Stories of being absolutely skint!

spinningsheep

I have only once been in that position of being truely truely skint and it was the worst time in my whole life that I would never want to repeat. I wasn't talking to my mum and stepdad, which is so ironic as nowadays we have the most fantastic relationship. I had nobody to help me, I was out of work, could not afford to pay my rent, was totally off the rails ( I did things to try and make ends meet that I am not at all proud of, I won't go into details but I mean rock bottom). In the end I ended up doing a moonlight flit from my flat after hiding from the landlord for weeks and I stupidly found a way to get money to do a ridiculous exit to Tenerife for a better life so I thought. I would buy postal orders from the Post Office with my cheque guarantee card, knowing the cheque would bounce, but I would then go to the next post office along and cash the postal orders. Wrong, illegal and so so stupid but I did it all the same. The money did not last long, I lasted about 2 weeks in Tenerife, living in a "residencia" I think they called it, was like a basic B&B, I survived on Pot Noodle, and when I was unable to find a job at all, I thankfully had kept my return ticket and came home to nothing. No posessions, no money, nowhere to live and at the time no family to turn to. I ended up in Blackpool, living in a B&B, doing a few dead end jobs in bars and a cafe to earn just enough to pay for my room, until I realised I could not carry on the way I was and I contacted my family. They came to Blackpool to pick me up & I set about rebuilding my life and our relationship and I have vowed to myself I will never ever lose sight of what I have in a fantastic family. I always keep full cupboards and a full freezer, and I am totally OCD about keeping a nice, comfortable, clean house, as to me now, it is a sign of to me of what I have achieved in comparison to what I was just 13 years ago. I have never told anyone the full story, my friends, parents, nobody, and I suppose they just see it as I am weird as to how much I hoover, clean etc:rotfl:

SailorSam

Reading this thread has made me think, do you think we should have a collection for Martin, he's down to his last £87m

missindecisive

really, really interesting thread to read!! Its made me realise a couple of things...

1. I am a lucky lucky person having a roof over my head, food in the cupboards and that we have a regular (although average) income.

2. when my friends bleat on and on about being skint and worrying about money, then a month later I hear they have booked a holiday, they have bought a newer car, they now have an ipad or a new mobile on a contract, im just not going to listen anymore, I will switch off ! SKINT? they dont kn ow the meaning of the word!

Uniscots97

GeeBee38 wrote: »

Hi thank you sweetilemon, no, don't have a cc, glad in a way, hey thanks but don't worry, i'll struggle through, i have been through worse, just very fed up when i posted..shouldn't have really, but never mind

Thanks for the advice and help :-)

If you can't post when you're down its a sad day, we're here to help. I have in the past been known to scour (sp?) bins for the glass bottles that you get money back for, this would at least give you enough to get some of the cheap noodles. What do you have in your cupboards?

shelley_crow

missindecisive wrote: »

really, really interesting thread to read!! Its made me realise a couple of things...

1. I am a lucky lucky person having a roof over my head, food in the cupboards and that we have a regular (although average) income.

2. when my friends bleat on and on about being skint and worrying about money, then a month later I hear they have booked a holiday, they have bought a newer car, they now have an ipad or a new mobile on a contract, im just not going to listen anymore, I will switch off ! SKINT? they dont kn ow the meaning of the word!

:T:T:T:T Spot on! I was talking to my one of the mothers at the school my son goes to. She was telling me how terrible their financial situation is and it did sound quite worrying. Then her phone rang and she whipped out her brand new latest iphone and proceeded to tell me how much she paid per month for it :eek: On the next day, she uploaded some pictures of her and her friends on a night out in an expensive club with a drink in each hand. Madness!

GobbledyGook

missindecisive wrote: »

2. when my friends bleat on and on about being skint and worrying about money, then a month later I hear they have booked a holiday, they have bought a newer car, they now have an ipad or a new mobile on a contract, im just not going to listen anymore, I will switch off ! SKINT? they dont kn ow the meaning of the word!

I do have to bite my tongue at the school gates sometimes when I hear people complaining about being skint. Especially when the ones who are moaning are inevitably the ones who have no clue about being truly skint.

One of the worst culprits for it is currently having to plan "cutbacks" due to losing her child benefit. Her "poor, poor boy" is going to have to decide if he wants to do football, swimming, horse riding and gymnastics each week or if he wants to do football, swimming, horse riding and judo because they just can't continue with the same amount of activities when losing the CB. I know it'll be tough, but I'm sure the wee lamb will cope somehow!!

Nottoobadyet

When I was a young foreign student in the UK, I was working for small company to pay my way. It was just me and the owner, who lived a bit of a high life and regularly *forgot* to pay me for a week or two. There were many moments of me dropping into the bank to withdraw cash as the machine wouldn't spit out bills small enough to fit within my balance! Luckily the house I was boarding it was just by a big estate, which had a sommerfields selling kidney beans for 6p a can or so, and I could survive in relatively good health on those and rice.

Has nothing on most of the stories here. These days I live in Uganda in steady employment and modest comfort (shared house, savings account, not living the crazy expat life more comfortable that I would be on my salary in London) surrounded by millions of people living hand to mouth, or aspiring to it. Makes you thankful for the humanity of the welfare state.