Things you've done when things got desperate!

wherediditallgo

You may have a point there, Tetsuko. Before I met my OH, I had debts but I knew exactly what they were & I only had myself to think about. When he moved in, I found myself having to pay the costs of two people out of one income for a lot of the year, because (a) he was self-employed, so had to wait 2-3 months before getting paid for each job, & (b) seemed to assume that the money he eventually got was his to play with (poker/horseracing weekends with his friends etc :mad:), instead of remembering that I'd been meeting all the bills etc on my own & that money needed to come back, or there were outstanding bills that needed paying.

Oh, & God forbid that I ever said that we didn't have enough money for a takeaway - the man couldn't boil a pan of water, never mind put together a meal from whatever was left in the cupboards, & he had to have a full plate of freshly-cooked food: he was too good for leftovers or making do with a sandwich. :rolleyes: The person who discovers a cure for the money blindness that some OHs (male & female) seem to get is going to be very rich.

We've split up now, & if I meet someone else they're going to have to be prepared to live within my money principles or find somewhere else to stay.

ZTD

It is a problem with people generally, not just men.

I have expensive tastes, but tend not to give into them that often. I've wanted a Nikon D50 Digital SLR since before they came out - they're obsolete now and I still haven't bought one...

Unfortunately, a spender living with a thrift is a very stable relationship. The spender won't leave because they'd go bust... :rolleyes:

stokegal

Absolutely amazing thread - it really affirms that you're not on your own and that there is always someone worse off than yourself

One of my earliest memories as a kid is my mum answering the door to a man and telling him that she would just lock the dog away before he could come in, we didn't have a dog... she then would swap our colour tv with the black and white one in the kitchen

In the days before my LBM I....

used to cut the mouldy pieces of the bread and then toast it so it didn't look "off" colour

swapped reduction tickets around at the supermarket

worked in a chip shop and would intentially put too many chips in half an hour before we closed so I could take whatever was left home with me

(also) used toilet paper as sanitary pads

lived in 1 room with 6 other people (a very dirty squat when I was 16 and I left home after an argument with my mum- I returned 1 week later)

moved into my first flat and only furnished my bedroom, no sofa, no tv in living room and no carpets anywhere - I spent all of my time in bed because it was so cold

use to go out and get so hammered (knew a lot of barmen so did it cheaply)so that I wouldn't feel the cold when I got in

worked nights for a year so that i didn't use any lighting or heating my flat

had a friend who worked in a sun bed shop - went on them for free in order to get warm (if you went on for too long and burnt you would be warm enough for the next couple of days)

bought my lunch with boots clubcard points... managed to do this for a week straight

called in sick at work cause I couldn't afford bus fare

asked my nan to take me shopping in her car as I knew that she would end up paying for a month's worth of shopping

stole toilet paper out of bar/resturants/work/publice toilets....

have a large supply of free mayonaise from burger king and free ketchup from macdonalds

frequently had no electricity and once slept in front of the gas fire with candles for heat & light

once slept in my car as I had ran out of gas and it was warmer in there

for months I paid for items with cheques 2/3 days before I got paid so it wouldn't clear until after I got paid

was well know at 2 cash chequing places... that was until HSBC replaced my switch card with a solo (I have just got it back - 5 years later, it felt like a real achievement like I could be trusted again )

use to keep all of my labels on my clothes, wear them once and then return them (I was the envy of all of my "friends" as they thought I had a HUGE wardrobe)

cried to my boss at work so that I could get an advance on my wages

and my biggest shame is... seeing an ex boyfriend that I didn't like anymore out in town... knowing that I had no electricity at home I proceeded to get very drunk and persuaded him to take me back to his house

SAFC73_2

Once I took 3 loo rolls home from work. Felt really guilty about but better to have a big bag than little pockets.

Not tried the yellow pages thing. Sounds interesting esp if the edition is quite thick.

bexxie90

lauren_1 wrote: »

Oh god this one made me cry

My mum used to work friday and saturday evenings at a chippy and often would bring home bags of soggy chips, turkey sticks, king ribs and anything that was left in the warmers that didnt sell, that would be our lunch and dinner for the next few days coupled with a can of kwiksave 8p beans. Funnily enough i learnt to love soggy reheated chips.

I can also remember eating a whole fried onion and rice for tea once because thats all they had but could always find enough money for their cigarettes.

I think the worst things i have done were

Taking as many nappies and wipes as i could from the baby changing room at asda and morrisons

stealing bin bags and cereal from work

Pinching 3 towels from my mums

Fed my daughter on readybrek, pasta, breast milk and water for 3 days because tax credits were taking so long. That one was heartbreaking.

