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

mumtoomany

I tell the ones that cold call, trying to sell or scam me, that i don't have a telephone. Then hang up. hugs, mumtoomany.xx

joedenise

I tell cold callers that the lady of the house is out and that I'm the cleaner!

lesleyb

Rosa_Damascena said:

lesleyb said:

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.

We have a few that sit outside our Tesco, one is a family members BIL. He told her he can earn £100 a day     He lives in a 2 bedroom flat and wears what he calls his work clothes when he goes begging, ie old trainers, dirty clothes as he can get more money like that, 

Work clothes 

He's earning more than the NMW through deception, presumably neither paying his stamp or taxes. That is nothing to be proud of, especially given it blunts charitable giving to people in genuine need that feel they have no choice.

He has caused his family a lot of heartache with his lifestyle choice. He hasnt worked for years 

My 9 year old grandson got very upset when he saw a guy with a sign that said " I am hungry, I have not eaten for 2 days" He bought a packet of brioche with his own money and gave them to him. The guy took them and promptly handed them to his colleague with a smirk. My daughter snatched them back and told him what she thought of him. He obviously wanted money not food. 
Its very sad  for those in need but I never give money to anyone on the street.

Paspatur

YoungBlueEyes said:

If they're on the phone or at the door or in the street - in your very best Queen’s English and with a big grin on your face say “oh I’m soo sorray, I don’t speak a wahd of English!” Then hang up. 

When I get the telephone calls about having an accident in my car I love handing the phone to my youngest grandchild
She has her response perfected
Grandma doesn't have a car because she can't see too good, mummy has a car, daddy has a car, my other grandma and granda have a car, my auntie xx has a car, my uncle xx has a car (repeat for x number of uncles and aunties) but grandma doesn't have a car. They always hang up on her at some point

CKhalvashi

YorksLass said:

We have 5 charity shops near us and I don't donate to or buy from 4 of them as their prices are way out of line.

The one I do donate to/buy from is for a local Hospice that has a quick turnover of stock since their prices are very reasonable.  I also go to their Xmas and summer fairs where they have various stalls, including rather nice baked goods.  I bake a lot but it's always nice now and again to have a treat that someone else has made.  

We also used to have various charity bods knocking on the door, wanting you to sign up for monthly donations.  None for quite a while, probably because of Covid.  I'm not keen on this approach so politely decline and close the door before they get chance to launch into their script.  

On top of this, I find many too picky.

Attempted to drop a car load to a charity shop a few weeks ago to be told they are full and can't accept donations. No problem with this, so took it to another charity shop.

I was then asked where 'their' stock is a few weeks later as we hadn't been back in. There seems in some cases to be little understanding that while all the goods being given away were in good condition we needed it gone as, like them, we didn't have anywhere reasonable to store it (it had taken up a sofa at home for 3-4 days).

That's a charity shop I won't be donating to again in the future.

CKhalvashi

Paspatur said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

If they're on the phone or at the door or in the street - in your very best Queen’s English and with a big grin on your face say “oh I’m soo sorray, I don’t speak a wahd of English!” Then hang up. 

When I get the telephone calls about having an accident in my car I love handing the phone to my youngest grandchild
She has her response perfected
Grandma doesn't have a car because she can't see too good, mummy has a car, daddy has a car, my other grandma and granda have a car, my auntie xx has a car, my uncle xx has a car (repeat for x number of uncles and aunties) but grandma doesn't have a car. They always hang up on her at some point

If I have time (mainly if on an e-mail run), I'll always go into great detail about the accident in my car that wasn't my fault, how much it hurt, how much blood there was, before at the end giving the small detail it was a paper cut while doing paperwork.

I had an HMRC scam call the other week, so after telling them my name is Wayne Kerr and that I need to pay £7000 due to fraud in my name, I equally like to play with them 'Oh, is that all you know about? Ok, I'll pay it as long as the investigation stops', etc etc etc. Not sure if someone here speaks Hindi, but if you ever have a problem, always offer to get your manager, Ben Chode (which when said in the right way is very very rude)

If nothing else, it stops them annoying/scamming someone else for half an hour

newlywed

linz said:

newlywed said:

Payday today so have treated myself to some of the washing dolly balls and an extra oven shelf (when I do use it, I cram as much as I can in!).  Hoping to save on the expensive eco washing stuff i use with the washing ball things too.

every little will help.

Can you elaborate on the washing balls if you dont mind? Are they those eco eg things? I was planning on buying some when my box of powder runs out, or is it something else?

They were from Lakeland, saw them mentioned on another thread. They are lumpy rubber balls that go in with the washing to agitate it more, so you apparently need less powder etc. It’s not the eco egg that you use instead of washing powder (wasn’t overly impressed when I tried one years back).

hoping to use half the detergent and these thingies.

I also bought a magnaball that is a big ball with magnets in to soften the water and apparently should also help with using less detergent - we are in a hard water area. 

arnoldy

lesleyb said:

My 9 year old grandson got very upset when he saw a guy with a sign that said " I am hungry, I have not eaten for 2 days" He bought a packet of brioche with his own money and gave them to him. The guy took them and promptly handed them to his colleague with a smirk. My daughter snatched them back and told him what she thought of him. He obviously wanted money not food. 
Its very sad  for those in need but I never give money to anyone on the street.

Agreed, despicable emotional behaviour. I have seen food donations (or food parcels) sold for a pack for special brew or cheap cider. Never give ££s on the street you are doing the reverse of helping.

potplant

I respond to scam telephone calls with "Good morning, this is the London Telephone Fraud Reporting Line; how may I help you today?"  They have always rung off straight away except once, when a panicky voice replied "oh no ma'am, I don't need any help!" (And then rang off.)

freyasmum

Paspatur:

When I get the telephone calls about having an accident in my car I love handing the phone to my youngest grandchild
She has her response perfected
Grandma doesn't have a car because she can't see too good, mummy has a car, daddy has a car, my other grandma and granda have a car, my auntie xx has a car, my uncle xx has a car (repeat for x number of uncles and aunties) but grandma doesn't have a car. They always hang up on her at some point

We had one guy phone and we let our 2.5yo answer. To be fair to him, he spoke to him about lions and zebras for ages before he said that he was really sorry, but he had to go now. Then he had a "bye... bye... byyyyeeeee" competition with him. I actually think we hung up first 🤣