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Life In Low Income Families In Scotland: Research Report

CHAPTER TWO: FAMILY LIFE ON A LOW INCOME IN SCOTLAND

SHORTAGE, MANAGEMENT = STRESS

Not having enough

2.1 Adults living in low income family households commonly report not having enough money. No adults in low income family households reported that they "have enough money", let alone a lot, and many reported frequent shortages.

2.2 Occasionally, participants reported not having enough of the very basic essentials for living. One parent reported that she had been "sittin' in the hoose wi' nuthin' in the cupboards"; the rest of the group's response to this - a round of knowing agreement - made it clear that this was not an isolated case (Young mothers, city housing estate). In other instances, adults reported having the basics (such as footwear), but not always enough of these to cope with everyday demands (below)

P: My son's away at school today with sewn up trousers because I can't afford to buy him a new pair of trousers at the moment, because he's wrecked all his other ones. And my trainers are filthy because my daughter had them on … [the] ones that she usually wears were wet, so she couldn't wear them, so she had to wear mine. (Peripheral housing estate in a large rural town)

Not having a spare pair of trainers and having to go to school with borrowed footwear is a clear indication of poverty that may otherwise be masked.

2.3 Difficulties are sometimes encountered in providing enough to meet everyday needs and in responding to unexpected circumstances. Similarly, problems are reported in meeting routine

expenses which are incurred less frequently. Not having enough is found to affect both children (next extract, below) and parents (second extract, below), and by families with work (second extract, below), as well as those without:

P: Christ oor Simon badly needs a haircut and he says, "mum can I get a haircut this weekend?" I says, "you need to wait and see how much money I've got left". I cannae even afford to gie ma wean 3.50 to get a haircut. (Peripheral housing estate, small de-industrialising town in rural area)
P: … we were above that Family Credit … and I waited and waited for my husband's wages to come in about a week later to go and get my prescription which is a really, really hard thing to sit and do. But if you're just above that bracket and you can't afford that 6.20. Because that's quite a lot of money. (Peripheral housing estate in a large rural town)

Thus, shortages may imply going without in the meantime, as opposed to forever going without. Discomfort may be endured until there are sufficient funds: while short-term discomfort is preferable to going without, needs are not always being met at the most appropriate times.

Managing a low income - strategies

2.4 The challenge of household budgeting is one that is familiar to many families, comfortable and poor alike. It involves making choices which, in turn, implies that these decisions reflect priorities and determine what will be foregone. There is nothing remarkable in this. However, it would seem from the interviews that managing on a low income is particularly challenging. Options are limited and the ramifications of decision-making are significant. Choices are often described as following debt servicing and therefore on the basis of an income that (is perceived to) barely meets needs.

2.5 People in low income family households deploy a range of strategies to manage their budget (Table 1). While some of these strategies may be familiar to any household, the necessity to deploy these to meet basic needs, the need to deploy more of such strategies, and the importance of these strategies in the lives of low income family households, creates a particularly intense experience, and poignant meaning, of these management strategies.

2.6 Not all management strategies are cost-free. What works for some within low income family households may not work for others within the same household, particularly when financial savings are at a cost, for example, of self-esteem. As is noted elsewhere ( Annex 1), when some parents buy from low-cost food outlets (e.g. Lidl, Aldi), their children would rather wait outside. Similarly, some adults will only shop in budget stores in times of extreme shortages, rather than every week.

2.7 High risk strategies include buying second hand electrical goods, which as the first extract below illustrates, brings uncertainty over whether value-for-money will be attained. However, those least well-placed to cope with the hidden costs that can result from buying cheap may have few alternatives to make such purchases. Similarly, some strategies imply additional expenditure, which others may not need to endure. Thus, in the second extract below parents report that guarding against theft necessitates drying clothing indoors and purchasing a tumble dryer (given that the cost of replacing quality goods is beyond their means).

P: I never really go with second hand anyway because you never ken. Ken, especially with electrical equipment. (Peripheral housing estate, small de-industrialising town in rural area)
P1: See like if there's been a birthday and you buy your kid something - a designer label or a Rangers top - [if you hang it] out the back, [it will be] pinched off the washing line. If you've not got a tumble dryer, then you're in for trouble, because somebody's going to rob your washing!
P2: I would never put my washing out the back. … you could put your bed covers out and they'd come back for your curtains.
CRFR: What do you do then?
P1: You buy a [tumble] dryer. (Peripheral housing estate in city)

Managing on a low income is undoubtedly stressful. However, there is recognition among those in low income family households of achievement in managing. For some, the achievement of managing on a low income heightens their sense of self-worth. Even so, no matter how effective the management, there never seems enough to move beyond shortage, as the following extracts illustrate.

