debtors going without food.

lemonjelly

Lights fuse & steps back.....

Apparently people who are in debt are going without food, fuel or heating in order to pay off creditors. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8355815.stm

Do you agree? Is this what is happening?

I'll await commenting on this until tomorrow. I'll let you lot have fun with it for now...

abaxas

lemonjelly wrote: »

Lights fuse & steps back.....

Apparently people who are in debt are going without food, fuel or heating in order to pay off creditors. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8355815.stm

Do you agree? Is this what is happening?

I'll await commenting on this until tomorrow. I'll let you lot have fun with it for now...

So let me get this right, people are complaining because they've had their jolly and now cant afford food.

Unless they have somehow been conned, why should we care for other's stupidity. They will at least learn a lesson from it and can hopefully work themselves out of the situation.

PasturesNew

I think some may be ... but if you inspected their spending then you might find they are mostly over-exagerrating... maybe saying £200 for food for one person/month is what they want, but they're left with just £70 so having to go without. Whereas it's achievable to eat for £70.

If I give you £10 for food this week and you blow it all on chips for 6 nights and have nothing on the 7th night... have you gone without food? Yes. But was that poor planning? Yes.

The DFW forum here sees these sort all the time.

PasturesNew

"Lone parents had an average debt of £19 for every £1 they earned, "

That would mean they earn £10k and owe £190k, or earn £20k and owe £380k. Something's wonky there.

abaxas

PasturesNew wrote: »

I think some may be ... but if you inspected their spending then you might find they are mostly over-exagerrating... maybe saying £200 for food for one person/month is what they want, but they're left with just £70 so having to go without. Whereas it's achievable to eat for £70.

If I give you £10 for food this week and you blow it all on chips for 6 nights and have nothing on the 7th night... have you gone without food? Yes. But was that poor planning? Yes.

The DFW forum here sees these sort all the time.

Agreed, food is cheap. Infact good food is cheap. Meat isnt though.

Local green grocers has 10kg of pots on for £2. You have to wash them yourself, but still, cheap as chips/baked/mashed :P

bendix

abaxas wrote: »

So let me get this right, people are complaining because they've had their jolly and now cant afford food.

Unless they have somehow been conned, why should we care for other's stupidity. They will at least learn a lesson from it and can hopefully work themselves out of the situation.

The CAS report says nothing but bland platitudes. How do they define, going without food. It's a meaningless statement, unless it's placed in a proper context. What else are people spending their money on in place of food? Booze? Cigarettes? Lottery tickets?

Nice headline - no substance. A CAS pr dream.

StevieJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

"Lone parents had an average debt of £19 for every £1 they earned, "

That would mean they earn £10k and owe £190k, or earn £20k and owe £380k. Something's wonky there.

Maybe most don't earn anything and only receive benefits

lostinrates

Active_X wrote: »

no empathy

actually, I think that is rather a symptom of types of autism, a type of which PN has.


As regards food: as with all things there is somewhere in between extremes of lavish eating and eating stale bread. whoopsied fruit and veg is very cheap but demands frequent visits to the shops. Not possible if you are working and have small kids. Freezers make it much, much more possible, batch cooking etc.

Some of the old style feed your self for (very little) threads are not how I would like to eat but if it were that or nothing , or more importantly in kids bellies, it would be that.

carolt

Actually, I think the article is perfectly possible.

Not everyone has a cash pile to fall back on, or family or friends to sub them if they get into debt. Paying for basics like accomodation, on top of debts taken out in the 'good years', ie when those concerned had jobs and/or could get 0% finance to pay off those debts, is very expensive. If those rates have now gone up to 20, 30% or whatever, and those same people have less/no income to pay for it, they could well be going without essentials just to meet the minimums.

Maybe, instead of laughing at them, we should applaud them for trying to meet their debt obligations, rather than just going bankrupt and dumping it all on the taxpayer to pay off.

If we hadn't had family who helped us/savings to use up, we would no way have been able to afford the basics when we first had kids (admittedly, days before working families' tax credits, etc). We both worked, but at that point, had incomes just above the cut-off points, so got no help whatsoever.

Our salaries may have risen, but I know that for those just starting out, or whose salaries are lower, or who have been made redundant, living off credit may literally be the only way they have to stay afloat.

They deserve our sympathy, not our scorn.

lostinrates

Stay_tonight_in_a_lie wrote: »

I say he

Agreed to the rest. lets move on.

But there are lots of very nasty women about. People: gan be better than you thought, and the contrary. You never know where you are with people Emotionally that is, as opposed to geographically. As silly as I am I usually know where it is I am while being silly.

Pobby

I wish i could recognise writing styles. No idea who it is.

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/study-analyzes-food-waste-in-britain/

This shocking and I believe the average house hold wastes about 20% of their food.