It's STILL tough and not getting better - so how are we coping?

northwest1965

spike7451 wrote: »

No,All I got was a letter offering me the job to which I accepted verbally over the phone.

Sorry to hear about this, it must be awful. I think I would act now but 'in writing'. Good luck

northwest1965

gailey wrote: »

Its quite confusing wats subject to vat and whats not.
are medicines as could stock up on them over winter.

Does this help gailey
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageLibrary_PublicNoticesAndInfoSheets&propertyType=document&columns=1&id=HMCE_CL_000118#P67_4124

Does seem ridiculous that there is VAT on loo rolls but not magazines. To me loo rolls are essentials

Larumbelle

Morning all!

Has anyone been watching that report on BBC Breakfast about how the life expectancy gap between rich and poor is at its greatest since records began? (If not, article is here .) Of course, life expectancy generally is higher than it has ever been, too, but with public sector cuts I can't see how that gap is going to get narrowed. If anything it's surely going to widen even more. This quote in particular is pretty scary:

"Health and wealth are directly linked and, unless we tackle the income gap, we could well see life expectancy actually starting to fall for the first time in the poorest areas."

Larumbelle

northwest1965 wrote: »

Does this help gailey
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageLibrary_PublicNoticesAndInfoSheets&propertyType=document&columns=1&id=HMCE_CL_000118#P67_4124

Does seem ridiculous that there is VAT on loo rolls but not magazines.

Especially given that at the gossip rag end of the market they serve pretty much the same purpose :rotfl:

babyboysmommy

northwest1965 wrote: »

Does this help gailey
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageLibrary_PublicNoticesAndInfoSheets&propertyType=document&columns=1&id=HMCE_CL_000118#P67_4124

Does seem ridiculous that there is VAT on loo rolls but not magazines. To me loo rolls are essentials

That made interesting reading thank you. It makes me glad I cook almost everything from scratch as most of the things we buy are zero rated, and I agree, loo rolls are essentials! We just buy MrT's value ones, some of the more luxury padded rolls one could argue are a luxury though.

ceridwen

silvercharming wrote: »

Morning all!

Has anyone been watching that report on BBC Breakfast about how the life expectancy gap between rich and poor is at its greatest since records began? (If not, article is here .) Of course, life expectancy generally is higher than it has ever been, too, but with public sector cuts I can't see how that gap is going to get narrowed. If anything it's surely going to widen even more. This quote in particular is pretty scary:

No - but what I did read this morning and thought worthy of posting here is:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/terence-blacker/terence-blacker-recession-turns-us-into-new-people-203318.html

...a little thought in which prompted me back to the annoyance I feel at odd recent comments in the media speculating about differing retirement ages according to type of work done since leaving school. The comment about middle-aged people in that would tend to reinforce my thoughts that one simply cannot even think of telling people at mid-life onwards that they might be penalised (by having to take later retirement than some others) just because they chose what I call a "middling" type job many decades ago - rather than a manual worker job:mad:. I know, I know how much harder manual work is physically - but neither the manual worker, nor the "middling" type job person can "roll back the decades" and change the job choices they made all those years ago - so should not be either penalised or rewarded now for what their much younger Self decided.

EDIT: Huh!!! What went wrong there? A totally different link came up to the one I typed in...

Does anyone know how to give a posh link to the article in today's Independent by Terence Blacker on "Recession turns us into new people" please?

kezlou

gailey wrote: »

why did truant officer call.
lea say kid allowed 10days out for hols.

The primary school they attend are on your back straight away, by 9:30am they at the house banging on the door. If its not the truancy officer its the school mentor i.e social worker. If they don't catch you they on the phone all day wondering where / why the children aren't at school. It just seriously annoyed me that time as two days before the same thing had happened, thats why i marched into the school the way i did. Turned out it was a mistake on the register. But still i cold have seriously took it further and called it neglect, breach of duty of care etc.

Glad to know i'm not the only one ceridwen, i just think tv is overrated. I mean at christmas especially its just repeats and utter nonsense.
Spike what a nightmare, can't believe they did that to you:(
tudorose thats awful, you poor thing x

katholicos wrote: »

I have had people looking down their noses at me because of where i come from and been told to my face (on more than one occassion) that people who live on council estates are robbers, dole dossers, junkies or 'prozzies'.

I get this regularly from a woman who i am friends with, but because she knows i came from a rough area. I once gave her directions and route in which only locals would know.She regularly says comments like "you can tell she's a from council estate" and quite frankly it annoys me and it has ruined a few new friendships i had made when she proceeded to call the people who lived (used) there criminals etc

:rotfl::rotfl:silver charming

brownhandbag

Re the rental debate,

I have always rented and think one it is a huge problem in this country that people think they must buy. When I am told 'renting is dead money' I wanna scream!

My background is farming and many farmers rent their whole farms for generations. I have lived in some fabulous places which would not have been possible without renting. We all have to live somewhere and it will cost regardless. People don't seem to understand that the bank owns their house until the very last penny is paid off.

If you can rent off family (as we do now) then that's even better cause our hard earned cash goes back into the family pot.
Simple choice to me, I do not want to be brick rich and cash poor in my old age.

ps.
Council houses usually have the best gardens and much larger rooms than dolls house new builds. They also don't tend to fall down at the first gust of autumn winds

Larumbelle

ceridwen wrote: »

EDIT: Huh!!! What went wrong there? A totally different link came up to the one I typed in...

Does anyone know how to give a posh link to the article in today's Independent by Terence Blacker on "Recession turns us into new people" please?

Here you go

Terence Blacker

Cut and paste it into your post and I'll delete this one

lilmisskitkat

I'm shocked at the cost of some of the school uniforms being discussed on here :eek: as long as they wear school colours and are neat and presentable i dont see why it matters. Its just a case of lining someones pockets :mad:

I'm very lucky with DD's school as they only insist on school colours - white shirt, royal blue sweatshirt/cardi and grey trousers/skirt, doesn't have to be logo-ed. They do sell logo-ed items like sweatshirts which i buy 2 of (£8.50 each) but the rest i get when i see it on offer - DD's got school shirts to see her through until shes 11 in the top of the wardrobe, i bought loads when Woolies was shutting down! :rotfl:And ive still got her sweatshirts that are in good cond for when DS goes (they're unisex), i only ever label with the surname anyway and theres no other A's in the school.

We own our house and consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have been in a position to buy, we bought a house that needed a lot of work for a good price 3yr ago. However we are considered as 'stuck up' amongst some of my so-called friends, as they all rent but we have never ever made a big deal of owning, we used to rent, theres no shame in it.

Kate xx