Things you've done when things got desperate!

jimmyay

keren29 wrote: »

Natwest used to have an older style cash point in the branches - great big push buttons on it (I'm going back to early 1990s)

I realised that if you took out all the money you had in your account from a Natwest cash machine (usually about £20!!!) on the street and then went in and used the machine inside straight away, it let you have the money again, they didn't seem to be linked.

It was so useful when I only had £10 or so left!

god that brings back memories.

when i first started work after uni i was so skint i used to steal sandwiches for my lunch from boots. desperate. now when i'm skint i can remember that and put it in perspective.

nimbo

welshgirl78 wrote: »

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

o.k never done the loo roll thing, but what is a moon cup??

me and my 9 house mates at uni never bought loo roll, one of my housemates boyfriends thought it was so funny that he liberated loo roll holders from the estates department there and fitted one to each of our toilets/ bathrooms!!!! the landlord was bemused to say the least when we all moved out of his house.

living in my last flat my flat mate and i would get so cold that we'd share a bed at night in order to keep warm when the gas card had run out of emergency money. (and not in the fun way she snored REAL bad).

newcook

nimbo wrote: »

o.k never done the loo roll thing, but what is a moon cup??

Mooncups are little cups that you use like tampons but can be re-used. they are quite expensive (about £20) but when you think how much you spend over the years on towels/tampons you end up saving money!

from what I can gather you are also less likely to get toxic shock syndrome and they are better for the environment as you are not disposing tampons/towels!

ZTD

Take a look at http://www.mooncup.com

boredofbeingathome

Iv'e done the Natwest cash machine thing too. We grew up in a family of 5, and it used to get so cold in our house the curtains stuck to the window. To keep warm at night we used to bribe the dog to sleep on our beds, he used to snore though and was a terrible cover hogger.We also used to have a calor gas heater in winter, have used candles when the leccy ran out and we used to be able to wangle 50ps out of the old meters. Never felt guilty about it because it always went over how much the bill was. You always knew when it was time for meters to be emptied on our estate because there wasnt a 50p to be had anywhere.I also remember the flapping shoe syndrome, we thought gold dust had been invented when superglue was invented. But then we could keep warm in casualty getting my brothers unstuck from each other!!

freegan_2

I call myself a freegan but I dont take it as seriously as those who take stuff from supermarket bins, but here are a few of mine...

Searched for the local Hare Krishna centre-always free veggie curry available
Gone to evening events at work just for the free buffet
Lived off rice & oxo for 2 weeks
Lived off free food shelf in Youth Hostel
Walked to different hostels as they were giving out their free meal of the wk
Invited myself to a mates/family members for dinner
Got mate to cut my hair
Showered at work
Made all phone calls from work
Sent post from work
Picked up freebies and sold them on classifieds or gave as gifts
Written complaint letters to companies in order to be sent vouchers
Bought things at cheap shops and got refunded full price at more expensive 1

woohoo_postingid

At work, I was once asked to clean out a cupboard and throw everything out that was in there. I found £250 of shopping vouchers.

These found their way into my pocket and I sloped off to Tesco that night to spend some of them. Filled my trolley high with enough food for months, on my way to the checkout, just counted the vouchers to make sure I had enough, turned one over to look at the back where it was stamped "Sample".

Had to leave the trolley there and go and have a packet of noodles.

Serves me right for stealing I suppose but I was starving

Ayrshire_D

Went into Asda with a couple of empty Asda carrier bags I found in my house.

Walked around the shop filling them up with shopping. Then when they were full walked to the checkout with them, and carrying one of those cheapo 15p bottles of Lemonade and said to the woman "Sorry I forgot about this when I was getting my shopping there"

15p paid, Lemonade in the bag, and walk out with a week's worth of shopping!

Guard at door doesn't think anything of it as he sees you coming away from checkout with the bags.

God the thought of it now horrifies me, but at the time it needed done - they key is to not look suspicious as you're filling your bags, !

SkintKlint

This post is really humbling and I'm sure people have much worse tales to tell.

I've considered myself to be 'in debt' and 'skint' before, but I guess that's all relative.

I've been thinking for a while about starting a scheme to help people 'share the wealth' as it where and this might just kick start me into doing it...

I might also change my username!

Congratulations and a big pat on the back for everyone that's turned things around

Needcash_3

olibearhorse wrote: »

I had to sneaka toilet roll home from work once because we couldn't afford to buy any. Felt terrible and replaced it when I got paid the following month! Sorry, couldn't do the yellow pages thing!

Been there done that .... didn't replace it though