I'm skint - Oh no your not.

[JackP1]

Some people just like to be financially secure, thus claiming to use the term "skint"
Half the time, like you say, have the money and use it, but will go on for living like they have nothing.

[IvanSTi]

I say I'm skint all the time because I am.

I earn good money, but blow it on things I want/need which nets me nothing to piss up against the wall, be deal? I used to go out 4-5 nights a week, I enjoyed it, but left me with nothing, decided to change my priorities and now don't go out, but spend it on my hobbies, still end up with no disposable income, but I'm enjoying life.

[MC Bodge]

IvanSTi said:

I say I'm skint all the time because I am.

I earn good money, but blow it on things I want/need which nets me nothing to piss up against the wall, be deal? I used to go out 4-5 nights a week, I enjoyed it, but left me with nothing, decided to change my priorities and now don't go out, but spend it on my hobbies, still end up with no disposable income, but I'm enjoying life.

You are not skint. You live to your means/blow it on things. Skint people can't.

Edited by MC Bodge on Friday 20th March 11:16

[IvanSTi]

MC Bodge said:

IvanSTi said:

I say I'm skint all the time because I am.

I earn good money, but blow it on things I want/need which nets me nothing to piss up against the wall, be deal? I used to go out 4-5 nights a week, I enjoyed it, but left me with nothing, decided to change my priorities and now don't go out, but spend it on my hobbies, still end up with no disposable income, but I'm enjoying life.

You are not skint. You live to your means/blow it on things. Skint people can't.

Edited by MC Bodge on Friday 20th March 11:16

I am skint, I don't have a penny to rub together, but I'm not poor. That's the difference and I think that's where people are confusing things.

[qube_TA]

My sister is great at playing the poor card.

My wife works for the same company as she and her boyfriend, they all have very open salary bands so know how much they make.

They have no kids, have 2 apartments they are renting out. In short they're making comfortably more than we do.

Yet they have no 'money', they have my parents going round to decorate the house, paying for materials and helping with repairs and costs.

I'm viewed as doing OK, my father came to me last year to borrow £16,000 to help him pay off a loan, he didn't ask anyone else and it's debatable whether I'll get this back. We're always generous with our time and money, often helping the family out, we throw dinners for everyone, they come over for Christmas dinner, we pay for the lot, help out with money and sort things out. My sister or any of my siblings will never do anything like that 'because they're short of money'!

Whilst it's nice being able to help family it can grate a little being the only one that does.

[Accelebrate]

My future brother-in-law swings between conveniently not having a penny to his name and happily letting others pick up the tab, to carefully crafting a social media profile full of boasts about purchasing the latest gadgets, receiving bonuses, fine dining and exotic travel.

I don't understand how someone who seems so eager to impress on everyone how well he's doing can feel no shame in claiming to not have a penny to his name.

The reality is an average salary, big debts and any money that does come in immediately gets blown on the tat that makes it onto Facebook, before being sold on at loss after a few weeks when things get too tight again.

[MC Bodge]

IvanSTi said:

I am skint, I don't have a penny to rub together, but I'm not poor. That's the difference and I think that's where people are confusing things.

You had the pennies and you have exchanged them for things. You don't have infinite pennies. Skint=poor, not cash in the pocket poor

[berlintaxi]

Pit Pony said:

berlintaxi said:

Pit Pony said:

I think I come across as should not be skint, but I'm saying I'm skint.

Look at the facts from the outside.

1) Mortgage paid off
2) Cars over 10 years old paid for in cash
3) No debts
4) Hourly rate currently above £40 - last month I invoiced £8.8 K including the VAT
5) £650 into pension monthly.

But look at it from my view point.

1) The hourly rate is going into my ltd company.
2) This year me and the wife will declare a joint income of £25K
3) The rest is either in the business account, or spent on business expenses.
4) What is in the Business account rapidly drops when between contracts and the contract goes from being paid one week after submitting weekly invoice, to being paid 5 weeks after submitting monthly invoice.
5) What ever is in Business account by October is earmarked for an investment BTL which eventually will supplement my pension.
6) If I pay myself more now, both kids loose University Grants and Bursaries.