P1: … when you are on a low income they should give you the better houses because you're more, you know, you don't go out and get wrecked because you've worked hard to get it. Do you know what I mean?
CRFR: You take care of that?
P1: Aye - because you're proud of it. (Peripheral housing estate in city)
P: You always end up skint no matter how much you plan or anything else like that. (Young adults, rural town in northern Scotland)

There was little mention in any of the groups of the pressures of managing on a low income easing in the future. Keeping afloat and avoiding - or minimising - debt is the measure of successful management.

Table 1: Financial Management Strategies Deployed by Lone Income Family Households

Managing a low income - priorities

2.8 Decision-making within low income family households is often reported as taking into account children's needs first and foremost. In practice this may mean different things to different parents.

2.9 Across virtually all of the groups, the priority purchases of low income family households are food (first) and fuel. First and foremost, the objective of management is to ensure that basic needs are met. This is understandable and may be so universally held as to be unworthy of comment. However, that fuel and sustenance are explicitly conceived as priorities is indicative of the consciousness among adults in low income households of the challenge they encounter in meeting these needs.

P: I don't pay nothing until I've got food in ma press. I don't care if ah've got nae money left to pay debt or anything. Nothing gets paid until ma messages are bought, not a damn thing. … no' even Council Tax gets paid unless ma messages are in the hoose. Ah even make sure I've got gas and electric. Nae money left efter that, though!
CRFR: Aye [you] get the basics sorted first?
P: Ah jist make sure ah've got food. (Peripheral housing estate in small de-industrialising town in rural area)
CRFR: So what comes first then? 'Cos it sounds like you're having to make choices about what to do with your money?
P1: Food in the cupboard. Food, gas and electricity.
P2: Food, gas and electricity.
P1: Food and nappies that's priority. Then gas and electricity. (Young mothers, city housing estate)

The popular view of consumption as a means to improve the quality of (home) life would appear to be far removed from the experience of those living on a low income. Budgetary limitations place the emphasis of consumption on meeting basic needs; shopping for pleasure and for extras hardly feature at all.

2.10 Further indication of the over-riding importance of meeting needs on a low income is evident when one young parent in the following extract is forced to assess the necessity of consumer goods when faced with a shortage of heat and food.

P: The first wake up call is usually the fact that you are sitting there cold, hungry … you have got a pile of clothes that are no use to you right now. Or you have got this lovely picture hanging, or something really nice sat in your room and it's like ' what the hell is the use of you now'. I am cold, I am hungry, [and] tired. (Young adults, rural town in northern Scotland)

2.11 Although meeting basic needs is a priority, this does not imply that debts and bills are regarded as unimportant. Indeed, one group emphasised the importance of using income to pay bills. Servicing debt, it would seem (see below), precludes consumption of non-essentials.

P: By the time you pay your debts you haven't got enough to buy you anything. (Returners to education, inner city neighbourhood)

Clearly, those within low income family households are excluded from full participation in the consumer society; an exclusion of which they are aware through media and peripheral participation (e.g. window shopping, budget shopping).

Unexpected expenses

2.12 Management of regular expenditure on a low income is challenging. However, low income family households must also manage irregular and unexpected expenses. Adult respondents were asked to reflect on how they react to unexpected expenses, while young people were asked to reflect on their response to friends' invitations to participate in paid leisure activities.

2.13 Unsurprisingly, low income family households are poorly placed to respond to unexpected expenses, such as the breakdown of electrical goods or the irreparable damage of children's clothing. In the focus groups with adults (67 people), no reference was made to drawing on savings as a means of response and only one woman referred to insurance. More typically, the response was either to draw upon the support of friends and family, or to turn to institutional support (Social Fund loans or charitable providers of household goods).

2.14 Coping ("do the best with what you can", [Young adults, rural town in northern Scotland]) or a descent into a cycle of non-payment was a more typical response to unexpected expenses:

CRFR: [if you have] Unexpected expenses, what would you do?
P1: Probably just miss all your cheques that week and go out and buy them it.
P2: You'd stop paying the bills and everything and pay double next week.
P3: Rob Peter to pay Paul. (Returners to education, inner city neighbourhood)

Recovering from such uncertainties - paying double next week - is often an unrealistic proposition on a small budget that is already stretched to the limits.

2.15 Uncertainty is not unfamiliar. On the contrary, far from reporting on a mundane existence of routine, respondents stressed that the unexpected is a frequent problem:

P: Each week is different you never know what is going to happen or anything else like that. You never know if you are going to run out … of gas or electric or anything like that.
CRFR: No such thing as a typical week?
P: No. (Young adults, rural town in northern Scotland)

Once more, the experiences of people on a low income highlight how a common life experience (running out of a good and having to replace it) is challenging for low income family households. The problems are immediate for those who manage payment at the point of consumption: funds must be available if a meter is to be topped-up or a power card is to be purchased.

Emotional impact

2.16 Low income living was depicted, explicitly and implicitly, as stressful. To a lesser extent, low income living was described as inducing embarassment and guilt (given their inability to consume at the same level as relatively more affluent households). Some stresses experienced in low income family households would in all probability be familiar in more affluent family households. The difficulties of juggling work and family, and the challenges of parenting are described as stressful. However, stress is also induced by low income: the inability to meet bills and the worry that this brings is captured in the extract below. Everyday tasks - such as shopping - bring the stress of not being able to pay and running short on the basics.

P1: It's a constant worry. Money is a constant, constant worry. How am I going to pay this? How am I going to pay that? How am I going to pay the electricity? And then you've got so much, you need….. Honest to God, I take palpitations going for messages.
P2: Tell me about it! (Returners to education, inner city neighbourhood)

2.17 The weight of institutional and bureaucratic structures are also brought to bear on low income family households. DWP checks were described as being prevalent in one estate. Even when families having nothing to hide, these checks were considered stressful (in addition to intrusive and impersonal).

P: … And it's the pressure you're under when they come out. I mean, my man's been away for what, 3 years, he's been away, and see if they come out and say, "we're just coming out to see your circumstances", I'm like that…. My lassie'll wear Lynx [a deodorant marketed at men], and I'm like that, "Hide it!" and she'll go, "What?". "Hide it". (Peripheral housing estate in city)

2.18 Work is both root problem of, and possible solution to, stress. Although generally subscribing to the principle that women should work - albeit qualified by 'when work is financially beneficial and providing that their children are not adversely affected' - the difficulties of managing work and family life were described as stressful, particularly for lone parents (below).

P: I did a full time job but it was stressing me out. My head was bursting with looking after 3 kids. One of them is off sick … a couple of days [later] the next one's off. You could be taking a couple of weeks off work. (Peripheral housing estate in a large rural town)

The ability of working parents to access suitable childcare (often to alleviate the stress of organising childcare with the wider family) was reported to be compromised by limited choice. Yet work is also regarded as a solution to a stressful existence; work presents parents with an opportunity to break the intense cycle of parenting.

P1: … one wee night's work when you're on the Social. Because … if your weans aren't in a nursery or anything like that, or not at school or that, you need a wee break away from them.
P2: Aye.
P1: 24/7 with your kids all the time.
P2: Drives you nuts!
P3: It does drive you nuts. (Peripheral housing estate in city)

2.19 Parents also expressed concern that their children will suffer from the way in which they react to their stressful existence (see below). Their thinking indicates an awareness among parents that the conditions in which they find themselves are the root cause of a reaction that can adversely affect their children.

P: You do your best and in the end everyone loses their temper even if it just over money. That is another thing - they [your children] see you getting angry. Maybe my daughter is too young to tell when I get annoyed ... But she will be able to soon. When they get to about one they are able to tell what is going on when it comes down to emotions and everything else like that. And that is when you start getting problem kids. They start realising that's the way to go and you start getting ones that like beat up kids and everything else like that. (Young adults, rural town in northern Scotland)

More generally, low income generates tensions within the family. As well as children being affected by family stress (above), providing for children (and paying bills) is seen by some adults to lead to a shortage of money which, in turn, results in friction between adults (first extract below); 'providing' to alleviate stress also intensifies the problem of managing limited resources (second extract below).

CRFR Do you find [ living on a low income] causes any problems in friendships or relationships with other family members?
P Well, there's a lot of arguments, when you want something and you can't afford it, many arguments about that. Can't afford certain things that she wants or that we need, and nothing you can do about it because everything's been spent on bills and stuff for the kids. It does cause a lot of friction. (Anti-poverty campaigners, peripheral housing estate in city)
P: But sometimes you do crack and that's when your rent arrear goes and you just think oh no I can't do this any more. You have a wee outing and then that's it all back to square one. (Peripheral housing estate in a large rural town)

For the low income family household, a 'wee outing' is a major expense.

