Its a wonderful life... Want to try.....?? A Single parents View.. !!xx!

missk_ensington

Call me cynical, but I'd like to see how long the girl stayed in the job for. For all we know she may have jacked in after the cameras stopped rolling.

£90 for a coat!!!! God I moaned like hell for about a month at paying £35 for a long winter coat from Matalan! Some people think it's ok for them to have a few nights out, and I don't necessarily disagree (although didn't watch the programme so don't know how often these occurences were) I bought my house in April/May and the closent I've got to a night out since April was 2 glasses of wine at the local pub on May Bank Holiday (costing £1.50 a glass) because I was saving every penny for conveyancing fee's and doing up the house!

Yes I am going stare-crazy! The point is, is you're really determined to do something, achieve something you would sacrifice everything even if it meant not going out all year. They should have lessons available for young people who are, dare I say it, without a solid education in things like mortgages, interest rates, bank accounts, investments, ISA'a etc etc etc. IN fact they should give these lessons in school instead of the crap they taught us about bloody Citizenship!

Edinburghlass_2

MORPH3US wrote:

Forgot to say, after watching the programme last night, there were a few things I wanted to comment on:

1. Noticed that the girl brought hovis bread, branded cereals and wore designer clothes - myself and my gf are on nearly £20k a year each and we can't afford branded cereals and bread and other foods etc. We also don't buy designer clothes. Most of my clothes come from Tesco, Asda or Matalan.

2. I laughed when she was looking at the £90 Firetrap coat in House of Fraser. Again, myeslf and GF could never spend that much on a "fashion" coat!! And there she is saying "I don't think its overpriced" ?!?!?

3. I would give great credit to the girl who got a job at the end of the programme. To be prepared to work even though she would only be £40 a week better off gives her great credit! Its the governments fault here though and you can understand why most people like that wouldn't work their !!!!!! off for the extra £40 prefering to stay at home to watch Trisha!!

You obviously missed the bit in the shop where she said she couldn't afford to shop there I obviously missed the bit where the designer labels of the clothes they wore were hanging out or the bit where they said they did buy their clothes.

Do you live in a house that is so damp that all packets etc fall to bits because they are so wet Perhaps a decent loaf of Hovis bread is money saving in that it will last longer in that damp.

The programme I watched showed two lonely girls trying to do the best for their kids with the limited funds they had.

looby75

missk_ensington wrote:

Call me cynical, but I'd like to see how long the girl stayed in the job for. For all we know she may have jacked in after the cameras stopped rolling.

£90 for a coat!!!!

Thats a bit harsh, can't you just give the poor lass a break for at least trying to work. It may not have worked out, we don't know but at least she gave it a go which is more than some young mums do.

As for the £90 for a coat, she didn't buy it, and was never intending to, she and her friend were doing a bit of fantasy shopping....something that I do from time to time when I'm skint. It's nice to think "maybe one day"

missk_ensington

looby75 wrote:

Thats a bit harsh, can't you just give the poor lass a break for at least trying to work. It may not have worked out, we don't know but at least she gave it a go which is more than some young mums do.

As for the £90 for a coat, she didn't buy it, and was never intending to, she and her friend were doing a bit of fantasy shopping....something that I do from time to time when I'm skint. It's nice to think "maybe one day"

Fair enough, we all do a bit of fantasy shopping from time to time but I can't help thinking that if you were to go back now she'd have jacked the job in. If I was being filmed for a programme as a single mum and I wasn't working, I would get a job too so that I didn't come across as a scrubber on National Primetime TV.

In fact my Mum would have said 'they're going to try and make you out like some dosser so make sure you come across as half decent, go and get a job and make it look as though you're really trying'

You underestimate their intelligence.

Edinburghlass_2

ah yes, you were one of the people who watched the programme

astonsmummy

viktory wrote:

It was an interesting programme - but the only purpose it served was to entertain. I would have loved greater explanation as to how one of the girls (sorry, don't know which one) could go from £110 to £35 after housing costs. That was very misleading as it made it sound like her housing costs were £75 per week and the posts from single parents on here have demonstrated that they are nowhere near that high. I actually muttered out loud that they should have given us a SOA!

I think you'll find she said after housing costs she'll be £40pw better off - which sounds about right to me.

**purplemoon**

MORPH3US wrote:

1. Noticed that the girl brought hovis bread, branded cereals and wore designer clothes - myself and my gf are on nearly £20k a year each and we can't afford branded cereals and bread and other foods etc. We also don't buy designer clothes. Most of my clothes come from Tesco, Asda or Matalan.

What a ridiculous statement!!! So you're saying that you earn £40k a year between you and can't afford to buy a decent loaf of bread or box of cornflakes??? Don't make me laugh lol :rolleyes:

How do you know she didn't buy the bread at reduced rate from local shop? Our corner shop is always selling Hovis bread at about 35p a loaf when it only has a couple of days sell-by left. Kellogs often do promotions on buy 2 boxes of cereal for £2 or similar too, so what makes you think the girl even paid full price for either of these things? If that's the best you can do to pull her to pieces then I feel very sorry for you :rolleyes:

Oh and no, she wasn't wearing designer labels, she even said her jacket cost her £15 from her mates sister, or did you conveniently forget that bit!

viktory

Scarlett1 wrote:

First point is that you didnt get off you're butt to do anything with you're life until you're husband came along, so you did not do it own you're own merit, and with due respect if someone has a partner to share the childcare and bring an extra wage home it enables them to go on a build a life that they want.

I actually have more respect for the single parents that go out out to work and build a life for themselves on their own back and not wait for a man to come along before they do it.

Not all single mums are from gym slip back grounds, a lot of us actually worked from the age of 16 upwards until we had children so I can agree with some of the points you have made above.

I am not entirely sure why you are worrying this like a dog with a bone, but I can assure you that the fact that I met my (now) DH did not make any difference to the fact that I went to college and then began full time work. The timeline of my post on is not an exact one - I could have posted that I went to college, then met my (now) DH, blah, blah, blah. The fact is that I did go to college etc etc. And I can assure you I did it off my own bat.

You have made lots of wonderful assumptions in your post above - like the fact that my OH was working, shared the child care etc.

I would respectfully suggest you leave this alone now. I have made my point and do not need to justify myself to you or anyone else.

astonsmummy

MORPH3US wrote:

Forgot to say, after watching the programme last night, there were a few things I wanted to comment on:

1. Noticed that the girl brought hovis bread, branded cereals and wore designer clothes - myself and my gf are on nearly £20k a year each and we can't afford branded cereals and bread and other foods etc. We also don't buy designer clothes. Most of my clothes come from Tesco, Asda or Matalan.
quote]

If you cant afford to buy branded cereals on a combined income of £40k then u must be going wrong somewhere - i am a single parent - work 22 hours a week, get no maintenance from DS dad, have a 2 bed HA house, run a car, buy clothes (ok not designer but decent stuff usually asda, or next for DS and new look for me) and go on nights out from time to time.

£20k pa is double what i get for me and DS so basically u get 3 times more money than me and r complaining?

viktory

Scarlett1 wrote:

I privately rent so have a top up, and my water rates are £30 per month, would you like to put you're SOA so we can compare

I could but will decline. As everyone else on this forum has the right to do. I wasn't intentionally being nosey and apologise to anyone I have offended by asking, but I was interested in comparing how the benefits stack up now compared to when was a claimaint all those years ago.

Let's not forget that the original and subsequent posts were all in relation to how single parents struggle on benefits. It is therefore quite logical to ask how much they actually have to manage on.

You are another poster that seems very defensive for no apparent reason. I have made my feelings quite clear in my previous posts and see no reason why I should continue to defend my point of view. We are simply covering old ground.