It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

frugal6

It's always down to the women in hard times isnt it ? We seem to have a reserve of cheerfulness that men lack. Well mine bloody well lacks it thats for sure :rotfl:
Off to dig another trench and throw another hedgehog in the stew !



Thanks mardatha your post made me laugh today. It cheered me up:T just what I was needing today


Frugal6

Long time lurker on this thread!

rachbc

well as someone for whom redundancy has become a very real threat thanks to the new government I can honestly say I [EMAIL="DON@T"]DON'T[/EMAIL] find living through hard times more satsifying!

I already do all I can to manage our money - we have some food store, savings etc but that would only last so long and if the entire 'industy' I work for (and have spent the last 5 years qualifying to work in) is axed so there is no work to get and if money isn;t there to manage I'm not sure what I'd do. My stawberry patch and salad leaves won't feed the family

maryb

1991-2 was the first one that affected us personally although I remember the 1980 recession very well. But DH and I were newly qualified then and didn't have so much to lose personally. DH and I work in the same field so when he was made redundant in 1991 and they had a round of redundancies at my firm a month later I was very scared - although I have always survived that and every subsequent round, I have never got over the fear that grips you when you hear the rumours about another round.

We lost about 40% of our income because he had to set up as self employed. Mortgage interest went through the roof as they tried to firstly rein in inflation and then tried to keep us in the ERM with the £ massively overvalued against the DMark.

Everyone thought that Labour would win the 1992 election. Late in 1991 the Fabian Society published a study about 'fair taxation' which I had to analyse for work. I subsequently recognised it pretty much unaltered in Labour's election manifesto and I knew that if it was actually implementing the Fabian Society's recommendations we would have been worse off by a couple of hundred pounds each month - since they were suggesting that the self employed could not claim expenses and should pay tax under PAYE each month since it was 'unfair' that they should be treated more favourably than employed taxpayers. This was on top of raising taxes to have a progressive set of higher rates. We simply did not have scope to pay the extra tax and we could not sell the house as the housing market was simply dead and house prices were falling all over the country. So I knew we would have gone under.

Well they didn't win and although interest rates stayed at 15% for a long time they started coming down after we were chucked out of the ERM. But it was about 1997 before I started believing we were no longer in danger of me losing my job. Then DH went back into employment and we got our heads down and cleared the frightening amount of debt we had built up (largely because of childcare taking the outgoings over the incomings each month, but at least we knew that would come to an end) then managed to pay off the mortgage early and now I finally feel safe.

So many people lost their houses because they couldn't keep up with the mortgage and there were a lot of middle aged middle managers who knew they were never going to work again at anything like their previous salary - if they could get a job at all. Age discrimination was rampant and you felt very vulnerable if you were in your 40s. However those who were in their 50s were often offered fairly generous early retirement packages because pension funds had surpluses (different world!!) I know a few people who took forced early retirement in 1992 who were actually better off than peers who retired in 2002 because annuity rates were so much higher then that the extra 10 years of working counted for nothing when it came to drawing a pension.

Redundancy is always a misfortune but it was quite shameful then because it hadn't been common. That's changed and I think no-one now expects a job to be safe. The amount of debt people have is huge now compared to what it was then. People had unaffordable mortgages because there had been a houseprice boom and then slump and mortgage rates were high but there wasn't as much credit card debt. I don't remember people having lots of cards, they probably had one card, an overdraft and maybe some hire purchase debts because shops all offered interest free credit. But it was structured so that you did actually pay it off over 9 months, a year or whatever by standing order. There was none of this business with nothing to pay for a year then you have to find the money in a lump sum.

More people had company cars because it was not so expensive in terms of tax then and of course they lost their car when they lost their jobs. But employers sometimes let you buy your company car. So people tended not to have so much car finance outstanding.

This does feel quite similar in many ways to 1991-2. Especially for young ones just starting out. All the new graduates struggled to get jobs just as they do now. But at least they didn't have huge amounts of student debt

maryb

rachbc
Please don't think I am being callous about the difficulties you face and I really do hope that you escape the axe. I know very well that it all depends on keeping a roof over your head and food on the table. All I am saying is that provided people can do that, having to be careful need not make them miserable and the help and support that MSE and OS can give can help people facing lean times to tackle them with courage and dignity - and there's a feeling of self worth that comes from that

Charis

sb44 wrote: »

Regarding the forcoming months, do many people on here actually think we are going to see lots of problems ahead re sky high prices and redundancies?

