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

Twll thats lovely and makes me so happy that there are such lovely people about.
This whole thread, as sad as it is at times, helps...we are all in similar situations. Sometimes do you feel you are the only one struggling? Friends moan to me that they are finding it hard but they are having lots of holidays and shopping trips etc., so they don't really understand.
I will just keep working and holding on and things will get better, they have to.
I wish i had something to pass on to someone but i've bootsales or ebayed most of my stuff!
I've been asking around and i've been given some tins of paint that friends etc., don't want and i'm going to put all my spare time into cheering the house up abit

Good luck with the interview if you decide to go down that path ... I hope it works out for you Daisy - sorry to hear of your bad back.

Great to hear of your wonderful spirit OK - all the best with your decorating

what's that saying - you're only ever 3 months away from being homeless - very true how quickly things can change.

That is true, we were so down on our heels and literally on the 11th hour things turned good for us.
The bank had called everything in and the mortgage was well behind.
Dh was suffering from depression.
Everything looked hopeless.

What I will say is that nothing stays the same forever.
We are ok now and in a good position but it is always in my mind that the tide could change on us again.

Skint is when your 5 year old son gets sent home with a spare school sweatshirt because the teacher has noticed that he only has the 1 as he had to take it to school and put it on the radiator a couple of times because it hadn't dried on time. :)

Okso I was just thinking this thread shows a need for a skint support thread? Seems there are lots of us who wish to talk about it. It is nice to be able to talk about it here, I feel it is taboo. Everyone wants to talk about the credit crunch but still noone really wants to hear about genuine poverty I think.

I feel a bit of a fraud on here now, as our fear has gone, but we are still damn skint tbh, it's just we feel rich compared to two years ago.

Twll what an absolute star your DP's boss is!

It would be nice to think that something good would come out of the hardship so many are experiencing at the moment - if only there seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

You know your car will fail it's MOT in 9 weeks time and your actually adding up how much money you'll have without it

But at the same time ignoring the fact that without the car things will be impossible difficult re work/ school run etc but you just see the £ signs and cannot muster up the energy to care!!!

You take some DVD's to ceX and get exited at the £8 you received and manage to get loads at Tesco at 3.30pm in the reduced section!

Your best mate who's complaining of being skint says there having the whole 3 bed house carpeted and lamanet flooring and you ask for some cut offs to replace the worn through hall carpet you already have!!

ok that's a brilliant idea about the decorating; and shows such strength of character.

Huge love to all on this thread. I've lived in varying degrees of skint-ness, but as other posters have noted, it is particularly heartbreaking to see poverty affect your parents and children.

I wish I could help one of us/you directly. I'm in Manchester and will gladly feed anyone + kids. Also have baby girl and toddler boy clothes and can deliver if in M/cr.

When you are sick but you can't afford medicine. I get horrible sinus pains and used to not be able to afford anything but paracetamol which didn't even touch it.

When you are too skint to buy tampons.

When your hair is utterly minging and you feel like a total ugly frump but you can't even afford home dye.

I have a bit of money now (not much but I'm surviving) and it's amazing how much better I feel. It stays with you though - I never feel comfortable til I have food in the freezer and I don't feel happy shopping anywhere but Lidl or somewhere with lots of reduced stuff.

KateSpade - I think it's easy when you're a student to think "I'll work all the hours God sends if it means I'm not skint" but it's so hard to get a job for many people at the moment. Add in any other factor, kids, illness, geography, not having an education and it's just compounded. I've spent the last 10 years skint, mostly because I became mentally ill and couldn't always work. So my education wasn't as good as it could be, my confidence was rock bottom, my CV was spotty and it all just piles on top of each other and it gets harder and harder.

Onwards and upwards though. I hope all of us manage to break this cycle in the end.

Haven't used the heating all winter apart from for two days at Christmas when we had visitors.

Lived without an oven for three months as we couldn't afford to get a new one.

Haven't had my hair cut since last July.

Kids get any meat we buy so they get decent protein; DH and I mostly eat potatoes and pulses.

We have three maxed-out credit cards (approx £20K between them plus two big loans; I don't even know how much we owe on those). I move money around to pay them each month.

I have cancelled my pension payments.

Thank christ that I have friends whose kids are similar ages and so we all pass clothes around to each other. The grandparents usually buy DS's shoes.

I live in constant fear that one of our very ancient and knackered cars will conk out (we live in the middle of nowhere so need two for our jobs).

Does anyone know how you can give away things, and know that they get to someone who needs them and doesn't have to pay for them (ie in financial need, not just wants them). Freecycle doesn't seem to work too well where I am - lots of people who get kick out of getting stuff for free, even though they have a BMW in the drive and I know they have plenty of money (because I've gone on nights out and been shocked by the bill). NCT sales are similarily vicious. I'm in North Yorkshire. I asked one charity about donating furniture, and they said they only provided new furniture for health and safety reasons or something wierd.

