What's the naughtiest thing you've done at your most skint?

jaffacakegal

I_Should_Be_So_Lucky wrote: »

However, when people/stores are chucking out perfectly edible food that has just gone past the sell by date, I don't think there's anything wrong with raiding the bins. If you work in a store/restaurant there's nothing wrong with taking left overs home rather than chucking them in the bin. When I go out for a meal I collect all the uneaten bits of meat etc for the dog.

P.S. I don' t have a dog.

I ALWAYS take all the leftovers home when my (large) family go out for a chinese banquet! Have chinese ever meal for 3 days but it saves me money!

I watched a program on BBC3 the other night re Freeganism (rummaging in bins for food). It shocks me how much perfectly good food is gone to waste when so many people are going hungry.

Also walking round Sainos the other night saw them throwing all the fresh bakery produce in bins - makes me sick thinking about wasting food!

Possibly the reason why I have a weight issue :rotfl:

regret70

jaffacakegal wrote: »

Possibly the reason why I have a weight issue :rotfl:

You should join my diet club, guaranteed weight loss in 1 week haha :-)

Amatheya81

When I was living in a bedsit that was only just big enough to get a bed in and struggling to buy food I would take left over sandwiches from work. 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.
We also had the key for the chocolate machine, just in case something got stuck... It's amazing how much you can remove from those without the vendor noticing.

geoffky

I was unemployed in the early 80s and got a interview down in dover working on the cross channel ferries.I hitch-hiked down there and was over the moon to have passed the interview and asked could i start in 3 days time...
well it was winter and there was no way i could hitch-hike back up and down and then go to work.So i spent three winter nights sleeping rougth in Dover and will never forget it..i asked the police for a bed for the night at one stage..got told where to go.

I remember asking a takeaway for any scraps they had and getting refused..i have never been so low in my life as that time and i was once stranded at a airport with no money whatsoever for four days until the company i worked for worked out they had flew me to the wrong country..i was meant to be flown to costa-rica instead i was flown to Puerto rico..It was a living nightmare..

lottieholder

I love this thread . I too have liberated loo rolls, also paper napkins and paper handtowels to use as loo paper.

Didn't think I'd ever go back to those days but I'm rapidly approaching them at the mo and back on here to work out how to prevent it.

I've picked sweetcorn, kale and spuds out of fields, legal stuff out of hedgerows (blackberries, elderberries etc). Can't remember ever doing anything worse.

Been living off Nectar points for the last 2 weeks. Payday on Friday thank goodness :j.

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!