Borrowing money to eat
 

Something very bad is happening over here in the UK. I went into a money shop where I cash some of my cheques on a regular basis. I was talking as usual to one of the cashiers and she was talking about how badly the shop was doing, and to my disbelief she then went on to say that they are having people come into the shop asking for small £50 loans in order to buy food. I couldent believe it. She said all the time she has work as a cashier at the shop she has never had people comming in and trying to get loans for food.. I still cant get my head round this...its crazy

Make them trade jewelry or gold fillings

I'd gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.

http://www.styleofeye.com/images/wimpy-from-popeye1.jpg

If I got to that point I'd just stock up on Ramen Noodles from Costco.

What I cant get my head round is why they are trying to get small loans when they could go to a charity and get free food or use our social security..it dont make sense or these people have got themselves into a situation and are to proud to seek help

I'll tell ya why.

I've been there just a few years ago.. when I worked offline.

You need to prove income.
I proved my income and they looked at me and said I made too much money.
But I had no food in my fridge... so how was that possible ?

You earn to much money but have no food ?????.. now im even more confused...

Yes, a lot of systems are set up very weird. Some you need to make absolutely no money, not even a dime, in order to get the assistance.

But regarding your question, to get actual "official help" it takes a lot of time for it to start working. If these people need to eat today, they need to find food elsewhere. Food banks are one of the resources, but perhaps these people are simply short on money this week and will have it next week to pay back the loan.

I made too much money for social assistance of ANY kind... but not enough to live.

I was a cook, clearing $700 and change every two weeks, my rent was $1000 .. somehow in their mind that $400 was enough to pay all bills and food, gas to get to work (which was usually the killer) sometimes I could stretch it, but with growing boys it was hard as fuck.

That money did fine when they were babies, but once they moved on to eating food like kids it wasn't anywhere near enough.

You can stop in at a food bank, sure.. but in times of need ( like now ) they're usually empty anyway.

I can remember going to the food bank, a week after payday ( a week before my next ) and was handed .. wait for it .. AN EGGPLANT.

nothing else was there.

Then I found adult..thank god.

but it's starting to look like in a few months/years if shit continues, I'll find myself there again collecting my eggplant

I get what you are saying but if these people are earning a decent wage then they obviously dont know how to manage money if they cant even feed themselves, The mind boggles..

Now that is a completely different bag of worms... :-)

It's not always that cut and dry. People who are doing well sometimes lose site of what it's like to struggle.

If the top banks can go bankrupt, families can have hard times too... no matter how they manage their money.

ah ok I get it now, and sure hope you wont have to go down that path again, really sad to hear of people who have to do this to eat

jesus,that sux

Wake the fuck up people. This is no suprise to us who have studied the alternative research that has been avalible for years, it's just that noone will listen until everything is already fucked up beyond repair.

what alternative research are you talking about ?

most people that work on the internet have no idea of life outside of it.

I used to have a 9-5 job and we went through a very bad patch a few years ago but I would never dream of borrowing money from a loanshop only to get yourself in deper debt, It would be a vicious circle ,I would rather go to my family and freinds which we did do in our time of need.

haha yea.

That's the problem with assistance and loans
Either way you get into a loop.

I got looped into the pawn shop scam around the same time as my post above.

Nothing like pawning your $1200 TV for $175 and then paying $20 every two weeks to TRY and keep it .. I ended up losing it.

But when your babies gotta eat and all you got is a fucking eggplant, what are you to do?

Haven't been to a pawn shop since thankfully, other than for a purchase.

I guess you haven't heard about the farms there in the UK being robbed. It's not just the US. But you might be surprised that 40,000 people showed up for a free food give away in Denver http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_11052263

Wake up people.

this thread is very depressing... its raining here and I am drinking water ... (too much coke already..) ... but yeah... I feel for people with no food :( .... that oughta suck balls....

I hear ya, glad you are doing good now :thumbsup

some people don't have friends or family, or if they do, the friends and family are even more broke than them.

Holy shit :(

very true I guess

that must suck, I hate seeing people broke

Just yesterday I had a bill that needed to be paid but I couldn't.
At the last second someone stepped up and saved me from a domino effect type disaster.

Later that same day I had gone into the grocery store to get some food and was out in the
parking lot sitting in my Jeep eating a sandwich from the deli when a young girl barely out of her teens stopped and said that she was very sorry to ask but she was desperate and had no money or way to fed her two year old kid and she was on her way into the store to basically beg for some food.

It's hard to tell these days when someone is being sincere or just scamming but she really had that sunken demeanor of near hopelessness and I only had to think back to earlier in the day when I didn't know what was going to happen to me so I reached in my pocket and gave her the seven bucks I had left.

It really sucks people have to ask for food but it's better than resorting to crime :(

things like paying for deli sandwiches is what people do wrong though. it would be cheaper to build your own then pay the expensive pricing of pre-made or made-for-you food.

Only one time after a layoff did it ever get so bad I had to get a loan for some food. What ended up happening was a family member literally took their extra food from the fridge and brought it over. Of course that only lasted a week. I can't imagine being so bad off that this happens week after week. Just that one time...really has stuck with me and I've done whatever I can to make sure it never happens again. Two jobs, three jobs people. Whatever it takes. Luckily that's the only truly terrible patch I've ever been in and it lasted a week only. Of course after the layoff I did struggle paying the bills but I was lucky enough to have enough for them, albeit by the hairs on my neck! Perhaps I am lucky to have had a way to pay for food and shelter and been in relative comfort etc. Makes me grateful for my job right now and for any opportunities I get, I can tell you right now, after having been in such a bad spot at one point.

I agree with the fellow who said it's never cut and dry. It truly isn't. Sometimes you make good money and then some sort of emergency happens and you have no money. Like did you ever watch "The Pursuit of Happyness" , Will Smith had the IRS come in and take every dime he had left in his account. He was literally broke and had no money for food. Sometimes shit happens, even when you have a little money!

We are all going to be starving pretty soon.

Sadly, for a lot of families, all it takes to send them into a terrible downward spiral is a toothache that needs dentist attention, or a car that won't start and needs a new alternator.

Once you've missed a payment, or delayed your rent, you're fucked if you're already living on a thread.

id give people food when asked for, no money though so they can buy more crack

That's $0.09 per meal. You could add stuff, get creative, use free condiments. Imagine the possibilities!

urgh, depressing thread

It is such a shame how bad some people have it.

damn thank god for the value menu at wendy's

it's easier to borrow money then to look for a job

a few thousand people are dying EACH day in Africa from hunger and noone cares about them....

but you are sad 'cause you saw some guy borrowing 50 pounds to buy food in the UK

What shop in question do you refer?
Think about all the food that is thrown out by retail chains and consumers alike it is enormous quantities enough to feed hundreds of thousands of people each year.
Waste and greed is disgusting.

Yeah but how many of those starving Africans will he actually see with his own eyes while eating a sandwich in a store parking lot in the UK?