Dispatches, Christmas on Credit. Watch it on 4OD

Snooze

lostinrates wrote: »

No, we KNOW its a more expensive way to do it than buying outright. but you need to add to YOU budgeting fail the cost of doing eithout the washing machine during that time. Then the practicality of time/balance.

Sorry LIR but it hasn't nothing to do with that. Unless your washing machine packs up you never 'suddenly' need one as you will have managed quite fine washing by hand or using launderettes up until then and can start saving your £5.49 per week to buy your own in a years time.

Regardless of whether you are rich or poor or somewhere in between, everyone should have an emergency fund for times when your washer or something else expensive packs up. And don't give me any old bull about probably having it all handed to me on a plate or something, because I didn't and pretty much had to start from nothing when I found myself homeless at 17.

There is simply no excuse nor reason to use companies such as BrightHouse and Provident. Learn to save like I - and probably the vast majority of the older generation - had to do and there will be no reason to use them. As PN would say, simples .

R

PasturesNew

Snooze wrote: »

There is simply no excuse nor reason to use companies such as BrightHouse and Provident. Learn to save like I - and probably the vast majority of the older generation - had to do and there will be no reason to use them. As PN would say, simples .

R

No, PN would say: and what if you had a disaster the week after the first one? When you're poor disasters happen more often because everything's a disaster.

The minute any crisis hits, if you spend what you've saved, then you're exposed for the next one. OK if your disasters are evenly spaced, or your access to goods/services is local etc, but for some people, some of the time, things just come in 3s.

So not simples.

How much would a fund need to be?

abaxas

PasturesNew wrote: »

No, PN would say: and what if you had a disaster the week after the first one? When you're poor disasters happen more often because everything's a disaster.

The minute any crisis hits, if you spend what you've saved, then you're exposed for the next one. OK if your disasters are evenly spaced, or your access to goods/services is local etc, but for some people, some of the time, things just come in 3s.

So not simples.

How much would a fund need to be?

I would have to disagree, as there is a high difference between requirements, needs and wants.

To live in a clean manner, you dont really require that much. Most other things are luxuries. Eg tv, toaster, etc.

Maybe we should make a list of what you really need.

I'll start.

Kettle
Cooker

bristol_pilot

Unusually for Panorama, I think the programme makers failed to make a case this time.

The APR at BrightHouse was not that much different to many other shops and/or credit cards. Obviously things are often cheaper if you pay cash, of course they are!

Some items were more expensive in BrightHouse than in some other shops and some were cheaper (it was admited). So what.

APR is simply not a sensible measure for loans of small amounts over short periods. So no scandal there.

And this was YET ANOTHER programme in which a huge telly, computer and house full of other brand new electricals seem to be essential items for those on benefits while many working people cannot afford the same.

bristol_pilot

abaxas wrote: »

Kettle
Cooker

Neither of these is essential - there is no nutritional requirement for hot food. I lived without a cooker for 2 years.

lostinrates

Snooze wrote: »

Sorry LIR but it hasn't nothing to do with that. Unless your washing machine packs up you never 'suddenly' need one as you will have managed quite fine washing by hand or using launderettes up until then and can start saving your £5.49 per week to buy your own in a years time.

Why else would you need one unless yours had suddenly packed up? Laundretts are not free....the time to get to them is not free....

Regardless of whether you are rich or poor or somewhere in between, everyone should have an emergency fund for times when your washer or something else expensive packs up. And don't give me any old bull about probably having it all handed to me on a plate or something, because I didn't and pretty much had to start from nothing when I found myself homeless at 17.

I think''poor'' acan include when you can't afford an emergency fund the size of a washing machine. I do however agree, it SHOULD be an imortant riority and ccept that some people re simply not financilly lanning well/spending on cigs/drink whatever or not working. However the ones doing things how they should are the ones who will find getting to the laundrette the hardest!

