Liz Jones is Credit Crunched in the end.....

fc123

Daily Mail journo needs the help of DFW.
I read Liz Jones' columns (I confess, it's a closet addiction ) and she did mention a slightly sub prime mortgage a couple of years back when she sold her million pounder in Islington and bought a million pounder+a bit farm on Exmoor.
Dopestar found an article about her sub prime mortgage and we there was a bit of gossip about her on Maxes Job Hunting thread.


She writes about £1000 designer dresses bought for one date or M+S (human) food for her rescue dogs/cats, out of hours vet fees for rescue chickens and stray dogs sleeping on Nicole Farhi blankets plus she leads a very glamourous, well paid life.

Full Article.
I posted it onto Debt Free Wanebee board too.

I can't believe she is actually so up to her eyes in it to be honest. She must pull in 150kpa easily. No Hubby, no kids either...just a one person household.

So made me feel better at least.....:D I had so much angst about getting indebted a few years back.
So, I have concluded from this there is more crunch to come (and, perhaps a nice small holding in Exmoor to go to auction one day LIR?;)) as some types are only just waking up and feeling the the impact of the easy credit of the past decade


Pulled a quote from it...sorry for the length.:o

have never been good with money. I’ve been in situations where I’ve had almost nothing – as a student, when I lived on £20 a week, and in my first job, when I earned about £5,000 a year.
I survived by eating the free peanut butter samples at Neal’s Yard in Covent Garden, and by selling CDs sent to me to review at a second-hand shop in Islington.
And I’ve been in situations where I’ve had lots. But, like many people, I’ve never been able to live within my means.

At the moment, I have no money at all. There are two reasons for this.
I have many rescued animals, all of which need feed and, due to their various ailments, expensive medical treatment (even my chicken requires the ministering of an out-of-hours vet). I am also renovating my outbuildings.
So I find myself at the bottom of the money pit, cowering at cash machines, praying the computer will say yes, and trying to persuade someone, anyone, to throw me a rope.


When you need money and you have, like me, a shocking credit rating, you find yourself remarkably susceptible.

Having exhausted my overdraft and credit cards, I turned to those adverts on the internet that promise they will say ‘Yes!’ to your loan application, no matter if you have arrears, county court judgments or no job.
I completed an application online. A representative soon called me on my mobile. ‘I have to go through your application in more detail,’ he said. As we went through my debts, I felt ashamed, stupid.

‘Have you got a pension?’

‘Um, no.’

This interview took about ten minutes. He then told me my application had been successful, but before he could put me through to the next person, I had to pay a one-off fee of £69.

‘Really, oh God, do I have to?’

‘Yes.’

So I did. I was then put through to someone else. He seemed to type for a while and told me that he had found a lender, but that the loan would need a guarantor.

‘But I don’t have a guarantor,’ I squeaked. I was told there were no other lenders.

‘But your company said it could get me a loan, even with a bad rating! You haven’t done that, even though I have paid you £69!’
'No, we did get you a loan. You turned it down.’
Computer says... Some people are scared of checking their balance


I slammed the phone down. They keep leaving me voicemails, and sending me emails telling me my money is there waiting for me, if only I would phone them back.

Having been burned by the online loan sharks, I tried again, down more conventional routes. I applied for three credit cards, from NatWest, Barclays and Bank of America.

The first two turned me down, but the Bank of America gave me £10,000, just like that, with lots of lovely and very useful credit-card cheques.

I have no idea what interest I am paying for this £10,000 but when you are desperate, you just don’t care.

You always think things will be different next week, next month, next year. You start to yearn that you will be struck down in your 60s because you know that otherwise you will be homeless, unable to afford to switch on light bulbs, or take a hot bath.

Why aren’t regulations in place preventing these online brokers from taking £69 from already empty wallets, or from giving me £10,000?
I always wonder at a Government that constrains its law-abiding citizens in strait jackets but is still failing to regulate predatory or reckless businesses.

The poorer you are, the more day-to-day life costs a fortune, the harder it becomes to claw your way out – last Tuesday, I didn’t have £8 for the Congestion Charge, and so I now owe Transport for London £60.
The fact that ordinary Britons are in so much personal debt is always wheeled out as the reason we are in such a fix. Financial commentators and Ministers make moral judgements about us, asking why on earth did people take out 125 per cent mortgages in the first place?


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1224390/LIZ-JONES--10-000-Of-course-lend--just-69-first.html#ixzz0Vdwu5bqh

elsien

Was her farm really that much?- she always talks about it as if it's derelict and falling around down her ears.

fc123

elsien wrote: »

Was her farm really that much?- she always talks about it as if it's derelict and falling around down her ears.