2.20 Parents from low income family households who encounter affluence in their daily lives - for example, through meeting affluent parents at the school gate and those who walk through affluent areas - reported a sense of embarrassment at their situation:

P: My husband is a fisherman, so it's a very, very crappy insecure time at the moment for us. 10 years ago he earned double what he is earning now. So it's a nightmare. Luckily we are sort of hiding behind a facade that fishermen traditionally have always been quite well off so people don't actually know that our income has halved. So I mean it's completely false, but if we can get away with that. (Anti poverty campaigners, rural northern Scotland)

The need to disguise their situation indicates that low self-esteem may be an issue for many who live on a low income and the underlying belief that there is something wrong with low income living. Similarly, difficulties encountered in reciprocating gifts from friends and neighbours induces feelings of guilt:

CRFR … Do you think living on a low income affects how people treat you, or your children?
P1: There is certain people like that, yes.
P2: Sometimes it's not a bad thing, but I had a neighbour hand in a couple of selection packs for the kids. … to a certain extent, it puts pressure on me to go out and buy her kids exactly the same. It's not terribly expensive, but Christmas is an expensive time. She was doing it out of the goodness of her heart and if I done the same thing, to a certain extent it would be pointless, because she knows the situation I'm in, but you're caught between that and the guilty feeling of accepting that [you can't reciprocate] … And if I did, she would turn round and say, 'what did you do that for?' … it's this unsaid, the unsaid thing that I find quite difficult to cope with. (Men's health group, large town)

It was evident from the fieldwork that low income living is not a situation which many find comfortable; it erodes a sense of worth.

CHILDREN

Children come first

2.21 Many parents in our groups expressed a concern to put their children first; many also castigated those parents who are deemed not to aspire to, or deliver, this level of concern.

P1: Don't get me wrong, a lot of people [are] … spending money on drink and drugs and what have you, without spending it on their kids.
P2: A lot of parents, single parents, will do without themselves.
P1: Aye, I have done.
P3: You like to put your money into your children.
P2: Most definitely! (Peripheral housing estate in city)
P1: There is always this odd thing you know you really want to get your kid. You know you really can't afford it. You can end up starving for a week but oh you are going to get it anyway.
P2: You give up a load of home comforts really. So even if you just had a load of indulgent stuff for like in your bath or just a nice long soak. You give all of that up. I think mums generally give up anything so that their child would have everything.
P1: … you sell stuff.
P2: Yes. I have sold stuff just to get more clothes for her or to get just little bit of extra for her. (Young adults, rural town in northern Scotland)

2.22 Putting their children first is also expressed in the frames of reference employed by parents from low income family households to make sense of the world in which they live. For example, the quality of their area is judged by many on the basis on what it affords children:

CRFR: How [do] you feel that living here?
P1: Horrible!
P2: I don't think it's too bad. I've lived in worse.
P1: I think it's just … because I'm in a top flat and I've got 3 kids and there's absolutely nowhere for them to play. (Young adults, rural town in northern Scotland)

Impact on, and protection of, children from low income

2.23 One manifestation of the principle of putting children first is the way in which parents from low income family households seek to protect their children, wherever possible, from the effects of low income living. Despite parents' best efforts, the fieldwork showed how children are seen to be adversely affected by living on a low income. Examples were given as follows: children do not participate in activities (second extract, below), do not consume or consume frequently enough (third extract, below), children show embarrassment (next extract, below) or, in the most extreme cases, withdraw from social interaction (third extract, below) on account of low income living.

P1: Aye, a lot of people don't like going into Lidls.
P2: I hate going into Lidls. The weans will go I'll wait over….
P1: Not a cool place!
P2: You're not allowed to walk about with Lidl's bag ... you've got to take a black bag to put their bags in.
CRFR: You take bags with you!
P2: She'll stand outside it, and she'll say "I'll wait till you're finished Mum", and I'm like that, "Get in". (Peripheral housing estate in city)
P1: … and letting the children go to all these different clubs. My kids were saying, "Can we go to karate?". That's 3.50 each, that's 7 and then there will be bus fares up there and back which is another 4. It's 11 just for them to go to karate once a week. It's too much money. If they do that and then go to something else on another night, like they go to the youth club night - that's another 1 and then they've got dancing. That's 3. You know, you can't afford to let them do all these things. So they're disadvantaged from day one.
P2: They haven't got freedom of choice to have a shot at everything which a lot of kids do. And a lot of kids in their class do. (Peripheral housing estate in a large rural town)
P1: The poor folk don't get as many trips as rich folks.
P2: Yeah and like when it goes to sckill and they ask what do you get for Christmas and the rich folk they are all, "I got a Play Station 2" and they just sit quiet. Because they didnae get a lot. (Mid teens, de-industrialising town in a rural area)

2.24 It also appeared that children can suffer from parents' attempts to overcome low income living. As the example below illustrates, the stresses on one parent performing 3 part-time jobs, while the other parent is investing much time and energy into establishing a family business, leaves a 14 year old boy harbouring concerns for his parents' well-being, while himself feeling neglected.

