Things you've done when things got desperate!

Peter_Pan

Moved into our first rented flat and were skint and had bit of a leak above the doorframe and couldn't even afford to phone the landlord, water dripping in so BF filled it in with peanut butter - did the trick:D:D

luxor4t

Little sis used street corner bins as she could afford rubbish sacks - there was always a carrier bag hung on the buggy when she went out, which would be empty when she got back.

She had some lovely spring flowers growing in the garden from bulbs the council gardeners were going to throw away: great mother's day pot plants.

She and her son lived off leftovers from the cafe she worked at part time - they thought she had a cat. She wasted nothing, even toast crusts would be frozen for bread pudding.

She is still brilliant at budgetting.

supersavershal

What is "the rolled up paper thing", I was so skint as a student I used to charge people for cups of tea and coffee in my student flat, toast was 20p a slice (value bread).Nobody seemed to mind and it payed my petrol home.
My car had a piece of hosepipe in the engine as one of the pipes had a hole in and I couldnt afford to get it repaired.
OH and I counted out pennies in iceland to buy cheap frozen chips and cheap bread for chip butties.
We sometimes pretended to be the babysitter when debt collectors called and OH did a flit from his council flat in the middle of the night because he had rent arreas.
I have also stolen toilet rolls and nappies from work at the end of the month and had breakfast at work because there was no food in the house.

tigerfeet2006

esthomizzy wrote: »

do they still leave the out of date stuff out the back or is that gone now with new special health and safety guidelines? If they do that's where I'm off to. I'm always scoffing out of date food. I don't care if it's in my cupboard or out the back of sainsburys (well within reason if it's fresh stuff that's been in the baking sun then I'd be less keen obviously).

Check out these people

http://www.freegan.org.uk/ukfreegans/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2003/nov/23/saving.observercashsection1

squirrel_pigeon

supersavershal wrote: »

What is "the rolled up paper thing"quote]

Something you would do on a monthly basis... Need any more info??

JustJewels

This thread brings back so many memories for me - I've done the cardboard in your shoe to block a hole thing, and also buy a suit/dress, wear and return it (when I was a very poor teenager in a bedsit.)

At the moment, I'm waging a one woman war against my local supermarket. The car park at this supermarket is run by the council, and of course is pay and display. Six months ago I got a £30 penalty fine for going over the expiry time by 5 minutes. I was furious, but the attendant said that the rules where posted next to the ticket machines, tough.

However, the rules say that if you hand the car parking ticket to the checkout cashier, you get two hours parking refunded (in cash) so long as you spend £5. But the beauty is that you only need to pay for one hours parking to get a ticket. You don't even need to have a car to get a ticket. So as the supermarket is on my way home from work, instead of doing the weekly shop in one go at the weekend, I do the shop £5 at a time, pay for one hours ticket but get two hours refunded each and every time. I have also roped hubby into this so we each go to the checkout with a basket for around £5's worth of shopping and a parking ticket each.
I even get bags of coins from the bank on a regular basis so I always have correct coins for just one hour's parking, not a penny more.

I have since made much more that the £30 fine. I can't be the only one doing this as lately they have been sticklers for insisting the spend is £5 or more (when previously i could get away with £4.70 or so), so the next strategy is getting a £5 mobile top up and a ticket. They can't argue with that, but the cashiers face is usually a picture!

dreams_R_free

What a brilliant money-maker, JustJewels:T

My local supermarket charges £1 for up to 2 hours and only pays the £1 back (if you spend £5) so I can't take advantage of this plan:mad: . The other 2 I go to don't charge for car parking:eek: . I never thought I'd be sorry that supermarket car parking was free:rotfl:

kacie

its great to hear some more stories.

Tetsuko

That is ingenious JustJewels. It's about time someone gave these ripoff merchants a taste of their own medicine

TEENY

Have lived for a week on a bag spuds, 1 loaf of bread and beans when i first left home. I was determined to do it by myself and not get help....... next week i was back at friends houses for dinners !!! Have paid them all back by doing the same over years when kicked out for the night etc