The £40k family

Becles

I married my first husband in mid 90's.

We had a WWII utility furniture bed, wardrobe and drawers donated by my Gran. A small dining table and 2 chairs donated by my Grandpa. A TV donated by my Nana, and we couldn't afford a sofa so we borrowed my parents picnic chairs

The engagement and wedding presents were all useful things like towels, kitchen essentials and garden tools.

jellyhead

we still use other people's cast-off furniture lol! yes i suppose there was a different standard of living when my great-grandparents were having their large families. i don't even know one person who shops in charity shops, it was the norm when my parents were clothing us. the woman who used to run a second hand baby equipment and clothes shop now sells new because she said there was no market for second hand prams etc. as everyone buys new now?!! i buy off ebay or out of the paper but don't know anyone else who would. i think my 'standard' of living is fine though.

Bogof_Babe

My mum (90) still talks about "giving away" something that is basically only fit for the bin - e.g. cardigans with holey elbows. We laugh about it but I am sure it goes back to the old days when things were recycled more down the social ladder.

I dread to think what finds its way into those charity black bags that get left nearly every week - the other day it was nearly an AA (Automobile Association) book from 1987 and a Daily Mail book of crosswords, which had nearly all been filled in! Erm, mum, I don't really think they will be suitable for passing on :rolleyes:.

She means well!

jellyhead

awww, bless :-) when she lived through the war other people would have been glad of them though.

Austin_Allegro

Bogoff Babe, tell your mother to keep giving her clothes to the charity shop. Stuff that isn't good enough to sell to the public can still be sold to the ragman.

And I'd never throw away a cardie with holey elbows! A couple of suede patches would cover those nicely!

VickyA_2

Our dining table and chairs were from a friend when they upgraded, our sofa had been in my boyfriend's family for YEARS (and is a sofa bed, so quite good when people are staying over), wardrobe was from his sister when she bought a new house which had built in wardrobes, tv was unwanted when his gran moved into a nursing home (because of electrical testing), plates and mugs we've only just "upgraded" from family mismatches to an IKEA "set".

And we're perfectly happy, thank you very much.

Downsizing__for_sanity

This thread really seems to have got a bit emotional in the middle! My mother is one of a very large Irish Catholic family (don't ask - in the high 'teens!) All of the children either work or are married and bringing up families, and in total the children and grndchildren make a HUGE contribution to the country's economy, some now have their own business, some in the Armed Forces, health professionals etc. I think the main point I'm making is that ok, this woman is living off the state, but a) Is anyone saying her doctor was lying and she doesn't really have arthritis? (Slander surely!) and b) Does anyone know how expensive it really is to send children to full-time childcare? Unless you have afantastic job, you'd often be better off and happier as a stay-at-home mum.
c) Who says the children will all be layabouts? Personally I've noticed that many kids from large familiies strive to do well - must be the competition between siblings to be noticed.

Finally, the Daily Mail can be very biased. If you've ever done a media review of their stories over a month or so there is often a theme - Poor women having too many babies and being a drain on the state, "rich" career women not having enough babies and suffering infertility because they're not pregnant and barefoot by the age of 30!

Rant over!!

DFS

IvanOpinion

Why is it large families relate to a 'good catholic family' or a 'randy sex starved protestant family' ??

Ivan

jellyhead

lol! i agree about the daily mail slant on things. also we don't know if this couple have always been on benefits or if maybe the hubby had a job at some point but gave it up when her arthritis got too bad for her to be a full time mum. i still think she should have stopped having children when she became too unwell to look after them though.

ceebee_2

Considering the other side of the argument, shouldn"t we be looking to blame the beaurocrats who "framed" the benefit systems. It seems as though Mr./Mrs. Scoot are only claiming that to which they are entitled.
Surely, all families receive Child Benefit.
Surely, Income Support is assessed.
Surely, Rent free accomodation and associated Council Tax Rebate is also assessed.
In terms of compulsorily limiting the number of children, should that number be ONE, as was in China? If not, how many?
Certainly, the vagaries of the parents should not be visited on the children.

In case you were wandering, my family were so bad, the travellers used to complain about us to the council. (JOKE)