It isn`t tough for us. We are OS and we COPE

ceridwen

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

GreyQueen - just to make your day and make you feel terribly influential - I just went online and reserved India Knight's book from our local library! Thanks for the tip.

Greying

Hiya Greying Pilgrim

I havent seen you around on the Boards before - so welcome:)

Your signature raises a few thoughts with me...and it IS a very valid point that I have simply never seen raised before anywhere on MSE (ie your quote "We have remained too greedy to distribute the surplus above our simple needs, and collectively too stupid to pile it up in any more useful form than the traditional mountain of arms").

The point being that if people have got everything they basically need and its either:

- just a question of whether they are going to get the chance to swop to the type of home they always expected to have sometime (ie better) and have a reasonable amount of savings and then thats them "sorted"

- or they are happy enough with the home/savings they have and regard themselves as "sorted"

then what does one do for the best with "surplus" money. I have never ever seen a thread started anywhere on MSE as to just what one does if you have relatively "simple" financial needs and there is money "left over" after dealing with those needs - and you want to use it wisely/usefully - rather than just "throwing it away on consumer goodies" or leaving it for someone else to figure out after you've gone....

I honestly think this topic merits a thread to itself as to just what to do with "surplus" income for those who arent selfish enough to just splurge it on themselves.

(Can't you just hear the phrase reverberating through braincells about being a "good steward of money"?.......LOL)

rachbc

ceridwen wrote: »

Hiya Greying Pilgrim

I havent seen you around on the Boards before - so welcome:)

Your signature raises a few thoughts with me...and it IS a very valid point that I have simply never seen raised before anywhere on MSE (ie your quote "We have remained too greedy to distribute the surplus above our simple needs, and collectively too stupid to pile it up in any more useful form than the traditional mountain of arms").

The point being that if people have got everything they basically need and its either:

- just a question of whether they are going to get the chance to swop to the type of home they always expected to have sometime (ie better) and have a reasonable amount of savings and then thats them "sorted"

- or they are happy enough with the home/savings they have and regard themselves as "sorted"

then what does one do for the best with "surplus" money. I have never ever seen a thread started anywhere on MSE as to just what one does if you have relatively "simple" financial needs and there is money "left over" after dealing with those needs - and you want to use it wisely/usefully - rather than just "throwing it away on consumer goodies" or leaving it for someone else to figure out after you've gone....

I honestly think this topic merits a thread to itself as to just what to do with "surplus" income for those who arent selfish enough to just splurge it on themselves.

i imagine lots of people in that position give to charity. Other uses might be to 'invest' it in learning a new skill, that may or may not be moneysaving.

ceridwen

Primrose wrote: »

I would certainly support Pitlanepiglet's plea to fight for your local libraries. They are such a valuable resource to all sections of the population, young and old, and I'm afraid that some of these cutbacks are throwing the baby out with the bathwater, in terms of our community facilities. Our village library, like several others, has started up a "Friends" group which is very active in organising functions to raise money to support the library and encourage its wider use and get more people through the doors. I certainly don't want to reach my old age and find that this wonderful facility is no longer there.

Absolutely!!!:T

I "love ma library" too. They are such HUGELY valuable resources.

Primrose

ceridwen wrote: »

what does one do for the best with "surplus" money. I have never ever seen a thread started anywhere on MSE as to just what one does if you have relatively "simple" financial needs and there is money "left over" after dealing with those needs - and you want to use it wisely/usefully - rather than just "throwing it away on consumer goodies" or leaving it for someone else to figure out after you've gone....

I honestly think this topic merits a thread to itself as to just what to do with "surplus" income for those who arent selfish enough to just splurge it on themselves.

)

I think probably the most common answer to this question would be that most people who currently do have surplus money are hanging onto it, rather disposing of it, wisely or unwisely.

The conundrum is that as we grow older, even if our needs become simpler, i.e. less travelling or overseas holidays, etc, etc. we never know the problems which old age will bring and for many people this is what they want the money tucked away for. It has now become obvious that with the steady disintegration of public support services like Social Services, the NHS, etc. which is unlikely to be reversed for many year into the future, we're all going to have to fund more of own requirements for Wheels on Meals, Home Helps, Care Homes, chiropodists, dentists, replacement spectacles, taxis if we can no longer drive, etc.

If we have the money, we'll be able to fund these services. If not we may have to do without many of them. I would love to be able to give chunks of money now to specific causes or charities I support, but not at the expense of our own long term wellbeing, especially when we've worked a lifetime to put that money by for our old age. Maybe the answer is to leave bequests to charities or good causes in your Will, which are free of Inheritance Tax for anybody over the limit. That way, the money is still there for people in their lifetime if they need it. After they've gone, people can still do some good with it without having to live their final years worrying that their last needs can't be afforded.

Pitlanepiglet

One more thought on the library front. In Dorset, online renewals aren't allocated to your "home" library so don't count in the statistics for your library. I had no idea about this, I've always renewed books online but won't do from now on.

seraphina

ceridwen - check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11950843

However much I love the idea of libraries, I feel sad that none of my local libraries have made any effort to cater to people who work. I love the idea of borrowing books but it's impossible for me to get there when they're open.

ceridwen

seraphina wrote: »

ceridwen - check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11950843

However much I love the idea of libraries, I feel sad that none of my local libraries have made any effort to cater to people who work. I love the idea of borrowing books but it's impossible for me to get there when they're open.

Thanks for that.

Certainly something that exercises the mind as to where to "draw the line in the sand" and say "This much is fair for me to have - and beyond that...it isnt.." Somewhere between him on the one hand and the woman featured in todays newspapers as having spent out on EIGHTEEN:eek: wedding dresses for her wedding on the other hand lies the Happy Medium. My first thought about someone being so selfish as to buy 18 wedding dresses was "My mother would kill me first and ask questions afterwards if I had bought more than one in those circumstances....." and my second one was "...and I would agree with her on that - as one is quite enough and I would have gone out personally with expectations of spending between £200 and £500 and that would have been that".

Frugalista

ceridwen wrote: »

then what does one do for the best with "surplus" money. I have never ever seen a thread started anywhere on MSE as to just what one does if you have relatively "simple" financial needs and there is money "left over" after dealing with those needs - and you want to use it wisely/usefully - rather than just "throwing it away on consumer goodies" or leaving it for someone else to figure out after you've gone....

I honestly think this topic merits a thread to itself as to just what to do with "surplus" income for those who arent selfish enough to just splurge it on themselves.

So why don't you start such a thread?

I don't have any surplus money so have never given the matter much thought.

What do you do/intend to do with all your surplus cash?

robbiedoggy

On a totally different tack I know but does anyone have any idea what I can use to cool down a bought chilli dipping sauce - it is one I use regularly for different recipes but instead of picking up original I have somehow got two bottles of hot and it is much too hot for us. Have no idea what I can mix it with to cool it down and I don't want to waste it.

kitschy

robbiedoggy wrote: »

On a totally different tack I know but does anyone have any idea what I can use to cool down a bought chilli dipping sauce - it is one I use regularly for different recipes but instead of picking up original I have somehow got two bottles of hot and it is much too hot for us. Have no idea what I can mix it with to cool it down and I don't want to waste it.

I would vote for sour cream - it works well with chilli style sauces and I often have to tone things down with it for people with less of a penchant for hot mexican food than me!