Super Scrimpers

lostinrates

Softstuff wrote: »

After reading your post I wonder if you've read Alain de Botton. If not there's a couple of books you may enjoy by him: "Status Anxiety" and "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work". I've just had them from the library here, and they were both illuminating and amusing, and from your posts seem like your style.

further to this The School of Life has also always appealed to me and many of the courses seem a very practical application of philosophy.Any I'm interested in are always booked up well in advance.

http://www.theschooloflife.com/

Often though, the things are cheaper than a West End production and I'm guessing, offer more long term satisfaction.

ceridwen

Hmmm...if Soft Stuff, Grey Queen, Lost in Rates all seem ter like it thinks me...then maybes I might too....

So - I've been googling round on YouTube re that there author and found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CERfoDIU2Yw

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNKOpjgS5ao

Reet...will be off for a "watch" later..

Often thought that that phrase "the unexamined life is not worth living" or words to that effect holdsa lotta truth in it. Ceridwen phraseology might be "No point in just living a life - you gotta analyse it as you go..otherwise you're learning nowt from it...".:)

Aless

For those saying the family had an ugly house and they should be able to afford more you obviously do not live in London. I imagine their house cost around £800k, even if you earn over 100k that is a lot to afford. My house is ugly and it cost a fortune - that is London house prices for you. I look at my house and think for the vast amount of money I spent I should have been able to afford something better but I cannot and I have a good job and so does my oh. Such is life.

Lir I know where you are coming from with your comments too so I just wanted to offer my support.

Aless

Forgot to add, I did find the programme disappointing but I do not think it is aimed at the money saving savy. If you get one or two things out of it I think it can be worth your time, particularly if you are doing ironing at the same time! I may try and give the egg shells a try as that would be one useful tip.

Softstuff

ceridwen wrote: »

Hmmm...if Soft Stuff, Grey Queen, Lost in Rates all seem ter like it thinks me...then maybes I might too....

So - I've been googling round on YouTube re that there author and found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CERfoDIU2Yw

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNKOpjgS5ao

Reet...will be off for a "watch" later..

Often thought that that phrase "the unexamined life is not worth living" or words to that effect holdsa lotta truth in it. Ceridwen phraseology might be "No point in just living a life - you gotta analyse it as you go..otherwise you're learning nowt from it...".:)

There's an entire DVD of Status Anxiety, a spin-off of the book. It's been on TV over here and the DVD is at the library, might be worth checking at your library for it?

Softstuff

lostinrates wrote: »

further to this The School of Life has also always appealed to me and many of the courses seem a very practical application of philosophy.Any I'm interested in are always booked up well in advance.

http://www.theschooloflife.com/

Often though, the things are cheaper than a West End production and I'm guessing, offer more long term satisfaction.

If you like that then you might enjoy something else - a free resource for all kinds of knowledge is TED. http://www.ted.com/talks
There's talks to watch on there about everything under the sun, from puppets to artificial livers, from magicians to philosophers. Generally hubby and I use a talk from here as a starting point, for example we watched a talk from Alain de Botton, read his books, watched his series, visited his website. Provides endless education and entertainment.

CFC

GreyQueen wrote: »

Morning all.



My observation is that, with the exception of a few entertainers and sports stars, most people with good salaries work like lunatics. When I worked in a factory, if there was a late order to go out, the supervisor would approach us "girls" very humbly and ask if anyone would stay on (at time-and-a-half) to complete it.

Times are different, my dear. Most people have to work like lunatics full stop, regardless of whether they are on 20k or 100k. And as for 'asking' people to stay on, very many contracts these days even on minimum wage state that there can be compulsoury overtime, not even paid at a premium.

Expenditures tend to track upwards with income, so that it's a rare person in the higher income brackets who doesn't have greater outgoings than a person on more modest income. Part of this is the natural human urge to have more, part is the social expectation that lifestyle reflects income. If you have to entertain colleagues or would-be business contacts professionally you can hardly invite them around and give them a tray on their lap. If you work crazy hours, have a lot of responsibility and have studied for years to be able to do the job you do, you'd like to have a comfortable, quiet home to spend your time in.
. .