So I've been saying to the wife "can we put that off until April 7th please"

So not skint, just working the system to try and use other taxpayers cash.

In my defense, my wife has ME (Chronic Fatigue) and can't work full time, and couldn't hold down a part time job, because she can't be sure when she'll be too fatigued to work. But for 9 years she has refused to claim the Benefits that she was entitled to following 25 years of paying National Insurance.

She did this because SHE believes you should only claim if you need it. What that has cost us is about £70K. Not that I was happy as it meant that we were well and truely skint due to this, but hey...the stress of redundancy, and the stress of believing that we might loose the house, turned out okay. That we are trying to live on what we were living on before, and save the rest for a buffer, pay into a pension and to invest in something that will pay the bills if I drop down dead, isn't a crime. Neither is it immoral.

But my wife gets it more, because she's the one telling her family she can't afford to go out for a meal to a swanky restaurant, because she can't afford it. They can't understand how we are skint.

How is it not immoral to deliberately reduce your earnings so that your kids get funded through university by others?

[IvanSTi]

MC Bodge said:

You had the pennies and you have exchanged them for things. You don't have infinite pennies. Skint=poor, not cash in the pocket poor

Being skint and being poor are two different things IMO.

Poor = Not being able to afford a decent standard of living, not being able to have what you want, just being able to live day to day - there's very few people who are poor.

Skint = Not having the necessary finds to be able to get pissed up every night, buy everything you want, NOW and may have to wait for it - there's lots of people like this

Skint to me is the here and now, poor is an unfortunate way of life.

[CountZero23]

qube_TA said:

My sister is great at playing the poor card.

My wife works for the same company as she and her boyfriend, they all have very open salary bands so know how much they make.

They have no kids, have 2 apartments they are renting out. In short they're making comfortably more than we do.

Yet they have no 'money', they have my parents going round to decorate the house, paying for materials and helping with repairs and costs.

I'm viewed as doing OK, my father came to me last year to borrow £16,000 to help him pay off a loan, he didn't ask anyone else and it's debatable whether I'll get this back. We're always generous with our time and money, often helping the family out, we throw dinners for everyone, they come over for Christmas dinner, we pay for the lot, help out with money and sort things out. My sister or any of my siblings will never do anything like that 'because they're short of money'!

Whilst it's nice being able to help family it can grate a little being the only one that does.

My little sister costs more than any girlfriend I've ever had; Christmas I'll get a nice T-Shirt while I'll be throwing cash towards an iPad/ Laptop whatever she has asked the family for.

Just had to lend her £20 for food becuase she's skint. Spent too much on cocktails and beak with her London pals as per usual. Ah well, she is my little sister and £20 is a cheap month for me...

[MC Bodge]

IvanSTi said:

Being skint and being poor are two different things IMO.

Poor = Not being able to afford a decent standard of living, not being able to have what you want, just being able to live day to day - there's very few people who are poor.

Skint = Not having the necessary finds to be able to get pissed up every night, buy everything you want, NOW and may have to wait for it - there's lots of people like this

Skint to me is the here and now, poor is an unfortunate way of life.

The trials of modern life.......

Not having more than you could possibly spend on other things, allowing you to also pay to drink as much as physically possible does not equal skint.

I'm sure that the people of Afghanistan will donate money to aid you in your plight, though.

Edited by MC Bodge on Friday 20th March 16:05

[GroundEffect]

catso said:

And if you consider a mortgage?!

[P-Jay]

Nickyboy said:

My cousin doesn't say she's skint etc but refuses to spend money on stuff, she buys a lot of stuff in charity shops and car boot sales yet earns over £100k a year

Never going to be skint is she? ha ha.

I've given up trying to judge people's spending habits - everyone has their own way of doing things and very few of them you could argue are 'wrong' - I used to get all judgmental about some of my friends, they were so stereotypically 'pre-crash' they were almost a cliché - leased White A3 cabrio for her, leased Freelander for him, parked outside their 110% Northern Rock Mortgaged 'funky urban space' - unless they were on their Holidays to Dubai thanks to Uncle MasterCard - they saw their various credit limits in the same way some people think about their salary - which was the one financial thing that didn't seem to bother them - they were financially astute in some respects - they worked very hard to get very good deals on the cars, they played the 0% transfer game like seasoned pros and made sure they paid all their bills on time so the party never stopped.

