Breakfast t.v. this morning

tessie_bear

i like growing fennel and lots of other herbs so that wouldnt be a hardship but i suppose she is finding her budget stretched...i would not be prepared to pay all that for school meals...blimey u could buy some lovely stuff for sarnies with all that

i suspect we will hear a lot of stories like this as it gets tougher for people...good luck to us all

Butterfly_Brain

I was laughing all the way through it.
A single Mum with 3 kids on an above average wage and she probably gets money for the kids from her ex plus family allowance and if she earns under £50,000 Child tax credit as well.

She has no money for the kids extra curricula activities - I never had money to give my kids willy nilly the only thing that they did was guides and scouts and I had to stop that when the subs went up.
But they had plenty of things to keep them occupied and they loved foraging with myself and DH every Autumn and still do. Picnics don't cost much and we are lucky enough to live close to some lovely countryside.

We have £14,500 coming in per annum and that is before tax and NI but we manage - It is about time those who have looked down on people like us for years have a taste of real life.

Seakay

I do think that we should be careful to criticise the tv company rather than the woman herself - she was asked to come on and answer specific questions about changes she had made to her life because money had to go further. She didn't sound especially sorry for herself nor did she claim to be actually suffering.
And there was no evidence that I could see that she was critical of or looked down on anybody. Unlike some people on this thread, to judge from the comments about her.

hilstep2000

I am on my own, and since being medically retired, living on ESA and DLA. I manage fine. My income is £8964 plus Council tax benefit per annum. I have a motability car, which is paid for by my DLA, but I often wonder how other people would manage if they had to on my money!
I have been doing this for two years now, and am really happy. I don't have a mortgage, (thanks to critical illness policy) but I do have all the other bills, but with a bit of juggling, I am fine.
People need to count their blessings!

vesper

I didn't see it. But it sounds as though some of the things she has adjusted in her life are every day normal things for me. Yes the prices have gone up on certain items of food etc, but if you are willing to shop around and use offers to cover yourself it doesn't have to be that expensive.
I tend to grow as much vegetables and stuff as I can fit in my rather limited veg plot. I live in a rented house and without taking up the lawn there isn't much room. But I don't do it just for the savings on money, I do it because I like to. There is nothing better than just nipping to the bottom of the garden to get some salad stuff for tea. I also bake all of my own cakes and biscuits as I prefer home made food.
I cut my own hair, don't get me wrong it doesn't look as good as a hairdressers but I live in a small village and the hairdressers charges £20 for a cut!!! I might as well do it myself for free.
As for lunches, I don't have children but do have a partner who used to go every day and buy his dinner while he was on the road (he's a delivery driving), not only did those meals tend to be really unhealthy mostly consisting of burgers or bacon butties but at £3-£4 a day it added up over the week. Now he has a packed lunch, at first it took him a while to get used to as he isn't that keen on sandwiches. But then saw how much we were savings as most of that sort of food I had in the weekly shop anyway for my dinner. Now he has tortilla wraps and loves them.
I would have thought that all of these were normal options in every day life.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Awwwww, bwess, she has to grow her fennel in her lovely garden. She has to pay to feed her children at school.

My heart bleeds.


Real life: you don't even have a garden because the properties with them were too expensive to rent/buy. Fennel is out of the question because it isn't available on the Aldo super six promotion at 39p. You eat carrots, potatoes and frozen peas most of the time, as it's cheaper.

You don't have cakes, cookies or biscuits, because it would cost 50p for flour, £1.09 for oatmeal, 75p for sugar, £1 for butter, £1.59 for eggs, money for electric, £3 for a cake tray, over £1 for golden syrup, etc, etc, and you can't justify the initial outlay when your kids can't remember having real chicken pieces.

Makeup is a bit of sticky lipgloss and perhaps a bit of crusty mascara. But your hair looks rubbish because the prices at the salon are the equivalent of nearly a month's food bill.

Your kids are glad they have lunch money, because the alternative is to go hungry like a lot of their friends do. They actually club together in the supermarket at 8am to get enough food for the whole group at lunchtime.

Other than that, I am sure she is suffering horribly.