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

OrkneyStar

EssexHebridean said:

OrkneyStar said:

arnoldy said:

Absolutely right. If you notice they hang out next to cashpoints (to make you guilty). Also, they tend to beg outside Waitrose and Co-op, never Asda or Iceland - easier pickings presumably. 

And many (most?) are not homeless. A homeless person sleeping on the streets will stink to high heaven and have grimy dirty skin and matted hair. 

Once when I was in a City, I walked to get an early morning train through all the centre at 4am - I expected to find many hundreds in doorways and porticos but didn't come accross anyone.

While I agree that there are professional beggars around, it is a myth that all homeless people look the way you describe. Some homeless people look as 'clean and tidy' as the next person, hold down jobs, and do 'normal things', but also have no place which they can call home - many are 'sofa surfing' moving from friend to friend, sleeping in their cars, sleeping in hostels and so on. Don't assume that because someone looks presentable that they are not homeless!

Flip side I suspect is also to not assume that someone who does look as you might "expect" a homeless person to look, necessarily is. Someone once said to me that a good way of establishing whether someone genuinely is homeless is to look at their shoes - and not least whether that footwear is actually on their feet, or has been taken off. Certainly in many area of London those sleeping rough won't remove their shoes at all as they are very conscious that they are - in their own community - very nickable! I strongly suspect this applies in a lot of other areas too. Like so many things though - generalisations are often unhelpful and misleading. 

Oh I agree completely, judging or generalisations are rarely helpful. My point really was just that, only I didn't fully expand it....but you did that for me.   I also agree with what you said about not turning 'having to eat less' into a topic about diet/weight/obesity etc. 

EssexHebridean

OrkneyStar said:

EssexHebridean said:

OrkneyStar said:

arnoldy said:

Absolutely right. If you notice they hang out next to cashpoints (to make you guilty). Also, they tend to beg outside Waitrose and Co-op, never Asda or Iceland - easier pickings presumably. 

And many (most?) are not homeless. A homeless person sleeping on the streets will stink to high heaven and have grimy dirty skin and matted hair. 

Once when I was in a City, I walked to get an early morning train through all the centre at 4am - I expected to find many hundreds in doorways and porticos but didn't come accross anyone.

While I agree that there are professional beggars around, it is a myth that all homeless people look the way you describe. Some homeless people look as 'clean and tidy' as the next person, hold down jobs, and do 'normal things', but also have no place which they can call home - many are 'sofa surfing' moving from friend to friend, sleeping in their cars, sleeping in hostels and so on. Don't assume that because someone looks presentable that they are not homeless!

Flip side I suspect is also to not assume that someone who does look as you might "expect" a homeless person to look, necessarily is. Someone once said to me that a good way of establishing whether someone genuinely is homeless is to look at their shoes - and not least whether that footwear is actually on their feet, or has been taken off. Certainly in many area of London those sleeping rough won't remove their shoes at all as they are very conscious that they are - in their own community - very nickable! I strongly suspect this applies in a lot of other areas too. Like so many things though - generalisations are often unhelpful and misleading. 

Oh I agree completely, judging or generalisations are rarely helpful. My point really was just that, only I didn't fully expand it....but you did that for me.  

Yep - definitely taking your point and running with it! we see so often on here people for whatever reason either missing a point, or choosing to misconstrue it - these days I'm quite a fan of spelling things out!  

OrkneyStar

Pollycat said:

arnoldy said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

 Yet in looking to save money the easiest and most prominent change I can make is cutting down on food.

Yes, many of us could also really do with shedding some of the poundage to save the £s, for the benefit of oneself and society who has to pick up the pieces through ill health - diabetes, heart disease etc and benefits payments. 

I would add that as well as cutting down it's the type of food. The slimness or otherwise of the clientele around the fresh leafy greens and ingredients compared to the aisles with sweets, choccies and fizzy drinks does seem to be a reason to get a grip and take responsibility.  

Moderation in everything - including moderation.
Nothing wrong with sweets, chocolates, fizzy drinks once in a while if that's what you fancy.
I eat Green & Black's dark chocolate and just have one piece so a 100gm bar lasts me ages.

Being brought up in West Central Scotland I have the 'sweet tooth' gene,  ha ha - as a result I have just enjoyed some lovely Macaroon that I got from Lidl the other day. A small treat can do wonders, and I hope you enjoy every square of that chocolate!

zaxdog

arnoldy said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

The answer is no because some of these people now are professional beggars, and do very well out of it.

I remember watching a prog a wee while ago about exactly this - some beggars were making a very good living doing it. It was mainly in London and other major cities tho IIRC.

Just to emphasise - some people, not all, and not everywhere.

Absolutely right. If you notice they hang out next to cashpoints (to make you guilty). Also, they tend to beg outside Waitrose and Co-op, never Asda or Iceland - easier pickings presumably. 

And many (most?) are not homeless. A homeless person sleeping on the streets will stink to high heaven and have grimy dirty skin and matted hair. 

Once when I was in a City, I walked to get an early morning train through all the centre at 4am - I expected to find many hundreds in doorways and porticos but didn't come accross anyone.

You couldn't be more wrong. Homeless people can access showers, washing machines etc at various facilities in my closest city. I understand it may be different down south as tories do tend to close these things if they can. To say someone who is homeless should stink and be dirty is really insulting to people who are struggling to survive in situations none of us would ever want to be in.

wort

@Auti One of the reasons I avoid watching the news and newspapers is all the negative stuff can really bring you down and be worrying. Re the gluten free , I have bought Supermarket own green cookies which vary in price but around £1.25 for 8 biscuits and just eat 1 as a treat so a pack can last a while. Noticed Poundland do a pack of whipped individual wrapped bars for £1 for 5 . Not tried them myself .

with regard to homeless it is so difficult to tell who is genuine that it makes it hard to give . I used to work in a rather small town center and would see a car/van pull up early morning and drop off a “homeless “ person who would sit outside the shop opposite all day then get picked up in the evening.

Siebrie

Scrimps said:

We asked the solar panel installer to come round for a site visit to see if we did actually need a new roof (can't recall if I discussed it on this thread or another), we arranged a time but they didn't arrive so I think we've had the brush off there. We think spending on a new roof is just too much at the moment and would rather pay down the mortgage before the fixed rate ends and keep a close eye on our energy usage. We're considered low energy users but we're being a bit more careful anyway.

We did the maths a couple of years ago, and it wasn't worth it for us back then. We used so little electricity, that the pay-off wouldn't come until around 25 years later, by which time we would have had to replace the solar panels already.

YoungBlueEyes

I used to live near a tourist town. As soon as Easter arrived so did the beggars. 

Instead of giving money, I’d ask if the person wanted something to eat or drink. Invariably they’d say no. Then one day someone said yes. Off I went into the nearest independent cafe, bought the hot chocolate and saus sandwich. The woman behind the counter asked if it was for the homeless guy outside. I said yep. She said he was probably the only genuine one out of the 20 or so that were on the main street.

She also told me that some people come in to donate to a pot so anybody desperate can be fed and watered. The homeless guy never took money “because he still has his dignity”, whereas the others would fight over it and why wasn’t it more like it was last year?! They’ve stopped doing it now. 

Unestablishable (?) but that’s what she said. 

newlywed

I was told by the local coop staff not to even buy food for the beggars outside their shop… coz they had watched them refused any home made food donations from locals and if any coop food was given they would immediately bring it in and ask for a refund!

have also seen a neighbour who drove a nicer car than ours at the time, begging at the local station. Definitely not homeless.

and have seen an older gentleman leave a hotel, go to the ashtray at the top of a public bin and rub his hands and face in ash…. Then minutes later he was asking for money.

I live in a city with so many of them… that I don’t always offer food unless it’s cold or wet weather. 

Local rag reporter once begged in the city and made about £100 in less than a day.

tooldle

There was an older chap in my town, who begged at the park entrance for years. He was in court on a number of occasions and eventually given a custodial sentence. He had a 3 bed semi in the same city. The local University is situated within the park and many a student were asked 'Can you spare a few pennies please' as they walked past. According to the local newspaper, a very comfortable living was made.

Slinky

Siebrie said:

Scrimps said:

We asked the solar panel installer to come round for a site visit to see if we did actually need a new roof (can't recall if I discussed it on this thread or another), we arranged a time but they didn't arrive so I think we've had the brush off there. We think spending on a new roof is just too much at the moment and would rather pay down the mortgage before the fixed rate ends and keep a close eye on our energy usage. We're considered low energy users but we're being a bit more careful anyway.

We did the maths a couple of years ago, and it wasn't worth it for us back then. We used so little electricity, that the pay-off wouldn't come until around 25 years later, by which time we would have had to replace the solar panels already.

We were all set to sign up for solar when Covid came along and hit our finances really badly. If it had been a couple of weeks later we'd have already signed and we'd have a system on our roof now. However the group buying scheme has come around again, the panels are about 70% dearer than last time, but we've just signed up. It's gutting it's costing so much more, but I can't see that it'll get any cheaper and I don't want to go down that road of regret again. We've calculated that with a battery it'll be about 16 years pay back at current rates.

With our track record of decisions, electricity will become a lot cheaper, panel costs will drop after we buy ours, and everybody else will be so much better off, so you've all got good times ahead with us to thank for it!