Jack Monroe #541 First do no honk

[HotesTilaire]

Ivf is heavy dough compared with private prescriptions though. I don't know if it's different rules for different health authorities but my mate had successful ivf on NHS so she wasn't entitled to any further rounds- she'd have had to pay. So I don't know if she'd even get it on the NHS with already having had a child.

Dear Foxy-v you are of course correct. However, I see you have applied facts and logic, whereas Jack would left things unsaid, or hinted at so then she can pull the “show me whereI said that, pal” zinger.

 

[I'm not actually here]

I don't have any specialised knowledge of supermarket pricing, beyond being a consumer on a fixed, low income.

I suppose what the Tik Tocker has shown with her Asda analysis is that, despite all the big supermarkets publicly stating that they were protecting and, in some cases, expanding their value ranges during the cost of living crisis, these prices have risen too, along with everything else. So they haven't beaten inflation.

A properly trained person would be able to assess whether value ranges rose in price faster or slower than other inflationary increases. And, whether people on low incomes were then proportionately more or less able to manage the increasing costs of living.

That was the supposed premise of the VBI, which, in itself, wasn't a terrible idea. It's just that Jack has no clue as to how to run such a massive research project and has no ability to create a team or work in partnership or learn anything about household economics. Collecting people's shopping receipts and visiting regional branches of supermarkets in some sort of poverty shopping tour was never going to cut it and the ONS likely agreed when they had that one, informal, not-minuted meeting with Jack and never worked with her.

Your point about trading down to cheaper offerings is relevant. For the most part, people struggling to buy the same basket of value items will now be leaving stuff out in order to balance the household budget or will be turning to food banks or charities to help make up the difference. So, the churches and charities are picking up the slack in this crisis.

Since these charities are mostly funded by individual supporter donations, these become a form of voluntary tax on the civic minded who donate out of concern about poverty. It's not a useful way to redistribute wealth in a society.

And govt gets to keep pushing its small state, austerity policies because they know the charity sector will try to provide a safety net -- except that safety net is piecemeal and threadbare and is now stretching beyond even what the charities can do.

Should also mention here that rural areas suffer as much, if not more than, urban areas from lack of choice, high prices etc, but because there is a lower density of people in rural areas the voices are far fewer and rarely heard above the many in cities and suburbia. If you have to drive a 50 mile round trip to a supermarket such as Tesco, with (if you are lucky) 1 or 2 bus services a week, and/or fuel prices through the roof, where the average salary can be as low as 60% of the national average anyway, and your local shops have far higher prices than the big 4 because they don't have the purchase power and delivery costs are higher due to distance, you are being hammered every which way.

But guset has only ever lived in Sarfend (and for a brief time, The Smoke) and is blissfully unaware of anything outside of her bubble.

 

[Foxvint]

I just cant fathom where the moneys gone. What does she have to show for it other than crap lip filler? No home, no car, no holidays, allegedly doesn't drink. Something was the trigger for that reckless HH2, some last ditch attempt at something and to me IVF would fit the bill and tick the boxes.

 

[griftalo]

All good points @ForgettyBetty

In my personal budget, I've had to give up salmon and have massively reduced the amount of cheese I eat. And I no longer buy wine (which makes me immensely sad because I rarely eat out and never drink wine in the pub).

I used to post on Twitter quite a bit about the challenges of living on benefits. Once, I complained about the astronomical price of cheese and a sympathetic person reached out to me and sent me a voucher for a fancy cheesemonger. That was quite a day! And my one and only accidental social media grift.

Have you looked at food redistribution projects in your area? Sometimes we will get no cheese but at others, three huge blocks or bags of grated cheese. Recently some non dairy camembert iirc. Not tried it yet.

 

[Copacapybara]

Never shop pre-menstrually or you'll end up with a trolley full of carbs and have to go back for actual dinner ingredients.

I’ve been there.

Q: What’s for tea?

A:
1. Ibuprofen
2. Paracetamol
3. Tunnock’s Teacakes
4. Pickled-onion Monster Munch
5. Canned chocolate pudding
6. Instant macaroni as the guilty ‘healthfood’ option.
7. Not Poodles

 

[mchops]

Has no expert ever pulled her up on this absolute whopper of a mistake?
People have mithered about her bleeping up her exams because she’s lazy, I put it to you that it’s solely because she is a bit thick (on top of a huge ego).

It still exists in my aneurysm and the wiki, when she is called a bleeping idiot by experts she deletes

 

[Valiofthedolls]

What’s the opposite of a grunk? Where you just skip a few pages, hope for the best, and just dive on in (ir)regardless(ly) with your mithering (pronounced ‘mithering’)?

I feel it needs a name.

A knurg?

 

[TurnedUpInTipp]

What’s the opposite of a grunk? Where you just skip a few pages, hope for the best, and just dive on in (ir)regardless(ly) with your mithering (pronounced ‘mithering’)?

I feel it needs a name.

Leap-Grunk

 

[Lumpyspaceprincess]

What about her private adhd meds she buys every month, though?
Theres no way she wouldn’t breadcrumb her basal temp stats or summat, show a pineapple with clear blues and pink sticks in it, ask “for a friend” about hormone injections. Nah. And she’d let people believe it’s on the NHS.

She only wants another if there’s a wealthy/involved daddy. Think she’d do all the baby stuff alone, I don’t think so.

 

[ahkrin]

Has no expert ever pulled her up on this absolute whopper of a mistake?
People have mithered about her bleeping up her exams because she’s lazy, I put it to you that it’s solely because she is a bit thick (on top of a huge ego).

