Things you've done when things got desperate!

maddriver

And just remebered, drove (same car) without a coolant pump for a several weeks before I could afford to get it fixed. Run engine to get up to speed, cut and drift to let it cool, repeat till you reach work.

Also once drove to work hoping that I'd have enough petrol to get me there, when the petrol ran out I left it at the side of the road and started walking. Someone from work recognised me, and kindly bought me some fuel.

One of our director point blank refuses to put stamps on elec/gas bill payment cheques. He says that when he was broke once, he didn't put stamps on and found they always got there.

really-trying-honest

Good grief,lots of sad things and some familiar ones. The wadded loo roll-been there (and done it with loo roll "borrowed" from work), being 17 in a crummy flat and getting up at the crack of dawn to obtain milk from various doorsteps, and my absolute worse- I was a smoker at the time (wouldnt eat for 2/3 days but always smoked!) and walking down to my local waitrose late at night when I had run out of cigs to pick up all the dog ends there (richer people at waitrose so would leave more on them when their taxi arrived:rotfl: ) taking them home to dismantle and reroll the tobacco into papers...bleeuuuuuuuurrrggh.:embarasse

tsharp

I once pretended to be a monk and joined a monastery and enjoyed free food and accommodation until they realised my lack of faith and threw me out. Not very Christian of them, I thought.

Squirrel29

I can't believe how many of us girlies use the rolled up loo roll trick, it's a wonder Tampax make any profit at all :rotfl:

Strapped

When I was a student my house-mates and me used to walk up to the local food factory a few miles away with an empty shopping trolley and buy a load of unlabelled tins from the back door (legit - they reject the ones which don't label up properly). If I remember rightly, these were the princely sum of 3p each. We used to eat some very strange combinations of foods, as you never knew what was in it until you opened it, and the factory produced tinned fruit as well as savory stuff.

Then in my final year, I saw the light and moved in with a butcher's son, and the son of a guy who worked in food development for Asda, and used to fill in surveys for the "just about to hit the shelves" new lines. Luxury!

iceicebaby

I used to live in a drafty flat with no heating so used to invite myself round to friends and family most nights for a warm and then just gone home to sleep.

I have not bought a train ticket and then got on the train and either pretended to be asleep or hid in the loo when the train conductor came round.

I have also done the loo roll thing

Homework

Pushing trolleys through town to collect the £1 from the supermarket. Turning up at friends houses at meal times. Forgetting to send presents with the cards and arranging to drop by soon with them (nearer payday), recycling presents by opening them and rewrapping for someone else. Using my Boots vouchers I was sent to pamper myself on tinned diet soup and other foodstuffs sold by Boots as we had no money left. Having a quick spray from a tester in a shop when going out that night. Selling things I really wanted to keep. Pretending to be on a diet not to buy meals when going out or having an upset tum and drinking water all night. Walking along the bus route searching for change to get the bus home.

I'm really sad now, remembering all that was not nice.

welshgirl78

Bless you - infact everyone (I feel like Tiny Tim!)

I have shed many tears on this thread - it is very very humbling and I am glad people have found each other here to share all their experiences (seriously I feel like a violin may start up any moment...)

Good luck to all with their money saving and I hope that no one ever finds thereself there again...

PS I did the loo roll thing - until the wonderful day I discovered the money saving benefits of Moon Cups!!

Squirrel29

I have often got in a taxi after a night out and asked for it to stop when the meter got the the amount of shrapnel I had left! It meant the remainder of the journey was spent walking but I often got halfway home at least!

london_fox

I have to say that I am amazed at some of the stories on here. I thought I had it bad but I have been living the high life compared to those on here. I feel guilty for even moaning about my debt and my spending habits.

On the plus side this thread has made me wake up and smell the coffee and that I can make a lot out of the left overs in my kitchen rather than buying the food I want and that I can survive on a lot less than I currently do.

There is one thing that puzzles me - why does the government say that poor people are more likely to be obese? From what everyone is saying on here, when you haven't got money you eat very little in order to get by. Perhaps the government's definition of poor is messed up.

My heart goes out to everyone on here. No one should have to live like some of you guys have. I hope thanks to this website that you are all in a better place now.