Totally broke ...........

dazza.mk

MrsBartolozzi wrote: »

If you do find some loose coins I'd say DON'T put it in the Coinstar machines - they take at least 7% profit just for counting, and for you every penny counts!

Agreed do some of your shopping at Tesco or Morrisons. (Newer) Tesco self service machines & Morrisons Self Service machines have got a bit you can effectively pour the money in (Don't know about Sainsburys)

chocsessential

If you have a load of mixed coins it can take ages to accumulate enough to separate them into bags to take to the bank. In a desperate situation I would rather lose a little bit of commission in the Coinstar machine.

nat21luv

mark1e, ive been there before but i had a child to feed too. luckily for me my son had free school meals and went to family for a few days so i know he got fed really well whilst i, on the other hand, ate 1/2 cup full of rice a day! i lost my job and had bills to pay and a very persistent landlord who would come into my flat to demand money from me! i became very withdrawn and depressed, it got to the point where i struggled to even get up in the morning and was scared to leave the house. i didnt have the internet at the time and it would have been a lot different for me if i did, i would of been selling anything that wasnt strapped down!

anyway, glad to hear things are improving and keep us informed.

nat x

Mel1979a

How about going door knocking offering to wash cars?
You could easily get £3-£5 a time??

plattinum

I pop to Tesco just before it closes, and often pick up loaves of bread for ten pence, and mini quiche for five pence, also worth a shot if you have one nearby.

mark1e

Hi Plat - thanks - thats what i did last night - have to go after 8pm for this sort of stuff round here

kaywantsapug

mark1e wrote: »

Thanks for your messages - good to know there is some support out there. The good post was the Sainsbury's change - managed to get £4.74 there so that was something. Rang the JSA for emergency funding but hopefully I might get some money in before Wednesday. The max funding I could get was £40 repayable over 3 weeks, but they couldnt post me a giro, I would have to collect in person - which meant more expense so given up on that one. Have managed to sell a couple of things on ebay so maybe end of next week will be better. Sorry havent posted before - have been in hibernation trying to dissassociate myself from my problems!

Didn't want to read and run. I've been in this situation many times and its not a nice feeling. I have two young sons and this week we have had no money whatsoever, no gas, we've had to eat whatever was in the freezer and 9p noodles. Thank god for an electric oven.

What annoys me is that when you need to contact the jobcentre you either need to ring an 0845 number or actually go in to them. Ok the crisis loan number is free but theres so many questions on what you spent your last payment on and its degrading makes you feel worse. Then you have to go and collect it! How do they expect you to do all this with no moeny in the first place.

And other peoples views of skint are so different. My friend and her husband were moaning a few weeks back as they only had enough money to shop at a cheap shop and couldn't pay their sky that month. She also only had £30 to take out for a night out with her friends. I was fuming inside as £30 is alot of money to me.

Sorry I'm rabbiting lol. Hope things get better soon for you.

Poosmate

Hi Mark, hope that little bit of cash has lasted and hope it's not too long before you get something for the ebay stuff. Only a few days till you get your next allowance now.

Do you have access to a garden that maybe you could plant some fruit n veg? I know it's not going to help you now but may help you out in the future if you find yourself in this situation again. If not, you could register on a site called http://www.landshare.net/index/ as a grower. Personally, I'm carp at gardening (I should have bought a flat, even leaves blowing off trees frighten me in the garden! lol), anyway, I'd love to grow my own so registered and got a few responses. None were suitable but my neighbour is now taking over use of my garden and when she harvests she will leave some produce for me as "payment" or "rent". It's a great idea when allotment plots are in such high demand and low supply. Free food! Yay!

If you don't have tools/seeds you could always try freecycle or ecobees for them.

My family know I am always "poor" so come Christmas and birthdays (they always ask what I want!) I always ask for what I call "an aid parcel". In these "aid parcels" I usually get a jar of coffee, soap powder, washing up liquid, bleach, shampoo, soaps, box of chocolates, cat food (I don't eat that - it's for my cat, Poo), toilet rolls. Basically, just loads of household stuff. It means my wages goes a bit further (can pay a bit more off my debt!).

I am currently trying to buy a little extra long life food each time I go shopping, spaghetti, pasta, noodles, tins, cup-a-soups, rice etc, so that if need be I can go without food shopping for a month, or maybe more! I use the cup-a-soup with the spaghetti to make spagoup - it's well cheap and more filling than cup-a-soup alone.

Hope that helps some, good luck,

Poo

sweetilemon

On that note it depends where you stay but if you live near woods or a park or anything you might be able to get some apples or berries. Worth a try it's free and leaves you the rest of your budget to buy carbs to keep you full. Hope your getting on ok.

danielle1977

I live near junction 28 on the m1-have some jobs you can do-cutting grass, cleaning cars-will pay and give you dinner.

Thinking back to one of the apprentice series' have you tried knocking on doors asking for car cleaning/grass cutting jobs? In January when it snowed some lads went round my grandmas area offering to shovel snow, she made them a cuppa and paid them, then it snowed again and 2 days later they were back (and she paid etc again)