When I was 26 or 27, I got my second proper grown up job, the first with a proper grown up salary. I'd been working in the resource and planning dept in a call centre, outsourcing to India meant we were all redundant, and the centre duly closed. I accidentally acquired a job as a software tester. Someone put my name to a company, I trotted along for an interview, told a couple of mucky jokes, and was told I'd fit in just fine. And so, three days after my old job ended, my new job began. Technically, it was quite a step up. I think I was earning £5000 a year more before tax. But my commute cost me £250 a month. Regularly we worked away, and although expenses could be claimed, they occurred in the following months salary. They'd go on your credit card, and any profit to be made from expenses would be lost in interest. My take home pay would be about £1400. So lets do some sums.
Lets take off £430 for rent. That leaves £970. Now lets take electric £80, on a single fuel bill there is no discount and having to heat an entire tank of water because you don't have a combi boiler costs, leaving £890. Lets take the rest of the bills, council tax, water, phone, internet (essential for occasional home working), mobile, tv license, roughly £200. That's £690. Now take transport, £250, leaving £440. Sounds good so far, right? Now take the inevitability of trying to pay off debts accrued from university, approximately £400 a month across a loan and a credit card.
£40 a month. I lived on that most months for three years. I am no stranger to the £6 (or less) a week food shop. Now on the outside, to a stranger unaware of my budget, I would have looked well off. They could have had no understanding of how precarious my life was, how easily the rug could have been pulled from under my feet.
Occasionally, working away would give me an extra £20 or £30 a month disposable income (and occasionally more, when, after weeks of living in hotel rooms off cold tins of beans, expenses would come through), and yes, I spent it on seeing my friends and going to gigs, and on social conventions like birthday and Christmas presents for my nephews. How terribly profligate of me. People I know will wonder how I managed to go out as much as I did. I largely went to gigs, a whole night out for £6, and although when I drank it was too much (and best forgotten), mostly it is possible to spend nothing in a bar, because soda water is usually free.
Even with a fuel bill of £80, my flat was freezing, in the winter even with its two inefficient storage heaters it was impossible to reach a temperature higher than 9 degrees, and that was only possible within 3 ft of the heater. My bedroom had no such luxury, and was much colder. I spent my evenings wrapped up like the Mitchelin man. I slept under numerous blankets, in hoodies and jogging bottoms with my hat on. I was surprisingly frugal with my electric consumption, unfortunately I think the clock on my meter for the economy 7 was wrong, so it was really never that economic.
People really have no idea what it means to be poor. Bear in mind that I never considered myself poor, but my situation was horribly precarious. If just one thing had gone wrong, everything would have crumbled.
So yes, before you judge those who don't look to be in need, just consider how fragile many lives are.
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