Have you ever been so skint that you.......

gilly41

couldnt afford even a loaf of bread.
I got to this point back in December and that is when I decided I never wanted to be in that position again!
It was the day before pay day, nothing in the bank and no overdraft facility(glad now but not then!!).Credit card to the max- and no money to be found down the back of chairs or anything.
Really scary- dont ever want to go there again. That was my lightbulb moment!!!
xx

Kateelizabee

Yes, when I was a child. I know what it's like to count on recycling bottles (in Michigan you got 10 cents per bottle) for lunch the next day. It's that old Tupac song, "Trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents"

jellycat40

No I haven't been in that position but my son lived on benefits for a while and he used to only eat every other day so that he could pay his rent and go to college. When I found out obviously he came here to us but what an awful world we live in!

Louise

System

I have in the past and have just had to make do with what was to hand. Admittedly it wasnt too bad, but the worst thing that happened to me was I got stranded half way across the county and I had to ring my parents to pick me up, explaining I had no money.

ozzyfan_2

gilly41, yes I've been there too! but somehow always seem to muddle through.

glad we've both had our lightbulb moment :j

13000, my son got stranded in Wales last week (adult son by the way if you're wondering!) & I had to send money for him to get home :mad:

I did think about postponing sending it for a few days to get some extra peace & to teach him a lesson!

[Deleted User]

me too gilly. When I was a young mum with 3 small children. We had a biggish mortgage but the rising interest rate made things very difficult. It rose quickly to 15%

We had already paid for a camping holiday and my DH drove home to pick the beans and tomatoes out of the garden so we could eat. Money to pay this and that came out of the bank as cash and went straight into envelopes in a drawer

Later in life we were able to build up a safety-net pot. I try to get this across to our grown-up children but don`t want to overload them. They are pretty typical of the `live now` mentality of their generation. They saw us being frugal and I think decided it wasn`t for them. Well the upshot is that we now have good savings and a good pension pot, a lovely morgage-free house and so on. We plan to ENJOY our retirement. I wish they could see ahead like we did

devoncat

I was like that doing my first postgrad degree. There was the time I had NOTHING to eat in the flat, so I mixed mustard, mayo, and a pickled relish thing and had condiment soup!

Then at the end of another month, I sat on the floor splitting a can of tuna with my cat! It feels really bad when you run out of cat food and cant buy more. It only happened once, and only for a day, but i still feel guilty!

I can still remember to the penny how much the graduate assistantship paid and my rent amount and that was 8 years ago. It was a struggle, still is, but worth it in so many ways.

dinkylou

I have to say that I haven't.

But maybe that was part of the problem. If I had have been in a position where I couldn't get anymore money then maybe I would have realised earlier.

Even as a student I always had access to money (credit that is) and so never got to that desperate/lightbulb point.

Wish the credit hadn't been so readily available when I was so young.

Norma_Desmond

Years ago at university I remember just having salt, pepper and a 2 year old jar of marmite in the kitchen. That was also the week that I obviously had no ciggies either and resorted to smoking a teabag. :eek:

JAMIEDODGER

when i was married to my ex husband. he is a violent alcoholic and took all the money away from me and gave me £20 per week to feed/clothe me him and 3 kids. the rest was spent on vodka. i had 2 kids in nappies. i often went 3-5 days without eating so i could feed the kids. one year i had saved a little money to buy the kids christmas prezzies, he stole all that money and went to france on a week alcohol binge. my kids were given toys by the salvation army that year (requested by the health visitor) this was not a few days of poverty, i lived with him for 4 years.

after me and the kids left i vowed no one would ever make us live like that again. i have incurred a bit of debt in the last 18 months (had to buy a car coz of my son, upgraded pc athough i bought a pretty cheap one, and done a few things to the house) i am now paying it off.

gilly41

Hi
Thanks for all the replies.
Awww Jamie you have done so well- my first hubby was a violent man so I know what sort of life you must have had. He wasnt a drinker nor did he keep me short of money(thats where my money problems started with him teaching me how to spend, spend,spend).
xxx