Is there anyone else looking forward to the challenge of leaner times.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

If you read the Old Style boards, there are a lot of interesting threads about how people have started to enjoy being more frugal and self-sufficient. I hope we are as a society going to think more about what we buy and why.

suburbanwifey

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

If you read the Old Style boards, there are a lot of interesting threads about how people have started to enjoy being more frugal and self-sufficient. I hope we are as a society going to think more about what we buy and why.

To be honest with you, I wouldn't want to go back to how it was! I grew up in the 80's and the most advanced thing we had was a TV with a remote control with one button and a video recorder! I was jealous when I saw a council workman that had one of the new 'mobile' phones that were as large as a brick with an antenna to make one weep

I love technology (I'm a Mac user and have all the apple kit) I wouldn't be without my iPhone, or my iPad or all the other goodies that make my life fun, interesting, help me save money so I have more to spend on what I want to spent it on. I love my new LED TV, adore my iPod, my iMac is the most used item in my house.

I found my dream house over the internet, bought so many delights on Black Friday (Amazon) for me and my family and my hubby adores his PS3 and I adore the Wii.

WHY would anyone want to go back to those days of struggle, boredom, 3 channel TV's ??? :eek:

I bake my own bread (in my bread maker) I knit gorgeous garments that are a quality that sells for 300 pounds+ (that's self sufficient yeah?) I cook from scratch, just because my food is awesome and packaged stuff is tasteless and is nutritionally lacking!

The modern world and all its technological advances have improved my life 2000% and I welcome it all and love it all.

Go back to the old days? NEVER !!! it would be a boring, mindless existence for sure.

Sorry if all the 'frugal, lets go back to basics' people don't agree with me. Steve Jobs created for people like me and the only thing I would change in my 'modern' commercialism world is that advances in cancer treatments would have saved such an inspiring genius from the cruel clutches of death :A

suburbanwifey

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

If you read the Old Style boards, there are a lot of interesting threads about how people have started to enjoy being more frugal and self-sufficient. I hope we are as a society going to think more about what we buy and why.

Frugality for most is not a choice its a necessity. Some say those of us who don't have to be frugal are 'lucky' but you know what?

Its funny, the harder you work, the luckier you become!

and on that, I rest my case (of course, we are all different and this is just my opinion, I do not judge others choices in life, I just am happy to defend my own)

Graham_Devon

suburbanwifey wrote: »

I love technology (I'm a Mac user and have all the apple kit) I wouldn't be without my iPhone, or my iPad or all the other goodies that make my life fun, interesting, help me save money so I have more to spend on what I want to spent it on. I love my new LED TV, adore my iPod, my iMac is the most used item in my house.

I love it "I spent all these thousands of pounds, which has enabled me to save £3 on a kettle".

Good luck to you, you have a passion for tech and are enjoying the tech. Just find some things quite amusing. You are a corporate dream!

There was a bloke at work the other day boasting about his new alienware PC from Dell. 8gb RAM he says. 2TB hard drive. An i7 all singing all dancing processor, and a case so ugly it would frighten the kids away.

However, he don't play games. He doesn't use intensive software. He uses it for business, finance and the internet. And plays Angry Birds.

I don't get it, he's using about 5% of it's power. But he's so happy about it, it's obviously money well spent.

suburbanwifey

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I love it "I spent all these thousands of pounds, which has enabled me to save £3 on a kettle".

Good luck to you, you have a passion for tech and are enjoying the tech. Just find some things quite amusing. You are a corporate dream!

There was a bloke at work the other day boasting about his new alienware PC from Dell. 8gb RAM he says. 2TB hard drive. An i7 all singing all dancing processor, and a case so ugly it would frighten the kids away.

However, he don't play games. He doesn't use intensive software. He uses it for business, finance and the internet. And plays Angry Birds.

I don't get it, he's using about 5% of it's power. But he's so happy about it, it's obviously money well spent.

If something makes you happy and improves your life it is money well spent.

Angry Birds - I'm useless at that :rotfl:I do try though!

Yes, I am a Corporate Dream ... but no one sells me anything I don't won't, they just create and sell things I do want.

I get your point though!

Out,_Vile_Jelly

suburbanwifey wrote: »

To be honest with you, I wouldn't want to go back to how it was! I grew up in the 80's and the most advanced thing we had was a TV with a remote control with one button and a video recorder! I was jealous when I saw a council workman that had one of the new 'mobile' phones that were as large as a brick with an antenna to make one weep

I love technology (I'm a Mac user and have all the apple kit) I wouldn't be without my iPhone, or my iPad or all the other goodies that make my life fun, interesting, help me save money so I have more to spend on what I want to spent it on. I love my new LED TV, adore my iPod, my iMac is the most used item in my house.

I found my dream house over the internet, bought so many delights on Black Friday (Amazon) for me and my family and my hubby adores his PS3 and I adore the Wii.

WHY would anyone want to go back to those days of struggle, boredom, 3 channel TV's ??? :eek:

I bake my own bread (in my bread maker) I knit gorgeous garments that are a quality that sells for 300 pounds+ (that's self sufficient yeah?) I cook from scratch, just because my food is awesome and packaged stuff is tasteless and not nutritionally lacking!

The modern world and all its technological advances have improved my life 2000% and I welcome it all and love it all.

Go back to the old day? NEVER !!! it would be a boring, mindless existence for sure.

