Coping when times get tough

Quasar

lemonjelly wrote: »

The CCCS has recently published another enlightening report about the impacts of the downturn. Sites such as this frequently espouse the wisdom of having an emergency fund/stash consisting of about 3 months salary (not sure that'd do you much good at the mo, but there you go).

Anyhow, the CCCS study has found that when household income drops, people are finding they have little/nothing to turn to. Indeed they argue that 1 in 3 are able to address their debt issues as a result of this.
I also think it is very interestingly significant that spending on essentials is outstripping income. To me this signals a few things, including:
National weakness with budgeting skills
Cost of essentials has ongoingly been creeping higher & higher
Potential for inflation to be higher in real terms (especially for those on benefits/low incomes)
Suggests that (as I have argued) for some time households have been subsiding their incomes via access to credit in the good times.



Full report is here http://www.cccs.co.uk/research/2009/pdf/DshQ209.pdf
I'm still of the opinion that the debt bubble has to impact us sooner or later.

I think that is a large part of the problem. Many people see as essential what really isn't. I know women for whom having a hair cut, dye and set every 6 weeks is essential, and some people for whom driving half a mile down the road for a pint of milk is essential, and those for whom a glass of wine with food is a must every single evening.

Personally, I've always lived on very little - regarding essential as only those things that keep me fed and warm, and everything else a nice treat - and therefore I now have a nest egg equivalent to about 3 years worth of livelihood, which I hope I don't need to dip into because my line of work seems to be safe for the foreseeable future.

White_Hot_Day

Quasar wrote: »

I think that is a large part of the problem. Many people see as essential what really isn't. I know women for whom having a hair cut, dye and set every 6 weeks is essential, and some people for whom driving half a mile down the road for a pint of milk is essential, and those for whom a glass of wine with food is a must every single evening.

Personally, I've always lived on very little - regarding essential as only those things that keep me fed and warm, and everything else a nice treat - and therefore I now have a nest egg equivalent to about 3 years worth of livelihood, which I hope I don't need to dip into because my line of work seems to be safe for the foreseeable future.

Ah my old pal quasar x

lostinrates

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

I eat meat, but usually cook vegetarian. It is much cheaper and also less faff in a shared kitchen (read shared fridge). I always make pasta sauce from scratch (which tastes better anyway).

we cook lot of food that happens to be vegetarian (as soon as I try and cook vegetarian my mind runs blank pretty quickly:o ). That means when we do eat meat it can be of a good quality from a good source without an increase in foo budget, merely a reallocation. Coking from scratch is smething I do from choice, and is sometimes cheaper. When I see the value lines of pre-prpared food I know it is not true to say it is always cheaper: but there I feel we probably balance value with health and quality. It doesn't go without saying that I appreciate we are in a position to make these choicesand that not everyone is.

lynzpower

Things are more expensive. Its true. I used to specifically go to waitrose for its fruit & fibre cereal at 98p- its 1.28 now. I used to pay 85p 2 years ago for a shelved granry loaf- now its 1.40.

Italy has been in the streets protesting about rising food prices, here we try to deny it even happens! Yes you can buy short dated food and I do, but somethings are just getting dearer. It would be ok if the producers saw it, but I doubt they do.Not everyone can get hold of all the reduced stock and to be fair if theres a lot left ( adn there does seem to be more now) then non reduced food prices will rise, to level out the wasstage cost.

Its going to get worse not better, we are staring at an environmental abyss in the next 10 years.
:eek:

Peelerfart

Dogs have masters. Cats have staff



Love that, nice one :T

White_Hot_Day

Wonder who the Ae is in the signature lol

wageslave

A working mothers best friend is her slow cooker. Oh and the local chinese on speed dial.

Pobby

kabayiri wrote: »

A prudent lifestyle would be a dream for many, including me.

But one intractable problem is the nigh-on 200 a month I have to fork out for council tax. I could offer to pay in vegetables off the market, but I doubt it will wash.

OK he is mortgage free and because of his low income he didn`t have to pay CT. Fair play though, he claimed zero benefits. He had a legacy a few years back an now pays CT.

As far as being single, he is such a nice bloke that he seems to have one or two, cough, lady friends.

treliac

lemonjelly wrote: »

I'm in the UK.
It all seems a bit surreal to me. There's all this talk of recovery/green shoots/blah blah blah. The speed which the downturn arrived, and now appears (to many) have passed concerns me. Stuff hasn't had time to play out IMO, & I do think the debt/personal borrowing issue has yet to impact.

Other posters will & have disagreed with me on this...

I also think the downturn has passed many people by. Those who are employed have had a whinge about not getting pay rises, but other than that its been ok. Which is another reason I don't feel all has panned out yet.

I agree with just about everything you say lemonjelly and love the insight you share with us, no doubt influenced by your experience in the personal debt field .

All these people who think we're on the up have, IMO, fallen for Labour lies and deceit. While they point to every possible 'green shoot,' they never give proper account of what is happening to support a theory that we are over the worst or that things are getting better, beyond a mere blip which has been caused by artificially pumping non-existent money into the economy!

What changes or corrections to the economy / peoples' personal finances in general, have taken place that would support such confidence or faith?

wageslave

When I escaped from my DH (my own personal acronym-Divorced Husband) learning to live on what seemed a tiny amount of money came as quite a culture shock. I literally didn't have the sheets for the beds we didn't have to sleep in.

You adjust. You make do and you become extremely cautious with your pennies. Having said that I have no idea how anyone lives on unemployment benefit.

How on earth does anyone feed themselves and keep themselves warm in winter on sixty odd quid a week?