Dispatches, Christmas on Credit. Watch it on 4OD

Snooze

PasturesNew wrote: »

No, PN would say: and what if you had a disaster the week after the first one? When you're poor disasters happen more often because everything's a disaster.

The minute any crisis hits, if you spend what you've saved, then you're exposed for the next one. OK if your disasters are evenly spaced, or your access to goods/services is local etc, but for some people, some of the time, things just come in 3s.

So not simples.

How much would a fund need to be?

I think you're being a bit over-dramatic here PN. It's highly unlikely that your washer would pack up at or around the same time as, say, your cooker - both of which are pretty essential items.

As to the size of the fund it obviously depends on your lifestyle and how many people you need to 'cover' for, ie. if you have kids then your emergency pot will need to be bigger.

R

LilacPixie

I found a laundrette price list for a place in Dundee, up to 8kb self service was £4 dryer 5 mins per 20p. Easily a family could be shelling out £20 a week only doing the basics.

lostinrates

Snooze wrote: »

I think you're being a bit over-dramatic here PN. It's highly unlikely that your washer would pack up at or around the same time as, say, your cooker - both of which are pretty essential items.


R

You know, I always find thats exactly how things go tits up. All at the same time, or in a steady, unrelenting flow...when you are at your lowest. When everything is fine, everything goes right. Funny that.

PasturesNew

Two random price lists for laundrettes, plucked from the first results in Google:

http://www.driffieldlaunderette.co.uk/Laundryprices.htm - a large machine £6, a dry £2.

http://www.123cleaners.com/Laundry/Launderette-London/ - seems to be same price as above.

moggylover

wageslave wrote: »

abaxas, what bliddy planet are you living on?

Ok, lets pretend i am a single parent, three kids, living on a sink estate.

The days when my family all lived within walking distance are long gone. My friends are in no better position than i am. I cant borrow from them and i certainly cant haul my two loads of washing over to theirs every day and expect them to do it.

I would end up buying from somewhere, anywhere that would sell me what i needed and i would worry about paying for it later.

That's the reality for the poorest amongst us. It may not be your reality but unfortunately it is theirs.

Walk a mile in their moccasins and then see if you are so dead set against paying something up at a fiver a week.

Well said!

moggylover

PasturesNew wrote: »

I didn't have a washer until I was about 30, never had a drier.

I think mine cost me about £200, which at the time was the cheapest new machine available ... I got rid of it 17 years later and it was still fine, I was just moving but had no need for a machine as I had no idea where I was moving to even.

If I were to buy another machine, I'd be spending about the same again, expecting it to last for life pretty much. http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&q=%22washing+machine%22&scoring=p

My current washing machine was about £240 some 28 years ago! It has been repaired only once (touch wood) in that period (about 18 months ago when the brushes finally wore out) despite heavy use and I dread the day it packs up because the repairman assured me that NONE of the new machines (including the "top of the range" prices) would last anything like that length of time:D. Next time you buy one be prepared to throw it out after 8 to 10 years maximum!

PasturesNew

Snooze wrote: »

I think you're being a bit over-dramatic here PN. It's highly unlikely that your washer would pack up at or around the same time as, say, your cooker - both of which are pretty essential items.

As to the size of the fund it obviously depends on your lifestyle and how many people you need to 'cover' for, ie. if you have kids then your emergency pot will need to be bigger.

R

What about heating packing up, then the car going wrong? Those two can easily happen. Then you have a blocked drain.

I had a blocked drain once, spent £300 before it was fixed.

Right now my own car needs: service (not been done for 2.5 years), windscreen picked up a stone chip last time I went out, one tyre needs replacing urgently and the brakes nearly failed the MoT in April so probably need doing now.

It's not just cookers/washing machines that break - it's other stuff too.

Snooze

LydiaJ wrote: »

Abaxas, I admire you for getting yourself sorted from beginnng as homeless at 17. But at least when you are 17 you presumably only have yourself to worry about. Imagine finding yourself suddenly single with 3 kids when their dad decides to shack up with some other bird. They are at school. You are expected to pay for their uniforms, shoes, etc. You can't send them out to work in a cotton mill with no shoes on at the age of 7, or even to get a job as an office boy at 14, as poor people in previous generations would have been forced to do. You are expected to wash their clothes frequently. It wasn't just the poor being sewn into the underwear for 6 months; the middle classes did much less washing than would be acceptable now - it was standard for men to have a clean collar every day but a clean shirt only every other day. The dad has scarpered with what little money you had together (or spent it) and although he is supposed to be paying you maintenance, he doesn't. All three kids grow out of their shoes within a few weeks of each other, needing not only school shoes each, but football boots etc for school as well. You have just about managed the shoes when the washing machine breaks down, and three weeks later the fridge conks out too.

I've never bought anything on HP and hope I never have to, but if I was in the situation of my hypothetical desperate single mother, I don't see that I'd have any other realistic option.

It's actually me you're referring to. I know exactly the situation you describing as I went through it many times with my single parent mother and brother. School uniforms and clothes were hand-me-downs from others and I could regularly be found in sewn repaired or patched clothes that I'd ripped when out playing . I could go on, mentioning stuff like shared bath water, ice on inside of bedroom windows in winter, Christmas presents comprising only a couple of items that wouldn't have cost more than about £20, but I'm sure you get the picture.

Whenever I go to see my Old Dear she's always saying about how she 'regrets not doing more for you when you were growing up' in terms of giving gving me more 'stuff' but to be honest it never really bothered me and it's certainly not done me any harm later in life now - in fact if anything it has helped me as I learnt to save for stuff I wanted/needed just like she did. I say 'did' as obviously it's now my time to look after her and I'm constantly in trouble for buying her stuff that she could have only dreamed of when she was bringing us two up.

R

moggylover

You know, I got about half way through this thread and decided that there were still too many of the same old "if they are poor then they should have nothing" crowd around!

Christ! I know I am a grumpy old cow today: but I am so mightily sick and tired of those who think they are somehow "better" because they have more money, and those who think that only their way is the "right" way!

I don't usually give in to such feelings: but right at this moment I wish a poverty stricken Christmas, New Year and future on all the smug, arrogant and self-satisfied!

I find some of the comments on this thread totally sickening! I shouldn't be surprised by it: I have been around MSE long enough to know that there really are some totally inhuman posters hereon!

LilacPixie

PasturesNew wrote: »

What about heating packing up, then the car going wrong? Those two can easily happen. Then you have a blocked drain.

I had a blocked drain once, spent £300 before it was fixed.

Right now my own car needs: service (not been done for 2.5 years), windscreen picked up a stone chip last time I went out, one tyre needs replacing urgently and the brakes nearly failed the MoT in April so probably need doing now.

It's not just cookers/washing machines that break - it's other stuff too.

I agree I have has a nightmare the last 3 months or so. Heating started playing up, new valve needed then washing machine died then MOT on one car , needed a suspension spring, the other car got a puncture which is bad enough but when checked 3 tyres were actaully below legal limit so 3 tyres needed. All since October.