The worst/naughtiest thing you've done to survive whilst at rock bottom

little_pink_purse

hi
omg this is a moving post

a few years ago things were bad post hidden the phone never stopped ringing every month payday came and went we needed double the money:eek: to cover bills etc
gas elec meters always needed top up shopping was always with a tight list worked every extra shift but just could not get out the hole my son got himself a paper run 250 paper for £12.50 per week i could see a way out we phone the comany saying my son was saving for a school trip we add 1000 papers:o my hubby and i did the paper round on our days off
if any one saw us we said we were helping my son the extra £50.00 aweek was great it helped us out big time we did it for 6 months until the debt got to a level that our wages cover every thing a great way to lose weight xx

little_pink_purse

an other just came to me

more a lesson on standing on my own to feet

pre children i had a flat money was tight i was not very mse xx:o

in my fridge i had a few eggs unt milk think it as 21p smart price 1/2 loaf of bread marg in the cupboard corn flakes 2 tins of soup ad inst mash my freezer was fish cakes 6 days break fast lunch tea

my door went it was my mum and sister the had loads of bags of shopping:j
it was a saturday and payday was the next friday
they put the shopping in my fridge and freezer it was pack full we made coffee and they brought a cake it was so nice
it was time for them to go i gave the a hug i was going to say thanks when they went in to the kitchen i went in they were taking the food they had put in i looked at them
sis said she was not leaving her shooping in the car in the warm weather once there bags were full and my fridge empty my mum said r u not thinking of getting some food
that week i ate small simple meals
i never let food get that low always at the shops with the list xx

lesson dont think pepole will know you need helpxx

sparklysaver

Some amazing stories on this thread. It makes me think back to growing up, in what my mum calls the "101 winning ways with half a pound of mince" years. I don't think I had any real idea of the sacrifices they made but I certainly appreciate them now.

When I was a student, for some reason I ended up in a university-owned flat with loads of well-off kids who had plenty of family support, whilst my room-mate and I were on full grants and had no financial help from home. I have to admit that we regularly "skimmed" a bit off everyone else's food supplies. One flatmate used to always have fresh veg (in packets! :rotfl:) from M&S that she was forever allowing to go off then throwing out; we regularly helped ourselves to it so we could bulk up the packets of 15p instant noodles from the Chinese supermarket and I'm still not sure if I feel as guilty about that as I probably should!

In Scotland, Barrs glass bottles have a deposit on them and can be returned to the shop; I believe it's up to 30p now but back then was about 12p. I remember once going through the fridge & cupboards in the shared kitchen and collecting about £1.50 worth of gone-flat part-drunk bottles of irn-bru, tipping them all out and taking them to the Spar to swap for value bread, baked beans & a can of cider to share for my room-mate's birthday - heaven! :beer:

I'm yet another one who's helped herself to toilet rolls I must admit, and food & toiletries when I worked in hotels. I think the worst I've felt about being skint was when I asked my mum for a specific dress from M&S one Christmas, knowing fine well that I was going to take it back and swap it for underwear and tights because I had none that were fit to wear and was too embarrassed to tell her that's what I really needed. Still feel guilty about that.

Owain_Moneysaver

Amatheya81 wrote: »

I worked in a meetingroom venue and whenever we had clients having lunch (nearly every day) I would run in and remove the plates as quickly as possible so that I could wrap up the leftovers and take them home for dinner.

I snaffled a plateful of buffet in similar circumstances before the delegates got to it. My boss commented that the caterers had been rather mean that day. I was dreading her looking in the office fridge which was stuffed with smoked salmon. :eek:

I also substituted all the filter coffee with instant and drank the nice stuff in my office later. I don't know why, I hardly ever drink coffee anyway and an entire catering pot in an afternoon made me twitchy for about three days. :rotfl:

Uniscots97

[QUOTE=sparklysaver;46178579
In Scotland, Barrs glass bottles have a deposit on them and can be returned to the shop; I believe it's up to 30p now but back then was about 12p. I remember once going through the fridge & cupboards in the shared kitchen and collecting about £1.50 worth of gone-flat part-drunk bottles of irn-bru, tipping them all out and taking them to the Spar to swap for value bread, baked beans & a can of cider to share for my room-mate's birthday - heaven! :beer:

[/QUOTE]


Done that one! Although some shops won't give you the cash for the bottles only a discount if buying something else!

Firewalker

For several days now I have been reading this thread thinking that there is nothing like that I have ever done. Then again I was a student and...two things.

1) when there was too much month for my monthly allowance (often) I used to go and drink warm mineral water - makes you feel full.
2) have been know to collected cigarette buts from the street - I am sure that all smokers have done this one at some point.

Notyhing dramatic, though - which I suppose is not because of difference circumstances but lack of imagination.
Firewalker

*Louise*

Triker wrote: »

The story that sticks with me is fairly recent though, I was working the in court system a couple of years ago...a young lad of about 13/14 was brought in for stealing and criminal damage. He was upset and frightened and at first the magistrates were quite harsh in their questioning.
However as his story unfolded the police had found that he had stolen food from the local shop, some tins of beans, spagetti, stuff like that. When the police arrived at his address he had a fire burning in hs garden from fenceposts he had ripped out of some local fencing (criminal damage).
What the police found was that the lad had stolen the tins of food because his Mum had abandoned the family, he was the oldest, he has 3 younger siblings. He stole the food to feed them and he had made the fire in the garden to keep them warm and to try and cook the tins of food, the electric had run out days ago.....that was only a few years ago in 'modern britain'.

He was given an unconditional discharge and the court staff and police had a whip round to make sure he had a bit of money on him and the relevent support agancies were notified.

That story made me cry a little - I'm wondering what happened to them all

Thrifty_Sister

Just reading some of your stories and gone from crying to laughing like a hyena hysterically!! They say necessity is the mother of invention but some of you on here could teach some people such a valuable lesson.

Well done to all of you who have struggled and got through your desperate situations - and also to anybody who is now facing up to your own battle. I am truly humbled and will never again moan about being hard up.

20somethinghousewife

Wow I've been hooked on this thread, some incredible stories here.
I'm particularly loving all the loo roll thieves Have never done it myself probably because I vividly remember my school headmaster telling a story in assembly about how he was in a queue in the public library at the weekend to check out books and the woman in front set all the alarms off. The staff asked to check her handbag and found loo rolls they'd security tagged from the toilets! I didn't really get it at the time (I was about 11 and had a comfortable upbringing), I just thought it must have been a really eccentric woman, now I realise people actually do get that desperate.
I have bowl in my cupboard full of sachets of salt/pepper/sugar/UHT milk/sauces/vinegar that I've taken from cafes and fast food restaurants though. Feel a little guilty about that. And I have plenty of toiletries from hotels that I felt justified in taking because the room seemed so expensive.

Oh yeah and I used to always walk though Debenhams or Boots on my way to work to discreetly try out a 'tester' perfume

tiff

I'm just wondering how many of us are doing these sorts of things NOW?