I put on a presciption form that i was entitled to free presciptions when i had bhronchitis once and had about £3 left for the week, again very shameful.

awww you made me sob hunnie,hope you never feel bad anyone would have done the same. I have a 12 week old and I thought things were tight but now reading all these posts realise how bloody lucky I am. I have 6 bin bags of clothes sitting here for babies and older and am now going to donate the lot. Anyone any ideas? PM me if you do
Cheers Bex

Lord_Lardington

Shamed and Humbled doesn’t even begin to describe the feelings induced in me by this thread.

Like many posters I’ve both laughed and cried at the experiences documented.

My life has been mixed. My mum and dad were poor (tales of chopping up furniture for firewood and hiding from the rent-man) but always provided everything for me in terms of clothes and food. In my later (grown up) life, thanks to them for housing me through education, I’ve had reasonably good jobs and yet STILL managed to find myself in debt (for which I feel truly guilty because it’s all my own fault)

I really just wanted to comment on guilt. There seems to be a lot of it. So, to those of you feeling guilty about things you’ve had to do to make ends meet? Please no!!! No matter what you had to do to feed or protect your family, then ends almost always justify the means (obviously killing your boss and processing his carcass for meat is excessive).

I hate that some of us have had to do some stuff we really didn’t want to do but please be proud you did them for the noblest of causes.

*Louise*

Lord_Lardington wrote: »

then ends almost always justify the means (obviously killing your boss and processing his carcass for meat is excessive).

Awww...spoilsport....:p

Joolsey_2

Bex
Let me know if you get any idea's.
I have a 9 month old & boxes of her stuff. I had thought about putting them on ebay - especially as I've been made redundant, again!
Not sure now tho as I think others may have a grater need.

Off to find my pooper scooper . . . . . . . .

jamescu

Went on the Winalot diet - it's a complete food so you just fill your pockets with it and munch on some every time you're hungry.

I don't recommend this to anyone tho' - I ended up in intensive care...

Bambywamby

When times were tough when I was a child and a young mother memories include...

Using nasty, cheap teabags - one bag for two cups of tea and then used the same bag for two more cups of tea later on. Even having to use split teabags and getting a mouthful of leaves. Ewwwwwwwwww

Pinching potatos and other veg from a near by allotment.

Saving potato peelings to be roasted in the oven with a little oil and then salted (very tasty actually).

Sharing bath water with o/h and d/s

"Borroweing" stationary/toilet rolls/stamps etc from work

Making old xmas cards into xmas gift tags.

Sleeping on the couch with a snuggly quilt on in front of a small electric heater rather than face going up the chilly stairs.

Sleeping in bed with wooly hat and gloves on.(In winter of course)

Using felt tip or crayon to cover scuff marks on my only pair of stilettos.

Putting my feet in carrier bags, so feet didn't get wet from old holey boots.

Wearing two holey pairs of tights together as holes were not usually in same place so tights looked new.

Cutting old tights into strips, tied them and used them as hair bobbles.

Using my one precious pink lipstick as blusher and eyeshadow as well as lipstick.

Taking a cheap half vodka into the pub and just bought lemonade from the bar and topped it up with vodka as and when needed. (This was however a treat at the time.)

Using to buy a newspaper from the newsagents and have an expensive magazine underneath. I would then just show the shop assistant the newspaper were the price was and hand the cash over. (This was pre-scanning)

I had a tape walkman and could rarely afford batteries, so I would rewind or fast forward the tape by hand using a pen through the centre holes.

Buying a large bag of pasta and two tins of campbells condensed mushroom soup and have pasta in creamed mushroom sauce for upto five days running.

Eating weetabix or poridge oats with just water.

Watering milk down.

Using formula milk forcups of tea if we ran out of milk before payday.

Eating everything with cheap bread and marg so it would go further.

Making mashed potato with half a tin of soup poured over it as a main meal.

Scrape mould off bread.

Using old bacon fat to fry bread in for breakfast.

Growing potato plants from shoots.

Sliceing sausages in half so they took less time to cook and it looked as though you had more.

Spending an afternoon in the library in winter, reading and keeping warm.

Feeding the dog weetabix and water or oats and water when we had ran out of dog food.

Coming back from the lauderette with tons of wet clothes to dry at home and using an old pram as transport.

Asking the fish & chip shop lady to add lots of scraps onto the chips so they went further.

Having a slice of bread and jam as supper.

Brushing teeth with salt and water when the tooth powder had ran out.

Having old bed sheets at the windows as curtains.

Having to lay at only the left hand side of my single bed as a sharp spring popped through at the right hand side.

Awww the good old days