Yes, it's happening more slowly than it did the last two times. I have a feeling that this time it will be more than a glitch in the economy. We are going to have to make some permanent changes. We can't go on individually, nationally or globally, living on Monopoly money that has nothing to back it up.

sb44 wrote: »

I remember buying my first house in 1985 when the mortgage rate was just under 12%, we could manage that at the time but I wouldn't want to see those rates again in a hurry.

We'd not long bought our third house then, for a 'massive' £48,000. I remember those interest rates, yet we are the generation being blamed for 'being greedy' and 'forcing up house prices'. I'm still trying to work out how we have actually benefited, as I still only have one roof over my head and it took 36 years of thrift to pay for it.

sb44 wrote: »

1 in 5 people are using debt to pay for everyday essentials which I take as using the old plastic to buy a loaf and some milk

This may not be as sinister as it appears. I always pay with plastic for my supermarket shopping - but pay it off in full at the end of the month, as do many others. I do it to collect the points from T6sco and N6ctar. Best of both worlds.

Charis

huxley

Hi, Jo_Rourke a LETS group is
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]LETS - Local Exchange Trading Systems or Schemes - are local community-based mutual aid networks in which people exchange all kinds of goods and services with one another, without the need for money.[/FONT] You can find out if there is one near you at www.letslinkuk.net I find ours great that along with freecycle realy helps stretch those pennies:D

floss2

Jo_Rourke wrote: »

...Thanks SmileyT - I really like the idea of growing my own salad leaves that I can have at my leisure. I always find buying lettuce / rocket / other salad leaves at the supermarket a bit of a waste of money, because it is a big packet that I don't always use up...

Just don't plant all the seeds at once, plant some every 10 days to give yourself chance to eat what have grown & keep a steady flow

sb44 wrote: »

....Regarding the forcoming months, do many people on here actually think we are going to see lots of problems ahead re sky high prices and redundancies?.....

Yes - as a local government employee whose council have just lost almost 1.5% of their current year's budget, this will impact directly on services to the residents AND jobs.

I am glad that we are in a financial position to pull our belts in and manage on OH's salary, luckily we have a small mortgage which only has a few years to run, no major finance committments and no children to keep any more so we should be OK with a fair bit of belt-tightening.

At least if I'm without paid work I will have the time at home to do everything myself to save money like proper cooking & preserving, wine-making and keeping the small garden going!

Wee_Jo

rachbc wrote: »

well as someone for whom redundancy has become a very real threat thanks to the new government I can honestly say I DON'T find living through hard times more satsifying!

I already do all I can to manage our money - we have some food store, savings etc but that would only last so long and if the entire 'industy' I work for (and have spent the last 5 years qualifying to work in) is axed so there is no work to get and if money isn;t there to manage I'm not sure what I'd do. My stawberry patch and salad leaves won't feed the family

What industry do you work in, Rach?

mardatha

Good for you Floss, I like your attitude Re LETS schemes, let me tell about my coalman. LOL!
He always stands and we yakk for ages, the OH, the coalman and me, at my back door. This morning he was telling me about his garden- and said he has one customer he once helped out with a free bag of peat when he was stuck. This man every year gives him nice veg plants, leeks, potatoes, broccoli etc. Then he has another customer who gives him duck eggs and jam.... so the secret is in finding the right people eh !
Said he would bring us some eggs & leeks next time. He says he should have a separate bit on the lorry for produce lol !

ginnyknit

mardatha wrote: »

It's always down to the women in hard times isnt it ? We seem to have a reserve of cheerfulness that men lack. Well mine bloody well lacks it thats for sure :rotfl:
Off to dig another trench and throw another hedgehog in the stew !

I just moved the chicken coop and run and found a huge hedgehog - you want me to post it to you hunny?? Mind you he is doing a grand job of slug hunting so I would miss him - but my gypsy blood does make me wonder ???:rotfl: