Share your stories of desparation!

Janey51

I don't know if I dare post this.
When I couldn't afford to buy some new knickers, I pinched some out of the linen store on the elderly care ward where I was working.
Well, they were clean. Just had the name of the hospital stamped on the back.

In_Search_Of_Me

chucckled at some & felt sad at others but humor does get you through the hard times. I remember when we were homeless & my mum scrimped & saved for a new duvet & cover for Christmas. Meant so much to me. Eggy bread brings back memories & my mum making it all seem like an exciting adventure when I am sure it was sheer hell for her at times!! Possibly remembering is also why she has been so amazingly fantastic in supporting me through the last few months...couldnt have done without her & you lot!

Mrs_Sparkle

LookingAhead wrote:

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

Blimey, me too! I wouldn't turn my nose up at a good rummage through someone else's cast-offs...

Yep, flares are the right shape for me too. We were just ahead of our time weren't we :rotfl:

Montymoo_2

asda 8p curry noodles mixed with 9p beans at uni also me and my housemate counted out 200 1p coins onto the counter of our local to buy a packet of 10 fags as we had decided we deserved a treat

MoaningMyrtle

I'd like to add that this thread is the best I've read in ages, it really demonstrates the strengths and ingunuity we somehow find when we hit the tough times doesn't it?

It's a great example of an on-line community forging close bonds and gaining inspiration and support from others wisdom and experience. <<<Hugs to all the people who have weathered the storm or are still in the midst of it all>>>

joannasmum

In 1996 when DH was at uni and i was earning a pittence we had a month where all my wages went on paying the bills and rent. Fortunately we had £2.64 in coppers in the piggy bank. I remember going in Aldi and buying tinned toms, beans, eggs and bread we had rice and pasta in the cupboard that did us for the month. We had no money for extra electric or gas so we just went to bed early :rotfl:

QueenB.

I am not sure when i felt/was at my worst.

What immediately comes to mind is when i was 17. My OH and i and our daughter became homeless and where moved into a B&B, the kind i still have nightmares about, a flimsy lock on the door, drug users, drinkers, fights you get the picture.

We where on benefits but it was practically nothing and i was still going to college each day, walking 4 miles there and four miles back as i couldn't afford the bus.

Anyway, the place had no cooking faculities, no fridge nothing. The guy who ran it wouldn't let us use his kitchen and we where left with trying to find a way to feed our child with barely any money and no way to store or cook. I brought packets of the dried vegemince which can be cooked with hot water and some tins of smash. My college lent me a kettle to boil the water in for the mince and smash and we lived of that for over six weeks. It was awful but we got on with it.

Then when we got our flat we had nothing, my daughter was given a bedroom set and carpet but we had nothing and could afford nothing (pre CC days) I remember the health visiter coming round and me saying sorry as i had no furniture and she would have to sit on a cold floor on a cushion, she was so understanding but i felt so ashamed.

Yet when i look back i see that as how it is when you start out and we moved on.

Now i feel worse as back then we had little and struggled but anything we did have was ours and we had no debt. Now as much as everything is payed for it is falling apart and we are in debt up to our eyes to the point where once again i can't really afford carpets without putting them on the CC, and there have been many times in the last couple of years where i have gone without food and ate whatever the children have left as we didn't have enough to feed all of us. Personally i think i am worse of now than i was back when we had to live of kettle made mince and smash. I certainly feel more ashamed than i did then.

Really loving all these stories, there should be a chapter in Martins DFW book full of these stories.

Hootie19

cathybird wrote:

I do have a story actually, I was so broke once that I nicked two toilet rolls from the loo where I worked, but then replaced them a week later after I got paid, with the new ones a nice soothing shade of bright hot pink that stood out like a sore thumb against the regulation white of most of the loo paper ... everyone who used that loo must have thought, "someone is bringing in this weird toilet paper, why???"..... anyway, I don't know which is sadder - nicking loo paper (pretty damn sad) or replacing it afterwards (kind of sad too, really)

I did that this week (I am mortified). But the accounts are all empty, and unfortunately our bowels aren't (oooh, tasteless remark). I'm not sure I'll be replacing it though - it would be just my luck that I'd get caught putting it back!

Thank goodness both my husband and I get paid on Friday.

Snaggles

Hootie19 wrote:

But the accounts are all empty, and unfortunately our bowels aren't (oooh, tasteless remark)

But funny! :rotfl:

(I'm sorry, I'm a 30 year old woman with the sense of humour of a 12 year old boy lol!)

KittyKate

Janey51 wrote:

I don't know if I dare post this.
When I couldn't afford to buy some new knickers, I pinched some out of the linen store on the elderly care ward where I was working.
Well, they were clean. Just had the name of the hospital stamped on the back.

I once sewed my knickers back together when they literally wore apart at the sides..oh the shame! I also regularly wore two jumpers, a scarf, a hat, gloves, snuggle socks, in the house, with a duvet wrapped around me rather than turn on the heating!