Has this happened to you?

Hi Icy-thanks for the link but here in the UK $10 would never gofar you could spend that in one or perhaps two days-even £20 dollars is a stretch it would be nice to know if there is a cheap way to live here!! blessings littleowl

I have actually fed a family of four on this $10/wk menu plan. I did it once or twice. It is not for long term and it assumes you have staples such as flour, baking soda...that sort of thing. But...I did it. Now that was over a year ago before prices went up- I honestly don't know if it would work now! I used to be able to feed the family for $35/wk when necessary. (We were actually a family of 6...but honestly the boys were so small they really didn't eat much so I think for me to say "I fed a family of 6 for this amount" could be a little deceptive.) But, to get where I need to go on $10 gas..? If I had to work- even in the closest town right now...$10 would get me to work and back about...one time and that's it (I would get to work a second time but only part of the way home- if I was lucky)...of course we live out in the middle of nowhere.

Thanks a bunch... really need this list right now! LOL someday things will be better... right :0)

Yes. I hate doing the bills and the checkbook every month because we always have to sepnd most of our earnings on the bills. It is awful. We never have much left over to spend either since the price of everything has skyrocketed. It is very hard to stretch a $20.00 bill these days.

OMG, this sounds terrible. That does sound like stretching your money a little thinly!! I think you are marvellous to be able to spread it so far anyway. $50 for two weeks of food, really good! Yes, I've lived like that when I was a kid. I remember being so incredibly hungry and asking mum for something to eat. She showed me her purse and she had 10p in it (about 20 cents) - well even in those days you couldn't get anything for that! It taught me the value of money. She used to take me shopping and get me to take the money out, counting it carefully and asking me whether that piece of meat or another was better value etc. Very good learning experience. In the end it got so bad that mum had to send me to a friend's house for three weeks because she literally couldn't afford to feed me. Do you know the really hard thing about this? My mother knew nothing about social services and about child support. Half our lives would have been less stressful if someone had mentioned this fact to her. Single parent with a kid, she could have got benefit and our lives would have been very different. But as she came from a wealthy background in South Africa she had no idea that there was anything like this for people in the UK. Mind you I think pride would have butted in a little bit here too. She only got to find out about it when I was 16 and so she was only eligible to receive it for a further 2 yrs whilst I was in education... How sad is that! Of course there was no back payment - never is from the government, is there? Thanks for sharing this with us icy. I hope you get through the week OK. Keep us updated. HUGS