Things you've done when things got desperate!

rls1973

:rotfl: this thread is great

many years ago, used to share a flat with my best friend, it was above a mini-supermarket

her brother worked in said shop, and of course one of his duties was to sort out the "out-of-date" food each day and sling it in the bins out the back. which was where we had to walk by to go in and out of the flat. you know what i'm going to say........when we were desperate (which was most of the time) he would sort it into a separate bin liner for us, sealed at the top, and arrange it artfully on the top of the big dumpster. when the shop shut, we were to go down and get it (not stealing, it was being genuinely thrown out)

oh what fun we had, taking it in turns to give each other a leg-up to reach in, keeping a lookout for people passing by and all that :rotfl:

and occasionally picking up the wrong bag in the darkness :rotfl:

another similar thing was, my then boyfriend worked for a skip hire firm and one night there was a fire which gutted a shop in the next town. (i'd better not name it cos i don't want to identify anyone!) the then boyfriend was despatched to go and deliver/collect several skips to clear up some of the mess

not everything was ruined, but all the stock had to be got rid of for health and safety reasons etc., so a lot of the stuff was fine and we got him to bring us that too. we lived off that for about 6 months, we had about 30 tins each of soup, beans, about 15 blocks of butter, all sorts which i can't remember now, a lot of which we could freeze so it was great. (when you'd wiped the soot off , obviously:rotfl: ) strangely though, all the best food and booze had been 'disposed of' by the staff before we got a look-in, shame!

i've got to say, we are both still alive and well, so don't ever worry about getting food off the reduced pile when it's on it's date!!:D

and it was much more exciting than going round the shops in an ordinary, boring, docile manner like i have to do nowadays too, so without realising it, it was free entertainment as well. :rotfl:

rls1973

Tetsuko wrote: »

"My ex used to throw all bank statements and letters from the bank in the bin unopened"

Yep my bf does that with bank statements and with credit card statements.

We have no money when it comes to food or if I need anything (so I have to borrow to buy when I have no income at the mo -still job hunting with no joy )but money amazingly appears from the air (bonus at work, credit on the catalogue account, someone paid for something on Paypal etc etc) when he wants something blokey and unnecessary :rolleyes:

lol, know what you mean. my dh secretly bought himself a laptop when we were really struggling (logic: we're skint = i need a treat to cheer myself up)

when i found out, he told me that he had raised the money (it must have been about £300 - £400 ) by collecting bits of scrap metal and then taking them all to a scrapyard, i have never been so insulted in my life to hear such an obvious load of crap , or should i say scrap:mad: :rotfl:

he also has that filing system of unopened-in the bin:D (but if you then take over running the house/paperwork/money you are "controlling" and "not giving him a chance") ..........whatever.........

annapantscats

lady_fuschia wrote: »

-dog end rollies (we dug down the back of sofas for enough coppers for a pack of rizlas and then got the ashtray out and - hmm- yes)
- stealing food out of the skips at the back of Somerfield (we actually got some good stuff, cream cakes still perfectly fine just one day past the sell by date. It was just a bit humiliating to think about getting caught)

Yup, done both of these!!..
You know things are getting bad when you find yourself making dog end rollies out of dog end rollies.....GROSS!! :rotfl:
And supermarket skip raiding was a regular thing for a while. A group of us got so many cream cakes once (2 big crates full) that we ended up having a cream cake fight in the park


I use to hate 'wear your own clothes' day at school (usually the last day of term) as all my own stuff was hand-me-downs and ancient. Got picked on something rotten every time :sad:

This thread has given me a real sense of gratitude....I am a bit broke at the moment, and cant see things changing in the near future, if ever, but all the bills are payed, my son has decent clothes on his back and the cupboards are full (allbeit with 'reduced to clear' bargains!!).
Thanks to everyone for all your stories and confessions!! :T

GettingThingsDone

I remember as a student (many years ago) printing off some 'leaflets' (dot-matrix printed pages cut into slips) that said something the lines "students available who will do anything for money call : nnnnnnnnn"

Urm, no offers of work, but plenty of calls for 'services' - oops, a bit naive back then...

gtd

RoxsiScotland

its so good to know im not alone! and that there is always someone worse of that yourself.

i have severe manic depression, but due to loopholes i dont recieve any benefits. its hard living sometimes on nothing. i have sat wearing woolies becasue i coudnt afford the heating, went to my mums for something decent to eat, bought people presents from pound shops, stole the newspapers provided in cafes, paid busfares in small change shortchanging the driver and hoping they dont notice.

i have even sold worn underwear on ebay and modelled nude for pervert photographers in hotel rooms. its horrible what you have to do to get by sometimes.

GettingThingsDone

Yikes, I don't think anyone however perverted would pay me to model nude...

(hugs) to ya Roxsi!

dreams_R_free

One thing I've done which I'm ashamed of:o is tearing out any money-off coupons in the newspapers in any cafes I go to. Places like McDonalds used to have loads of different papers but they never seem to nowadays:mad:. Not that I go there much(can't afford it) so felt this was a kind of 'discount'. I doubt any other customers would do it and the papers probably only got recycled at the close of business anyway. I also did the same with competition entry forms that used to be in papers/supplements there too but haven't seen any for yonks!

My brother always carries a small penknife and a few small poly bags in his pocket to snip off small cuttings from plants in parks etc. He is a keen gardener and when he was long-term unemployed used to make a bit by rooting them and potting them on to sell at car boot sales:eek:. He so got into the habit that he still does it but purely for his own/family use not for profit.

Yargo1

I live in block of flats and have to be honest and say that if i see a tesco envelope (clubcard points) then i wait a few days and if not claimed, take them! I know not very honest but if the people have moved......

Crown

Yargo1 wrote: »

I live in block of flats and have to be honest and say that if i see a tesco envelope (clubcard points) then i wait a few days and if not claimed, take them! I know not very honest but if the people have moved......

Do you share the mailbox then? I dont know how you would have access to this otherwise?

Eupho

headoutthesand wrote: »

I've got a bad one

OH best friend was getting married and we were skint so we were stuck for a present. They had a voucher gift list at a shopping centre which OH parents had phoned and added too.

OH phoned up pretending to be his dad and got our names added on to the gift and no-one (in laws anyway) was any the wiser.

.

Re: Wedding gifts

I SWEAR I've never had the nerve to do this.. haha
But I once read (in this tight gits book) That should buy a nice gift tag, write something like... *CONGRATUALTIONS!.. We hope you love the gift!*

then when they are unwrapping their prezzies.. when there is a suitable pile of wrapping paper or cards.. slip your gift tag into the pile..

(apparently) When it's all over they will be too embarrassed to ask you what it was you ACTUALLY bought.. but as your gift tag was there.. they will know you bought SOMETHING.

hahaha.. well.. *I* thought it was clever. :rolleyes: