It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

Spendless

Well not everyone will be struggling to eat or buy groceries.  I had a 'full to the top' trolley this morning. If questioned why that was the case I would have explained I missed going grocery shopping last week for various personal reasons  and it had got to the point that I needed various items because I'd either run out (baked beans, milk) was running low or felt I needed to top up my cupboards in order to meal plan. I also had to nip to one of the 'big name' supermarkets later as the budget one I did my main shop at hadn't got several items (my choice of milk being one of them)

It's also a nice sunny day when people are more inclined to meet up and do something. Some people get paid middle of the month and will go out and buy their food shopping and any socialising around then. 

Anyway A*da has in 4 tins of Tuna chunks in brine for £1 if anyone is interested. Glenryck brand (never tried it before, so can't comment. My preference is for tuna in water but thought for the price would try). This was a large store, don't know if smaller are carrying same stock, it was on an end of a long aisle with a promotional label saying sp (special???) price.  

dreaming

poppy811 said:

I am struggling to understand what is going on.  I went out briefly to the supermarket and noticed that every pub and restaurant was rammed.  Likewise overflowing trollies in the shop.  There seems to be a huge imbalance on what people can afford.  The Victorians had a phrase about the deserving/ undeserving poor, not much seems to have changed.

I am struggling to understand what your point is here. I will hazard a guess that you don't know many of these people's circumstances so are you judging them as deserving or undeserving? It could be that their overflowing trollies are people stocking up on a monthly basis (as I used to), and what is wrong with enjoying the nice weather to meet your friends and have a break from the dreary doom and gloom that seems to be the only new these days. I think it is true that the divide between the haves and have nots is widening lately but it's always been there so I agree that not much has changed - it's just a bit more visible nowadays - but what is the crite
ria to be judged as deserving or undeserving?

poppy811

That was my point. None of us have any idea how peoples circumstances impact.  I have an incurable cancer and even with attendance struggle to cover my bills.  The point I was trying to make is that none of us have any idea what individuals circumstances are,  

-taff

desrving poor = those for whom it's not a choice

undeserving poo= those who put themselves there through profilgate spending

To be honest though, without correct statistics, we have no idea of who is struggling and who is not and people are still free to spend their money as they wish. It's the first sunny weekend in a while, and people like ot enjoy themselves by treating themselves. Nothing wrong with that. Notsure if your point is why are they doing this when other people are poor...

OrkneyStar

I think we all need to remember that things can come across a bit differently than intended sometimes, especially when written down. On the whole, even though we disagree sometimes, we are all (mostly) supportive, and I'd like to think that no-one feels unwelcome. Even amongst us perhaps more savvy Old-Stylers there will be degrees of worry, struggle, emotion linked to out finances and past experiences. Take care all, and thanks to everyone for contributing to this thread in a helpful way.

poppy811

Well always thought of myself of being one of the underserving poor.  Qualified as a nurse but have always had to be very careful financially.

OrkneyStar

poppy811 said:

Well always thought of myself of being one of the underserving poor.  Qualified as a nurse but have always had to be very careful financially.

To be fair, I don't think anyone 'deserves' to be poor really, but yes nurses are often undervalued in pay terms.

-taff

poppy, why would you react like that? You're entitled to your opinion as are others.

I don't think your original post was very clear, it wasn't clear whether you were annoyed/upset at people spending money or not and if you were, why you were. The written word leaves a lot to be desired sometimes.

leftatthetrafficlights

Managed to renegotiate my sky package today so a good win there, have done my meal plan for next week,  rejigged my budgets and cleaned my washing line (which was home to the largest arachnid outside of a zoo I have ever seen!!! 😳) - managed to get all of the laundry washed and dried on the line (3 days worth - longest I've ever gone without doing any washing but as I was determined to not use the td, I had to wait!).

I had to do a bit of shopping today and decided to get the sm's own brand laundry liquid - decidedly cheaper than my usual brand so happy with that saving 😁

EssexHebridean

Wow - people are seriously still making judgements on whether people “deserve” to be poor now, in this day and age?  Mind officially blown. I genuinely thought that phrasing of that sort had quite rightly been left behind in the past, where it belonged. 

If people want to see how circumstances can sometimes lead to folk appearing to spend “beyond their means” and so end up (presumably!) as “undeserving poor” then I’d suggest doing some reading over on DFW. When I started being active over there a good few years back now it instantly readjusted my mindset and made me incredibly aware of the financial privilege I had - we arrived on the boards trying to pay off a loan, routinely running in overdraft and starting to work on clearing our mortgage - and we felt we were a bit hard done by, to to be truthful. Within a very short time on there I realised that in fact we were among the lucky ones - our loan was at a “good” rate, we were in OD routinely because we simply weren’t budgeting, but we had the skills to learn to do so, and the mortgage we’d been granted was a 110% one originally - these days they don’t even exist as far as I know but without it we couldn’t have bought. Yes, we absolutely do sometimes see folk on DFW who want the  best of everything - top TV package and a 60” set to watch it on, flash car which they only drive to the shops and back, branded groceries - and are in debt as a result. Sometimes those people don’t want to cut back on lifestyle items and wants, and if they truly refuse we will admit defeat and explain that we can’t help them because they’re quite literally not ready to sort things out yet. More often though that situation has come about because nobody has ever taught those people that you can only “have it all” if you have the income to pay for it all. Society has taught people now that they “must” strive constantly for more - whether it’s being told that we “must” progress in a career, or that we’ve failed if we’re not driving around in a brand new car. Some have the solid background to realise quite fast that in fact you can resist almost all those things - while others can’t shake the idea that if they’re not living an aspirational lifestyle then they’ve failed at life. 

If a person isn’t taught a skill like budgeting, they can’t necessarily just “know” it - and that is when people do get into trouble. It’s easy to see it as obvious, or “just common sense” - but that again is speaking from a position of privilege IMO - in knowledge and experience. 

As for the way things come across in writing sometimes - I recently made a comment on this very thread that, to me, was clearly supportive of another poster, but that poster was unsure on reading it whether I was agreeing, or the opposite. On returning to my comment and viewing it objectively I could see why. On a forum nobody can see facial expression or hear the intonation - sometimes emojis are useful to get across when we’re being sarcastic 😏 or ironic 😆 - but not everyone is able to easily use a wide range of those.  It can be useful to include a TL:DR* summary as a final sentence, but even those don’t always get read.  For avoidance of doubt though - don’t judge anyone else’s circumstances when you’re unaware of the background, and re-read your posts to try to clarify any ambiguity! 😉

*too long, didn’t read”


LATTL - eek to your spider, you can keep him! 😂  As for laundry liquid, I specifically like the B0ld stuff - it’s one of the relatively few branded items we buy - but we only ever get it on offer! We have to be fairly picky though as we’re in a stupidly hard water area - for the same reason it’s the liquidised fairy-juice for dishwashing, too.