Stories of being absolutely skint!

daisiegg

annie_d wrote: »

I recall in days gone by that my children couldn't go to school on "Wear your own clothes day" in their own clothes cos I didn't have the 10p each they needed.
I also remember wearing my nannas old open toed sandals with my husbands old socks over plastic bags on my feet taking them to school!!!! This was in the late eighties.
I never let go of how thankful for all I have now. X

This has reminded me of being a little girl (in a town in Essex that was then quite poor) and seeing two brothers that went to my school, at the shops at the weekend. They were wearing their school uniforms even though it was the weekend. I asked my mum why and she said they must have no other clothes. That has really stayed with me. We never had a lot of money growing up (my mum talks of being the only mum at the toddler group not to have a cup of tea as she couldn't afford 20p for it - this was in the 90s) but we had clothes and food and heating and toys and really as children had no idea that we weren't the richest people in the world. I couldn't comprehend how these little boys at my school had ONLY their uniforms, no other clothes. It's sad.

Hootie19

My mother in law told me that she and her brothers used to be really excited when they'd get home from school and find that they were having fried onions for their tea. To them it was a treat!

She said it wasn't until years later she realised that it would have been because her mum had no money to buy food and had take advantage of their next door neighbour's offer to "help yourself to anything from our garden, because we always grow too much for just us".

I count myself incredibly fortunate that I have never known poverty - either as a child, or as an adult. If anything, the posts on this thread is a good lesson that "there but for the grace of god, go I".

ikkle87

When I was 16 and could no longer live with my parents I moved in with my now Ex. He had originally been paying rent but the house developed problems and the LL just gave up. I was still studying and had little money and his work was contract based and could be busy one week and quiet the next.

Like I say the house was going down hill. There were no carpets, it was all the black plastic underlay stuff. We didn't have a bed we had a single mattress on the floor which we shared. There was no cooker, washing machine, fridge or heating. As things worsened the house suffered from subsidence, we could stand in the bedroom and look down at the floor and where the floorboards were coming away from the wall you could see the path outside. We didn't have much money at all, and it cost a fortune for me to get from Bradford to Leeds so I could study and work. I ended up ill and in hospital having an operation, when I finally got out it turned out some family had popped down to the house while I was in to see how I was, they had seen the state of the place and so my exes dad gave us a bed and my mum bought us a combi microwave for xmas and one of the lads from OH's work got us a 2nd hand fridge that had a little freezer shelf at the top. That was definitely the best xmas ever. After my operation I gave up college and started to work full time, we could eat and cook, eventually we found somewhere nicer and I've never looked back, I'm so grateful for everything I have now.

pinksk8

Really enjoyed this thread.
My mum brought us up to be quite the little MSE'ers! Though she does despair at the money my brother blows on his daughter, we got one pair of shoes each in September to go back to school, and mum told us if they get ruined, you'll be wearing slippers for school, they always lasted the year! My niece must get new school shoes every few weeks!

gibson123

Gobbledygook, I mean this sincerely and sorry if it sounds patronising, but your courage and strength is humbling. many people would just have crumbled and followed the path of their parents.

I was a pretty child, all black hair and big eyes and my Mum would send me to the co-op with too little money for the shopping list, the shop-keeper would feel sorry for me and say, get your Mum to drop it in later (later being friday), we never went hungry, but I do remember that if my mum opened a tin or soup then another tin of water went in with it, and her home made soup was mostly split peas and potatoes and we had lots of it, the first time I had new clothes was when I was 12 and lied about my age to get a saturday job, before that they were hand me downs from cousins. I loved when my Aunt who had 4 daughters would bring a big bag of clothes, it felt like Christmas.

my most skint was when I first left home and had to pay two months rent at once, I did not have any pots or pans and lived off instant mash and gravy granules, and bread that I toasted using an iron. I found 10p down the side of the couch (the flat was furnished) and went to the butcher to buy two sausages!

Norma_Desmond

The only time I've been absolutely penniless was when I was at university - I remember sitting in my damp bedsit with precisely 4 teabags and a pack of bacon that was a month out of date.

I was so desperate for a ciggie that I smoked 2 of the teabags. .

GobbledyGook

Gibson - that is a very kind thing to say, and not at all patronising.

At the end of the day I was one of the lucky ones. I was just short of 7 when my Grandparents (mother's parents) decided that enough was enough and decided to fight our parents for custody of us after one incident too far.

They didn't have a lot of money and we were hard work for them, but after that we had a relatively normal life. We didn't see much of our parents after that. My father I've spoken to three times since then and I saw my mother maybe a dozen times at most before she died when I was 14.

I was always adamant that I wanted my children to feel loved, because that was the one thing that I always remember. As it was it took a number of years for my exH and I to have children and we needed fertility treatment. I had PND after my first was born and that is when I had a lot of counselling and done a lot of soul searching about parenting (theirs and mine).

wdyw

Artytarty wrote: »

Slightly the other way round but still interesting I hope:When my grandfather was a little boy attending an Irish country school he used to hide his shoes in the hedge on the way to school so he wouldnt be the only boy wearing shoes.

My grandmother and her siblings had to do the same. I knew nothing about it until my cousin mentioned that our grand mother had shown her the hedge where they used to hide their shoes.
(Co Monaghan).

GeeBee38

I am working for an agency, i get work one week then nothing the next, at the moment i have 25p in my purse until payday next friday, i have an interview on wednesday but will be unable to attend as i havent got the train fair to go, catch22, so sick of it, don't know how much longer i can live like this, well, it's no life really

Bitsy_Beans

miss_hh wrote: »

I can remember as kids not having any milk for our cereal so we use to have to go out and steal the neighbours occasionally which we diluted with water so it was enough for the four of us!

My mum would make me weetabix for breakfast as a child and it would be made with boiling water and a tiny splash of milk to colour as they couldn't afford the milk. I didn't know any different and it was only when I was at work making it the same way that people were horrified :rotfl: I actually can't stand weetabix made with nothing more than warm milk.....tastes vile

The other things I remember we're when my dad lost his job my would get the previous weeks supermarket receipt and using those prices to work out what she could actually afford to buy out of the small budget she had.
They also brought carpet from the old house we lived in and relaid it in the new house, in patches because they couldn't afford new carpet.

I live in luxury by comparison :o