For me its a bit like saying knives kill people: so from now on you can only buy forks/spoons and food will be sold in bit sized portions. Credit is NOT desirable and has been to freely available, but there are times where credit, is the least worst option. I think you might be thinking I am saying this should always/often be the case. I am not. I am saying for some people this may be the case.

There is simply no excuse nor reason to use companies such as BrightHouse and Provident. Learn to save like I - and probably the vast majority of the older generation - had to do and there will be no reason to use them. As PN would say, simples .

R

Are you old? I thought you were 34 ish?

I am a saver and do withouter. Which is probably part of why I could afford to buy a washing machine, but only part of why. In another world, if I had, for example, two small children and a job, I'd want a washing machine on tick.

wageslave

Snooze wrote: »

Sorry LIR but it hasn't nothing to do with that. Unless your washing machine packs up you never 'suddenly' need one as you will have managed quite fine washing by hand or using launderettes up until then and can start saving your £5.49 per week to buy your own in a years time.

Regardless of whether you are rich or poor or somewhere in between, everyone should have an emergency fund for times when your washer or something else expensive packs up. And don't give me any old bull about probably having it all handed to me on a plate or something, because I didn't and pretty much had to start from nothing when I found myself homeless at 17.

There is simply no excuse nor reason to use companies such as BrightHouse and Provident. Learn to save like I - and probably the vast majority of the older generation - had to do and there will be no reason to use them. As PN would say, simples .

R

Who is going to teach today's 17 year olds who have been dragged up on a sink estate how to save?

Most of us learn by example.

A very, very few are bright enough and able enough to escape the lifestyle they have been raised in.

The majority need more help than a giro once a fortnight can provide.

abaxas

bristol_pilot wrote: »

Neither of these is essential - there is no nutritional requirement for hot food. I lived without a cooker for 2 years.

Now that is hardcore!

Maybe we now need two lists!

One for people who live in the OS board on 39p a day.

One for the rest of humanity.

LilacPixie

Abaxas I wouldn't class a kettle as an essential. Washing machine i would.

For me it would be cooker/washing machine/sweeping brush/ some sort of cloths/sponges for bleaching and cleaning work surfaces, toilet etc and a mop and bucket. For those with carpets a hoover will be essential but not me as i have varnished floors and tiles.

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

No, PN would say: and what if you had a disaster the week after the first one? When you're poor disasters happen more often because everything's a disaster.

The minute any crisis hits, if you spend what you've saved, then you're exposed for the next one. OK if your disasters are evenly spaced, or your access to goods/services is local etc, but for some people, some of the time, things just come in 3s.

So not simples.

How much would a fund need to be?

Then once you have had your set of 3 disasters, and had to borrow or do HP or whatever, then you are stuck. Paying off the thing you borrowed for will make it much harder to start saving. Even if subsequent disasters only come singly, you are already without your safety net of savings. This is why they call debt a trap, and poverty a trap.

Abaxas, I admire you for getting yourself sorted from beginnng as homeless at 17. But at least when you are 17 you presumably only have yourself to worry about. Imagine finding yourself suddenly single with 3 kids when their dad decides to shack up with some other bird. They are at school. You are expected to pay for their uniforms, shoes, etc. You can't send them out to work in a cotton mill with no shoes on at the age of 7, or even to get a job as an office boy at 14, as poor people in previous generations would have been forced to do. You are expected to wash their clothes frequently. It wasn't just the poor being sewn into the underwear for 6 months; the middle classes did much less washing than would be acceptable now - it was standard for men to have a clean collar every day but a clean shirt only every other day. The dad has scarpered with what little money you had together (or spent it) and although he is supposed to be paying you maintenance, he doesn't. All three kids grow out of their shoes within a few weeks of each other, needing not only school shoes each, but football boots etc for school as well. You have just about managed the shoes when the washing machine breaks down, and three weeks later the fridge conks out too.

I've never bought anything on HP and hope I never have to, but if I was in the situation of my hypothetical desperate single mother, I don't see that I'd have any other realistic option.

ETA Sorry abaxas - I've checked and it was Snooze who was homeless at 17 and learnt to save nevertheless.