1 in 4 households are struggling

StevieJ

lostinrates wrote: »

Horrendous! Where on earth did she go? The only place I can think would be San Marco in Venice, my coffee near La Scala cost 90 cents, or under DH's office costs 1E10 Dh's fancier brew costs 2E, behind Duomo in Milano. ETA: she must have sat down, I guess, they do charge extra for that.

Just checked, she was staying by Lake Como but the offending cuppa was actually purchased not in Italy but in St Morritz (had no SF so had to pay in Euro), thanks for the moneysaving tips for when I spend a night at the opera

lostinrates

StevieJ wrote: »

Just checked, she was staying by Lake Como but the offending cuppa was actually purchased not in Italy but in St Morritz (had no SF so had to pay in Euro), thanks for the moneysaving tips for when I spend a night at the opera

Oh, well, ye, that would be right! No problem StevieJ. My other tips are to flirt a bit and get all the men to buy you coffee, comparatively tall blondes go down well. Boho chic doesn't do it for italian men though, so don't epect free drinks in that.:D

StevieJ

lostinrates wrote: »

Oh, well, ye, that would be right! No problem StevieJ. My other tips are to flirt a bit and get all the men to buy you coffee, comparatively tall blondes go down well. Boho chic doesn't do it for italian men though, so don't epect free drinks in that.:D

Err I think I will give that one a miss BTW B chic is cool, if I catch you by La Scala I will cough up the 90

lostinrates

StevieJ wrote: »

Err I think I will give that one a miss BTW B chic is cool, if I catch you by La Scala I will cough up the 90

Gosh, thank you, well, I'll how you my favourite haunts then.

Happy are we.

wageslave

It amazes me how little people seem to be able to spend on food when everything seems to have shot up in price. It costs me a small fortune to keep this gaff but then even the bliddy dog wont touch dog food.

I will also admit to doing two quid coffees. I like them.

Fire_Fox

The_White_Horse wrote: »

I think it is extermely obvious what was meant, and that the word "not" before "VERY" was left out. Still, I am glad you didn't feel shame in not being able to work that out for yourself. As they say, there is no such thing as a stupid question.

I referred to the poor punctuation in the THIRD paragraph: clearly you cannot count that high as the word 'not' was missing from your SECOND paragraph. :rolleyes:

andygb

Costs are rising for ordinary people, and by ordinary, I mean people like myself, who do not surround themselves with luxury goods, Sky TV or have one or even two holidays a year.
I have been out of work for just over a year, despite applying for everything possible. We do not have any credit card debt, we run one car, we cook from scratch for ourselves, we do not go to the pub or eat out, and we are struggling.
My wife is earning just under average wage, she uses her car to get to work, and our petrol bill has gone from £150 a month to over £200 a month in the last six months. Household fuel bills are increasing, despite Ofgem's criticism, and the government saying that they are not justified. Banks have increased their charges, and interest rates have not fallen in line with the base rate (except if you were lucky enough to have borrowed beyond your means and have a tracker mortgage).
My wife's pay has been frozen, and although two people have left in her team, they will have to shoulder the burden because they cannot employ anyone else. Of course, it is very admirable for people on the front line to take a pay cut, or work longer hours, but it has transpired that many directors of FTSE 100 firms have given themselves pay rises this year, not to mention the bankers, who seem to be oblivious to the recession, despite having caused it.
So, whilst there are some people who cannot and will not ever prioritise their expenses, there are far more who are in serious financial trouble, and it looks as though unemployment will continue to rise, despite some Scottish gardener seeing green shoots in his back yard in Westminster.

mbga9pgf

The_White_Horse wrote: »

why should you pay more council tax the more expensive your house is??? do the people in those houses cost the council more money? I bet not. I bet you take the family in the £1m house and take the family in the council flat and the one in the flat will cost the council 10 times as much at least.

This country is hateful in the way it steals from those who do well, save, try to improve themselves, to give it all to !!!!less layabouts, teen mothers and immigrants.

wake up people of Britain or you will be fiddling with you copy of the Guardian whilst the country burns.