If you work hard and are in a position with poor pay (or any other reason that means you don't have a lot to spend!), you have to entertain colleagues and business contacts outside the home, because you can't afford the kind of home you can invite anyone round to. That's the reality. You can't just keep spending to keep up with other people's expectations, that is exactly how people get into a lot of debt!! If you can't afford to keep up with the Jones's then DON'T.

Number 1 rule of moneysaving, if you can't afford it then don't spend it!

GreyQueen

CFC wrote: »

If you work hard and are in a position with poor pay (or any other reason that means you don't have a lot to spend!), you have to entertain colleagues and business contacts outside the home, because you can't afford the kind of home you can invite anyone round to. That's the reality. You can't just keep spending to keep up with other people's expectations, that is exactly how people get into a lot of debt!! If you can't afford to keep up with the Jones's then DON'T.

Number 1 rule of moneysaving, if you can't afford it then don't spend it!

Not quite sure where you're heading with this one.

If I was well enough to work fulltime (and I'm not) I'd earn £18k gross. As it is, I work half a week and earn half that. I work in a callcentre and work at a manic pace, along with about a million other Britons in other call centres. I have a computer program monitoring my performance by the second and a huge 3 second gap between calls. Monthly performance reviews and the potential for a supervisor to be silently listening into my calls as I work, as well as being secretly-shopped. It's such a high-speed and stressed environment that we battery hens frequently return to our homes and have to lie down and twitch.

However, it's indoor work with no heavy lifting, I beat 50 other candidates for the job, and I'm pleased to be working rather than jobseeking, which I find a miserable and soul-destroying business.

I'm not such an antiquity that I have ever worked in time when work wasn't very insecure, low-paid and with the employers didn't expect blood, sweat and tears as well as hard d*mned hard work.

I live exceptionally modestly and have never had one penny in debt in my entire life, but I have worked in the debt advice field and understand very well that I am in a minority there. I feel compassion towards the indebted as well as occasional exasperation at the odd silly s*d. I think the whole MSE ethos is excellent and gently point friends and acquaintances towards this so that they can learn to take control of their lives and learn to cut their coat according to their cloth, as the old saying goes.

I live in a block of council flats which is absolutely notorious for crime and merely giving my address would be enough to scupper any chances I would have of impressing anyone. Never mind that they might come to my tiny home and see my motley collection of charity shop furniture and bootsale bargains, all clean and well-kept, and tastefully selected, but nobody's idea of impressive.

Fortunately, I don't give a monkey's about what anyone thinks of my social status, nor do I care about other people's. I choose to spend time with people who interest me, who have some engaging view of the world, and that encompasses people from all walks of life. Since I'm not wealthy, famous, influential and am quite plain-looking, when other people chose to spend their time with me, I can only assume that it's because they like me............:rotfl:

I stand by my original remarks about the ridiculous overwork which I see my "professional" friends doing (a solicitor and some high fliers in insurance, purchasing, corporate IT etc). They are working 14 hours a day, easily, and at weekends, and constantly get ill. I think it's inhumane and insane that a woman I know in her early thirties with a stressful job has blood pressure so high that her GP has warned her that she is in grave danger of having a stroke. I have seen people have nervous breakdowns through overwork and I can assure you, they were all professional grade workers and not factory or shop hands. One pal who does admin at a very large company tells me that ALL the partners are ALCOHOLICS and that most of the senior managers are there already or heading that way. Divorces abound in that workforce.

So, let's cut people some slack and be nice to each other whilst we're doing it. Life's too short. Love and peas GQ x

ceridwen

Like your take on life GreyQueen:T.

I can certainly see why peeps would choose your company just for the pleasure of it (and thats t'best reason after all...:D).

Don't forget - first drink (of whatever it is..) is on me if you're ever in my neck of the woods.:beer:

...and re everyone's different experiences of life - things can change for any of us (for better or for worse). I've not forgotten having lived somewhere where the address was "known" (and not for any good reason....). 'Twas alright when I met people face to face to mention it (as they would "judge" by myself then) - but I was starting to get decidedly twitchy about having to put the address down on job application forms and had got to the stage where I was wondering whether I needed to put my parents' address down instead of my own...(I dont THINK I missed out on any jobs because of the address I was at - but it was starting to feel like a close-run thing...).

lostinrates

GreyQueen wrote: »

Not quite sure where you're heading with this one.