When the banks fell I immediately thought they be ruined, the party was over and they had nothing to look forward to but bankruptcy - but it just never happened, they both managed to keep their jobs and whilst the credit card people were pulling limits and closing accounts for people who never used their cards they never turned them down because they used theirs all the time. Their mortgage payments went through the floor so whilst they'd fail the new affordability checks we'd be asked to use in work for the first time pre-crash (I used to work in finance) the .5% base rate meant they never had any probable swapping cars every few years - they've even managed to get themselves into the black with their house/mortgage.

I used to think the 'live for today, sod tomorrow' school of financial planning was a sure fire way to the poor house, but I don't think it is anymore, a lot of luck was involved, thanks mainly due to the fact they didn't get laid off like so many did, but they weathered the financial storm better than most of my friends who saved their pennies and avoided debt did. As they say - go figure.

[8Ace]

P-Jay said:

Nickyboy said:

My cousin doesn't say she's skint etc but refuses to spend money on stuff, she buys a lot of stuff in charity shops and car boot sales yet earns over £100k a year

Never going to be skint is she? ha ha.

I've given up trying to judge people's spending habits - everyone has their own way of doing things and very few of them you could argue are 'wrong' - I used to get all judgmental about some of my friends, they were so stereotypically 'pre-crash' they were almost a cliché - leased White A3 cabrio for her, leased Freelander for him, parked outside their 110% Northern Rock Mortgaged 'funky urban space' - unless they were on their Holidays to Dubai thanks to Uncle MasterCard - they saw their various credit limits in the same way some people think about their salary - which was the one financial thing that didn't seem to bother them - they were financially astute in some respects - they worked very hard to get very good deals on the cars, they played the 0% transfer game like seasoned pros and made sure they paid all their bills on time so the party never stopped.

When the banks fell I immediately thought they be ruined, the party was over and they had nothing to look forward to but bankruptcy - but it just never happened, they both managed to keep their jobs and whilst the credit card people were pulling limits and closing accounts for people who never used their cards they never turned them down because they used theirs all the time. Their mortgage payments went through the floor so whilst they'd fail the new affordability checks we'd be asked to use in work for the first time pre-crash (I used to work in finance) the .5% base rate meant they never had any probable swapping cars every few years - they've even managed to get themselves into the black with their house/mortgage.

I used to think the 'live for today, sod tomorrow' school of financial planning was a sure fire way to the poor house, but I don't think it is anymore, a lot of luck was involved, thanks mainly due to the fact they didn't get laid off like so many did, but they weathered the financial storm better than most of my friends who saved their pennies and avoided debt did. As they say - go figure.

I know people like this. Pisses me right off as they go on about how well they've done. Pure blind luck and if the rates hadn't plummeted then they would be homeless.

[IvanSTi]

MC Bodge said:

The trials of modern life.......

Not having more than you could possibly spend on other things, allowing you to also pay to drink as much as physically possible does not equal skint.

I'm sure that the people of Afghanistan will donate money to aid you in your plight, though.

Edited by MC Bodge on Friday 20th March 16:05

Read what I said again, then get back to me, you're clearly not getting what I'm saying.

[Pit Pony]

berlintaxi said:

How is it not immoral to deliberately reduce your earnings so that your kids get funded through university by others?

If I put it all into my pension would that be okay ?

[Axionknight]

GroundEffect said:

And if you consider a mortgage?!

I'd rather not even think about it

[MC Bodge]

IvanSTi said:

Read what I said again, then get back to me, you're clearly not getting what I'm saying.

I am getting what you are saying, but would never declare myself " skint" if I were you. You are not.

By your definition, if you had much more money you would still spend it all and still declare yourself skint. "Skint" thus becoming a meaningless term.

Edited by MC Bodge on Saturday 21st March 08:53

[renorti]

tend to find people who say they are skint tend not to be "really short of money"
ones who say they are "minted" normally got no cash.

[MrBarry123]

Poor = not being able to afford what you need, often a permanent situation.
Skint = not being able to afford what you want, often a temporary situation.