I have random stuff including Argos bedroom furniture (wardrobe, chest of drawers, bedside tables), some girls clothes up to 5, some adult clothes (12-14), kids books & games, and will be having a big clear out in a bit and would be happy to drop it in to someone who wasn't too far away. PM me if you are in the southern middle half of N Yorkshire / W Yorkshire border.

I didn't mean it to sound as horrible as it did, its so heartbreaking and i don't want anyone to ever live in a world were its a choice between feeding yourself and feeding your children, and its opened my eyes to how lucky i am to have such supportive parents. If i didn't have them, i openly admit i couldn't cope with my DD on my own, and they love her to pieces.

I think the only thing I've not been able to do whilst I've had DD is taking an Internship in London, purely because it was only £500 a month paid and i couldn't find a place to live for that much money.

and i know that if i don't move to london after graduating i'll find it 100% harder to get a job, and i can't afford to work, pay for a nursery and live on my own. Thats depressing.

But I'm focusing on the positives in my life. I have an amazing family, wonderful friends, enough money to treat myself occasionally and have will have had three nights out this month! Not that i can drink much anymore, but onwards and upwards like you said!

Sorry for the rant!

Women's refuges often take donations, or you could ask at your local children's centre/community centre/health visitor office if they know of any families who might need things.

I think charities are often tied up with red tape for giving away items such as furniture or electrical goods because technically if the items were unsafe/didn't meet current regulations etc they could be held responsible if something awful happened.

However, second hand furniture shops often sell things on very cheaply, are known by the charities who will refer people there, and because buyers are choosing for themselves the issues about safety etc aren't there (because it's the buyer's responsibility to check if they are bothered about such things) - I've seen my local one selling such things as (old, not current) car seats, and a cot with a sign on it saying "No bolts - can be bodged together" (And someone on the phone to his wife asking if their daughter-in-law might like it!)

When you have to choose between rat poison or a loaf of bread.
When you thank God the corner shop have stuck a mother-load of out-of-date tins of ratatouille in their dumster.
When the strap goes on your fake crocs from the 99p store and you have to repair them with an elastic band.

I have just looked on the web to find one - and the "cheapest" one has furniture starting at £15 for a bedside table - all donated free of charge ....... humph! From the sounds of it on here, that would be a stretch too far, so I'd just like to make someone happy :-)

The worst thing is that, you can buy same type of furniture from a local auction house paying £20 for a complete set of bedroom furniture. I know that will have rent and everything .... but you'd think there would be a way they could do it a bit cheaper.

Ruby, look under the sink for any holes round the drainage pipe - in our flat the workmen left a massive hole and the rats came up that. Not nice having them in my kitchen cupboards. Apparently they can chew through concrete, so DH and his mate filled the hole with concrete with broken glass mixed in (makes it unchewable for ratty). DH spent 48 hours stalking the rat with a hammer - am amazed I had a floor left - he missed!.

I mean adding it up - they will sell what I donate for about £120 minimum. Will call up a refuge - used to be a volunteer trustee for a domestic violence charity, so would be a cause close to my heart - maybe I could just deliver it round to someone.

The best value ones probably won't have websites or advertising, and will rely on word of mouth. Our nearest one sells beside cabinets for around £6.

Go to the most run down areas of town and ask around.

The same 8 pairs of pants have seen you through many years and 3 pregnancies - they are so awful you can't hang them no the line to dry. God forbid they are seen!

People give your kids their kids cast off shoes to wear. Real life saver!

A rare cafe visit involves a basic builders cup of tea and never a decaf soya cappuccino with sprinkles and an Italiano biscuit.

Holidays always involve camping within a two hour drive on a back to nature site without any washing facilities

You find charity shops expensive and prefer cheap car boot sales

You wait for the supermarket to reduce things and then shop.

I know we could be much harder off though. The kids don't seem to feel deprived and all the important things are right - lovely family and friends, good schools, lot's of free fun.

Rodents now mostly gone.... I had to pull all of the kitchen out after a flood anyway. The remains are still in the grden waiting for a kind person to take it to the dump for me.

I've rebuilt the kitchen with furniture I found at the side of the road (includng an enormous ceramic laundry trough) and random stuff re-purposed from elsewhere in the house. It's amazing what you can get into a bike trailer if you try really hard.

I know I am skint because my friend owes me £4.50 and it really bugs me that she hasn't given it back, it makes me really that I can't just forget about it.

Skint is only buying 'value' food or food that is on offer, skint is getting towards the end of the month and worrying that there is nothing to put in dds packlunch.

Skint is not being able to afford to buy my dad a birthday present

skint is being cold because I can't afford to have the heaters on.

But hey its only money right??!

Hi girliefriend - it's really bugging me that I lent a friend one of my only remaining pens (decent one but nothing amazing - roller-ball type of thing) - to sign something - and I didn't get it back !

Know I'm going to sound like one of those weird daytime TV ads but if any of you had loans (credit cards, mortgages) and may have been mis-sold payment protection insurance do follow up with your bank for compensation, I spent 3 hours phoning round, using my credit report to follow up on old loans and it was definitely worth it.