Things you've done when things got desperate!

annapantscats

GettingThingsDone wrote: »

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

(hugs) to ya Roxsi!

:rotfl: I know the feeling hun....no one would want pics of me naked unless they were seriously desperate!!

Roxsi.....yes darlin, sometimes it awful what we have to lower ourselves to just to get by :sad:. I hope things take a turn for the better for you really soon. Here's a group hug for ya......even though it does in itself look a bit pervy!!!! :grouphug:

:rotfl:

CAFCGirl

I am loving that everyone has had a story to tell....

It really does make you realise that despite the hardships, there is another side to it all....

Even to those just starting on their journey, will soon be able to look back on the things they've done and smile like many of us have....

Thanks to everyone so far for posting!!!

James&Shell

This thread has had me in stitches all day at work there is so many that i do and you just think are the norm.

I remember always filling the car up with £5-£10 as that was all i had in my wallet till payday and seeing what petrol stations accepted cheque.

my theroy was to keep the cash as i might need more petrol, but if for any reason the chequecouldnt be used i had the money.

There some logic somewhere.

weegie-dfw

I use to feast on cous cous for weeks on end as a student - with sweet corn to treat myself.

Have done the rolled-up toilet paper thing.

Worked late to avoid going home to a freezing flat.

Went to the pub with only my bus fare and enough for a lime & soda.

barbie_babe

When OH and me first got a flat we ran out of electric and went to mother and father in laws for the evening as we didnt have enough money to put in electric. But we scrapped together the money for the return bus fare to their house.
Another one that we sometime still use is if we have under ten pounds left in the bank and needed extra food(so we would need to use the debit card) we would go around the supermarket and make sure are shopping only came to the amount we had in there not a penny over.

skintmostofthetime

HAae not done as much as some on here - and I thought we'de been bad off 0ff !! - anyways, have spent the evening sitting sharing a double sleeping bag so as to not turn on heating but then that always leads to OTHER things which keep you much much warmer !!
Also - some of these things are the way I live all the time - doesn't everybody `yellow label' shop in Asda/Tescos/Sainsburies?
It's amazing how far good ole beef mince will stretch if you add extra onions/carrots (ropey are the best !) beans/lentils/sweetcorn/ cheap tinned veg/anything left @ the bottom of the fridge/dumplings.

musttryharder_2

All of these posts are just great. Some make me laugh out loud, some make me shed a tear and some take me right back to similar things I've done. I feel lucky that I don't have to scrimp and save too much now however, reading all of these has made me think that I'd like to try being more economical again. I think there's something a bit comforting about living more frugally (probably because it reminds me of my childhood).

When I first met my husband his job at that time was as a janitor in a college. He had a tied house with the job and the house was within the grounds of the college. He would go from the house to the college (opening the building up, unsetting alarms etc if necessary) to go to the toilet and to have a shower!

I've used toilet roll in place of sanitary towels.

Have used washing up liquid if I didn't have shampoo. Once tried just using conditioner - disaster!

Mum used to give me a bowl of gravy and some bread for dunking. Loved it.

Mum would make chips and wrap them in newspaper so they were like takeaway chips.

Used to have tomato sauce sandwiches, banana and sugar sandwiches, crisps on a roll, bread dipped in melted lard. I seem to remember they all tasted good.

Used to make a really tasty dish with mince, cheese, pasta and mediteranean tomato soup and it would last for days.

Most mornings my train goes into an unmanned / unbarriered platform. Most nights train leaves from a barriered platform and so no ticket collector comes round so, even if ticket collector writes on my ticket in the morning I can use it in the barrier at night. If it works out right I'm basically getting 2 journeys for the price of 1. With the service that's provided I don't feel too guilty about it.

Try not to put heating on if we can possibly avoid it so we waddle around in layers of clothes instead (when oh when is summer going to start?).

Try not to put lights on until really necessary either - not too bad just now in fact don't think we've had lights on for a few weeks now (the part of Scotland I'm in stays relatively light until about 11pm just now).

Hubby tries to ensure that if we're needing to use the oven that we cook more than one meal at a time so getting most economical use out of it.

Just remembered that when my Dad lost his job we had to go to my Nana's for baths because we couldn't afford to switch the water heater on (plus we had no heating in that council house so it was always freezing).

At one point my hubby and I didn't have a double bed so we pushed two single beds together but they were different heights so we had a bundle of magazines under the legs of one of them.

I always always recycle unwanted gifts, tombola prizes and freebies from magazines etc but you've got to be organised and have a good memory re who gave you what.

Have bought an item of clothing at full price. Go back to shop a few days later to find it has been reduced. Buy another at the reduced price. Go home, keep the reduced one and take back full priced one with receipt and get money back. This is just about being in the right place at the right time but it's great when it works out.

mennie

Love this... Just lost an hour of my day reading it all

When was really skint used to live off the packets of noodles 7p from kwiksave and a tin of spamlike luncheon meat 43p. lasted 4 days for 2 of us for dinner and we both usd to have breakfast and luch at work

Regularly take sugar, salt, milk etc in cafes.

Take every toiletry provided in hotels and ebay them

Use toilter paper at time of the month.

HereGoes!

Do people really buy worn underwear on ebay?! How much for?

Could be a little earner there!!


Brilliant thread by the way!!

Ive done the whole- worn it/taken it back (and still do *blush*)
Ive also been an escort but only the 'arm candy' kind, ive never prostituted myself- even though there have been times i've felt that desperate when you get offered a pathetic amount of money and a little person inside your head says 'I could pay off that with that money' However- i believe nothing is worth more than my own personal dignity so have always declined- and always will!!

Tetsuko

rls1973 wrote: »

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.........

Heheh yep since my oh moved in he's bought himself a PC for over a grand, music equipment, digital camera, an xbox and many many games, a contract PDA, a cat, very expensive sports equipment, goes to a sport events once a month and I'm worse off than the period when I was on the dole before he moved in because I'm unemployed again and get no benefits whatsoever because he earns so much.

But I haven't been able to buy anything or do any of the things I used to do before we met or really anything that isn't related to what he wants as we are far too poor apparently. We just went down the shops and he was counting out the approx £3 he had in his pocket to see if we could afford to buy toilet roll and cat food. But he's off to a restaurant later this evening :rolleyes:

I gotta laugh or I'd cry :rotfl: