I have literally no money!

brokeinwales

ms_london wrote: »

I haven't read this from start to finish, but even the few pages I've read have made me feel like there are some decent people out there! Sometimes it doesn't feel like it in 'real life'. SOOO kind of people to send you little care packages!

It sounds like you are making great progress BIW - and it is great listening to your views and ideas! Don't give yourself too much of a hard time, I guess even people who appear to have it all, may not, and if they are not happy with it all, what is the point?!

I've done a full circle on the debt front. At my highest my debt was £19,000, I paid it off pretty fast (2 jobs and a lot of sacrifices, no magic answers I'm afraid!), and became debt free in 2005. I continued to save at the rate I had paid off my debt and left to go travelling with around £10,000 saved. Spent a wonderful 2 years travelling (with some work thrown in of course!), and returned to the UK last Sep with £1000 saved..... Unfortunately I hit the recession head on and have spent 6 months of the past year unemployed and as a result am back in debt. :eek::eek: It's so hard to admit it, especially on here, but I've learnt to accept that sometimes life throws at us things that are out of our control. I was adament I would never be in debt again, would never get a credit card, and unfortunately was probably a bit cocky about it. Serves me right. :rolleyes: However, I still give myself a hard time about it, and just want to be debt free again. (I owe about £3.5K so nothing in comparison to what I did, but still enough!).

See becoming debt free as a challenge, try and get as many things for free (or cheaper than they should be) as you can. Take part in all of the challenges on here and it will soon be fun! I wouldn't have been able to do it the first time without MSE, so you are definately in the right place, although I am sure you know that by now.

Since I keep seeing 'cous cous' over and over again, I have 3 packs (so 6 sachets) of a well known brand of cous cous. Would you like me to send it to you? May be able to throw in a couple of magazines too? I really won't eat it and there's no point it sitting in my cupboard gathering dust. PM me

Reading this thread has motivated me to become MSE again, I really have been slacking in a lot of ways lately!

xx

Wow, I'm glad I motivated someone! In turn, knowing that someone else has managed to pay off all that debt makes me feel as if it can be done.

debt_free_me

I just found this thread and started reading it and then realised how many pages there are! lol. Don't think I will get time to look at it all today but I reckon there will be lots of good tips. I think, as someone said in the first page, this could (or maybe is already) a really inspiring thread and could be kept going with lots of hints and tips for mega frugalness!

Reggie256

Some Salvation Army corps offer free food parcels to those in need.

The corps local to myself certainly helped me out in a big way - I'd just (involuntary) moved out of my former home, where I'd lived with my now ex-wife, and though managed to find a room to rent in short order, the deposit and first month's rent left me absolutely broke. The food parcel that they gave me was a godsend!

brokeinwales

Hi all,
Well. Today is payday!!! (it's actually two days early because of the weekend admittedly).
I've had a rotten stressful week with things going wrong and making mistakes at work, so I'm treating myself to some strawberry jelly tonight (19p for a whole massive bowl full of sweet gooey stuff seems like a pretty good deal to me. And making it makes me feel like a kid before a birthday party!) and a bath.

But I am OK. As I said, I'm already better off than this time last month. And I'm MUCH better off than this time two months ago.

The sewing machine is absolutely amazing. I bought myself some remnants from the fabric store last week (about £5 for eight fat quarters of good quality printed stuff) and a bit of wadding and started making myself a couple of cushions. Some of them are a little wonky, but I turned out to be better at it than I thought - so it's something I want to continue with.

I guess soemtimes I end up feeling so completely useless, and like I'm not really any good at anything because I have no special skills, and am embarrassingly bad at a lot of things (like, anything to do with numbers!) - if I can do something on my own, in private, that I'm actually OK at, it really does boost my confidence, and I end up feeling a lot more positive in general about all the other stuff in my life, including money - does that make sense?!

I also had a browse around a fashion fair a couple of days ago - lots of small clothing businesses, selling vintage stuff, handmade stuff, one-off stuff like corsets, jewellery and the like. Have this seed in my mind that one day it's something I'd really like to get involved in. (that's probably a long way into the future yet.)

I emailed shelter, and unfortunatley they can't help me - they recommended a few other places I could go though, so I'll have to see if any of those are open at sensible times. (Why does the CAB open at such crazy times? Surely it'd be more useful to open on a Saturday, when most "citizens" are about? This is a big bugbear of mine - stuff being open only when most people are at work - doctors, banks, libraries....)

lauraj87

Only found this thread today and have been reading through it and I have to say, it's brilliant!! I will come back here if I ever find myself in a bad situation, I hope your situation is getting better by the month BIW

losethedebtlou

Hiya, I have been in this situation before and the only thing that saved me was to sell some unwanted clothes on ebay, I put on a couple of tops and made a tenner then when it hit my account I went food shopping! Also if you lost books on Amazon you will be suprised how much money you could make, I make £50 this month doing this.

Also, I used to eat cereal for tea as I run a lot and found I wasnt hungry afterwards maybe you could try this!! Have a look on the reduced shelves in supermarkets and find out what time everything gets reduced aswell so you can be first there! Value products are the other thing, own brand stuff, dead cheap! Good luck

Lou x

brokeinwales

Hiya, I have been in this situation before and the only thing that saved me was to sell some unwanted clothes on ebay, I put on a couple of tops and made a tenner then when it hit my account I went food shopping! Also if you lost books on Amazon you will be suprised how much money you could make, I make £50 this month doing this.

£50 a month?!!!! How much stuff did you have?!

Unfortunately all the stuff I had that was likely to find a buyer was sold lonnnngggg ago. I own virtually nothing of value since splitting with the ex (a few valued books, a handful of favourite CDs, bare minimum of clothes...)

