Life Expenses in the UK

**Fatboxingfan** · 12-17-2019 05:15 AM

Originally Posted by Gandalf

Social/cultural participation? Go to a coffee shop for coffee and a cake. It will set you back a fiver a week.

dude if you work for a company they have Christmas parties and they have things like that and you have to go there they have baby showers and they have things like that and they have wedding receptions for co-workers and you are invited and you have to buy a wedding gift or something or a baby shower gift this is what is social participation. You're living with people and working with people you can't just sit inside like a hermit and not go to the office Christmas party for example or the grab bag or the potluck dinner

**Gandalf** · 12-17-2019 05:24 AM

Originally Posted by Fatboxingfan

Originally Posted by Gandalf

Social/cultural participation? Go to a coffee shop for coffee and a cake. It will set you back a fiver a week.

dude if you work for a company they have Christmas parties and they have things like that and you have to go there they have baby showers and they have things like that and they have wedding receptions for co-workers and you are invited and you have to buy a wedding gift or something or a baby shower gift this is what is social participation. You're living with people and working with people you can't just sit inside like a hermit and not go to the office Christmas party for example or the grab bag or the potluck dinner

If you are at a company Christmas party it is typically paid for by the company, not you. And as for Weddings or what have you and you are genuinely struggling then people would understand. Would you really want to force someone struggling to give you their last dime? Or drag them along. Of course not. They would probably pay for their transportation if family or close friends, but........how much of what they say is true.

**Gandalf** · 12-17-2019 07:19 AM

Oh, I notice now that Amy is living alone....but needs housing support for a council home? So I am curious why she needs such support and where her money is going. Council housing is very cheap and clearly designed for lower income earners like Amy. What exactly is her issue?

If it really is so tough on that money then why doesn't she take a few classes, upgrade her skills? Anyone can get a student loan and not pay it off until earning a set amount.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/property...-rent-280.html

**Gandalf** · 12-17-2019 07:24 AM

Why doesn't she find a job closer if the transport is too much? She could even do my old relief work and all transportation costs would be refunded the following month. There is always a way. Maybe she could apply at Lidl where it is 9-10 pounds an hour. Amy seems eager to complain, but doesn't appear very driven. Why are other people able to do better than her? Why was I earning more than her as a student in the year 2001? Something odd with Amy.

**p4pking** · 12-17-2019 08:26 AM

This whole you two pretending to feud is a lark.

**Gandalf** · 12-17-2019 09:14 AM

Originally Posted by p4pking

This whole you two pretending to feud is a lark.

What is even stranger is that we are the same person!

I get that wages for some like Amy are low, but surely she considered transportation and wages before starting the job and she gets support for her council home rent. She is an enigma.

People like Amy are the exception rather than the norm. There are hundreds of jobs that require skills and qualifications but you need to work for it. I know a chap who went home from here to study speech therapy as he knows there are jobs at the end and it will pay. It just requires a bit of common sense and a modicum of smarts.

Tommy Robinson gets mocked by the snobs on here, but he made money by learning and working hard. Many do from your Al's, to your X's, to others like Master and Memphis who hold down steady decent work.

Why didn't they go wrong? It is because we often end up where we are by the choices we make. This is where child nurture is key so that we do not end up with Amy's. It isn't the government that made her ignore skills and having the ambition to obtain the skills to do something.

I also do not understand where all her money is going. She is probably paying 300 quid a month rent or something.

**Memphis** · 12-17-2019 11:18 AM

If I were a single person I'd be proper fucked off if I was blowing 200 quid a month on food. I don't spend that much now, not even close. We eat well, proper food, meat, veg, fruit. Occasionally chuck a pizza in the oven. I'd consider that quite normal.

I think Amy isn't on a full time wage.

There's always something lurking. I'd wager in most cases it's smoking. Struggling to buy or pay for the essentials but the fags remain. Not suggesting that's the case with Amy.

My Mrs is a proper grafter. Has been since 13, two jobs right through until college, working evenings and weekends at college, full time job plus weekend work. Still at it now, works 6 days a week most weeks. You'd think that was something instilled in her by her parents. Her parents are proper lazy, her words not mine. Always considered work a nasty word, didn't/still don't want to do it. She routinely props them up financially because they've run out of the essentials, can't pay a bill. Still smoking though.

Just to add. I appreciate that there are genuine people genuinely struggling for one reason or another. In my experience though, there's a clear and avoidable reason. Personally if ever I've been skint, I know exactly why and that it was in most cases avoidable. I'm going to buy this, or go here, or do that. It'll clean me out but fuck it, I'm doing it anyway.