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

mr.brightside87

aintshesweet wrote: »

I used to check lockers at the gym, trolleys, and phone booths for coins. Sometimes I'd find £5 - £6!

Condom machines in pubs are a goldmine. People pay with notes and forget the change either because they are too drunk or just want to get horizontal with someone.

DarnIt_3

I thought of my mum when I saw this thread, she crept out in the middle of night when we were younger to a neighbours garden and dug up all his vegetables just so we could eat!

My worse thing...shoplifted, never got caught but the OH was at uni and we had a baby I was on maternity. Baby needed to eat and I would do it again if I needed too! I was to proud to ask for help!

ThinkingOfLinking

Mags_cat wrote: »

Living away from home for the first time also resulted in the invention of "gunge" - mashed potatoes, fried onions and baked beans, all baked together. If we were flush, there was grated cheese in it too. Still make it now :rotfl:

That actually sounds really tasty...I'm going to try it!!

ShAnE

aintshesweet wrote: »

As a student I was so determined to be independent I never asked my parents for money. They paid for my tuition and rent but I covered everything else (phone, electric, gas, water, food... etc). I managed to live off £3000 a year (the max loan I could take).

This is so easy to do as a student. I have friends who are proud they survived on £3000 a year with their parents paying rent.

While the rest of us survived on £5500 a year paying £350 a month rent plus bills.

ArseandElbow

My worst habit when absolutely skint was ignoring the train guards collecting, I'd just put my headphones on and close my eyes. and then if I was asked for tickets on home journey's say I got on the last stop to save me the fare. Though now I buy monthly tickets not ever a problem.

Also I try to be honest but I have found money on the floor and left in cash points and just kept it.. felt a bit guilty about that.

I've had to ring into work ill because no money to get into work.

A nice low point is having to walk a 12 mile round trip to get my last £30 out of the bank as I couldn't afford bus fare to the branch I'd forgotten my pin number and and was overdrawn in another account so couldn't move money there. The local branches had all closed, I tried ringing them explained the situation to see if thye let me take out of main account by dropping the O/D (as they were charges anyway) and I was told only thing I could do is go to branch..... cue several hours walking in the sun (prob only warm day of the year) 2 mins in branch got money out, decided to walk back to save bus fare. I almost passed out through dehydration as I the last 3 miles were all uphill and had massive blisters all over my feet at the end of it.

SUESMITH_2

this thread is giving me a lump in my throat.

when we were really hard up i would feed 4 of us on a tenner a week. our families never commented that we appeared at mealtimes and they too used to give us food they thought needed eating up (actually we all knew it was cos they were worried how we would eat). searching the car in case we had dropped any change.

the worse thing i ever did? prob when i paid in cash and they gave me £5 extra back in my change, only a fiver but it meant we ate better that week - still feel guilty.

lowest ever was when the bank took more off me in charges than i earned so that month we had no money at all and nothing in the cupboards. a friend found out and took me shopping so we could eat that month.

things much better now, my cupboards are stuffed so full they won't shut properly and i think it comes back to the worry about feeding us and knowing that if the worse came to the worse we would still live

John_Pierpoint

ArseandElbow wrote: »

My worst habit when absolutely skint was ignoring the train guards collecting, I'd just put my headphones on and close my eyes. and then if I was asked for tickets on home journey's say I got on the last stop to save me the fare. Though now I buy monthly tickets not ever a problem.

On the line now known as C2C there is a more robust attitude to fare dodgers.

I've seen youths trying to "do a runner" wrestled onto the concrete.

Some bling designer clothed youth tried to do the "I've fallen asleep" trick, while wearing headphones loud enough to waken the carriage.
His feet were kicked until he "woke -up" and displayed a total lack of remorse or intention to pay the penalty charge.

He thought he had got away with it until the train stopped at an out of the way station (where it was not scheduled to stop) and the driver and guard chucked him out to try and make arrangements when the next train came along in an hour's time.

Late one night, when inspectors are usually tucked up by their fire-sides, a woman dressed as a medical worker genuinely had fallen asleep. The inspector woke her up.
Late at night it was possible to put any coin into a machine next to the stairs and get a "permission to travel"; this was a back-up to the unreliable ticket machine.
The technique was to produce a battered fiver when questioned and explain the machine refused to accept it. Then trade in the the 10p permission to travel. Of course the permission-to-travel said it was a concession and should be presented with the missing fare as soon as possible.

The startled exhausted female worker scrabbled to find her permission to travel - unfortunately she had been doing this for so long she had got blas'e and produced yesterday's permission-to-travel. Her second attempt produced half a dozen permission-to-travel chits.
Unfortunately, I had to get off and never found out the conclusion to the:
"What have we here. Let us see, that will be a £10 penalty for today's attempt at fare evasion , £10 for yesterday's, £10 for Wednesday..............." discussion.

PeterJohnson

I do several things to help me as times always seem hard. I always charge my mobile at work. Go to the in-laws for tea as often as I can and as I travel a lot in my job to pubs, cafes, restaurants etc they always offer me tea and coffee! I push it now and ask for hot chocolate

LittleMonkey16

Some of the stories on here really put things into perspective. I have always felt really bad about writing cheques that I knew would probably take me over my agreed overdraft. I catastrophise to the extreme, and I don't think I'll ever get over thefear that one day the police will show up and arrest me for fraud. It was just food, and the cheques were always guaranteed so the company got their money, and the account in question turned into a debt which I calculate I must have paid back doublr what I spent by the end thanks to interest, so in practical terms the onlyreal loser was me. It still terrifies me though, to the point that I often suffer anxiety attacks at the sound of the doorbell or the telephone. I thought that when things were better (which they are now) that would be it, but I'verealised that I'll never truly be free. My financial past has literally ruined my life, and despite being debt free and able to afford to eat and live if not comfortably then at least without deprivation, I would say I consider suicide as much as I did when I owed the money. I can't see a way out at all. This is why I am so very passionate about personal financial management being compulsory at secondary school- I knew nothing of this when I left for university, and I would sweat and bleed for just one chance to make different decisions. And that's a sad way to feel at 26.

There are clearly some deeply awesome parents on this board, incidentally.....

ruby_eskimo

I would like to say I truly admire everyone here! I have never personally been at that low a point yet but I know people that have. Their stories and yours make me scared of what could happen if I'm not careful.