I deff have million pounds + in my head as house in Islington went for that and she added to the mortgage.

DS found the article but I have googled and can't find it.

lostinrates

I don't know how many acres she has but its a national park. One of the regulars here lives,I think on the same national park and can tell us if its the sam big bucks as other national parks.

£1million plus doesn't really buy much in the way of farms, not with the original nice big farm houses certainly. I know because I view a fair few farms.

baileysbattlebus

fc123 wrote: »

I deff have million pounds + in my head as house in Islington went for that and she added to the mortgage.

DS found the article but I have googled and can't find it.

When Upcott Farm, where Jones now lives, was put on the market for £1.6m in 2007,

Is that the figure you had in mind??

It looks like she might have pee'd off the locals with her new book too.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/have-you-shot-miss-jones-villagers-have-had-enough-of-new-resident-1782519.html

bo_drinker

An out of hours vet for a chicken !!!!!!..... :eek: She must be as dull as ditch water

Regulations should be in place (her words) to stop people like her leaving the house or picking up the phone.

GeneHunt_2

The Government failed to protect its most vulnerable citizens from being preyed upon. And still it seems nothing, absolutely nothing, has changed.

Is this sad shopaholic suggesting that she's one of life's "most vulnerable citizens" Priceless:rotfl:

A Daily Mail jounalist one of life's most vunerable........:rotfl:

fc123

I was just pottering reading the comments under the article

Oh, come off it. This is really pretty offensive. A person who brags endlessly about her BMW convertible, absurdly expensive handbags and clothes, her farm, and her land--in a recession--is not in the same boat as anyone who is really struggling and who does not have assets to sell, as you do, so lay off the "I'm so poor!" bleat. You're not poor; you're EXTRAVAGANT--your problem is that you spend more money than you take in, and spend your money foolishly on idiocies like muesli for your barn rats and cashmere for your cats to sit on.

Do what the rest of us do: decide which of your expenses is REALLY crucial, and then eliminate the rest. If you can't afford to live as you do now, change the way you live. If expensive clothes and the beemer come first, then sell the stupid farm, find good homes for your animals, and find a small flat somewhere. If the animals come first, stop buying an absurd wardrobe. And so on. Grow up. And for heaven's sake, housetrain the stupid dogs!
- C. C. McAdam, Los Angeles, 31/10/2009


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1224390/LIZ-JONES--10-000-Of-course-lend--just-69-first.html#ixzz0Ve3GA3Pq

I can't remember who suggested it (could have been me:o) but the article that DS found on her hinted at problems and, so, another book opportunity...one on thrift. L Jones style

India Knight got there first though....done quite well too.

Liz spends a fortune on her face...fillers, botox etc so can't bpame all the overspending on the animals.

lostinrates

bo_drinker wrote: »

An out of hours vet for a chicken !!!!!!..... :eek: She must be as dull as ditch water

Regulations should be in place (her words) to stop people like her leaving the house or picking up the phone.

The problem is, with all pet care but especially when things become faddish, animals suffer. I have taken chickens to the vet (and in fact might be taking a rooster this week). Good animal care: on a farming scale or on a domestic one, requires efort into learning and experience/helpful people with experience.

If ours had an emergency in the middle of the night unless there was a special reason* to I'm afriad the answer is not an emergency vet . and I love my hens.


* my little flock includes show stock ...which I don't show, but attempt to breed from..which could cost £40 each to replace. There is a point at which replacing is more cost effective. BUT I do love my chickens: and until that I would go beyond that point with them: but I would not prolongue extreme suffering with a chicken. They are not domestic like cats/dogs and in my experience can get stressed away from the flock/aving reglar medical intervention (I had a rooster who I think I tried to hard with and prolonged rather than eased his suffering).

elsien

Have you seen what she spends on the animals? The woman is clearly a fruitcake.

"This didn’t seem too bad, given Lizzie’s ten-strong entourage, including podiatrist, equine touch practitioner, herbalist, nutritionist, behaviourist and physiotherapist"

I might be an animal lover, but this seems a tad overdone.

fc123

baileysbattlebus wrote: »

Is that the figure you had in mind??

It looks like she might have pee'd off the locals with her new book too.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/have-you-shot-miss-jones-villagers-have-had-enough-of-new-resident-1782519.html

What I can't work out is does she really understand how much she offends her neighbours? Or she is so desperate for cash, she has to write something a bit controversila to justify the column.?

I wouldn't bother reading it if it was all 'Got up, fed animals and visited my loveley neighbour' but, when she wrote about The Married Man recently and being wildly attracted to him...not sensible if it was true.
Or does she make some of it up?

The farm.....
A 1.2 million figure comes to mind...perhaps she knocked them down?