It's so pathetic. For a start upon being challenged Kevin immediately clarified (albeit a bit snottily) that he wasn't suggesting people live solely on pasta but his assertion was that you can eat cheaply and well on a low budget. That, this is what Jack claims when she's trying to flog her books seems to have passed her by. She's essentially gone off on a rant at someone for an opinion they don't actually have.
Firstly, I am the furthest from a Tory imaginable. when I was on benefits for 10 months after having my son as a single parent, I was given £80 a week (income support as it was known then) had rent & CT paid, also had child benefit which was about 20 a week paid monthly. I had gas and electric meters. I used to buy £20 worth of gas & electric (no central heating at that point) the rest would be used to buy food, bus fares etc. I would buy a bag of potatoes, fresh veg, (loose so could just buy what I needed) and I’d buy a couple of chicken breasts to batch cook meals for my son for the week. Lunch would be little tins of pasta shapes for him, or sandwiches etc. I’d try to make things we could both have; lasagne, cottage pie, mild curry etc, but I couldn’t always buy enough meat for both of us, so I’d have jacket potatoes & beans, or corned beef (
![Flushed face :flushed: 😳](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/emoji-assets@5.0/png/64/1f633.png)
) & chips. I had zero maintenance from my sons dad, my dad (state pension) would slip me the occasional fiver, and my sister would treat us to a breakfast in Woolies cafe when she visited, other than that I had no family support. It wasn’t the greatest time in my life, (PND, my mum had passed away just before I got pregnant) but I got through it, benefits were never going to be a long term thing for me, and I returned to work part time when my son was 9 months old. It was tough financially, and it’s tough now, and I’ve been close to visiting a food bank a couple of times in the last couple of years, (work full time in education, single mum to 3 teens) but I’m starting to feel like I’m missing something? Like should I be gnashing my teeth and wailing and have PTSD about a year in which I was exceptionally broke? Should I be rioting because 100% of my wage goes on rent, & bills? We live off tax credits, CB, & my girls maintenance from their dad. My son is a student and he bungs me some cash when he gets his student finance. I don’t buy ‘smart price’ stuff, just usually store brand, I shop at Aldi, Asda, occasionally M&S if the kids are out
![Rolling on the floor laughing :rofl: 🤣](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/emoji-assets@5.0/png/64/1f923.png)
I have WiFi, a cheap tv package AND NETFLIX!! I plan meals and I cook from scratch about 90% of the time. It sucks not to be able to do as much as I’d like with my kids (no holidays for four years) or order them a takeaway once a week or whatever but we get by. I suppose my main point apart from agreeing it is possible to live relatively cheaply (food wise) but mainly JACK ISN’T LIKE ME! Her performative poverty is what tips her from an annoying
twit to a hateful liar and narcissistic terror for me.
Camilla Batmanghelidjh has been mentioned before on this forum and I was onto her as well! I live in hope that one day Jack will be outed for her lies.