PW1: In and out of the door passing each other isn't it?. And saying, "Hi kids, bye kids".
PM: Well yesterday I was.
PW1: It becomes quite stressful as well at home.
PW2: And the guilt factor. I don't know about you but …
PW: Oh yes.
PW2: I have to go out and leave them all the time.
PW1: I actually had a 14 year old who had a little weep at me a couple of weeks ago because he never saw me.
PM: He isn't exactly getting the support he deserves either because he has exams and she [PW1] is working all the hours God sends and I just started my own business 6 months ago and I am up to my eyes … we just sort of pass one another at the door and the kids are just sort of left there. (Anti poverty campaigners, rural northern Scotland)

2.25 While the work-intensive family (described above) sought to minimise the negative impact of their working lives by insisting on a family evening meal each evening (even when this meant a 30 mile round trip for the mother between jobs (with the additional cost and time-pressure that this entailed), other families sought to protect their children by telling them half-truths (below).

P1: What I really hate is trying to tell your kids that you can't afford things because I don't want them to have my worries, because they're too young. Do you find that?
P2: You don't want to hurt them either.
P1: You don't. I know. So you're trying to get an in-between saying, "you're no' getting it just now but I'll try and get you it later". You just don't want to say, 'I can't afford it, we've no money'. (Peripheral housing estate in city)

Although softening the blow of not being able to buy for their child, delaying consumption to a later date merely prolongs stress and worries for the parent for much longer. Once again, this could be seen as an example of the parent impairing her/his quality of life to protect their child.

2.26 Although there were few examples of lone fathers caring for their children, one father described his experiences:

PM1: I am a single parent. I have got custody of my daughter and I found government agencies and the council [to be] … extremely helpful. I am not saying I get more help than a single mother but I think they [think I am] more needy because I am a single dad. They see me as this poor social misfit.
PW1: His big puppy dog eyes. (mocking)
PW2: This poor child! (mocking)
PM1: I mean I always go in and I always take my daughter with me. They are dealing with women most of the time and they always think that men are completely incompetent to look after a child anyway so obviously I am going to get better treatment.
PW2: They are all out to mother him. (Anti poverty campaigners, rural northern Scotland)

His relationship to agencies seems supportive, suggesting that such experiences may be gendered in some way.

CHANGE

Previous circumstances

2.27 Significant changes in circumstance are described by focus group participants as arising from changes in family, work and parental status. On the whole, the changes described are those of worsening conditions, e.g. young parents not being able to go out as frequently, if at all, with their friends.

2.28 A common theme to emerge was that the experience of those from within low income family households to the popular solutions to low income living - re-partnering, gaining paid work and receiving higher benefit payments - have not tended to effect a significant change in well-being:

P1: We get a pay rise. 2 a year.
CRFR: That 2, does that make a difference?
P1: No.
P2: They put your council tax up. (Peripheral housing estate in city)

As discussed later (3.27, 3.48), there is a perception that work does not bring significant financial gain.

2.29 The focus group findings indicated that regardless of whether the parents' circumstances change, the experience of managing a low income changes in accordance with the child's phase of development. Some consider that costs rise as children age (next extract, below), while others merely perceive a change in the way money is spent (second extract, below). What is certain is that no parent reflects that it is easier to budget for older children.

P1: … I'm finding it hard now having the 2 of them.
P2: See I'm finding it tougher since she's went to second year [of secondary school].
P1: I was getting harassed this morning actually! (Peripheral housing estate in city)
P1: I think the kids are more independent now. ... But in saying that they eat more.
P2: They eat 10 times more. So you think right, I'm saving this because they're not going to youth club tonight and they're not going to dancing or ballet. But come the weekend that 4 you've saved - they want it because they're at that age where they're going to be down the street. (Peripheral housing estate in a large rural town)

2.30 The process of adjusting to changing circumstances could be described as either resigned adjustment or strategic adjustment. In the former, participants expressed a sense that parents simply must adjust to prevailing circumstances, as these cannot change. For example, young mothers becoming used to others' negative attitude toward them (next extract, below). Strategic adjustment implies choice, e.g. how the mother in the second example would react buy buying cheaper goods in the event of her husband losing his job. Both approaches are suggestive of limited scope for effecting change.

