Things you've done when things got desperate!

JCD_Capulet

When I was 16 and working full-time with OT (on a £2.10ph wage!), I was supporting my mum and I was the rent and council tax payer at home. Money was very tight indeed! Nearing christmas I'd go to the local shoe shop and ask for a few shoe boxes. Then I'd go to the pound shop (then known as 'Krackers') and spend about £15 on various small cuddly toys, games colouring books ect. I'd put all the things inside the shoe boxes, wrap each box and leave them under the tree for my little sister who was seven at the time.

She LOVED her mystery box presents! Although it was one, two or maybe sometimes three boxes, each was crammed with little suprises. I did the same thing for a few more years after that, popping in little things like small silver stud earing sets (£3ish from argos) and little makeup samples and fashion jewlery on sale in Claires Accessories.

I think it was only just this year as she turned seventeen that she told me she'd love another mystery box for christmas!

Mrs_A_4

Pretty much everything on this thread is familiar to me. Thank goodness I'm not alone...

A few months ago I had £6 of Clubcard vouchers and no money. Literally nothing (except credit cards that wouldn't work) in my purse.

I bought a massive basket of Value stuff, cleverly calculated to come to £6 as I couldn't add anything to it. When i got to the till it came to £5.80 - I thought I was sorted, until the checkout woman pointed out that the till wouldn't let it go through unless it was the full amount of the vouchers. She suggested I buy some sweets or something for the difference - they only had sweets for 22p and I didn't have the extra 2p...

All this time the people behind me in the queue are giving me funny looks, while I try to pretend I'm normally rolling in it but have left my change purse at home. Eventually the till lady took pity on me, and lent me the 2p difference so it would go through.:embarasse

SO humiliating! Here's to the future!

Sea78

do_it_today! wrote: »

This is a brilliant thread it also makes me realise how abundant and lucky I am! Which Im grateful for

Can I second this! I might moan on about stuff but this thread makes me grateful for all I have.

I remember my mum once showing me the contents of her purse (4p) and saying that we were going to have to make the best of it - I think I must have been about 7. We had fun making concoctions from what was left in the house to eat. She managed to clear a lot of debt that year - we shopped at kwiksave (when it was cheaper) and watched the pennies. Shame the lesson didn't stay with me.

115K

I agree about realising how much abundance I have in my life - even when I feel like I am cutting back I still have very good lifestyle really. I have been feeling deprived lately but now feel guilty reading other posts.

Reading through this has made me laugh out loud especially x-mas present of origami instruction kit :rotfl:
Keep them coming...

GirlRacer_2

I agree with 115K and sea 78 here. I thought things have got desperate on times but after reading some of these stories my desperate times were not desperate at all.

I must say though these stories have made me laugh.

jackieb

This was about 18 years ago. My eldest son was about 4 and my other one was a baby. It was Sunday and we were having beans on heels for dinner (couldn't afford a loaf - only had the heels left). I didn't have any myself as there was only 2 heels, one for my 4yo and one for my OH. My sister phoned later that day and just happened to ask what we'd had for dinner and I burst into tears. I felt so bad for my son, not for myself. By the end of that day, my sister, my mum and my mother-in-law came round with shopping and my cupboards were full. I got called daft for not telling them.

That was our turning point. My husband was working, but he was a fisherman, and if they didn't make anything we didn't get any money - only a £100 sub from the skipper which had to be paid back the next trip. We didn't get help with the rent or anything, as my OH was classed as self-employed (which was stupid!)

Dh has never been unemployed since he left school but he gave up this berth. He couldn't afford to work. It's hard working on a boat for 7-10 days with nothing to show for it. He got a place on a Yopper scheme. We had to be on benefits for 6 months and he wasn't allowed to get a job while he was training onshore. When he finally went offshore he got £10 a week extra, on top of benefits (£70 odd a fortnight for a family of 4!) for 12 weeks until his training period was up. From the beans on heels incident until he started getting paid properly we got groceries every week from my sister, mum and in-laws.

My sister and her dh still get a laugh about the beans on heels thing. It's funny now but it wasn't then!

Kaz2904

That one made me cry. It's hideous when you just have nothing to feed your children and have to give them the crappest food ever.
I made stir fry and pasta once with a couple of carrots peeled into slivers and the stalk of the broccoli peeled into slivers. I emptied all the scabby end bits of the pasta bags into the pan and we had different types of past and just eked it out between ourselves.

savvykaz

jackieb - sorry for my ignorance but what are 'heels'?

wherediditallgo

I think heels are the backs of the bread, the slices at each end of the loaf that are really thick. We call them "breadbacks".

rev229

heels are the bread crusts at either end of a loaf.