reading this really annoyed me!!

2

Replies

  • jc_0324
    jc_0324 Posts: 54
    I can't believe she said this---> 'I tried swimming but it cost £22 a month and it meant I had to cut back on my favourite pizza and Chinese takeaways. I don't feel bad about the taxpayer funding my life and my child's medical problems, because I don't treat myself or buy anything excessive. I just get enough money to live on - the taxpayers should help fund my diet.'

    Fruits and veggies are not any more expensive than chips and cookies, at least not in the US, of course organic or gluten free are but it's not necessary in her case.. So many people feel that they are "owed" this because they're poor and choose to have children. I'm a single mother of 2 and worked two jobs! I don't have to anymore because my kids are adults and have their own job.

    This makes me sick.
  • enterdanger
    enterdanger Posts: 2,447 Member
    Crap, I'd love to get benefits. Granted, I'm not in the UK, but I eat healthy and I'm a single mom of 3 kids. I do it on a single income.

    I don't know how you do it. I had my 2 kids with no help for 3 days while my husband was out of town. At the end of 3 days when he came home, I was like comatose.

    I really admire the grit it takes to raise kids alone and on 1 income.
  • JenAndSome
    JenAndSome Posts: 1,893 Member
    I don't know. This is a joke right? Her cupboard is stuffed with cookies and such but she needs more money for healthier food?

    I call bullsh*t.
  • libbydoodle11
    libbydoodle11 Posts: 1,351 Member
    Wow, just wow...
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Plenty of money for tats and jewels though.
    I must admit, I struggle with tattoos in this instance. I have two family members on the dole who constantly ask me for money. But have big ole flat screen TVs (twice the size of mine), and are always getting new tattoos.

    I guess my priorities are just different.
  • NotShena
    NotShena Posts: 172 Member
    Is this a tabloid? Just seems like it was created to produce conflict. Baiting the reader to be judgmental about her saying that she got pregnant after a one night stand and that the children have different fathers. Is this the British version of Jerry Springer? The article really has no purpose except to call judgment on someone else.
  • LeslieTSUK
    LeslieTSUK Posts: 215 Member
    Ya know,
    if she had medical problems that generally made it hard for her to loose weight, like say nerve damage, back pain, something that restricted her movement, and got no help for it, I'd be first one to say poor girl.

    But living here in the UK, admittedly you can buy biscuits and chocolates quite cheap from likes of asda, but their fruit cheaper, same as bread, and all sorts of other things, tins of spuds, rice, pasta, noodles, frozen veg, hell, she lives in wigan, I know 100% as I live in next town from there, they have a massive hyper store in wigan, plus iceland, aldi's, tesco's, a lidl's i think too, all do really great cheap healthy foods.

    So what she is saying about junk food being cheaper is total ***T.

    a take away for her and 2 kids be at least £10 probably more £15+, I stocked my freezer up with tons of lovely foods from iceland for £25 and it last me over 2 months.

    It's people like her that give us genuine big people with problems a bad rep.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    I don't know. This is a joke right? Her cupboard is stuffed with cookies and such but she needs more money for healthier food?

    I call bullsh*t.
    I dunno. I've been to food banks in the U.S. And they are chock full of heavily refined carbs (with really long shelf lives). And not a lot else.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
    Lazy people just get more lazy with taxpayer money. I better not be paying for people like that.

    "I tried swimming but it cost £22 a month and it meant I had to cut back on my favourite pizza and Chinese takeaways." LOL really.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2768442/It-s-not-easy-overweight-benefits-says-25-stone-mother-two-wants-MORE-money-government-help-diet.html#ixzz3ELBZGVk9
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
  • leomcdee
    leomcdee Posts: 60 Member
    Playing devil's advocate here but... healthy food such as fresh produce is more expensive than frozen pizzas, oven chips, chicken nuggets and other junk. I live in the UK and my other half and I were discussing this the other day, since eating more home-cooked, fresh, healthy meals our food bill has gone up quite a lot.

    In addition nutritious snacks like nuts, rice cakes, popcorn, greek yoghurt, fruit are quite expensive compared to biscuits (cookies) and sweets which can be bought in bulk for pennies.

    It can be difficult for low income families, but not impossible. My mum managed it with FOUR kids and one wage.
  • JustSomeEm
    JustSomeEm Posts: 20,269 MFP Moderator
    Um, please tell me this is an Onion article that got picked up by the actual news media (again)? Otherwise: :explode: :mad: :sick:
  • wolfsbayne
    wolfsbayne Posts: 3,116 Member
    Crap, I'd love to get benefits. Granted, I'm not in the UK, but I eat healthy and I'm a single mom of 3 kids. I do it on a single income.

    I don't know how you do it. I had my 2 kids with no help for 3 days while my husband was out of town. At the end of 3 days when he came home, I was like comatose.

    I really admire the grit it takes to raise kids alone and on 1 income.

