How many of you have ran out of money and are living off your overdraft till payday?

[BlackCatinChaos]

Just wonder how many others are in the same boat and looking for ideas of what
food you/we could eat.

Sorry if that doesn't quite make sense!

[Scrazy]

Me. It's a fact of life for me and I am just trying to cut down on food costs. Beans on toast tonight.

[ByTheWay1]

don't believe in overdrafts, so living off the contents of the freezer and cupboard...

chicken leg stew with tinned sweetcorn in large frozen (well... cooked) Tesco's Yorkshire pudding for tea today....

[BlackCatinChaos]

I would rather not use the overdraft but when we need to buy milk or bread we won't have much choice.

We are probably o.k. for food at the mo but not sure if it will be enough to last 2 weeks, (family of 4).

[Mum2Fergus]

I paid off OD a few months ago, but have approx £120 to do us til 20th. Should be manageable providing petrol costs dont come in too high. I still have a few meals/part meals in freezer too.

[DublinDoll]

We have ran out of money but don't have an overdraft. Food wise we are not too bad because the freezer is fairly full but our gas was cut off in mid December and we can't afford to re-connect it yet, the house is so cold. It was -3 when I was getting up this morning. We are all kind of living in one room with a little blow heater. Roll on the end of Jan when we should be able to pay to get reconnected.

[onthemetro]

I am. Got £4 left of it We've been eating from the deepest, darkest depths of the cupboards and it hasn't been that bad tbh. Definitely made me rethink how we usually shop. I get paid on Monday though, so I'll be back out of it and will budget to hell and back!

[lorisparkle]

we 'live' in our overdraft -as the bank expressed it and on credit cards. not a good situation but we are budgeting to try and get out of it. I stick to the bare essentials when shop and think carefully about each penny I spend. I keep the heating off as much as possible but dh is an expensive commodity and trying ro rein him in is my challenge.

[BrawToken]

Broke here too! Feb is a short month so should be able to claw it back then. Happens every year in our house. Looking forward to the day our wee one is no longer in expensive nursery...

[devonsmummy]

Yep
Mortgage came out today & we were £57 overdrawn before that!
15 more days to payday!!!
Wrote a list of what's in cupboards & freezer today and with a £30 Aldi shop today am hoping that will last us.

[BigcatLittlecat]

19 days to pay day and have access to no money! Living off the freezer and cupboards!

[StuffezLaBouche]

I'm SO glad someone posted this.
I live in my OD but am paying it off in small amounts. I have about £50 left to last until 31st. Which it obviously wont. So any purchases that need making will have to go on credit card. 0% thankfully and will push all spare money into paying that off over 2013 while it's still interest free.
Feel very miserable at being in this situation and think I'm going to have to take in a lodger.

[frazzled74]

yes due to nearing end of mat leave and overspending at christmas we are in exact same boat.We have £150 left of our overdraft!! until pay day at the end of the month. Luckily theres still lots of xmas food in the freezer so will aim to live off that this week and next week, then I will do a very careful food shop and make use of the slowcooker, I also intend to use up the contents of my store cupboard and bake bread, cakes etc for packed lunches, I am allowing myself £3 a day to buy milk, veg etc if needed and hopefully the odd coffee, I stayed in today and spent nothing so tomorrow i will have £6!!!

[TeWiSavesTheDay]

Yup. We have been doing this for years!

I aim to be a little less into the OD at the end of each month and we will clear it eventually.

My big push idea for this year is No Spending Days - there's a thread about it in Credit Crunch if you want to have a look.

[ByTheWay1]

We have one no spending WEEK a month.... barring absolute emergencies - have been known to drink my tea black... I hate black tea, I hate paying interest even more..

[frazzled74]

Im not sure that I could do a no spend week but a few no spend days are in order this year i think.

[TeWiSavesTheDay]

It's about trying to reduce the time you spend shopping and therefore impulse shopping, if you don't fancy it then don't come by!

We became 5k in OD debt paying our rent when DH lost his job a few years ago, have had lots of big spends since then, having to fix cars, relocate etc. It has been 1 step forward 2 steps back sometimes but we are paying it off and are doing really well imo.

Sometimes it's not as easy as just 'not believing in debt' unless you fancy being homeless...

[SoftKittyWarmKitty]

I go into my OD every single month. In the past I've paid it off, then the minute something costly and/or unexpected happens I have to use the OD as I don't have any savings.

For instance, my car failed its MOT in Sept and I'm still paying off the OD from the repairs to get it through. It needs yet more repairs and the road tax is due next month (£195). I almost got rid of it at the end of last year as it's becoming more and more obvious that I can't afford to run a car . However as there's so much wrong with it, I doubt I'd get more than scrap for it, so it's difficult to decide what to do.

[Hydrophilic]

I have been in my overdraft for a few months due to unemployment but start a new FT job on Monday and have a PT job that is due to pay me at the end of the month too.

It will get better.

[frazzled74]

we managed to clear most of our debts before ttc dc4 so i feel quite pleased , once im back at work we will pay back the overdraft and tackle the few remaining small debts £1000 in total. I never want to be in debt again apart from mortgage if at all possible and really want to start saving so that we can have a nice holiday, and maybe tackle some big jobs around the house. I will be working 4 days a week so think that 5 no spend days should be realistic and help to curb my spending.

[BlackCatinChaos]

So sad there are lots in this position, especially those who don't have heating!

We went to a local food bank for the first time ever today. Really thankful they exist! Some people must really need them at the mo.

[Mum2Fergus]

Been repaid £35 of expenses today that Id forgotten about...all should be well til payday on 20th.

[frazzled74]

How do i find out about food banks? when I am back to work and finances arent quite so dire it would be nice to donate to them . I nearly had a no spend day but splashed out on some moisturiser cream using a no7 voucher, a bit of a luxury considering state of our bank balance but figured that the £5 off was too good to miss and sold a few bits on ebay this week so dont feel too guilty.

[PenguinBear]

Well into my overdraft and when I get paid, will still be in it! :(

[FoofFighter]

No overdraft here to fall back on, things are like this for us probably 9/12 months of the year so it's normal for us.