Things you've done when things got desperate!

GirlRacer_2

Reading through these posts made me realise that I really am an amateur!!!! The worst thing I've ever done in my desperate days was buy shopping on a Saturday and paid by cheque knowing it wouldn't clear before my pay went in on the Wednesday.

LookingAhead

GirlRacer wrote: »

The worst thing I've ever done in my desperate days was buy shopping on a Saturday and paid by cheque knowing it wouldn't clear before my pay went in on the Wednesday.

That's a regular thing in my household...I pay by cheque every week to eke out the overdraft as long as possible! :eek:

Mrs_A_4

"hey did anyone do the cheque and post office trick?? omg. I used to take a cheque there and they would just give me the cash for it?!?!? who's idea was that? They eventually took my card and cheque book off me of course!! but as a crazy student I enjoyed that, but not the charges that came with it ha ha"

Ahem.. did it on Friday... Well, OH starts a new job next week and I get paid tomorrow!:eek:

webitha

ive done the whols sanitary/loo roll trick on many occassions,
i also have when i was really skint put the hot water into the coffee jar to make a brew as it was the really cheap chicory stuff that went hard
ive gone without food when DS (now 8) for 2 days living off water to give me that 'full' feeling whenhe was about 2
ive also kept xmas prezzies back for birthdays and vice versa, and one really bad year i could afford them anything so i pretended some prezzies were off me, ive also 'borrowed' birthday and xmas monies off them
ive also gone to work early to use their showers and took a flask with me and filled it up from the free vending machine, also had free canteen (very big firm)they kept my food supply going in fact for the 9 months i worked there i never paid a penny for food /cleaning stuff coz i nicked that as well
still fill heinz and hp bottles up with the cheap stuff they still yet to notice lol

heather38

have hand washed all my clothes in fairy green soap in cold water in the bathas i couldn't afford soap powder or the launderette or hot water.
ex bf uncle worked for the leccy company and he used to take pity on us and give us free leccy cards for the meter, as we had no heat or light (we spent a lot of time in bed !!)
have used loo roll as sanitary pads as well.
and my most shameful moment is when i picked up a bottle of 6 plus calpol off a shelf and took it to customer service and said i had got the wrong one and needed the baby one, and they swapped it! my ex b/f neice was really ill (we all lived in the same house att) with a cold and we couldn't afford any medicine as it was a saturday and the dr's was closed.

ginger_rabbit

When i was a kid my mum used to water down gravy and pour it on bread for a meal, and if we was really good she used to melt suger on bread under the grill and make 'suger toast'. Used to have our hair washed with washing up liquid, in the kitchen sink. Them were the days.

Tetsuko

I've tried to rehydrate dried onion in mug of boiling water hoping that it would make a kind of oniony soup type thing, when I had no money to buy food and that was all I had in my cupboard.

I've also had to pop into pub/shop toilets to pinch toilet paper to use for sanitary protection.

I've dug up all the dandilion roots up in my garden because I read somewhere that you could make coffee with the roots. Don't do it, it's Manky. *bleugh*

I've ignored my banks letters and phone calls to the point that they started stalking me on my mobile and ringing me on a daily basis because I couldn't (still can't) afford to pay my overdraft back >.<

I used to sleep on the floor in my living room because I couldn't afford to heat the whole house. I still couldn't afford the bills and they cut me off when there was snow on the ground and my son was still toddling. Yes British Gas, that's why I won't take your blooming gas now however cheap you try to make out you are. grrrrrr

emmajon

Some of these are so funny, when I was at college I couldn't afford a nice pair of manicure scissors which I needed to have an intimate trim prior to a hot date - I went to ask advice of my friend who after rummaging about in her flat returned with a pair of wallpaper scissors, we sterilised them with boiling water and I went to work on "mowing the lawn" but unfortunately they were rather large and I cut myself! Ouch - and blush blush - can't believe I've just confessed that!

stalemango

Have done so many things to avoid spending any money. Between the ages of 21 and 24 I was on job seekers allowance/income support with major depression (~£195 a month if you're under 25, more after you become 25); after monthly bills and the fact that my housing benefit didn't cover the full amount, I had ~£70-75 a month in disposable funds. Living in London, I learnt how to be utterly ruthless at not spending those funds.

I have never paid for a toilet roll in my life - I have used serviettes from McDonald's, pulled the entire toilet roll out of a dispenser in public loos for use later, taken them from my parent's house etc.

I have grabbed free samples and toiletries from hotel rooms (that my parent's were staying in).

Transport - the London Underground did paper tickets before Oyster and I would pick up used tickets off the floor until I found a valid travelcard; now I know every station where there are no ticket barriers or staff so I can tailgate people through the barriers. Also Oyster used to charge you the minimum possible fare if you touched in at one end but walked out of an unbarriered station at the other end - so of course I used to exploit this. Also early on in this post someone mentioned the permit to travel scheme - travel late enough or walk to a small rail station where there is no ticket office and there will be a permit to travel machine. But in 5p and if a ticket inspector gets on the train they can make you pay your fare, but they can't fine you. I have ruthlessly exploited this rule, and hidden in toilets to avoid ticket inspectors, or seen one coming and moved into a more distant carriage, then got off the train at the next stop in order to walk along the platform in the opposite direction to the one the inspector was advancing along the train in, just to get back on the train behind them.

I have picked my bus fare home out the water features at Trafalgar Square.

I have gone home to visit my parent's for things like my sister's birthday and they have said they will pay for my ticket (~£40). Then I have booked a return coach instead for as little as £2 in order to show a profit. And whilst I was there I would swipe toilet roll and food that they rarely ate so they wouldn't notice.

I have worked in the gas and electricity industry and our meters are indoors, so I have routinely lied about the meter reads because I know how to keep these corporations at arms length.

If I am going clubbing I will start getting mashed before I arrive, and down vodka just before arriving at the door, so it hasn't kicked in as I sweet talk my way past the doorman.

I have recycled presents between mutually exclusive groups of family members and friends.

I have gone round the supermarkets and shops looking at prices and calories, working out the most calories per unit currency in my food and only selecting those options.

Basically I have done everything imaginable since graduating at 21, and in that time I have managed to totally avoid burdensome debt. I have never had a loan, mortgage, credit card or store card (other than my student loan, which is charged interest at the rate of inflation and they never demand payment for anyway) and when I graduated I had zero funds left.

Gorwel

My friend and hubby took in a (male) lodger to help their desperate financial position. The men were burger,chips and beer guys but she was the 'knit your own muesli' type. She was obsessive about breast feeding so fed each of her 3 babies on that alone for 6 months. Her spare milk she froze and the guys refused to have cereal as the jug on the breakfast table could quite likely contain not just cows' milk......... for up to 2 years after the birth!!! She weaned each baby on slushy Kwiksave 'weetabix' mixed with breast milk and wheedled an old banana or apple out of the greengrocer at closing time to puree with sachets of free sugar from cafes.