8.4.1 Christmas
The biggest one-off item of expenditure for all the families in the study was Christmas. Christmas put a serious strain on the finances of all the families, even those in the ‘hardly deprived’ group: I do find Christmas difficult ‘cos I don’t
budget very well for it. That’s the time when the pressure’s on about what the kids get. That’s the time to use the overdraft, then pay it back through
Christmas was a very expensive time for all those interviewed. Hazel, for example, was going to spend over a thousand pounds on Christmas presents on her partner and six children. Having enough to spend on Christmas meant planning throughout the year: I shop for Christmas in February in the sales and
spread it out over the whole year (Anna, highly deprived group). Likewise, a
number of those interviewed has developed specific strategies to make Christmas manageable:
Christmas does worry us, not so much for the little one ‘cos you can just get a few things for her. But I do save through the year for Christmas, with vouchers. I’m like the agent for the hamper scheme, there’s four of us in it, I get commission, it’s normally about a
hundred pounds for the year. (Fiona, hardly deprived group)
For others however, Christmas was intimately connected with debt:
I’m already worried about Christmas … I buy things and pay them back over time, spread the payments over a certain time period.
(Debbie, highly deprived group)
Last year I never had nothing, so I had to get loans for all of last year really. Whereas this year, I’ve got like half of it and I’ll only have to get like half of the loans. I get the loans from the Provvie [The Provident, a doorstep lender]. (Hazel, highly deprived group)
Other one-off items of substantial expenditure did occur for some of the families through the year, such as a new fridge freezer or a holiday. However, the
financial pressures of Christmas seemed to fill many of the interviewees with feelings of foreboding which nothing else could match. Rather than being a joyful time of family celebration, Christmas was the very worst time of the year which was seen with dread. For many interviewees, the sacrificing of their own material needs in favour of their children’s was particularly apparent at
Christmas time. Concern over Christmas seemed to be ever present through the year; even women interviewed in early summer spoke of it.
8.4.2 Owning a car
Eleven of the households in the study group had a car. Having a car did not seem correlated with income; car ownership was spread fairly evenly across the
household incomes in the group. Rather, the key factor was male work needs; two male partners were taxi drivers, one was a painter and decorator, two worked a long way from home, one had a company car. None of the women said their family had a car because of female work needs. Generally, the ‘family’ car was reserved for male work needs during the day: I had a car that I sold. Our car
was available to me but it won’t be now, because Kevin will be at work. But I mean I don’t tend to use the car that much. (Karen, highly deprived group).
Nevertheless, several of the women were contributing to the costs of the car: I
paid the MOT on his car, but I do drive the car, so it’s our car. But Gordon gets more use of it, I take it to the supermarket, that’s all. (Gabrielle, hardly
deprived group). However, the car was often well used for family outings at weekends creating leisure opportunities that would otherwise not be available.
The costs of buying and maintaining a car were often difficult to meet. Buying a car sometimes meant getting into considerable levels of debt:
After Phoebe was born our car broke down. It was a three door car we’d been meaning to get rid of since Tessa was born. So that prompted us to buy a new car, second hand but fairly new, about eighteen months old. So we arranged a loan of five thousand pounds we can draw down, it’s from our mortgage lender and sits alongside the mortgage. (Lisa, hardly deprived group)
In the two households in which the male partner depended on the family car for his work as a taxi driver, the pressure of maintenance was felt particularly acutely:
I get so stressed when his car’s broke. You feel like there’s nowhere to turn really … it’s like ‘where are we going to get the money to get the car fixed?’ And that’s why you go back to relying on the Provvie [doorstep loans] and things like that. You can’t turn up at the dole and say ‘my car’s broke, are you going to give us a loan?’. (Hazel,
highly deprived group)
afford to get it repaired. Two other households were only able to keep their motoring costs affordable because a close relative was a motor mechanic who maintained the car.
Overall, although having a car did bring clear benefits to the family, often these were felt more by the man than his partner. The costs of having a car were often high and put stress on the household budget. Yet having a car was often essential to the undertaking of paid work, and in these cases it was obviously an investment that families felt was worth making. This investment, however, did mean a real reduction in the otherwise obvious financial benefits of undertaking paid work.
8.4.3 School uniform
Seven of the interviewees had children of an age that required uniform for school. Four of them made specific reference to the cost of school uniforms. Hazel and Steph, from two of the poorest households in the group, mentioned them as the second biggest item of one-off expenditure after Christmas. Both were clearly struggling to meet the cost:
The sweatshirts are eight fifty for the school uniform, and you need a couple of them. At times it’s a struggle to afford them. And she’s going to the big school this year so we’ve got the uniform blazer and everything to buy this year; blazer and tie, shirts, PE kit. (Steph,
highly deprived group)