What is the poorest you have ever been?

maisie_cat

At 19 and after my father died I earned £200 per month with £28 a week in rent, I just about survived

poppasmurf_bewdley

I went to live in the USA when I was 19 in the 1960's, and there was one particular weekend I didn't have any money to buy milk to put in my tea.

There was no popping round and asking Dad to lend me a quid until payday!

melanzana

basil92 wrote: »

Now, unfortunately.

Circumstances (sad and numerous ones) have completely decimated my savings and my wage just about keeps my head above water.:o

I'm no spring chicken and can't see anything changing anytime soon.

After having nothing, working hard and saving, it's amazing how life events and being involved with other people, can turn your life around so quickly.:(

I hope you will be OK. Do not go hungry though whatever happens. There are ways to avoid that.

It is much harder in your situation if you are a little older for sure. The energy is not there anymore to fight and fight. Sorry for your troubles.

But things can only get better. Best of luck.

Smodlet

Whatever else you do or don't have, you have us.

The poorest I've ever been? Don't want to remember it but it was all through my late teens and early twenties. At 17 my parents had just been divorced, she could not work due to ill health, he had the money so the better divorce lawyer and ended up having to pay only £10 per week each for her and my maintenance. There was no C.S.A. then. I was working 15 hours a week at Tesco's for about £15 (dinosaurs were only just extinct) and how we survived, I do not know. She was an alcoholic and a smoker, where she got the money from, I do not know. I am not making this up, either. She had a reason to drink; my father beat her up for years until she finally, finally got up the stones to leave him.

Sod all that, it was a very long time ago and for years I could not believe I would ever be able to trust a man, then I met my absolutely wonderful, amazing, brilliant, funny husband. 23 years and no looking back. Life can get better, you just have to keep faith in yourself and believe it. I know how hard it can be. I have not talked about any of this for so long; it really does feel as if it happened to someone else because I am not that scared little girl any more. In the ways that really matter, I am rich beyond the dreams of Croesus and maybe you will be someday, too, Basil.

Dandytf

Not a penny to my name a few weeks after being made unemployed 2011.

Sazzie23

After I moved in with my partner 30 years ago, and he was quite rightly paying whacking child maintenance, we had to decide between food or fuel. Fuel won as I needed to get to work and the bus fare would have been more. Sadly I've never learned my lessons and still can't budget, but I am trying to get debt free.

Deep_In_Debt

When I bought my house in the 80s and I was in my early 20s and working 3 jobs to pay the mortgage. Interest rates were around 18% then.

Also, fairly poor after losing a job a while back and living on JSA which was my only income for a while. No other benefits so it was pretty hard for a few months.

HappyMJ

The poorest I have ever been was about 3 months after getting a reasonable paid job saving and moving out of home into a rented house shared with one other and after taking out a loan to buy a car then being made redundant from work. I had to claim benefits to pay the rent, scrape together every penny to make the loan payments to avoid my credit rating from being trashed and had to use credit cards to buy food. Bills were put on hold for as long as possible. I was 3 months into a 12 month tenancy so could not return home to my parents home without a huge financial penalty. Staying in the property and most (75%) of the rent was covered by housing benefit. If I left I would have been liable for the full rent but not had the benefit of housing benefit to cover the liability. Being under 25 I didn't get much in job seekers allowance. Luckily though I did have some savings and credit cards with enough available credit and it was only about 3 months before I got another full time job....which paid much more than the previous job that I had and I've been fine ever since.

sourcrates

Comedyshortsgamer wrote: »

never been really poor myself


just wondering.

I would say thank your lucky stars !!

I have always had the benefit of a roof over my head, food in my belly, and although essential bills have been late at times, they always got paid.

This is more to do with the generosity of my family, rather than my good financial planning.

Credit on the other hand, has always been a thorn in my side, when I was younger, I didn't earn enough to buy the things I wanted, so took them on credit instead, have lost everything on two occasions, and I mean everything, job, house, marriage, the works, but have pulled through it, again, having family to fall back on.

If that safety net had not been there, I would of been out on the street, its as simple as that, when I`m having a bad day, I remind myself of this fact.

rokwarm

I am sure there are others who have worse tales to tell.