    It's not easy. I raised my oldest by myself (he's in college now). I terminated his father's rights when I divorced him 16 years ago. My husband passed away in July of this year and I took his ex wife to court to retain custody of my stepsons and won. I am currently in the process of trying to get her to pay child support and haven't received SS benefits yet from my husband's death.

    You do what you have to do.
  • superfox12082
    superfox12082 Posts: 512 Member
    Wow. Talk about worthless.
  • JeriAnne84
    JeriAnne84 Posts: 543 Member
    Poor baby couldn't get her favorite chinese takeaway and pizza because they gym was too expensive. BOO HOO. Ordering out all the time gets expensive compared to buying groceries. She has twice as much food as I do in my kitchen and I bust my *kitten* at work. Well, not today or yesterday because it's been slow, but I atleast show up and earn my money!!!

    I was so broke when I moved to the city I'm in now I lived off of 1 hot pocket a DAY and a little bit of rice. That's all I could afford to eat for 3 months. One summer, I could pay all my bills and my suprise extra medical expenses, but after all that I couldn't afford food. I applied for food stamps through the State of Kansas. I was told by the guy on the phone I would totally qualify. They sent me the card, and then the next day I got a letter saying I was denied because I made too much money, yet my co-worker, who made the same amount as me, plus had a husband bringing in $1,000 a week (except he is here illegally and gets paid in cash so he doesn't report his earnings) and has 3 kids is on not only food stamps, but WIC, and any other assistance you can get. She doesn't need the assistance but still gets it! I didn't eat for almost a week until one of my friends found out and brought me food, which was embarassing for me because I have too much pride when it comes to that sort of thing. I'll help anyone but I feel awkward when people help me. I don't know why.

    This article better be fake or I'm going to save up my money, fly over there and go AMERICA on her *kitten*. Like old time 1776 America. I'm going to go dump some tea in the lake! RAWR
  • northbanu
    northbanu Posts: 366 Member
    Easy there.... This is the dailymail, the UK's Internet equivalent the a Weekly World News supermarket tabloid. I'm not saying it's not a real story, but it could also be completely made up, or written in a way to just get you riled up.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Easy there.... This is the dailymail, the UK's Internet equivalent the a Weekly World News supermarket tabloid. I'm not saying it's not a real story, but it could also be completely made up, or written in a way to just get you riled up.
    Bingo. And folks who WANT to be in the dailymail are often total nut jobs.
  • leomcdee
    leomcdee Posts: 60 Member
    Easy there.... This is the dailymail, the UK's Internet equivalent the a Weekly World News supermarket tabloid. I'm not saying it's not a real story, but it could also be completely made up, or written in a way to just get you riled up.
    Bingo. And folks who WANT to be in the dailymail are often total nut jobs.

    Yep, we get some right characters in the Daily Fail. Just recently there was a wannabe glamour model who wanted to sell tickets to the birth of her child.

    ETA: I think the Fail pays really well for stories like that though, so I can see why it's tempting for some... uh, people.
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
    My husband is from the UK, I just sent him the article and he went on a rant about how much cheaper fresh food is in the UK compared to the cost of junk food and take away (take-out). PLUS...it's the UK, you don't need a gym membership! There are soooo many things you can do to get exercise it's ridiculous, you're not limited to an outdoor run. Ugh.

    in the UK you can get gym membership on prescription from your doctor so you dont have to pay!

    I'm not sure just anyone can do that? Although maybe if you're morbidly obese.

    I'm in the UK and I don't understand how anyone can live off take-away because it's so expensive. I'm not really a take-away fan, but something like a curry is a rare treat here, and we both work.

    If she's not working she's got plenty of time to prepare some nice soups and stews, and she can get off her lazy ar*e to go buy the ingredients.

    Plus she should be taking her kids out for long walks. My kids love going out on their scooters. It doesn't cost anything to go for a walk/to the park/beach (if you're near one) etc
  • Relentless_0ne
    Relentless_0ne Posts: 38
    It costs nothing extra to eat at a caloric deficit. In fact, it costs less than eating at a caloric surplus.

    But....but.....starvation mode
  • sherrirb
    sherrirb Posts: 1,649 Member
    What made me laugh is when she said "I want to prove to my kids I can do it myself", but yet she wants everyone else's money to "get healthy"

    That is a LOT of freakin food in that cupboard that she spent other people's hard earned money on!

    And explain to me how you can EVEN afford Takeaways when you are on government assistance????? I'm not being judgemental, I was there myself at one time. We didn't eat out - we couldn't afford to!!

    All I got to say is:

    18t45j_Y_400x400.jpeg
  • nilbogger
    nilbogger Posts: 870 Member
    It's supposed to annoy you. I wouldn't be surprised if Daily Mail misquoted this lady or put words in her mouth.

    I find it humorous that they bother to mention things like the fact that her two children have different fathers! How dare she?
  • BlueBombers
    BlueBombers Posts: 4,064 Member
    It's like people that sue McDonald's because they 'made them' overweight.