Why should I, as a 28 year old hard working white male, earning over 50K, in a household earning nearly 75K, struggle to pay an exorbitant price at record low rates for a home that was bought for of a fraction of the price a decade ago, purely to sustain the living standards of the boomer generation. I say F*ck them. Its time they realised their hip replacements and state pension dont come for free I say. If that means selling up the family home, then so be it.

I am not a slave. The boomer generation are asset rich and assets need to be treated in a similar manner to income in my humble opinion.

thriftybabe

andygb wrote: »

Costs are rising for ordinary people, and by ordinary, I mean people like myself, who do not surround themselves with luxury goods, Sky TV or have one or even two holidays a year.
I have been out of work for just over a year, despite applying for everything possible. We do not have any credit card debt, we run one car, we cook from scratch for ourselves, we do not go to the pub or eat out, and we are struggling.
My wife is earning just under average wage, she uses her car to get to work, and our petrol bill has gone from £150 a month to over £200 a month in the last six months. Household fuel bills are increasing, despite Ofgem's criticism, and the government saying that they are not justified. Banks have increased their charges, and interest rates have not fallen in line with the base rate (except if you were lucky enough to have borrowed beyond your means and have a tracker mortgage).
My wife's pay has been frozen, and although two people have left in her team, they will have to shoulder the burden because they cannot employ anyone else. Of course, it is very admirable for people on the front line to take a pay cut, or work longer hours, but it has transpired that many directors of FTSE 100 firms have given themselves pay rises this year, not to mention the bankers, who seem to be oblivious to the recession, despite having caused it.
So, whilst there are some people who cannot and will not ever prioritise their expenses, there are far more who are in serious financial trouble, and it looks as though unemployment will continue to rise, despite some Scottish gardener seeing green shoots in his back yard in Westminster.

Our business is obviously not in the FTSE but our workers are earning more than us. We are the Directors of the Company and the last few months have earned nothing. We have managed to reduce our overheads but are still paying £1k - 1200 a month. We have had no earnings and still need to pay our overheads. Our two workers have both went on holiday this year. Crazy as we cannot even guarantee them work for more than 2 weeks at time. One of them has just announced that he is going on holiday again in a few weeks. That is the differences between us and them. They are living for now and we are looking at long term. There is a good chance that in a few weeks there will be nothing at all but they still do all the things that they usually do. I know one of them is living week to week. As a business we are looking to ride this out as long as possible.

lemonjelly

mbga9pgf wrote: »

Why should I, as a 28 year old hard working white male, earning over 50K, in a household earning nearly 75K, struggle to pay an exorbitant price at record low rates for a home that was bought for of a fraction of the price a decade ago, purely to sustain the living standards of the boomer generation. I say F*ck them. Its time they realised their hip replacements and state pension dont come for free I say. If that means selling up the family home, then so be it.

I am not a slave. The boomer generation are asset rich and assets need to be treated in a similar manner to income in my humble opinion.

Yes, interestingly people frequently only advocate state support when it benefits them, & will regularly contradict themselves. In example, care for the elderly should be free, but how can we pay for this? The notion of selling a home is logical to me. However avaricious offspring fight tooth & nail to prevent this, arguing that the state must pay - not realising that their taxes will rocket if we fund unilateral care. They then proceed to grumble about tax increases.

Our business is obviously not in the FTSE but our workers are earning more than us. We are the Directors of the Company and the last few months have earned nothing. We have managed to reduce our overheads but are still paying £1k - 1200 a month. We have had no earnings and still need to pay our overheads. Our two workers have both went on holiday this year. Crazy as we cannot even guarantee them work for more than 2 weeks at time. One of them has just announced that he is going on holiday again in a few weeks. That is the differences between us and them. They are living for now and we are looking at long term. There is a good chance that in a few weeks there will be nothing at all but they still do all the things that they usually do. I know one of them is living week to week. As a business we are looking to ride this out as long as possible.

The vast majority of people I know do this. In easy credit times, it didn't matter too much, cos you bash it all on the card when the money's gone innit? That access has now gone though, so it'll be interesting to see what people do.
Never understood why people do this, or to be honest how they do it. Sometimes it is almost like they have to spend their money.
Having done years in debt advice, what never ceases to amaze me is people have these massive debts & yet have little/nothing to show for it.