The topic of being skint....

I'm the same. Everyone seems to be feeling the pinch at the moment. I've noticed a lot more posts on money saving, frugal cooking etc too- on other forums as well as this one.

Not really, but I've bashed the credit card once or twice this month, so need to cut back even further

I'm kind of loving the spirit of the Blitz thing here, but I suppose we're not so close to the breadline yet that it hurts. That may come of course.

We seem to be ok we are still shopping the same had a weekend away the other day but styed in a cheaper hotel etc , also going away this weekend but its business , nothing then til holiday in dec apart from sparkleys bday bash .

i cant say i am loaded but i am not so skint i cant afford to do what i want to do iyswim , i think its because i am so busy and in work all the time i cant go anywhere to spend and i only use petrol back and fore to work so thats not crippling me either

i dont know when the credit crunch will start affecting business i am sure it will but then my gowns arent overpriced anyway so i think i am in the budget that the brides have to spen i think its the higher priced dress shops that will suffer

I don't suppose we are really JK, I guess everyone has their limit of what they think is 'too close to the breadline' though.

Cariad, I thought my workplace would be fine, we're in construction and we have loads of work on, I put it down to the fact that because people can't afford to move they are having extensions etc. instead which is our 'bread and butter' but we're starting to get letters from clients (businesses) now that owe us money and can't pay, or at least can't pay all in one go, because they're not getting the work in. It could start having an effect if it's several big invoices IYSWIM

Yeah i see what you mean , i think most brides will do anything to have their wedding day iyswim , internet sales can affect us but the girls come off worse when they get the crap dresses from china then they ahve to find more money which they do , there is prom too and stuff so that all helps , fingers crossed things dont get really bad

We are so skint at the moment. MrB is a kitchen fitter and has had no regular work for a couple of months now. He has been self employed for 15 years and has never been like this. He is now starting to apply for jobs. If it doesn't pick up soon we will have to put the house up for sale I think.

I am also just about to tell a friend that I cant afford to go on her hen weekend as its costing £200 and I really can't afford it. Im dreading getting in touch with her about it as I feel really shit but I have no choice, I cant even put it on the credit card as its nearly maxed out.

I really hope things improve soon.

We aren't skint, but we are extremely worried about what is around the corner.

As you know Sun, I'm training to be a conveyancer and work is extremely thin on the ground and there are talk of redundancies and I am extremely worried. Mr Scarlett is on the taxis and if peoples pockets are being stretched then they aren't going to be spending money on taxi's.

We have booked a holiday for January and we have paid nearly £300 deposit. We are going to cancel the holiday as it is just unrealistic at the moment to spend two grand on a holiday.

Just got to tough it out and hope I keep my job.

To be honest I've not really noticed any difference, other than in my attitude. I'm scared to spend money, I still have it I'm just really worried, mainly thanks to the TV. I'd say we are quite lucky though as I've never earned to my full capacity and due to issues with my H I looked at getting extra work a few months ago so I've almost doubled my income. H's work is still ok, not as great but still fine but with me working it's all averaged out. We are both self employed but in reasonably good industries so I'm hoping we'll be able to ride it all out (whatever "it" is). We've had both good times and bad times being self employed, it's always a roller coaster so it's nothing new ?

One thing I am very thankful for is that we didn't stretch ourselves when we purchased this house. We were also thinking of moving a couple of years ago and doubling our mortgage and I'd be crying right now if we'd done that.

Honestly no we're not skint but that's because i am a tight bugger at the best of times and live completely within our means, for years we've been laughed at almost for refusing credit, living in a house that's not really big enough but we could easily afford, who's laughing now :-)

That's not come across very well. We're within our means, we don't have a huge mortgage but the bills keep getting bigger.

We are about to be a bit better off after paying off quite a bit of debt, as of next month. But, which I posted earlier, our work has asked us to vote for all the employees to take a paycut, on my wage it doesn't work out to be that much a month. But with everything rising in price it could well make a difference. We have suggested to our work that if we have a cut in wages can we cut our hours appropriately, as long as the office is covered 9-5pm. Somehow I don't think that suggestion has went down well.

Really trying to watch the pennies. I might consider seeing about getting a second job just until things pick up, but not sure if I can really be bothered working nights and weekends.

We've been okay up to now but are about to move house next week - bigger mortgage and probably higher bills. I don't think we've overstretched ourselves but it's going to be a shock financially and like everyone I'm concerned about rising costs and the risk of redundancy. We needed to move for personal reasons but in so many ways I wish we were staying with our smaller mortgage.

We're not too bad atm although definitely noticing how expensive things have become, but then I increased my days at work and we don't have as much spare money I hoped we'd have IYSWIM. We moved just before the arse really fell out of the housing market and although our mortgage has gone up we were also in a financial position to clear credit cards and loans so we are lucky there. I go on mat leave in 5 weeks however and am a bit concerned how SMP is going to sustain us with bills rising and another mouth to feed but I guess we'll cope, in many ways I'm very glad that I've just got guaranteed money coming in for the next 9 months.

