possessions with a "how much could I sell that for" eye

Mind you have made £28 on a local selling site in the last 2 days :) just as well, the electric had almost run out and payday isn't till a week on Thursday! (unexpected huge bill - not always as bad as this! )

Last night we got a few bits in Asda but paid at the self serve machine that allows you to dump a heap of money in rather than post each coin individually - paid £4 something of it in coppers and 5ps - the lady supervising them kept cats bumming us [flicks a V to the lady who has obviously never had to do that]

err forgot to add that the machine kept spitting them back out at us as we put too many in at once, so it took about 10 mins

That faint sense of "oh shit, how am I going to get out of this" when a less poor friend (i.e. everybody) suggests a trip to the cinema/going out for lunch, or when the realisation hits that it's Dad's birthday next month.

Scrabbling round known coin stashes (bottom of changing bag, ashtray in car, trinket box by my bed) for enough money for a loaf of bread and some milk.

Having to take car to more expensive garage which offers credit, rather than the cheaper one we'd have to pay now, in the hope that some money will come in by the time the bill does.

Realising you haven't actually spent birthday/Christmas money or similiar small unexpected windfalls on something for yourself since 1998.

Thanks Adora, that's a very nice thing to say.

When you are secretly pleased the weather is rubbish as DD can still wear her winter boots, her only pair of shoes, without people wondering why you have dressed a little girl in a far too short sun dress and furry boots when the weather is boiling

Very depressing

Seriously considering selling the car £3/4k would come in very handy atm and wouldnt need to find running costs every month.

super I have one pair of clarks shoes and the rest are flip flops/crocs!!! Am all ready for the sunshine!