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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 skint when...

71 replies

DontLetMeLetYouGo · 10/04/2016 18:56

I know this was done a few years back but thought I'd do another.. The term skint has been debated in my household a lot..

So what do you define as skint? And what does it mean to you?

And you know you're skint when....

OP posts:

Hellywelly10 · 30/04/2016 13:08

Eating nothing but porridge for a week

monet24 · 02/05/2016 17:31

Having soup made from your daughters pureed food from the freezer as nothing else in the house and no money at all as spent last tenner on nappies and stuff for her.

SheDoneAlreadyDoneHadHerses · 22/05/2016 18:38

For me it meant calling in sick to work as I didn't have the bus fare to get there, buying Iceland's 6 food items for £5 for my then-toddler and living off cheese butties and pesto pasta (for a treat) for me.

Nowadays it's going into my overdraft each month, "paying" it off when I get paid and then going back into it. Need to get a grip of my outgoings.

SeeYouLaterAlligator · 22/05/2016 19:22

You know you're skint when...you have too much month left at the end of your money!

SeeYouLaterAlligator · 22/05/2016 19:23

You know you're skint when...you have too much month left at the end of your money!

pollyblack · 22/05/2016 19:30

I think skint is when you have to make decisions between expenses. We live fairly modestly but are having a hard time just now and I am choosing what bills NEED paid and what will have to wait. I'm on the phone to companies I owe money to all the time trying to negotiate later payment dates.

Also trying not to use the car or the central heating, and can't afford to get the shower fixed and sneaking in to the local swimming pool to wash my hair.

MavolioBent · 22/05/2016 20:06

Both my boys need new school shoes. I feel awful but I spent my last £14 on bread butter eggs and electricity. They will have to wait until I get child benefit on Tuesday.

However thanks to this thread I have remembered I.have a jar of pennies which may mean I can get potatoes and cheese for dinner tomorrow.

Things are quite bad at the moment due to some bad decisions by dp but actually I have been in worse situations. At least we have a roof over our heads and food in our bellies and enough petrol that I don't have to spend a fortune in the co op but can get to also.

Goodvibesonly · 22/05/2016 20:14

Gosh reading some of these posts has given me flashbacks of my childhood. I remember never having any decent clothes, nearly all were hand-me-downs and so worn down that they were hanging together by a thread. On non-uniform days I had to wear my school uniform. Packed lunch was bread and butter. I think even the teachers felt sorry for us. I could write a novel with all my stories :(

More recently, a couple of winters ago, I remember standing and staring at a pair of gloves in Asda and knowing that I couldn't afford to buy them even though they were only £1. I went without gloves the whole of that winter.

Mumstudentbum · 27/05/2016 12:25

When i think of being skint i get taken back to two points in my life

When i was ten, dads hours were reduced and mum couldn't get a full time job because she couldn't afford childcare for me and my brother. I was walking about with cardboard in my shoes to stop stones hurting my feet because my shoes had holes in, my dad coloured in the scuffs with a black felt tip pen. I came home and knew it would be pot noodle and home made chips for tea, again because potatoes were cheap and my dad got a job lot of pot noodles from the car boot. I was called names because i had a really short school skirt. Not because i was what they called me but because we couldn't afford a new one. i moved in with grandparents for a while, mum said it was so i could have an exciting summer with them, now i know its because they couldn't afford to feed me.

When I has DC1(14 years ago). I was on unpaid maternity leave and DP was a student. we lived of frozen ready meals from jack fultons and couldn't afford a carpet. We told ourselves the concrete floor in our council flat was quirky and cool. It was freezing. I remember counting out 5ps to go buy baby milk for DS and the lady behind the counter rolling her eyes as she counted them out saying I'm not doing this again! I went home and cried. Sewing patches on second hand blankets made from other second hand blankets. i also remember sitting on the kitchen floor crying when our 15 year old, second hand washer leaked all over the floor and stopped working. I hand washed for 3 months until next door moved out and offered us their old one.

