A thought on old style saving

Caterina

organic_wanabe wrote:

Gerret1 my DS is desperate to see Borat but he's only 14 and its a 15 rating. Is it good? BTW, DS has had a morning paper-round for 6 months now and he gets paid £31 per week!! Not bad for 6 mornings since he is out and back within the hour. Even though, he is quite money-saving - goes to Starbucks with friends and asks for a glass of tap water, even though he has saved up loads!

Borat is very funny but has a really high (extremely rude but hilarious) sex content. If he used to watch Ali G, or South Park, he should have seen it all, though LOL.

Re. paper round, my son does 2 paper rounds per morning and gets only £22 per week (we are in London), but he only does it for 5 days, Mon-Fri. He has done it for the last 5 years, do you think he is being exploited? Thanks

Caterina

Alfietinker

culpepper wrote:

I agree.
Once is a treat,more than once is a habit!

We've fallen into this a little bit lately. "Oh we'll just get a take-away". And it doesn't matter at the moment, we can afford it no problems. But next year, with (hopefully) baby on the way, we need to get out of this mindset.

I'm in a quandry at the moment where one day I think "blow it, we won't be earning this income next year, and then for a long time to come so we should enjoy ourselves whilst we can". Then I think "but I need to get used to OS and feel really guilty about buying a can of soup for lunch instead of making some".

Queenie

Austin_Allegro wrote:

I think you have to remember though that there are people living OS because they are trying to get out of debt - I think for these people it may sadly be necessary to hold off on even the cheapest meals out

Just a reminder ... if your local college does catering courses, you can often book a night out with 5* food at very, very reasonable prices (same with massages, haircuts, facials) Do give your local college a call and find out whats available for the public ie non college attenders. After all, these students need real life practise to up their experience and won't charge through the roof for the priviledge

Even when struggling to pay off debts, you have to find something to periodically *reward* your efforts with or life simply becomes drudge and resentment and bitterness can set in - now, what that reward could or would be is very individual.

culpepper

Caterina wrote:

Re. paper round, my son does 2 paper rounds per morning and gets only £22 per week (we are in London), but he only does it for 5 days, Mon-Fri. He has done it for the last 5 years, do you think he is being exploited? Thanks

Caterina

It depends on the work involved per round.When I was a paper girl each round was paid differently .The Sunday papers were much heavier as they nearly all had supplements so if you did someone elses sunday round you got quite a lot more than 1/7th of the weeks money on top of your own.
When I stood in for someone elses holiday fortnight , their round was much longer than mine and so they were paid more.

Its really hard to find paper rounds here as the shop owner does them himself by car. My son never did find one. Even the local papers are delivered by adults.

lynzpower

I couldnt disagree with you lot more. Everytime Ive eaten out recently its been a profoundly disappointing experience where me & OH turn to each other and say " we could have made that at home, & it would have been nicer"

I went to TGIs as a treat the other week, and while I was waiting at the bar for our table, I noticed them marrily using a number of microwaves to heat the meals up in. OH had burger and said "home made are better" I had some sort of quesadilla and was aghast at the fat on the plate. I wrote to complain.

Although, nandos on the other hand - usually pretty good.

When someone can cook for as well as we can for a reasonable price, Ill buy it. Until then we'll eat at home thanks all the same!!!!

Anastacia

We have chinese takeaway on the last friday of every month.

My son broke up with a 'rich' girlfriend because she had chinese etc whenever she wanted & didnt understand the concept of treat.I thought this was a bit over the top but he pointed out she was never content with anything because she could always have whatever she wants. Maybe i didnt bring him up so bad.

We now mystery dine approx once a week & its useful because we get our dinner paid for (obviously) but also because we dont feel like dining out at any other time, so overall it saves us quite a bit. Oddly, though we can spend £40 on dinner for two on a mystery dine, the monthly takeaway £25 to feed all four of us,is still our treat .

BTW they arent recruiting at the moment (probably because I mention them so often on this site - whoops)

tryhard_2

Queenie wrote:

Just a reminder ... if your local college does catering courses, you can often book a night out with 5* food at very, very reasonable prices (same with massages, haircuts, facials)

go at the end of the term or year - they are more experienced

gerretl

Dearie me, I just posted that while a little drunk. Never thought it would get so much response.
lynzpower: I agree that TGI's leaves a little to be desired. My nearest is at Lakeside, and I am often disappointed. I went to the Bluewater one that night, and it really shows how important good management is in any business.
Austin Allegro: I wasn't trying to rub it in. i appreciate my financial position is very good (no kids, two wage earners, very supportive family).
The comment about how there being some kind of competition is very true though. Good management is about deciding what you want, and how much you want to spend on it. You then see if there are ways of either getting a little extra for the same money, or getting what you want for less money. Example: Order an indian takeaway, but cook the rice yourself, since it is easy, cheap, and will be done by the time the meal is delivered.
The worst bit about going out is when you have made the effort, and the meal and service was rubbish. At the TGI's, the barman forgot I was in the queue, and served others before me. He sees me waiting, and gives me a free bar because he knew his service was not as good as it could be. Thatrs why I would go back.
Organic wanabe: Borat is funny, but as an ex cinema manager, who had to stop loads of underage kids going in, and nearly getting into fights with the parents, tell him he has to wait.

savvy

tryhard wrote:

go at the end of the term or year - they are more experienced

LOL it doesn't matter what time of the year you come to our college...................we have two excellent chefs and two technicians that oversee all the students work anyway! We have lil staff lunches whenever we have anything to celebrate at any time of year in our restaurant, always excellent food (some especially prepared for me and my freak wheat intolerance :rolleyes:) and always excellent service