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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:
oksonowwhat · 23/05/2012 20:20

Oh and Xenia, my father was a gp and he commited suicide.....didn't help him much did it, his wonderful career.

Tbh i feel you need to get a grasp of real life love. Without wanting to be rude are you quite old?

Evilwater · 23/05/2012 20:32

When you have your mother in law living in a caravan on the driveway, because house prices and rents are too expensive for her pension.

When there is a night out at work, and I always make excuses why I can't go.

When you make excuses, why you hasn't seen the latest tv, cause the tv is broke and it was on a virgin or sky channel anyway.

When you dream of a holiday. How can people afford one let alone two????

When you hate 5 week months. Espally December, fecking 6 weeks.

Also eveything before.
evil

ThePoorMansBeckySharp · 23/05/2012 20:36

Xenia can be unwittingly entertaining but on a sensitive thread like this one her "DID I MENTION I EARN LOADS OF MONEY??" routine is really best ignored.

Evilwater · 23/05/2012 20:36

I forgot to add, finding out my boots have holes in them. Working in wet feet, until pay day.

FoofFighter · 23/05/2012 20:38

Thank you Curryspice!

Evilwater · 23/05/2012 20:50

Xenia, the reason why I am, is because schooling was not at the top of my list.
I was a child carer.
Caring for my sister, my mum and my dad. Supporting my parents while thier parents suffered with cancer. Cleaning the house, doing the laundry, and other things in both houses. My childhood was very short. So as you can see school and uni was a second thought, it still is.

I still care for sister, my mum and my dad. I also care for my nan, and my DH.

Evil

DumSpiroSpero · 23/05/2012 20:56

It may well have been a wonderful life as care home worker but if it means you end up on a mums net thread talking about how you can hardly afford to eat the lesson there fore women is try to ensure you pick high paid work and however much you enjoy the low paid stuff

Shock Shock Shock

Let's just hope you don't end up needing the services of a care home and its staff one day, Xenia.

For someone presumably intelligent and well-paid you come across as extremely ignorant.

Haberdashery · 23/05/2012 21:14

The problem is not that some people choose or are driven to take jobs that are badly paid. The problem is that ordinary average wages are not enough to sustain an ordinary average family in an ordinary non-extravagant kind of way. Xenia, you have completely missed the point and I am quite frankly aghast at the sheer rudeness and insensitivity of posting in this way on this particular thread. Also, am completely nonplussed at the idea that one can simply choose to become an actuary or doctor rather than working in a shop or a care home.

Seabright · 23/05/2012 21:20

Just a quick note to say not all lawyers (& I am one) are like Xenia. Sadly, there are plenty with an ego the size of Mars, but most of us are normal people who end up doing plenty of work for free, holding free advice sessions and trying to help people who walk into the office desperate, with no money and no idea what to do next. It's usually taken a lot of courage to even come in.

And we aren't all hugely well paid, we get to work very anti-social hours and we get made redundant too.

And we don't all have islands. Even small ones.

CurrySpice · 23/05/2012 21:28

I've decided I am going to be a supermodel and rock star. The pay is better.

oksonowwhat · 23/05/2012 21:33

Evilwater, sending a hug, i wonder what Xenia will have to say about your post....?
Actually as someone just mentioned Xenia does seem to just pop up on threads like this with the same old lines and nothing else to add. Really should after all these years learn to ignore it!!!

droves · 23/05/2012 21:46

Xenia just lives in a different world to most of us on this thread.

She worked hard and had oppertunities that most would never get , even if we did our damnness.

I dont think she means to upset anyone .

Xenia · 23/05/2012 21:49

I said it was a really good thread. I did ask for the reasons and were there earlier life choices women might have taken which might have meant they could be in a better position. I did not ask that out of any sense of - you are all to blame. I genuinely was looking into it. Time after time women throw away potential careers on the altar of men and men retain their earning capacity. It is a feminist issue.

I have never said happiness comes with money or even education for people. It is about brain chemicals, diet, sunshine even but not income. I am much more grateful for the children I have and my personal happiness and good physical and mental health than anything else and I'm not particularly materialistic hence happy to have bras with holes in, drink tap water etc like a lot of people on this thread and despite earning reasonable sums.