There was a lot of crying

now im a student at uni and DP has an ok job. We get by with three DCs and even though we don't go on holiday or eat out a lot they do have a roof over their heads, food, clothes and treats. Every time dp says we are skint i remind him of the above and he says 'no we are not skint, well be ok' :)

gingerbreadmanm · 27/05/2016 12:33

i don't know if this is helpful or not but for those people with bills that are not essentials, step change is really very helpful. i got in a mess last year after going on unexpected maternity leave and step change were great and things are now manageable. i appreciate they will be no good if it is essential bills people are struggling with but thought it was worth a mention just incase.

when i was a kid my dm was a stay at home mum (5 kids) and dad worked a minimum pay job. we struggled. often had egg and chips or paste sandwiches to keep us going.

Ememem84 · 08/07/2016 22:39

Being a student and surviving on cornflakes for breakfast and tuna and ryvita for dinner. For a month.

I graduated 10 years ago. And can only now look a can of tuna in the face again.

Betrayedbutsurvived · 08/07/2016 22:46

Skint in my 20s, when I was with XH, = Going 3 days with no food so DD could eat whilst he ate takeaway every night

Skint now = have to dig through the freezer and eat what's there rather than buy something.

petshopboy · 05/10/2016 20:52

Having too count 2ps in the corner shop for milk .choosing shampoo over a meal .no electric for 2 nights couldnt afford to top up on the meter having to walk everywhere Not having the tv or anything electric on ...

AnaVanda · 06/10/2016 18:34

Walking round back entries and scouring other people's bins for returnable bottles. My husband and I did this in the 80s. Each bottle got us 10pence. We could make enough for a couple of potatoes and some liver. Happy times!

maggiethemagpie · 07/10/2016 21:39

As a student, I remember living off pasta and pesto (the cheap canned kind of course) for about a month. And buying a cheapie bottle of whisky to take to the pub to add in to diet cokes under the table.

Luckily I've never been so skint since, my skint now is buying toiletries /beauty products from asda or aldi rather than john lewis, which is not really skint at all.

NameChange10001 · 01/11/2016 16:57

When I was a student I had 9p left to buy lunch. I went to the greengrocer and bought a potato and a carrot. I had baked potato with grated carrot, and warmed my digs up with the warmth from the cooker. I sincerely hope I will never be that poor again.

SleepFreeZone · 01/11/2016 17:03

Earning £35 a week for a 40 hour a week job (supposedly a trainee position but wouldn't be allowed nowadays). Accommodation was thrown in but I had to somehow pay for everything else from this pittance so I lived on Rice Crispies for every meal.

totolouise · 01/11/2016 18:40

To all of you who have said that you are having problems paying essential bills, I am presuming that you mean ones such as gas and electric. I thought it might be helpful to let you know (in case you are not aware of it already) that companies such as Thames Water have a scheme which I think is called Water Sure. This helps to reduce your water bill greatly, sometimes by up to 50%. There's also the option of having a water meter fitted too. Also, the large energy companies(e.g. SSE etc) have schemes that you can apply to for money (I think it is £140 per year) towards your gas and/or electricity costs. I think it's called Warm Home Discount. It's also worth enquiring with your local Council to see if they have any Assistance Grants, and then there's also local charities who will provide help, be it with money or essential white goods, beds and other items of furniture if your's have broken. I hope this helps somebody.

Mumstudentbum · 13/12/2016 18:34

Skint was 14 years ago when I had to count £5 in 5ps to go buy formula milk for ds as that and a pound coin was the only money I had in a savings jar. The milk was £6 i had £5.10 in that jar and I actually burst into tears and thanked god (I'm not religious)

Frith2013 · 24/12/2016 14:36

When I left university and moved here, I remember a day when I had only a banana left to eat. The next day I had nothing.

TitaniasCloset · 03/01/2017 02:30

Skint is when you ask the nice lady at the local shops for toilet roll and dog food on tick. When you know exactly when your money is paid into your account by the bank so go to the cash point the minute its in so you can get to the shop before it closes for dinner that night. Going to the coin machine in the supermarket with all your pennies in a bag and getting pissed off when it keeps rejecting some coins as duds because you need the money to buy something. Considering making money by illegal means because you feel so desperate but then rejecting that as a bad idea because you know you unlucky anyway and prob be caught

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