Have you ever been really skint?

Not so much skint but right now I have an ex footballer, famous and quite wealthy one as well I would imagine, being an absolute c##t, owes me nearly £4K, keeps on saying “yeah, il put it in bank later”, never does and hard to get hold of, finished the job before Xmas as well so by the time I’d payed the lads and for all materials, left me potless over Xmas, really getting stressed over it now, but still have roof over our heads so would hate to be truely skint
I think like me, the Plasterer just wants his money soon without any hassle or things getting nasty.
Once you start legal action, you know the money will be a long way off.
So even though it seems daft, you actually want to keep the customer sweet until you're paid.

I'm pretty choosy who i work for. I normally only come unstuck when a third party gets involved.
(ie when you are doing a mate a favour)
So although my natural reaction would be to get nasty, i have learnt the opposite is more effective.

Different tactics work for different people.
The fact this knob hasn't paid up yet, suggests he is not the worrying type. He probably get threatening letters everyday.
Going that route means you will just be added to the list. Footballers all have ego's. I just normally play to that.

I had an Everton player who moved to a London club. He wanted his old house renovating ready for renting.
The work was done super fast with the promise of instant money. The tenant moved in almost immediately.
Then the trouble started. Nobody who worked there got paid. He went into radio silence. He actually changed phone numbers.
Not wanting to be ripped off, i approached the new tenant with my bill. (a Russian official)
I demanded he paid my bill on the landlords behalth . He obviously refused. So i told him i would visit every day until it was paid.
He then did the work for me. I got paid within two hours (by the player). I'm not sure how others got on, but i hope they did the same.
I’ll go round these people’s gaffs and have a ‘word’ with them for you if you want lads?

I can’t be doing with free loading cunts me. Think they deserve everything coming to them.
 
I don’t want to turn the thread into a political debate. We have probably all had enough of that recently. However, four million children living in poverty in the fifth richest economy in the world doesn’t happen by chance. There is double that living on the margins who could also drop to poverty levels.
I understand not wanting to make it political, but I really don’t know why it would be ‘deliberate’ (probably I’m very naive) but be grateful if you could summarise why in a couple of lines
 
I have never had to use a food bank and hope I never have to. How do they work. Is food donated or money given and the food bank buys the food. Do you get what your given and be grateful or are you given a choice. Is it means tested or on trust. Can you get hot food at them or just cold food. Can you have as much as you like or is the food rationed. Do they insist you give your details and do they restrict the number of visits. Are they open all day or just at certain times of the day. Where are they as I never see them advertised so how do people know where to go.They were mentioned a lot during the election, almost as much as nurses and I scratch my head as to how they get to the numbers of users that were banded about. I would think to get to the numbers with any sort of accuracy there would need to be a centralised computer monitoring system and people are probably loathe to give their details.
 
I’m 53 now..... Grew up in absolute poverty in a block of flats that overlooked Strangeways. They were called Cornwall Buildings. We had Soldiers on the roof during some of the IRA trials in the seventies. Victorian flats that were two rooms and an outside toilet. We had a tin bath. Infested with cockroaches and when people lit the rubbish shoot to unblock it rats were everywhere. Dangerous too with railings falling off regularly. The flats were where they dumped families of different nationalities. We had Italians, German, Caribbean, Hungarian, Polish and of course us Irish. We were often looked after by a woman who had been in the concentration camps. It was a real mish mash and gave me a real love of different cultures and nationalities.

The problem was poverty. We had nothing, and I mean nothing. If it wasn’t for the help from neighbours who also mostly had nothing it would have been worse. My folks went without an awful lot and us three kids still suffered. I really do know what it is like to be hungry and was regularly dizzy because of not having food. It got to my Ma who struggled emotionally and as a result attempted suicide a few times, the first time after we couldn’t pay the rent anymore and we were locked out. My Dad eventually sorted that out and we got back in but it was a really bad time. Eventually the flats were compulsory purchased and we were offered a choice. Harpurhey or Moss Side. We went to look at a house in Moss Side on a new estate. It had hot water, radiators, a bathroom and a small garden. I still remember us three kids not being able to speak, then running around the house thinking we had won the pools. I get emotional now thinking about it. We moved in and things got better but we still struggled badly for years. I missed four years of school because of feeling like an outsider, smelling, feeling different. That’s what poverty can do. It marginalises and destroys children and families.

I eventually studied as a mature student, thanks to a wonderful woman that I met and have spent the past 25 years working with kids and families in poverty. If people don’t think real poverty is a problem today they need to spend a week with me. It’s a national disgrace and getting worse. It’s also deliberate...... I work as a senior manager now, live in a reasonable place with my partner and two dogs, but still feel like I don’t belong......

Hats off to you mate. You have a firm place in our society, your job role isn't just helping people, I'm sure the work you do genuinely saves lives. It's blokes like you that are the living proof that you can turn your life around, and there is light at the end of the tunnel. That is massively empowering for people you mentor; keep doing what you're doing.
 
Sugar butties were often on the menu for me as a kid.
We were skint most of the time but that was down to mother doots pissing the household income up the wall.
Salad cream sandwiches were a regular delicacy too.
 
I mean properly no money for any food or any money to put into your gas or electricity meter?
Something one of the kids said today and I'm fortunate to have never been in that position
Never but with having a mortgage it was always a worry if I lost my job, money was always tight but never in poverty .I count myself fortunate as their for the grace of god
 
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From memory he should be behind bars! What an arse. Good luck getting your money back

I had a similar problem this year (although not to that £k amount) where my 16 year old son had been working in a local bar and was owed a few hundred quid. Owner kept promising payment which never happened (internet banking down, had locked himself out of his account). In the end I went in and asked him for the money in front of his customers, soon paid up as he wants his customers to think he’s top man when the reality is his bar is making cluck all (not a reason not to pay your staff!)

Of topic a bit but we had a restaurant owe us some money and it was really pissing the wife off as she couldn't balance the books....so she went straight in to the restaurant on a busy saturday night and refused to leave till he paid. He paid.
 
I don’t want to turn the thread into a political debate. We have probably all had enough of that recently. However, four million children living in poverty in the fifth richest economy in the world doesn’t happen by chance. There is double that living on the margins who could also drop to poverty levels.

....Parents, maybe..??
 

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