    How did she afford all the ink btw? :huh:

    Edited for spelling.
  • Whagwan83
    Whagwan83 Posts: 81 Member

    Nah, the NHS wouldn't give her liposuction if she didn't want to eat better and lose weight and stuff. If this article is accurate (and that is very unlikely), the NHS wouldn't spend money on her if they thought she wouldn't make lifestyle changes.

    There is a lot of scare-mongering about people on benefits in the UK, in line with the Conservative agenda, to make people think that people on benefits are scroungers who don't deserve a life of luxury paid for by honest hard-working tax-payers, blah blah etc. I don't trust this article for a second. 50% of people who get money from the government are pensioners, and most of the rest are working but not earning enough to survive, and can't work more because the unemployment rates are really high right now. The press are biased and skew things to make the public hate people on benefits and this is a very good example of that.

    All this. The Daily Mail are a right wing rag that would/probably have made up a story like tihs to push their twisted agenda.
  • blc1971
    blc1971 Posts: 170 Member
    So healthy food and gym memberships are too expensive, but they give away tattoos and orange hair dye in the UK? I doubt it. Not cool. Don't poor-mouth to me if you can afford the stuff you want but don't want to spend money on stuff you need.
  • ljones27uk
    ljones27uk Posts: 177 Member
    says it all that shes got a big fat grin on her face when shes opening her food cupboard full of crap, and a big scowl on her face when shes holding her kids...gotta feel sorry for them. She could also save a bit of money on hair dye, pretty sure thats not natural.. disgusting
  • Nettabee
    Nettabee Posts: 296 Member
    "I tried swimming but it cost £22 a month and it meant I had to cut back on my favourite pizza and Chinese takeaways."

    Nuff said...
  • Cc215
    Cc215 Posts: 228 Member

    No we don't get free liposuction or other cosmetic surgery on the NHS and although we don't have to pay we do have to wait - imagine waiting 3 months for a heart bypass?

    Not strictly true - I've been offered cosmetic surgery by my GP - but I turned it down (he told me I could have an operation to remove my scar - but that it would leave me with a scar???)

    It's unlikely that you would get your boob job or rhinoplasty on the NHS - but it's not unheard of.
  • LeslieTSUK
    LeslieTSUK Posts: 215 Member
    Playing devil's advocate here but... healthy food such as fresh produce is more expensive than frozen pizzas, oven chips, chicken nuggets and other junk. I live in the UK and my other half and I were discussing this the other day, since eating more home-cooked, fresh, healthy meals our food bill has gone up quite a lot.

    In addition nutritious snacks like nuts, rice cakes, popcorn, greek yoghurt, fruit are quite expensive compared to biscuits (cookies) and sweets which can be bought in bulk for pennies.

    It can be difficult for low income families, but not impossible. My mum managed it with FOUR kids and one wage.

    Currently on a low income and benefits, and yes it can be hard, but, fresh food in supermarkets not really that fresh, it can actually be many weeks old, where frozen veg and things tends to get picked and frozen almost same day.

    I remember years ago, and this story just brought it back to me.
    I was 23 stone at one point in my life, and lived on junk food, and doc said your booked in to see dietician.
    Reluctantly i went, remember her well, she was like 5'5" thin as thin could be, and first thing she said was, portion sizes, like size of my hand.
    I looked at her and said yeah right, not going to happen.
    Then she said what do you eat? meaning me...
    I said chips, burgers, sausages, some chocolate, biscuits, as it all I can afford.
    She smiled as if waiting on me saying that, gave me a leaflet of the current prices of all the frozen veg and other good foods I could have instead for cheaper.
    My first reply trying to be smart was, but it not fresh, frozen no good for ya.
    Thats when she said, Frozen veg, and other stuff like that actually fresher than the fresh food you get out the stores, with exceptions of actually going to the farms locally and picking it ya self.

    And ever since then there has been so many programs about it that have confirmed it, and it craws at me every time it does get confirmed, as hate the fact she was right lol.

    And most of those foods she had were well known makes which tend to be more expensive, if they had all of been tesco value or asda smart price, or other makes of value ranges then might not of been so hard on her, but fact they all branded names then not like she short of the money to have to buy cheaper versions...
  • nilbogger
    nilbogger Posts: 870 Member

    Nah, the NHS wouldn't give her liposuction if she didn't want to eat better and lose weight and stuff. If this article is accurate (and that is very unlikely), the NHS wouldn't spend money on her if they thought she wouldn't make lifestyle changes.

    There is a lot of scare-mongering about people on benefits in the UK, in line with the Conservative agenda, to make people think that people on benefits are scroungers who don't deserve a life of luxury paid for by honest hard-working tax-payers, blah blah etc. I don't trust this article for a second. 50% of people who get money from the government are pensioners, and most of the rest are working but not earning enough to survive, and can't work more because the unemployment rates are really high right now. The press are biased and skew things to make the public hate people on benefits and this is a very good example of that.

    It's the same in the US.
  • drosebud
    drosebud Posts: 277 Member
    Anyone who got annoyed reading this article should install this add-on for FF. It is much better for your mental wellbeing:
    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/kitten-block/
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