Things you've done when things got desperate!

Jarvisma

Some days it's come down to a choice between buying a tin of cat food for the two 'dependants' or something for me.

Martyr that I am, the cats won. I may be crap with money but I don't want to add sefish and bad (cat) mother to the list as well!

I also used to have a great trick to be able to produce a few pounds before payday. I would go to a shop that I don't think I should name of but a national retailer that begins with Wool and practically every high street has got one, buy something in one branch and pay by cheque, then jump on the bus (usually with an out of date bus pass but with such confidence I usually got away with it) go to the next town and promptly return said item with the reciept and ask for a refund. Obviously they can't return the cheque, so I got the cash.

That was before the nasty bank man confiscated my cheque guarantee card obviously!:o

Skint_Catt

Jarvisma - that's brilliant! Well thought out!

C xx

Jarvisma

I hope I'm not encouraging anyone though, I'm sure technically that was fraud!

Northernbird_2

I once lived on custard powder for three days as a student. I also once left the last spoon of coffee in the jar for my husband (he wasn't my husband at the time), as I knew we couldn't afford to buy any more and I (soppily) wanted him to have the last cup. But I accidently left the lid off and it dried up (it wasn't very expensive coffee) - I literally cried my heart out over that! The little things can so easily tip you over the edge when you're already hanging over the precipice...

I also once couldn't afford the washing tokens to use the machines in halls for weeks and weeks so I couldn't wash anything (with no laundrette in sight). The worst bit was having to sleep in partly soggy/damp bed sheets!

azjh77

Have done the whole 'week on pasta/toast thing'

Into the realms of evil now...have opened the kids b'day cards 'borrowed' their money and used it to buy them a present...works for Christmas too. (Shame, eternal shame!) Also kept a few of their xmas presents back (they get loads from other people! They didn't even notice...honest!) and sold them on E-bay ....damn i'm evil!!!

NekoZombie

azjh77 wrote: »

Have done the whole 'week on pasta/toast thing'

Into the realms of evil now...have opened the kids b'day cards 'borrowed' their money and used it to buy them a present...works for Christmas too. (Shame, eternal shame!) Also kept a few of their xmas presents back (they get loads from other people! They didn't even notice...honest!) and sold them on E-bay ....damn i'm evil!!!

Ouch!! Could you not just keep some back and present them later in the year as *Christmas* presents. That way they still get them...eventually

Broken_hearted

Waited eagerly for £3.50 in clubcard vouchers to come through so we could get food.

SunderlandBlackCat

Broken_hearted wrote: »

Waited eagerly for £3.50 in clubcard vouchers to come through so we could get food.

I've done that as well

me_and_me_monkeys

When I was little and money was very tight my dad used to take me down to the farmers field in the evening with a carrier bag and we used to collect a few veggies (I was about 4 at the time), that were poking through the fence. We also had roadkill rabbit and pheasant
more than once

I actually got to like the taste of nettles

I can also remember going to the local greengrocers at the end of a saturday trading with 10p asking for some leftover cabbage for my rabbit (never had a pet rabbit in my life!!!) I usually came away with a carry bag of leaves for dinner!

As a young student I used to live off the 9p packets of noodles, cried to get off not paying for train tickets, sat in a library til closing time to keep warm on many occasions, taking my own mug and teabag to college with me so I could get free hot water for tea (then nick the pots of milk to use at home)

those were the day................

frosty

When my husband lost his job and we had no money,I refilled the nescafe jar with dead cheap coffee because my husband would only drink nescafe,refilled the heinz tom sauce with a cheap one,I switched loads of things and no one noticed,my husband is a brand snob.In the food cupboard there was 2 tins of heinz beans,little did my family know that they they were eating cheap beans ,I always disposed of the tins before they saw them and if anyone said anything I used to show them the heinz bean tin and say "Look" they are heinz.
I always recycle gifts,I dont see the point in keeping things I will never use.