I just wanted to report though, that I managed to help someone else out myself yesterday - browsing freecycle, noticed someone wanting an exercise DVD (I know the routines and techniques well enough now not to really need a prompt) - so I've given mine a good home!

I'm getting a little frustrated right now. As mentioned before, I don't have many friends locally, so I'm kind of eager to take up any social invitations. Unfortunately, half the time I can't afford to!

At the weekend, bf asked if Iw anted to go along to a friend's birthday meal, I said I'd be happy to go along, assuming it'd be a local Indian somewhere, £10 a head or whatever and I could just drink tap water. Found out yesterday, we're actually talking about one of the swankiest places in town, circa £40 a head without drinks. There's no way I can even think about spending that kind of money! That's more than my monthly grocery shop on a single meal! It's not even an option...

Also I have a friend back home, who earns around the same as me, but lives in a far cheaper part of the country, and is , shall we say a bit "flippant" about money (I may not always have been the most savvy person, but even I know that you can't do three holidays a year without running into troubleunless you're on really big bucks) - she keeps suggesting things we ought to do over Christmas, expensive nights out, meals, theatre etc - as well as pestering me about booking a weekend away in the spring "to give us something to look forward to" - and what with my train fare to visit parents and all the other extra expenses even a budget Christmas involves - I just can't afford all this. But she seems to take my lack of interets as not wanting to spend time with her (as she sees it, you can get flights and accomodation "really cheap" so I should be able to afford it even if I'm skint.) - really tricky situation. I don't have a problem with treating myself a little, or budgeting for a small amount to allow for fun with friends - something small once or twice a month like Orange Wednesdays at the cinema, or getting a cheap bottle of wine to share is kind of fine now I'm starting to get back on my feet - but these big extravagant events are more than my tiny budget can handle!
I'm sure you're all familiar with the whole peer pressure to spend thing - I really don't think other people understand just exactly how little disposable income I have!

And on top of this - it's my birthday in a couple of weeks!!!

Anyone have any ideas for really free or cheap things to do to null the pain of being a year older?

euronorris

Hey BIW!

Just wanted to say I understand where you are coming from with your friend. I think we've all known people like that along the way.

It's frustrating as you DO want to see them, but their idea of being skint is very different to ours. When I say skint, I mean that I have no money. I'm sure that's your understanding too. But I have one friend in particular who's idea of skint means that she still has money to get her hair and nails done, eat out for lunch every day and go out every weekend!

It was very hard for her to understand that my disposable income was much, much lower than hers. In the end, I just kept suggesting that she come round to mine with a bottle of wine and we could have a girly night in. At first she resisted, but she came around in the end.

Don't give in to the peer pressure and don't feel bad about it either. Your friend is still caught up in living the high life, but she'll soon realise that it doesn't matter what you do together. It's spending time together that is important!

It's also my birthday in a couple of weeks, well less than that now (gulp)!

Do you have the space to have a few friends round at your place? You could suggest that they each bring a dish with them that they really love/really good at making and then you can all dig in together with some wine. Maybe get someone to bring a retro board game that you can play? Will be super cheap but still fun

redsquirrel80

euronorris wrote: »

Do you have the space to have a few friends round at your place? You could suggest that they each bring a dish with them that they really love/really good at making and then you can all dig in together with some wine. Maybe get someone to bring a retro board game that you can play? Will be super cheap but still fun

That's a great idea. Or if you really want to go out have a look at the restaurant deals on here to see if you can get a 2 for 1/ 50% off offer...? http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/cheap-restaurant-deals
Keep an eye on the free cinema tickets thread to see if there's any on or near the day? http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=606589 and there's some other cheap cinema ideas here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/cheap-days-out
What about getting a make-up counter makeover, maybe with a couple of friends.. is free, feels like pampering, and even if the result looks like clown make-up it's a giggle

I've suffered with the same problem with friends - my two closest friends earn more than I do (one of them a LOT more) and have next to no debt, and I find it hard to keep up to their level with nights out etc, don't see them that often so feel under pressure to splash out when I do. Luckily though I've found that bargain-hunting can be infectious so once you start talking about how much you've saved on things, it can rub off on them and you have joint missions to have as cheap day/ nights out as possible.

brokeinwales

Do you have the space to have a few friends round at your place?

Hmm tricky - unfortunately all but one of my friends lives a few hundred miles away, so the logistics of getting people together is a bit awkward. Was thinking I'd quite like to just do quiet meal with bf, but be nice if Ic ould think of something special to do for me (Incidentally the idea of doing make overs and nail painting on bf is very appealing but I'm not sure he'd go for it!)

I was sure others would've come across the other-people-encouraging-spending thing. Sometimes it can be simple just to say "oh can we come to mine for chips and beer" (I have one semi-local friend with whom this is a regular monthly fixture), but with others they really make you feel like everything you do has to be a major event - and if it's someone you don't see often, or a special occasion like a birthday or engagement party, it's difficult to say "oh I can't afford to come" without offending people (I think some people perceive it as being tight if you won't fork out to attend an event they've organised.).

I also find, because I'm a long way from friends and family, they don't take into account my travelling costs. The special birthday theatre trip may only be £15 (which I could probably stretch to with a couple of sacrifices), but my train fare to get there could easily cost £30 or more, especially if I only get a week's notice!

It's re-assuring when you can think "Oh well they've got a car and designer clothes, but they're probably in loads of debt so I'm better off really." - but when it's someone you know full well has savings in the bank and can still afford to spend like it's going out of fashion, well, that's just annoying!

Ho Hum.... maybe one day I'll earn £30k a year and I'll be annoying too....