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

Oh no superscrimper I dread rainy days because it means we're stuck in with ds begging to go to soft play....the park is free at least.

When you have to walk to work and it pisses it down for the entire hour and a half. This also makes you realise what exactly 'shower proof' means in relation to the only coat you have, which you bought in the Next sale in 2009. You also realise that your trainers now have holes in them too.

When you me this morning walk 3 miles in one direction to meet someone at a not very convenient place for you, who is buying something off you for £6 - to then walk 4 miles the oppo way to go to Lidl as you can now afford loo roll, coffee and sugar!

You fish tea bags out of the bin to reuse!

I always use my teabags three times I take it black (cheaper but prefer it that way anyway!) and weak.

Just wondering if after using 2 bags thrice each, if I put them both in a cup together I might manage to eke out another cuppa? goes to fish teabags out of the rubbish bin

Make a 5-cup pot of tea, decant into a flask when brewed, and you can get 5 cups of tea from 2 tea bags easily.
The last cup usually needs 10 seconds in the microwave though.

You sort the garage/shed/loft for the third time in as many months hoping that last time, you missed something you can sell.

I can relate to many of these, yet I know things are much easier for me than for so many people on MN :(

Mine are

• when your car dies, and you are really chuffed that you can buy a new one if you clear out your 'savings' only to realise that the 'new one' is actually cheaper than the old banger (which lasted a year) you bought 13 years ago when you'd just passed your driving test. (This is what I'm doing right now. Hope it'll last until I find a job and work for long enough to save up for a more reliable one!)
• you try to get your kids excited about doing a car boot sale in the August bank holiday by saying 'won't it be great if we clear out all your old toys and sell them so we can have some money for a day out at the beach?' (which will be the only 'holiday' they get this summer!)
• you pretend you have a really busy schedule to avoid expensive trips to soft plays/ coffee shops etc.
• you are pleased that your kids are fussy eaters who hate fresh fruit and veg because it's so much cheaper to feed them spaghetti hoops and fishfingers or plain pasta!

For me it was when I couldn't afford clothes in a chairty shop. I needed a suit for an interview and they wanted GBP30. She gave me the suit and a top to wear with it. I have had a soft spot for oxfam ever since.

When I lived in the UK I was skint until I moved to London and worked like a dog (I held 3 jobs). I remember taking my showers at work to save on the hot water, eating two meals a day (I made sandwiches at pret and the manager let me take my breakfast and lunch as he knew I wouldn't eat otherwise) and living in a room so small I couldn't fit a wardrobe in it. I left the UK 6 years ago and money is not half as tight.

Some things never change. I still don't buy clothes for myself and I dye my own hair as I can't justify spending $175 every two months. I always bring my lunch with me and only eat lunch out if it can be expensed. Meat (pork) is now brought home by DH and is free. Veg is frozen as half the price and it doesn't go bad!

I never understand the charity shop thing. Clothes are WAY cheaper in ASDA, and often even in NEXT and M&S sales.

I thought charity shops were just for rich people and environmental people. Never poor people. (except for furniture).

I find my local charity shops much cheaper than the supermarket clothes, even for kids stuff.

You are relieved when a family wedding invite arrives and says 'no children invited',as it means that you have an excuse not to attend don't have to pay out money you don't have on diesel to get there and a hotel room overnight.

For DD's clothes and other baby gear car boot sales are the way to go. I go to the charity shop for household goods but never anything that could have bedbugs or fleas. I don't buy books or music as I borrow them from the library.

I think someone should send this thread to George Osborne. I bet it would be an eye-opening experience for him.

i was so stressed at the petrol station that i actually filled up with the engine running. the petol meter didnt move a milimeter, I bounced into the petrol station to complian. he siad 'give it a minute' which i did. and everything was fine.

except that i had put so little petrol in the car that the buzzer sounded as soon as i drove off from the station.

the reason i complained was i was worried that the car wouldnt move without the extra petrol in it becuase it was running on fumes anyway. ( i wouldnt have splashed out on the petrol but i had to run MIL to the hospital and i cant expect her to accompany me on my push bike!)

when you never throw any peice of clothing out because you know that if you gain/lose weight you'll never be able to afford more clothes.

when you get given chickens and they eat better than you do... your diet then consists of boiled egg, fried egg, scrambled egg, omlette, but you put it on a different plate, just to jazz things up a bit

when you go to your purse and realise you dont HAVE £1.85 for a school dinner....

when you wait till the kids have finished thier dinner.... so you can have thier leftovers.

when the kids ask... are we poor? and you say of course not, how can we be poor when we love you so much?

when you wonder about all the time other kids spend on computer games, when we struggle to find the money for the elctricity to run the telly!

when 2 of the bulbs go in your 3 light arrangement, and you feel a little gown becuase you cant afford to replace the lightbulbs, then you feel a little 'yay' cos you are using less electric

when your DD sees people with cleft palets on the tv advert and asks you if we can send £3 a month to help them, and you think, 'we dont have it'

i'm going to have to leave this thread, its making me cry.