P1: … yer walking doon tae the postie and people ken, people think they're better than yae. ... It used tae bother me, but no' now. I'd say "whit you looking at, you got a problem?" Ken whit I mean?
P2: I've been getting it since I was 16, so it disnae bother me.
P1: It disnae bother me. (Young mothers, city housing estate)
P: I think if I lost my job or my husband lost his job, I wouldn't buy the food that I buy. I would buy a cheaper version of what I buy. (Returners to education, inner city neighbourhood)

2.31 However, not all change in the lives of those in low income family households was described as adverse. Some lone parents perceive that they are better-off emotionally and financially now that they have sole responsibility for managing their household. Other minor lifestyle changes are reported which indicate improvements in some aspects of life, e.g. keeping-fit and eating healthier food as part of an initiative in one housing estate, or the universal increase in disposable income that young people within low income family households receive as they get older.

P … people have changed as well, like when they get into 5 ^th and 6 ^th year, cos they're old enough to get a part-time job, you notice that, people that haven't had good clothes. As soon as they've got a job, they start wearing good clothes, so it's no' their fault like, it's just the way their family is, like if they don't get much money, I mean obviously they can't afford to buy them Nike or whatever. (Girls group, mid teens, city housing estate)

THE BRIGHTER SIDE?

Relief

2.32 Everyone needs relief from their everyday existence: time-out, holidays and changes of scene are widely accepted as an integral part of everyday work life and annual family life. However, the fieldwork indicated that options are more limited for low income family households and the extent to which this is seen as just or fair is challenged. The stresses of managing on a low income render the need for relief within low income family households.

2.33 Some parents conceive of being happy as a goal. However, the happiness that is sought seems to imply resistance to prevailing conditions, rather than the positive striving for happiness.

P: You are not comfortable. You are just dealing with what you are dealing. It makes you feel even more depressed where you are living at the time. You try to stay happy. (Young adults, rural town in northern Scotland)
P: At the end of the day, like, at least, we might no' huv a lot in our cupboard, we might no huv a lot in oor hoose, but we're happy. (Young mothers, city housing estate)

2.34 There is much to be gleaned by the definition of a treat. As the parent below reports, chocolate biscuits are not an everyday occurrence, because of cost.

P: It's kind of like, I'm going to treat myself. See if I go in with a couple of packets of biscuits, chocolate ones, my weans will go, 'What's the surprise then? What are we getting these for? Have we behaved ourself?' I'm like, 'What?' It's a treat to them. (Peripheral housing estate in city)

2.35 A few report that no cost pleasure or relief is woven into the fabric of everyday life, such as transforming everyday chores (next extract, below), enjoying the pleasures of children (next extract, below), window shopping (second extract, below) and participation in support groups.

P: Just involve, even though my little girl is very young I try to involve her in everything I do. I make everything I do fun - like cleaning, I will have some music on she sits on the Hoover. Because she loves it because the Hoover is sitting there vibrating she is giggling away. (Young adults, rural town in northern Scotland)
P: Have a day oot in the toon. I love just going … even if I've nae money to spend I've seen me jumping on the bus, and just going in and walking about. (Peripheral housing estate, small de-industrialising town in rural Scotland)

2.36 Low cost pleasure or relief is more widely reported (relative to no cost relief) and is primarily expressed in a weekly treat of alcohol in the home.

P1: I dinnae smoke fags. I dinnae take any kind o' drugs. I've got a heart condition an' that. But there's always Vodka in ma' hoose. 'Cos see come a Friday night, I need a drink. I'm on ma own wae a 2 year old. I need ma drink.
P2: It's just a release, eh? I mean ma 2 bairns go doon at 7 at night .... You've had a hard week an' come a Friday night, that's whit yae dae. (Young mothers, city housing estate)

2.37 However, some participants described how the need to seek relief from the stresses of low income living can, inadvertently, create problems for parents (and see 2.19). Relief generally implies cost (below).

P: If you're depressed you spend more money.
CRFR: What, you're depressed you spend more money?
P: Aye, you get yourself into debt. (Peripheral housing estate in city)

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