If I was well enough to work fulltime (and I'm not) I'd earn £18k gross. As it is, I work half a week and earn half that. I work in a callcentre and work at a manic pace, along with about a million other Britons in other call centres. I have a computer program monitoring my performance by the second and a huge 3 second gap between calls. Monthly performance reviews and the potential for a supervisor to be silently listening into my calls as I work, as well as being secretly-shopped. It's such a high-speed and stressed environment that we battery hens frequently return to our homes and have to lie down and twitch.

However, it's indoor work with no heavy lifting, I beat 50 other candidates for the job, and I'm pleased to be working rather than jobseeking, which I find a miserable and soul-destroying business.

I'm not such an antiquity that I have ever worked in time when work wasn't very insecure, low-paid and with the employers didn't expect blood, sweat and tears as well as hard d*mned hard work.

I live exceptionally modestly and have never had one penny in debt in my entire life, but I have worked in the debt advice field and understand very well that I am in a minority there. I feel compassion towards the indebted as well as occasional exasperation at the odd silly s*d. I think the whole MSE ethos is excellent and gently point friends and acquaintances towards this so that they can learn to take control of their lives and learn to cut their coat according to their cloth, as the old saying goes.

I live in a block of council flats which is absolutely notorious for crime and merely giving my address would be enough to scupper any chances I would have of impressing anyone. Never mind that they might come to my tiny home and see my motley collection of charity shop furniture and bootsale bargains, all clean and well-kept, and tastefully selected, but nobody's idea of impressive.

Fortunately, I don't give a monkey's about what anyone thinks of my social status, nor do I care about other people's. I choose to spend time with people who interest me, who have some engaging view of the world, and that encompasses people from all walks of life. Since I'm not wealthy, famous, influential and am quite plain-looking, when other people chose to spend their time with me, I can only assume that it's because they like me............:rotfl:

I stand by my original remarks about the ridiculous overwork which I see my "professional" friends doing (a solicitor and some high fliers in insurance, purchasing, corporate IT etc). They are working 14 hours a day, easily, and at weekends, and constantly get ill. I think it's inhumane and insane that a woman I know in her early thirties with a stressful job has blood pressure so high that her GP has warned her that she is in grave danger of having a stroke. I have seen people have nervous breakdowns through overwork and I can assure you, they were all professional grade workers and not factory or shop hands. One pal who does admin at a very large company tells me that ALL the partners are ALCOHOLICS and that most of the senior managers are there already or heading that way. Divorces abound in that workforce.

So, let's cut people some slack and be nice to each other whilst we're doing it. Life's too short. Love and peas GQ x

Super post IMO. Married to one of those long hours peeps, 14 hours days are barely mentioned. I posted here recently about him working through two nights in a row. Luckily though his employers are as driven as their competitors they do seem to have a long term approach to their employees, and dh had three work at home days the next week when he, inevitably, got a cold from the two days worked through and two very long days and one more normal day...I'd guess a fourteen hourish one.

re what people think of us. I think its harder. Do I care what someone thinks of our choices? Not a jot. But The thing about social contribution, I think that's quite important. the donation we were asked for for the village hall, we just couldn't meet. But I did offer to take on a regular chore, like laundering the tea towels/cleaning cloths a couple of times a week, or popping in to do washing up or a kitchen area clean (the hall is a well used facility and has at least one activity each weekday and these are paid for, so should be getting some sort of income for that) as well as a smaller cash donation. That cash donation is the equivalent to the bat survey for our house (which has to be put back a month). I think it is important that people in a community are seen to be giving back...and perhaps even proportionally. Even if its a struggle I'd want to keep our end up here. not just because of what people think of us...though it does make life easier, more friendly in communities of people see you are ''nice'' but because I think its bad for the other people being asked if they think other people, including people in a house like ours, won't contribute. It doesn't do anything good for social cohesion or community building to do otherwise.