If things get tougher?

Fruball

Feeling very virtuous (SP?) tonight - really really fancied a Chinese takeaway - DS and I talked eachother out of it and had crumpets with butter and jam instead - followed by fruit

Saving - around £15 :j :j :j

:T

nicki_2

I wasn't really in the mood to cook last night so I was going to get chippy on the way home. DD wanted "sausage dinner" at £2.10 for a kids portion :eek: The adult meals were all £4+ :eek::eek: A pizza from the take-away opposite the chippy would have cost us £4....so we went to Asda and bought 5 frozen readymeals instead for £4 Yes, okay not exactly as healthy as a home cooked meal I know, but cheaper then going to the take-away and there is 2 meals for me and DD and a "spare" for when DD goes away and I'm too busy studying to stop and cook a meal (trust me, next time she goes away it will be like that!). Its a luxury I only treat us to maybe once every 2 months or so, but the rest of the time we do eat homemade meals

Primrose

Following up on ceridwen's comment about people who say they can't afford to save or are hard up, yes, it amuses (and annoys me too) when they claim poverty yet have a holiday abroad every year, buy ready prepared meals from M & S, eat out once a week and buy in regular take-aways. I suspect that some of these people are going to have a rather uncomfortable ride over the next months and will start to understand the dictionary definition of "necessity" as opposed to "desirability". It's all a question of individual values I suppose.

newlywed

Primrose wrote: »

Following up on ceridwen's comment about people who say they can't afford to save or are hard up, yes, it amuses (and annoys me too) when they claim poverty yet have a holiday abroad every year, buy ready prepared meals from M & S, eat out once a week and buy in regular take-aways. I suspect that some of these people are going to have a rather uncomfortable ride over the next months and will start to understand the dictionary definition of "necessity" as opposed to "desirability". It's all a question of individual values I suppose.

I learned a long while ago that people have difference perceptions of "broke".

To some it will mean they can't afford 2 holidays in one year, when they have had 3 before (have friends who complained they were only have one holiday that year because they couldn't afford another one - yet it was SEVERAL weeks in Australia!!!).

To some it will mean they only have £100 for going out that month, when they usually have more.

To some it means they can live their "normal" life at the same standard but have no money left over.

To others it means they don't know how they will pay the rent, electricity and eat that month as they've sold everything they can think of to try and raise the cash

I think until you actually get to that last one and experience it, you don't really know what "broke" is

rosieben

I was involved with a local council scheme which aimed to get long-termed unemployed people back into work, the criteria being that they have to have been unemployed for 2 years to qualify. When I rang to report that some people's wages didn't turn up, the council bod said 'well, cant they wait till next week?' :mad:

for some of us, being broke doesn't mean we're down to our last £5 in the bank ....

happytails

This is always one that amuses and annoys me also. My friend lives at home and pays £50 a MONTH rent. She is fed, house is clean, lots of heating and electric, internet, phone blah blah blah. Her parents bought her first car, paid the insurance outright to save her gettig a credit agreement and made her pay weekly (no interest) until it was paid back. She is on a net of about £600 a month. Her partner is on about a net of £900 a month and lives with his dad, im not sure what he pays if any but they have a cleaner once a week and he doesnt drive. They get 3 days PAST payday and are 'skint' - how on earth do they manage that? No savings and no debts :mad: And what makes it worse is my friend got a debit card with an overdraft of £50 and kept going over and being charged and didnt like it etc

I on the other hand, moved in with my OH who got kicked out of his mums into a little flat on a joint net of £850 and paid all bills and ran a car and paid insurance on a credit agreement. Moved into a house when OH got a pay rise. I had a string of jobs never satisfied lol and we got 3 dogs within 6 months - mad i know! one was a rescue. I crashed car which bumped insurance up £600 more to £2100 a year struggled over xmas and overdraft went up to £1400 and we had companies demanding money and the council wanted to take us to court fo £88 outstanding balance for c.tax managed to sort 'debts' out with the companies and reduce overdraft to £700. I got a pregnant in June, got a job 2 weeks later, sadly got made redundant last week, now have a new job and OH is on the verge of getting made redundant. - me and my friend are both 19 - i feel one of us struggles a hell of alot more :rolleyes: but who? well imho i think my friend does, living the life if you will, she will fall so deep into debt it scares me, i thought i had it bad.

OMG just realised how much i rambled on there lol sorry guys!

Bargain_Rzl

"Broke" to me means essential expenditure exceeding amount of money in the bank. However, being very debt-averse, if I was in the position of having to put essential food and bills on a credit card because I didn't have any physical cash in the bank, I'd consider that to be "broke" too.

The easy access to credit in recent years has meant it's possible for people to be broke without realising or accepting it. If you take away people's access to credit, suddenly a lot more people become broke in the most extreme sense...

BigMummaF

Did anyone see Dispatches on Monday night? They were talking about gas & electric & at last I understand what they mean when people talk about "fuel poverty"
I know the more widely read among us have said about how we are literally running out of resources, but truly did not know that our own gas & oil fields were no longer supporting our demand. I think it was 25% of our gas comes from Norway already, & in a minimal amount of time--might be 10yrs but can't recall exact wording--we shall need to buy over 50%.
Britain only holds gas reserves to last TWO WEEKS; how foolish do I feel now, thinking my family would OK if power cuts were announced, because we have a gas cooker...feel I could pass for Marie Antoinette & her famous "Let them eat cake" when confronted with the peasants who had no bread
It was also :mad: that the young family the programme followed, had ended up in considerable debt with woteva company even though they had been paying by direct debit. To be fair, the parents didn't know how estimated bills worked & hadn't thought of checking them against the meters, but surely the energy companies should be held responsible for telling their customers that the dd payment may not be enough. It has definately put me off paying by this method & made me remember why I hadn't signed up to it before now.
Another :eek: is some boffs are convinced that 6million+ meters are giving incorrect readings & are calling for legislation to have all meters replaced with supa-dupa, all singing, all-dancing gizmoes that send readings back to HQ every half hour.

Mind you Ceri--picking up on your train of thought--that bit did make me feel BB is no longer watching; he's become the uninvited lodger :mad:

Cinny91

Can we stop talking about scary electric cuts and gas shortages and get back to grated carrots and potting sheds? :rotfl:

I tend to bury my head in the sand about things like that, thinking I haven't moved out yet so 'it's nothing to do with me' so I shun it. but, may i add, I fought with mum over her turning the heating on (mainly because I'd spent £10 on cardies, fleeces and slippers the week before ) and I read by candle light at night to save on electric. Just to keep on the OS good books

mumoftwo

ok own up... which MSE er was on RAdio Scotland this morning??

I was in the car, and this programme came on about the credit crunch and there were women talking about meal planning and buying cheap tinned tomatoes, and cheap cleaning materials such as vinegar and about re-using, re cycling, batch cooking, using everything up, doing different things with a chicken,

It starts with older women and how it was years ago and then it goes on about Jamie Oliver and then this woman comes on with tips and the chicken etc, she just sounds like she comes straight from on here

I was quite smug, driving alone in my car, talking to myself, saying: Already doing that!

Here is the link if you want a listen, quite good, even just to confirm we are doing the right thing. :T

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00f1tq2

btw; got my own car back today, nice and shiny. Now £250 poorer but it is good to have it back, it needed a new back axle as well as back panel, I saw the bill for the insurance, it was over £2000. :eek: