Share your stories of desparation!

LookingAhead

Mrs_Sparkle wrote:

Looking Ahead I know exactly what you mean. Perhaps it was because we didn't have much as kids? I remember being thrilled to bits with black bin liners stuffed full of cast-offs from my mum's friends. Trouble is their daughters were always a few years older than me so I was always about 5 years behind in fashion. And anyone my age (35) will remember just how hilarious flared trousers were in playgrounds in the early 1980s :-(

:rotfl:

I am the same age as you Mrs Sparkle.....oh yes, flares in the 1980's were just a passport to a kicking weren't they? :eek:

However I love flares now...according to Trinny & Susannah they are great for me and my shape, and they are right! Just wish I could find them more often....

LookingAhead

Oh & I would definitely be ecstatic to see a bagful of free hand-me-downs now!

Triker

Here we go...... I have taken food out of skips, perfectly good, in date, sealed but thrown away, to eat.
In fact 'skipday' was one of the highlighlights of my benefit days. Like chrimbo only better.

Taken leave or pretended to be sick for work as had no fuel til payday.

Taken clothes out of the clothes bin/recycle thingy in a carpark to get my (then) toddler some new clothes.

Gone to the WRVS (Womens Royal Volunteer Service I think) for donations of clothes and bedding.

Used milk tokens very creatively when you used to be able to swap them for food in shops.

Written to charities to get a grant to buy a cooker. I was awarded a grant and bought a second hand cooker as I couldn't afford a new one.

Spent christmas gift money on just surviving.

Queued and received butter from the butter mountain when it was possible to get some, I think it was for benefit claimants at the time.

Lived on chappities and the cheapest margarine for days, chappaties recipe, flour, salt, water, mix, roll out dough in a circle, fry and eat.I think this is also the recipe for glue!

Always had candles and used them for when the electric used to run out off the meter and cooked (!) on the coal fire.

Always used to get to the market last thing and get the knocked down bargains and pick up veg that had been discarded.

Re use teabags.

Nicked milk off peoples doorsteps, rarely but I have done it.

Bought stuff from the ctalogue and never paid for it.

Got petrol/diesal from fuel stations and then gone in acted all shocked and had 'forgotton' my money, would pay them a few days later when I had some money. I don't know if you can still do this but many years ago I could.

I did all of the above through desperation, I am not a dodgy person but had to adapt to my circumstances at the time, which were incredibly impoverised and do you now what, I make no excuses for that.

CFC

We've lived on lentils and rice for months on end. We lived near a harbour so we used to go down when the fishing boats came in, with a few bags, and look hungry. The fishermen would give us some free fish. So I learnt to gut fish (not to mention 1000 creative ways with fish and rice, as well as lentils and rice!)

No cooker - we spit roasted our Xmas chicken over the peat fire..now that was a hoot,especially when the wretched bird (which took HOURS to cook) decided to make a suicidal leap into the flames...we retrieved it though,continued cooking, and ate it.

I had one new item of clothes in one year...nothing else, not even secondhand. I can't tell you how literally threadbare my clothes were by the time we came out of that period!

When we moved, there was no fish, but we were down the market like Triker for the discarded veg at the end of trading - best ever find was a huge box of bananas! (Lots black of course, but we wasted none. We lived on bananas that week!)

I cant top the caravan, dad and dog doo doo though - that's in a class of it's own!

Older_but_not_wiser_2

When I split from my first wife, I was practically penniless for the best part of 6 months.
Luckily for me, I worked in a place that provided three square meals a day for the "guests". Whenever I was working, I made sure I managed to down a couple of meals, and always had a free supply of cereal, which I lived off at home.
When I eventually got a bit of money together and managed to get my own house, I was sleeping on the (uncarpeted )livingroom floor in a sleepingbag for a few months because I couldn't afford carpets or a bed.

Oh, those were the days.

tired_mum

i can remember when the mortgage rate went through the roof and we had just bought our house in the 80,s my hubby worked for a large co that made ham and so on and he used to pinch the saveloys so that we had some food to eat this went on for a few months we did everything with them curried them stewed them and so on to this day i cant eat saveloys at all they just make me feel ill at the thought of them still at least we can all laugh now

wisbech_lad

Buying a catering pack of very cheap muesli, and living on that (as didn't need to pay the milkman for a month)
Showering at work, to save money on hot water
Flirting with the dinner ladies in the works canteen to get extra portions, so could skip dinner
Buying second hand shoes from charity shops (which freaked out my parents)
Acquiring a taste for offal (lamb's heart Irish stew, yum!)

Still, nothing compared to my father. He can remember dinners of boiled onions, and grew 5" in one year when he joined the Army (as was first time he got three square meals a day)

And nothing to the people I saw everyday while living in Indonesia for four years.

rog2

When we were children, my mum could make a one pound joint of brisket feed a family of eight, by carving with the skill generally reserved for the slicing of Parma ham. The dripping would be saved in a pudding bowl, and as a treat, during the week, we would have this spread on bread.
Obviously, at the time, we did not realise just how tight money was, and we saw this as normal - she raised six children and none of us were under nourished.
Anyway, I thought that those days were firmly behind us, until one day, five years ago,whilst staying in Manchester, with a workmate. With less than a tenner between us, we were advised that a pub in Dukinfield did a carvery for £3.00 and were offering a 2 for 1 deal before 7.30. Off we went and duly ordered.
This was a revelation - it was a carvery in reverse! Help yorself to as much veg as you like (choice of boiled cabage, boiled potatoes and something that looked like swede) and you went to the counter to collect your meat. The meat consisted of either beef, lamb or Cooked Chicken Roll. You were allowed 2 slices, and it did my heart good to see that someone could still slice meat like my mum did - so thin that you could see the plate through it.
We ate there for 3 days, until we got some money through. Even the locals were looking strangely at us.

DontDoDebtKids

When I bought my first flat, I used up all the money I had (and then some) so had very little extra to buy anything to actually go in it.

I managed to obtain, from relations, a small bed, some shelves and some old cups, plates and cutlery. That was it. I borrowed a fridge.

One of the few things I did buy when I moved in was a few pots of paint to paint the bedroom and a paintbrush.

So, for several months, I ate my dinner using the empty paint pot as my dining table.

I was happy. It was then I decided that you don't need stuff.

ZTD

A long time ago, I paid for accomodation, then I was a bit skint for a while. So with the aid of a deep-fat fryer (donated), a load of potatoes, vitamin supplements and buying cheap bread (which tasted vaguely of soap), I fed myself for the next couple of months.

Chips. Chips with the skins left on. Deep fried potatoes. Chip sandwich. Chip sandwich with skins left on the potatoes. Fried bread sandwich (fried bread between two slices of fresh bread). Breaded fried potatoes...

Raw potato tastes nasty though. Unless you chop it small and dry it carefully.

And to those who think we're mocking the afflicted, humour is a good way of dealing with things. Only important things are funny, that's why we have loads of spouse jokes, and virtually no ear-wax jokes.