All utilities are interchangeable

 

[Seaford Haggington]

I just cant fathom where the moneys gone. What does she have to show for it other than crap lip filler? No home, no car, no holidays, allegedly doesn't drink. Something was the trigger for that reckless HH2, some last ditch attempt at something and to me IVF would fit the bill and tick the boxes.

Tax bill more likely.

 

[griftalo]

I just cant fathom where the moneys gone. What does she have to show for it other than crap lip filler? No home, no car, no holidays, allegedly doesn't drink. Something was the trigger for that reckless HH2, some last ditch attempt at something and to me IVF would fit the bill and tick the boxes.

She’s bought a lot of expensive items, the expensive fridges x 4 or more, Vivienne Westwood clothes, , a billion sideboards at £800 each, 150 spendy lipsticks, plus probably a million items of equally expensive makeup, Waitrose delivery and organic veg boxes, prescription drugs, an expensive dog, £6million of secondhand crockery, new fancy expensive crockery, millions of silver cutlery items, stupid skateboards, fancy watches etc
I can see all that adding up to a LOT.

 

[I'm not actually here]

What a desperately sad situation it is. Let’s all xeet “Tories Out”. That will help people struggling to make ends meet.

I don’t envy the people at the supermarkets making pricing decisions. Seems like an ethical nightmare. The people paying for middle of the road ranges are also living through a cost of living crisis even if they aren’t at the point of turning to a food bank and I’m glad I don’t have to decide which cost increases to absorb and which to pass on.

The companies also have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders etc. They can't simply cut prices for the feels. They'd have the courts etc all over them. Capitalism innit. It is the one place where independent shops have an advantage - if they decide that today they will give fruit away to every child who walks past, they don't need to answer to anybody about why they have done that, nor what price they sneakily upped to cover that cost. Yet, we are watching independent shops be wiped out by the big stores and don't realise the huge impact this has on each of us. If one decides to price gouge for example petrol, they all follow suit.

 

[ahkrin]

Has anyone seen the "girl math" videos on TikTok - I feel like Jack math would be even more impressively convoluted.

 

[MurielSnark]

Have you looked at food redistribution projects in your area? Sometimes we will get no cheese but at others, three huge blocks or bags of grated cheese. Recently some non dairy camembert iirc. Not tried it yet.

Well, I keep an eye on our local Olio app but that mainly redistributes bread and pastries at the end of the trading day. I almost never feel like walking a mile at 10pm to pick up a stale sandwich loaf TBH. I sometimes use other apps that link to local restaurants offering cheap eats at the end of the day.

My local food banks sometimes have fresh produce from local supermarkets or the Felix Project. But I'm not totally on the breadline so I don't use food banks unless I have a crisis (benefits stopped overnight or something) -- they are so stretched already and I can afford the basics of a food bank basket.

On the whole, I'm just tightening my belt like everybody else and hoping it doesn't get worse. Jack has no bleeping clue.

 

[rage naan]

Then why are you so bleeping god-awful at it still

 

[I'm not actually here]

Not the pursuing of it but the spending of donations on it. I can't see ppl who think they subscribe to her to help food poverty having such a broad definition of it that it'd include private elective medical help. All complete speculation but it'd explain where loads of it's gone. She's made no secret of her desire to have another.

The spending in the wiko that has been forensically recorded would explain a substantial proportion of where the money has gone. And that is only what we can see. Imagine how much she has spent/wasted on food, spices etc over the last decade, let alone what is in her wardrobes and boxes in the bungaloid that has never been photographed.

 

[Foxvint]

She’s bought a lot of expensive items, the expensive fridges x 4 or more, Vivienne Westwood clothes, , a billion sideboards at £800 each, 150 spendy lipsticks, plus probably a million items of equally expensive makeup, Waitrose delivery and organic veg boxes, prescription drugs, an expensive dog, £6million of secondhand crockery, new fancy expensive crockery, millions of silver cutlery items, stupid skateboards, fancy watches etc
I can see all that adding up to a LOT.

I know we don't know what she's got squirrelled away in 1 of the accounts she doesn't screenshot aswell but somethings gone very wrong with her forever home plans so I don't think it'd be enough for a cash buy. Could deffo be enough for a fat deposit though. It just seemed like HH2 was for something in particular in a panic with all its extreme detail.

 

[MurielSnark]

I see That Man has the prime 8pm Sunday slot on Channel 4 tonight for his new Mediterranean jollies.

I hope Jack watches every episode peripatetically and forensically and that her insides are made raw by the amount of bile she'll be stirring up. I hope every single minute of it reminds her what a useless, fraudulent irrelevance she is.

 

[griftalo]

Well, I keep an eye on our local Olio app but that mainly redistributes bread and pastries at the end of the trading day. I almost never feel like walking a mile at 10pm to pick up a stale sandwich loaf TBH. I sometimes use other apps that link to local restaurants offering cheap eats at the end of the day.

My local food banks sometimes have fresh produce from local supermarkets or the Felix Project. But I'm not totally on the breadline so I don't use food banks unless I have a crisis (benefits stopped overnight or something) -- they are so stretched already and I can afford the basics of a food bank basket.

On the whole, I'm just tightening my belt like everybody else and hoping it doesn't get worse. Jack has no bleeping clue.

We like the food redistribution because it’s not free, you do pay for it, you’re not potentially taking food out of the mouth of someone needier from a food bank, and saving food from landfill (potentially). We also don’t get it every single week.
we don’t use olio either as we don’t have a car so same thing as you, I wouldn’t walk far to get it and I’d forget to look at it anyway, probably!