What is the poorest you have ever been?

Gazzafatcityboy

Very good question!

When I was a student and was gambling all my money with maxing all of my credit cards as well.

I had to go home for xmas and I just about afforded the ticket with the last bit of credit on my credit card.

I bought the ticket to go home on the bus and it was a long 7 hour journey.

I didn’t have any food, so when we stopped off in Bristol and waited for the next connecting bus I was really tempted to ask someone for money. This is the only time I was thinking about begging for money. I had twenty pence to use the loo at the station.

When I got home luckily my parents came to pick me up from the station as I didn’t even have enough money for the bus home…!!!

Things have gotten slightly better than then now but I do remember those dark days.

lincroft1710

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

I think the poster is just a bit bored and looking to get people involved in various discussions that would possibly be better placed on social media or at least The Money Savers Arms section of MSE. Look at the other threads they have started:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.php?searchid=167360539

TTFTM x

I (and several others) believe OP is an incarnation of a previous poster who was banned for continually starting threads which asked rather pointless questions about people's experiences

Teacher2

My experience of being poor when young has underpinned everything about my life since then.

My parents were married but my father was a bit of a wrong'un and my mother left him taking my sister and I with her. She worked at two jobs to keep us and we never had a spare bean in the house. However, looking back, she spent plenty on cigarettes and alcohol while my sister and I went without. We wouldn't take benefits or handouts and I was fiercely proud and independent. No free school meals for us!

I was determined to get out of poverty and powerlessness and took A levels and went to train as a teacher. My Cinderella story started very early as, in my second year at college, I met my husband to be and we pooled our resources. His family were better off but very prudent and my necessity and his good sense, combined with two professional salaries, meant were always sensible with money and always had some!

Nevertheless, I always see a black pool just under the thin ice and plan for the worst. My children's comparative confidence about money and life astonishes me. I still live with that dictum that 'you are only two accidents away from living on the street.'

One incident from my early, poor years stands out. I had a student holiday job to help pay back a £30 overdraft and my next paypacket would help towards that goal. My little sister wanted me to go to see a film and when I explained my money was already committed to debt repayment she said, 'Never mind that. Go anyway. I'll pay and you can give me the money when you are paid.' I refused as I didn't want to get into more debt on top of the first lot and was astonished that she couldn't understand this.

Subsequently, I have become more than solvent and she, continuing to pursue her lifestyle of spend-whether-you-have-it or-not, is always short of money and it very resentful of those who seem to have more than she does. She and her husband must be in the top 7% of earners in the country but they never have any cash.

In every other respect we are almost identical: same jobs, same graduate children, both happily married, both own the same sorts of houses, lovely other halves, similar lives and so on. But our attitude to money and spending have made all the difference.

A little hardship is good for a person as it makes one grateful and appreciative. The comments of others on this thread confirm these traits.

Bouncybubbles

Not being able to afford food, petrol for free days out, having to decline friend invites to meet up as knew it would involve money. having to go to my parents and his for food, borrowing money to pay the bills from my parents knowing I couldn't pay it back (shame on me), stealing food from work as I couldn't afford to take any with me

tori.k

Rock bottom for me was deciding on a loaf of bread towards feeding the kids or a packet of sanitary towels, the kids got fed.

To my shame I took the kids for a long weekend camping I could no longer bear the looks of resignation as there friends went off for their summer holidays and they knew it was another summer being stuck at home, I couldn't afford the site fees so we took the bus to a haven site and wild camped nearby but walked onto the site and used the facilities.

andyfromotley

when i was gambling i had frequent bouts of literally having no money at all. It didnt bother me i was always scheming to get more somehow and it wasnt for anthing other than more gambling. I had effectively opted out of any semblance of a normal life even though i was somehow holding down a responsible job, running a house and with kids. They were terribly dark days looking back at them now.

We were always poor when i was a kid, frequently having essential services cut off but again that seemed pretty normal to me as everyone i knew seemed to be in the same boat.

Fortunately those days are behind me and i have no desire to return to them. Gamblers anonymous saved my life.

chelseablue

I remember very clearly being at primary school in the 90's recession.


We had no central heating in the house and used to huddle round a gas fire in the living room. My Mum used to put her coat on when she went out to the kitchen to make the packed lunches.


Holidays were in this country, camping in a tent.


Growing up poor has shaped my whole life, always having money stashed away and no debt except a mortgage is very important to me.


My situation now is quite different, we earn about £60k between us.
We're thinking of going abroad on holiday next year, when our son will be 3.
I couldn't even dream of foreign holidays when I was young!
I don't want him growing up spoilt and want to teach him to work hard for things he wants