Flat Broke

Mr. Manager · 06-12-2012 01:45PM #1

Just listening to TodayFM here in work and some lady got in touch with the radio to say she was totally flat broke from all the tax hikes, charges, levies etc

She claimed that when she woke up there was no food, only 2 slices of bread, in the whole house and that needed to be shared between her and her 2 kids. One was 10 and one was 4.

She gave the 2 slices to the 4 year old and the other 2 said they weren't hungry.

Is this not a bit OTT? I mean a sliced pan costs about €0.80c, maybe less. Before people go calling me a heartless bastard... I'm not sure how she contacted the show if it was by e-mail, text or call. Either way, she would have had to buy credit to text or call or buy broadband (along with a PC/Laptop) to e-mail.

Obviously I do feel sorry for those that are unable to clothe and feed themselves/family but I think this is an overstatement to say the least.

Has anybody had any experience with being this broke or do you think it's an exaggeration and a pop shot to moan about the recent budget?

RiseToMe · 06-12-2012 01:47PM

She was at work from what I recall so she wouldnt have used credit or bought broadband, chances are she emailed using work computers.

dirtyghettokid · 06-12-2012 01:47PM

i had times like that as a kid.. our electricity supply being cut off, no phone and no telly. we had to eat food from the food bank. (canned goods and stale bread, etc)
but that wasn't in ireland.
i suppose most people who are having times like that now either aren't entitled to welfare, or are way in over their heads with debt

kfallon · 06-12-2012 01:47PM

I do hope it's a wind up or an exaggeration, would hate to think anybody was in that bad of a situation

06-12-2012 01:48PM

She claimed that when she woke up there was no food,

Did the food elves sneak in during the night and steal it?

mickydoomsux · 06-12-2012 01:48PM

I'm willing to bet that if anyone with even a modicum of financial planning knowledge took a glance over her situation they could improve it for her.

I always find these kind of sob stories to be rather unrealistic because they rarely ever give concrete details of income and expenditure.

SEPT 23 1989 · 06-12-2012 01:48PM

She could have rang SVdeP if she was that hard up

davet82 · 06-12-2012 01:48PM

Cereal Rapist wrote: »

Has anybody had any experience with being this broke or do you think it's an exaggeration and a pop shot to moan about the recent budget?

alot of it is do with bad money management/lack of education and provident loans imo

i still feel sorry for people like this but the vinnys are usually pretty good at giving food vouchers ect

smash · 06-12-2012 01:49PM

Cereal Rapist wrote: »

Just listening to TodayFM here in work and some lady got in touch with the radio to say she was totally flat broke from all the tax hikes, charges, levies etc

She claimed that when she woke up there was no food, only 2 slices of bread

Well that budget certainly kicked in fast...

dirtyghettokid · 06-12-2012 01:50PM

is there no food drives at this time of year?

Mr. Manager · 06-12-2012 01:52PM

There's plenty of places she could have gone for food. As someone posted above SVDP do canned drives round this time of year.

She had people calling and texting in wanting to donate to her. Some lady even offered her CC number so she could do some online shopping!

If hand outs are that easy I should start making fake names and chancing other stations

sfwcork · 06-12-2012 01:53PM

I heard that.She got 200 notes off one lad. Fair play

Was she the real deal..who knows

mikom · 06-12-2012 01:54PM

"You will pay the price if you're a fussy eater. If they could afford to emigrate then they could afford to eat in a modest restaurant."

Melion · 06-12-2012 01:55PM

Absolute chancer, get down to Lidl and get a loaf of bread for less than 50c.

franktheplank · 06-12-2012 01:55PM

mickydoomsux wrote: »

I'm willing to bet that if anyone with even a modicum of financial planning knowledge took a glance over her situation they could improve it for her.

I always find these kind of sob stories to be rather unrealistic because they rarely ever give concrete details of income and expenditure.

And those people who were supposed to have financial planning knowledge, where did they get us?

summerskin · 06-12-2012 01:56PM

Years ago I remember my mother being in a similar position with us on the day or two before payday. The difference was my mother earned good money but píssed it all away every month on extravagances.

Prime example was the fact that the only thing we had to eat in the house was a large pack of smoked salmon in the freezer and half a loaf of bread. And to drink? Champagne.

fúcking ridiculous but true story. For two days all we had to eat was smoked salmon, washed down with champagne. I was 15.

Boombastic · 06-12-2012 01:56PM

Should have nipped next door and borrowed some cornflakes

joydivision · 06-12-2012 01:57PM

They should take her kids into care if she cant put a slice of toaast in a ten year old .
What sort of debts has she got that its more important than a sliced pan for the kids .
Even if I owed my money to Johnny (I break fingers ) Johnson hed be getting told Im 80 pence short in your money kids needed bread .
This story is either horse**** or bad parenting .

Shryke · 06-12-2012 01:59PM

I have 20 euro for the next week. I'm still not going to be subsisting on 2 slices of bread a day. All the same, while she has to be exaggerating somewhat, she must be in some financial difficulty. It's impressive how petty people are sounding in here. Really, really impressive.

franktheplank · 06-12-2012 02:01PM

summerskin wrote: »

Years ago I remember my mother being in a similar position with us on the day or two before payday. The difference was my mother earned good money but píssed it all away every month on extravagances.

Prime example was the fact that the only thing we had to eat in the house was a large pack of smoked salmon in the freezer and half a loaf of bread. And to drink? Champagne.

fúcking ridiculous but true story. For two days all we had to eat was smoked salmon, washed down with champagne. I was 15.

Yeah, that's not really the same thing. For one, ye'd a house full of extravagances ye could flog.

summerskin · 06-12-2012 02:03PM

franktheplank wrote: »

Yeah, that's not really the same thing. For one, ye'd a house full of extravagances ye could flog.

like what? the Filipino house-boy? Then who'd have defrosted the salmon and opened the champagne?

EDIT* we didn't exactly have any "extravagances" to sell. My mother spent all the money on booze and fancy foods. Nothing to sell.

Dodge · 06-12-2012 02:04PM

There's a cuple of things here

1) Some people are absolutely flat broke. Living pay cheque to pay cheque (or dole payment, whatever...) and having barely enough money to feed/clothe themselves. Poverty absolutely exists.

2) 90% of people who claim the above are lying. it mightn't be a very comfortable living but the vast majority of people who moan about having no money have spent it on items they CHOSE to spend it on

06-12-2012 02:04PM

Shryke wrote: »

I have 20 euro for the next week. I'm still not going to be subsisting on 2 slices of bread a day. All the same, while she has to be exaggerating somewhat, she must be in some financial difficulty. It's impressive how petty people are sounding in here. Really, really impressive.

I have all the sympathy in the world for people genuinely short of money and food. Been there before. Zero sympathy for people going on national media to advertise that they fed their kids cardboard or nothing at all. Could have gone to SVP instead of "waking up to realise there's no food".

osheen · 06-12-2012 02:04PM

Plenty of us in our 30's and older should remember the 80's and early 90's bank crisis currency cris etc when interest rates shot up. my dad was self employed and paying 100% interest on overdrafts and 20% on mortgage. Plus he was paying 70% tax .
So things cant be that bad at least now you can cancel your sky and save 100 euro a month to buy bread.

seven_eleven · 06-12-2012 02:06PM

I wonder how much her phonecall cost. Im sure that money could have bought her a slice pan and some cornflakes

phasers · 06-12-2012 02:09PM

it's called budgeting love, you can get a week's worth of food for 15 quid if you really have to. 50 will get you a great shop. If you can't afford it then SvP will help. The fact that she let it get that bad is disgraceful.

Mr. Manager · 06-12-2012 02:09PM

If this girl does work as someone above said then her financial management is even worse.

Dodge · 06-12-2012 02:09PM

seven_eleven wrote: »

I wonder how much her phonecall cost. Im sure that money could have bought her a slice pan and some cornflakes

Do Spar accept phone credit? Poor argument...

Shryke · 06-12-2012 02:09PM

bluewolf wrote: »

I have all the sympathy in the world for people genuinely short of money and food. Been there before. Zero sympathy for people going on national media to advertise that they fed their kids cardboard or nothing at all. Could have gone to SVP instead of "waking up to realise there's no food".

I don't have time for attention seekers either, but if no one said anything we wouldn't see any coverage in media at all on this. I much rather to suffer the odd idiot who might not be in trouble that having a blanket see no evil, hear no evil attitude.
It's poor and out of touch journalism that's more the problem imo.

Dodge · 06-12-2012 02:11PM

Cereal Rapist wrote: »

If this girl does work as someone above said then her financial management is even worse.

Again, that's a prety broad statement to make without knowing anything. maybe she's been out of work for a while and repaying loans. Sure she she could just be terrible with numbers but maybe she's getting herself out of a financial hole

Mightn't have been your intention but I don't think taking potshots at her, based on the info we have,on the internet is fair

Mr. Manager · 06-12-2012 02:12PM

phasers wrote: »

it's called budgeting love, you can get a week's worth of food for 15 quid if you really have to. 50 will get you a great shop. If you can't afford it then SvP will help. The fact that she let it get that bad is disgraceful.

A kilo pasta in Tesco is €1.15 and 500gr of sauce is €1.29. If she buys 3 packets of each that would easily last a week until she gets herself on track again and only costs €7.32

Flat Broke

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