Famous Rich and Hungry

F1F93

Also, the lady who was caught shoplifting was absolutely shocking!
Anyone with more than one brain cell would be able to work out that she only stole because she couldn't afford to put food on the table. So instead of a sensible punishment, like community service, they give her a fine!
If she can't afford to pay for the food, how on earth is she supposed to pay the fine?!
Instead of fining her, they should be solving the problem, and giving her a more suitable punishment.
When she didn't pay the fine, instead of giving a more suitable punishment, they increased the fine!?

BitterAndTwisted

It's because the people who make the laws are avid fans of Franz Kafka. Still, it's marginally better than back in the Olden Days when thieves were transported to the colonies, or even earlier when they were hanged.

minimad1970

Unfortunately some people really don't do anything to help their situation. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/5508982/TVs-skint-and-hungry-mum-splashes-hundreds-on-elaborate-tattoos.html

GubGub

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Eh, many people already have pets when they suffer a radical change of circumstances, and if I had to endure the lives some of them appear to have to live I'd be smoking like a chimney as well.

Thanks. I'm no saint, but when we smoked it was our lone luxury item and cost me about £8 a week. I could have happily punched people who said we didn't struggle. We did. We had one luxury; smoking. It became too much? We gave up.

We're still f*cking poor though.

Oh yeah - we have rabbits from years ago. Cost about £2 a week. I can miss a meal rather than let them suffer (and I have on occasion).

ecgirl07

minimad1970 wrote: »

Unfortunately some people really don't do anything to help their situation. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/5508982/TVs-skint-and-hungry-mum-splashes-hundreds-on-elaborate-tattoos.html

Again it pick apart the poor, analyse every penny spent and criticize them for it if it doesn't meet with the Victorian Ideal of the deserving poor.

People make good and bad money choices sometimes they can afford to, sometimes they cant - why do we have to sneer down our noises at them especially if they are living on benefits?

Its none of our business what people spend benefits on - we have a welfare state we pay into, the money is given out and beyond that its none of our business what it is spent on.

FBaby

What is never appreciated is that people on benefits are rich in time. They can afford to spend the time to budget, look for the best deals, cook everything from scratch etc... things that are much more of a challenge for full-time working people.

Brighton_belle

FBaby wrote: »

What is never appreciated is that people on benefits are rich in time. They can afford to spend the time to budget, look for the best deals, cook everything from scratch etc... things that are much more of a challenge for full-time working people.

Thing is, budgeting, cooking from scratch etc are all skills that need to be learnt. But before that, you even need to know they exist in order to know you need to learn them.
When you are stressed, overwhelmed by life events and have no idea that you the way you run your life is not the only way possible it isn't as easy as it would appear to those of who do cope might think.

Make-it-3

I thought this was a very sorry way for the BBC to attempt to drum up donations for Sport Relief. I don't think anyone involved celeb or participant came off in a good light (maybe apart from the lady who was judiciously balancing her books). Most of us just sat on our sofas judging the bad decisions these people had and continue to make with their lives. Any practical help was either bare bones or fallen on deaf ears.

I wonder if it will actually make people less like to support food banks in future??

claire16c

missprice wrote: »

And I was on benefits for several years, yet I still had a pet cat. She cost me all of £1.90 a month. Dry food only and no insurance or vet bills til right at the end of her life when she cost me a thousand quid give or take.

You cannot possibly deny anyone the undying love of a pet. they are for some people the only thing between life and no life.

Now if you said the pet costs a lot and people need to learn to feed the pet cheaper food, I would understand. But a pet is for life not just for Xmas.

In a lot of cases benefits is enough to survive on, however the debts make life a lot harder than needs be. A way of deferring the debt would be more helpful than denying someone a pet.

Oh and for info the cat was pts at 16 years old. She would have gone a few more years had she not broken her leg.
And the dry food I gave her was £1.90 at the end of her life. Sometime 16 years ago it was much less.

Sounds like you were very lucky not to have any bills before that point though.

There was an article on a local forum the other day about an elderly lady who had a young cat & stupidly had been told by someone therefore not to get insurance. The cat ended up needing an op of some kind costing around £6/700 which she couldn't afford.

My old employers cat got a stomach problem and she was only around 3 years old. The costs ran into thousands. Luckily the insurance took care of it.

Surely if it comes to a point where you can not feed your children properly the pets have to go.

As for smoking, one lady said she had about £33 to feed her & her kids on for a week yet spent £12 on fags. That's about a quarter of her budget! Insanity.

balletshoes

Make-it-3 wrote: »

I thought this was a very sorry way for the BBC to attempt to drum up donations for Sport Relief. I don't think anyone involved celeb or participant came off in a good light (maybe apart from the lady who was judiciously balancing her books). Most of us just sat on our sofas judging the bad decisions these people had and continue to make with their lives. Any practical help was either bare bones or fallen on deaf ears.

I wonder if it will actually make people less like to support food banks in future??

for me its had the opposite effect - i've googled to find out where my nearest food bank is, and i'll be donating there.