We're pretty skint atm and I see it getting worse. H is in the building sector and I'm in mortgages ?

Jaz, love the laugh at the end, is that a " if you don't laugh, you'll cry" laugh?

I've been looking at jobs tonight... just in case.

It's more of a hysterical laugh I think. Very luckily I do a bit of law too and start another job shortly. Also mr jaz has a history in consultancy work so hopefully can pick something up there if things get too bad but it would be further to travel so more fuel costs.

We have a quite a few things to pay off but it's reeeally slow - I just want to get rid of them as we have to remortgage next year and our LTV will be awful. Also an uninsured driver crashed into H last year and our car insurance is through the roof which is getting hard to cope with.

I know a few people who have just finished training to be solicitors and are struggling to get work and others who can't get any training contracts and have had to give up their places which is scary to hear.

I just can't get over the difference from last year... I had between five to ten completions a week. Now I'm lucky if I get one every two weeks.

My friend's a commercial property partner in a law firm and she was telling me that a lot of firms here (Scotland) are making redundancies and that one of the biggest firms hasn't paid their partners drawings for the past couple of months. I'm a lawyer too but not in private practice and am still a bit ? as I've always had the rather blase view that even if something happened to my current job, I'd be bound to get something - now I'm not so sure I would!

Similarly Roobarb I've always thought of training as my calling but that I wanted to do some other stuff first, build my confidence really and maybe build up some money first and then go but now I feel very like what's the point? Pay a fortune to do it (get a place and thedn maybe no TC) and get a job where I'm earning little more than now or possibly end up still doing what I am now with the extra debt...

Training here is pretty hard to get into and you lose your place if you have no TC so it's a real blow for lots of people.

My friend got offered a temporary paralegal type role on qualification by her commercial firm as they didn't have the work

I suppose you don't have to make that decision now - I left Uni around the time things were just starting to pick up after the last recession and couldn't get a training contract as they were still pretty thin on the ground, so I did other stuff and then went back to it after I got married and only qualified a few years ago...

Heres when you realise you're skint

1. You cant afford 3 tenners for your daughters white filling
2. Your local Spar lends you 2 quid until closing time - actually hands you 2 pound coins from the till.
   

Both happened to me in the past week. Doesn't help that your stupid ex has frozen all your accounts. CU oN Tuesday that he is.

Snap! ?

We have less money than a Big Issue seller! The cost of our heating oil has doubled in 16 months, we live in the country so have quite a long commute to work so the cost of fuel is the main thing stinging us ATM

We're fine now (we actually have more money due to reduced socialising as I'm very pregnant) , but I start maternity leave in a couple of months.

We've got the savings to see us through till i go back to work, but the thought of our household income halving overnight is scaring the bejeesus out of me.

The "who's laughing now" bit sounds a bit too much like gloating for my taste, but basically what she said.

Unlike Mr Brown, we have been prudent for the last 10 years, and a re reaping the benefits now.

That said, I have friends that have blown their cash like the party would never end, and my sympathy for them has been a little thin.

snap again!

We're pretty skint at the moment

If you look at us seperately my own finances are very tight, but jut about ok, but I got annoyed with J for not opening his letters or paying any attention to his finances at all

I kept finding piles of unopened bills around the house and when I asked him about them he said he never takes any notice as everything's on DD anyway, but I know this isn't the best attitiude to have so we had a chat and agreed on a 2 week rule - if he's not opened anything after 2 weeks then I do.

Recently I collected tham all up, opened them all, and stuck everthing into an excel spreadsheet to see how things balanced out

it wasn't good

he has a significant amount more going out than coming in, and keeps on top of it by transfering some over onto his credit card every so often

when I challenged him about it he said it he said it went back to when I was signed off (almost 2 years ago now), and he just assumes it'll get better once I get a proper job again. He's been keeping on top of it by doing the odd bit of freelance work, and the insurance money from the floods last year helped a lot too.

What annoys me most is that I'm very very frugal, but he still buys himself odd little presents.

I think my H will eventually be glad that I made him pay his debts off quickly and be skinter than we needed to be for 3 years - 6 months time and we will have substantially more cash than we have now - but with my new job, expenses will go up again. Actually, you get to that glimmer of light at the end of it, and something else happens! The other thing that's happened recently is that we've had lots of insurances due, which seem to have jumped this year (and I'm sure we owe lots on g&e)

Job wise, H is in a small company, and I've been trying to get him to jump to a bigger one because of the potential of this, however their work has picked up loads recently, and they've had their most profitable year for ages. I'm just moving job, which has been created in response to a legal change, so hopefully, I can see it out there (but I'm being made redundant from local government, so there's no guarantees).

Anyhow, extending from my earlier comment, things feel tighter, but I'm not entirely sure why as lots hasn't changed in terms of income and outgoings, so I don't know if it's in my mind or the slow increase is less obvious to me.

It's great fun isn't it? Of course it wil al be fine when we win the lottery ?

I suppose we're lucky in the fact that i dont actually notice things going up in price because we are still living comfortably in our means. This is only due to lots of saving over the past few years, share money and good bonuses from Mr G's work.