It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

Becky_2

I was meant to have my first interview with the job centre today but I have cancelled it for the moment. I got a call this morning asking me to come back to my old job (only agency work) for a few days perhaps next week as well. I am just so pleased that for a half a weeks' work I will be earning more than the double of JSA that I was meant to start receiving today. Fingers crossed that I will be there next week as well.

By the way, did anyone see the Hairy Biker's programme last night about Meals on Wheels? What a great community spririt they showed in that programme, I found it uplifting. Maybe one day I will have time to volunteer...

charlies-aunt

Rosanna79 wrote: »

Grief is the price we pay for love

Awww Rosanna - this should be written in gold - what a beautiful truth.


Smileyt -thinking of you x x x

smileyt_2

Thank you so much to you all for your kind thoughts and support, I feel quite overwhelmed and really touched by your kindness.

The hens' leftover equipment (feeders, poultry spice, unopened syringes) and the food, corn and grit I have left are going to be picked up by Animals in Distress, a small and struggling local animal sanctuary. They have just been given 300 ex-battery hens on their sanctuary farm. I was strong and resisted the temptation to ask for three more hens. But I am happy that my girls' stuff will be going to help more of their sisters. :T Sorry if that's a bit twee or too sentimental for some people

Becky2, good news about your work!

Good wishes to all those who are struggling to keep the wolf from their door.

I was walking the dogs this afternoon when I met up with a couple of other, very excited, dogwalkers. They were flagging an ambulance down and directing as to where it should go. It turns out that a young woman had gone into labour on a bench by the lake. A man was holding her and calming her down. We thought he was the father of the baby, but it turns out that he was just a random stranger who had happened upon this poor lassie and was just lending moral support until the paramedics turned up. What a hero! I said a little prayer that the woman and her baby would be OK.

Rainy-Days

Austin_Allegro wrote: »

I agree - Mr Cameron's speech is very significant. Asking people to pay down credit card debt (instead of encouraging people to splurge on consumer goods to 'help' the economy which has been the official line previously) means, to me, the following:

1. The banks are in dire need of recapitalising, to the extent that they would rather have the cash upfront than the income they can make from lending via credit cards

2. HMG knows that interest rates are going up and that people are going to need every penny to avoid mass bankruptcy and mortgage defaults.

3. Both of the above.

Either way the news isn't good! However, let's remember that all of us on here are much better placed than most, simply by having all these great tips to hand!

I have never believed anything other than we never really emerged out of the cr&p from 2008, we just merely at some point pushed our heads above the parapet only to be shoved back down again. I think we are all being softened up for a massive Greek debt default and the banks and businesses of the UK as well as us taxpayers are going to have to take the hit.

The point is this, we should have never signed up for this but Alistair Darling signed the document during the final dying days of the Liebour Government and left us all up Smokey Joe's to have to foot any bill that comes out of the Euro and I am flipping hopping mad about it.

Make no bones about it this country is in it big time. Tesco has announced terrible trading figures comparable to 20 years ago, now I know Tesco is not my fave destination and allot of people have deserted them in droves (I use them only for half price of BOGOF offers), but it just goes to show that people are really pulling in their belts. Lidl and Aldi are getting busier to the point that I now shop there on a weekday as the weekends are very busy. There is only so much money to go round, some pretty big job losses in the Navy, then BAE it's all adding up to hit at least three million people out of work like the last Tory administration. I appreciate that they inherited the massive debt for Liebour but the problem is that things are getting radically worse and I truly don't believe that any one really does know what to do about it.

I despair, I really do and I don;t think I have ever felt so unnerved by the state of the country as I do today. 2008 was bad enough but this is hand wringing stuff and I don't like it one bit!

lizzyb1812

smileyt - not twee or sentimental at all, but the response of a caring, compassionate person. The other girls will be more comfortable thanks to your donations. And what you did for your girls and with your donations is positive stuff, although it hurts.

VJsmum

^^^^^^^^
What rainy days said

oldtractor

Some very good posts here I agree Rainy-DAys Haribo Junkie and Austin Allegro.
Smiley-T i'm glad your hen stuff has been donated to the sanctuary.

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ceridwen

Austin_Allegro wrote: »

I agree - Mr Cameron's speech is very significant. Asking people to pay down credit card debt (instead of encouraging people to splurge on consumer goods to 'help' the economy which has been the official line previously) means, to me, the following:

1. The banks are in dire need of recapitalising, to the extent that they would rather have the cash upfront than the income they can make from lending via credit cards

2. HMG knows that interest rates are going up and that people are going to need every penny to avoid mass bankruptcy and mortgage defaults.

3. Both of the above.

Either way the news isn't good! However, let's remember that all of us on here are much better placed than most, simply by having all these great tips to hand!

Actually - there is a positive take on that - and its not "Oh whoopie - as a saver - we might not be expected to keep bailing out borrowers much longer. We might actually GET some interest on our blimmin' savings".

The positive take is that - in some circles - there is a "moral imperative" view on paying debt back. That is - that one should not be in debt - not because it puts yourself at risk of financial problems. The reason is because it puts OTHER PEOPLE at risk from YOUR financial problems. The last church I was in advises members not to get in debt - in case OTHER PEOPLE get hurt by the member at some point finding they are unable to repay the debt. The concern for the debtor themselves boils down, I would say, to a concern that if a person is in debt they might feel pushed to do things they dont find morally acceptable to clear that debt. It's a very different way round to look at things to that held by, it would appear, the majority of people.

So - I have got in debt before now (basically because of a combination of low income and sometimes the house needed urgent repairs that I had to find the money for somehow or other - hence the debt, as I took out a loan to cover the cost) BUT I've always known I must never ever put anyone else at risk of having financial problems because of MY financial problems (ie they are my own - and must stay my own and not get inflicted on others). Hence - I never got that much in debt and would never ever put other people at risk of me going bankrupt (which wouldnt come as the great personal relief to me that it does to a lot in that position - as I'd still repay the money I owed the people concerned anyway - no matter how long it took).

So - Cameron COULD have been saying that just to say "Ensure you safeguard OTHER people from YOUR financial problems - just in case anything happens to YOU - and its not fair to expect savers to subsidise borrowers any longer by virtue of these unrealistically low interest rates" iyswim.

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EDIT BTW - there is now a campaign group to try and protect savers from losing their savings because of these current low interest rates:

www.saveoursavers.co.uk

mardatha

Woke to heavy rain here, The RV said when he got up at 6, the cars in the street were white so he thinks it was hail or sleet. He thinks sleet cos it didnt make a noise like hail.
Either way its bloody cauld!