One issue is if women should always take that second shift as it seems to be being 100% burdened with care whilst men swan off doing none of it leading to the impoverished position of some women. Being more assertive within families, insisting men do 50% even if they leave work early etc etc may well help too.

(I have never said what I earn. Indeed i suspect if you read my first post on this thread you will see I am arguably the worst off on mumsnet in terms of debt - over £1m).

Evilwater · 23/05/2012 21:49

Okson- it wouls be interesting to know.
As droves said, I don't think she realzied what she wrote.

Evil

bringmesunshine2009 · 23/05/2012 21:52

High Five Seabright! Speaking up for the impoverished legal aiders. Lawyers can't be poor. Yeah right. I probably didn't just work hard enough.Grrrrrr.

BoffinMum · 23/05/2012 21:55

Seabright, she wasn't on the London Legal Walk this week, as far as we all know. Correct me if I am wrong, Xenia?

That's a walk around the City to raise money for people to be able to have free legal advice and so on, btw.

DumSpiroSpero · 23/05/2012 21:56

You'd have to be earning pretty well in the first place to be able to get £1m worth of credit!

The only thing I regret with hindsight is selling my first property in '98. I made £11k profit in 2 years. If I'd held onto it until the market was at its peak I could have made in excess of £100k.

There was just no way of foreseeing that kind of insane rise in property prices when I bought it for less than £28k, unfortunately.

I could had made a different choice career-wise in my mid-twenties, but there's no guarantee I would be better off as I'd have had to move to the capital where living costs would be astronomical compared to my home town, and I wouldn't have my daughter - no lifestyle or amount of money could make missing out on her worthwhile.

Evilwater · 23/05/2012 21:56

Xenia, being a women sometimes I think it's my fault. It's not, but it's just the way things have panned out.

Everything is better with hindsight. I've made my choices, and because of it, Im living with my DH and my first baby will arrive in oct.

Yes I'm skint, but I'm loved for who I am. Not what people think I should be.
Evil

BoffinMum · 23/05/2012 21:57

Ruby, I'd love it if you could just write about being Ruby, with some suggestions of projects people could do at home to improve their quality of life. PM me if you're interested.

BrandyAlexander · 23/05/2012 22:06

Xenia, growing up we had a comfortable existence, until a combination of bad decisions, bad luck, a recession and redundancy meant in what felt like a relatively short period of time we had gone from a nice middle class lifestyle, to living in a homeless shelter. My parents' career choices had sod all to do with it at that point in time.

headfairy · 23/05/2012 22:22

Xenia, in some respects I do agree with some of what you say. I can't help but wince at my friend who gave up her 15 year career in telly to become a sahm... She's not married to her partner and she will never be able to get back in to her career at the same level, so if he ups and leaves her she will have no choice but to go in to some entry level job quite possibly at nmw.

I just couldn't leave myself so exposed. 50% of marriages end in divorce, so I can't assume it will never happen to me.

That said I'm not one to push my dd in to a career she hates purely to earn. I can only think of the negatives of a doctor who's in it for the money. There is a lot to be said for a persons passion for their job... Be it a care home worker or a city lawyer.

happybubblebrain · 23/05/2012 22:22

Nobody should ever feel bad about being poor, even if it is as a direct result of decisions made. Nobody has a crystal ball.

There aren't enough well-paid jobs or islands for every woman.

And, if I had £1 million of debt I wouldn't be dishing out advice on how to make good financial decisions to others.

ManateeEquineOhara · 23/05/2012 22:25

Thing is Xenia - although people might struggle financially, not having gone to med school (Hmm), it doesn't mean that their life is shit and they are unhappy. This thread is light hearted and just because people are posting on it that they can't afford much, doesn't mean they would change anything about their past or present.

For me - I have moved us (myself and 2 DCs) in with my friend's family to save money, this also helps them financially as we pay rent, but far less than I paid to rent my own house. This has given me a teeny bit of breathing space while I finish my masters degree.

BoffinMum · 23/05/2012 22:29

Polite request for Xenia to go away, at least for a bit, as she has missed the point of the thread, which is competitive poverty and a few household tips/feel good donations.

Migsy1 · 23/05/2012 22:41

Hey Xenia I'm an architect. Ha ha! Great shitting job in a recession when no bugger can get any finance to build anything. You idiot!