Sorry if all the 'frugal, lets go back to basics' people don't agree with me. Steve Jobs created for people like me and the only thing I would change in my 'modern' commercialism world is that advances in cancer treatments would have saved such an inspiring genius from the cruel clutches of death :A

I don't think the Old Style lot reject technology; after all it has given us EBay and Freecycle and price comparison sites. It's more about making household budgets stretch further and utilising resources more efficiently.

I don't have the internet at home, nor an MP3 player, nor a fancy phone and survive with an old telly and five terrestrial channels. All depends on your social life and hobbies I suppose. I do love my digital radio though.

suburbanwifey

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

I don't think the Old Style lot reject technology; after all it has given us EBay and Freecycle and price comparison sites. It's more about making household budgets stretch further and utilising resources more efficiently.

I don't have the internet at home, nor an MP3 player, nor a fancy phone and survive with an old telly and five terrestrial channels. All depends on your social life and hobbies I suppose. I do love my digital radio though.

I kept my old telly for years! It was a Mitsubishi and I finally got rid of it after 15 years. I loved it to be honest, it was my first proper big telly and it lasted 15 years (they don't any more do they lol) and I didn't have the heart to throw it out as it still worked - it still worked perfectly when I did throw it out by the way. I don't waste but I do move with the times, therein lies the difference.

I have a digital radio but in my bathroom still use my normal one, another thing I have had years. I guess I love a mixture of both old and new.

I still wonder how that TV lasted so long, maybe they just made them better in the past, who knows.

kabayiri

Graham_Devon wrote: »

...
There was a bloke at work the other day boasting about his new alienware PC from Dell. 8gb RAM he says. 2TB hard drive. An i7 all singing all dancing processor, and a case so ugly it would frighten the kids away.

However, he don't play games. He doesn't use intensive software. He uses it for business, finance and the internet. And plays Angry Birds.

I don't get it, he's using about 5% of it's power. But he's so happy about it, it's obviously money well spent.

I have a core i7 laptop and it can also double as a trouser press, such is the heat it generates. You don't need the heating on if it's on your lap. :rotfl:

My laptop runs virtualisation software which needs plenty of ram and cpu, but I have no doubt many higher end PCs and laptops are just status symbols.

Will technology help us through leaner times? I doubt it. Tougher times mean efficiency drives in business. The temptation to automate or off-shore must be increasing.

Graham_Devon

suburbanwifey wrote: »

Yes, I am a Corporate Dream ... but no one sells me anything I don't won't, they just create and sell things I do want.

I get your point though!

See this is an interesting one.

While I want to make the point I'm not having a go at you, as I'm not, I like tech myself and can understand where you are coming from.

People ARE selling you stuff you don't want. They are just telling you you want it.

This is what has made apple what it is. It's so successful partly because it can tell you want you want, how you want it, and how you will use it, while at the same time, telling you how you will pay for what you now want.

You want it, because it's the next thing, and because Apple have told you you want it, by releasing a couple of extra features, such as "smoother scrolling". Wow. I need that. Stuff on a screen moves in a smoother motion.

You could do all you have stated on a 7 year old PC running Windows XP.

As I say, I like tech myself, BUT, I think the difference between my sort of tech lover is that I don't mind bolting things on, rather than buying a whole new piece of kit. I certainly don't like Apple, it's been blatantly obvious they have been forcing people down one single path, with less and less options to divert from that path as you go further and further down it.

It becomes an obsession, and often, a completely pointless one. There was a good programme on about Facebook last night. Companies are inventing games, and then selling you simple sprites. For instance a snake did a poo on this game, and then the company and facebook will "sell you" a trophy to put this poo in. For £1, you get a virtual box, to showcase on a virtual shelf, which you have also bought. Your "friends" who you have never met then try to get a better poo and a better showcase, and facebook and the company designing it are saying "well thankyou very much".

Like the creators say. They have to go back to the drawing board with games now. Instead of creating a game where you buy the product, they create the games, REMOVE parts of the game, sell you the game at full price, and then sell you the parts of the game you need to progress as you progress.

Double the cash. And with these games, as there is no physical product, they just keep on releasing updates to their servers and keep on releasing more and more stuff for you to hand over your cash for. You may think you are 90% complete...oh no, they have been busily working behind the scenes, creating a new set of used nappies to collect which you will be able to buy, and a new set of recycling boxes for you to buy....and a twist, if you don't recycle your nappies, you will be forced to lose your poo showcase. Of course, they have provided you with a nappy recycling facility, on a pay as you go basis. So you buy the nappy because you want to show your friends you have the new sprites, you then buy the showcase to show them and hen recycle them and get some "good boy" points.

Some of the games even have products inside of them, so your characters will get dehydrated and drink coke, right in front of you. So you press "like coke" and go and buy coke. Amazing stuff. The system is telling you to like coke, and telling you "i want coke".

Madness. All created so you can ignore the world at the end of your nose, while facebook play the hand of god.

Amazing stuff.

Rant over.

chewmylegoff

suburbanwifey wrote: »

I kept my old telly for years! It was a Mitsubishi and I finally got rid of it after 15 years. I loved it to be honest, it was my first proper big telly and it lasted 15 years (they don't any more do they lol) and I didn't have the heart to throw it out as it still worked - it still worked perfectly when I did throw it out by the way. I don't waste but I do move with the times, therein lies the difference.

I have a digital radio but in my bathroom still use my normal one, another thing I have had years. I guess I love a mixture of both old and new.

I still wonder how that TV lasted so long, maybe they just made them better in the past, who knows.

it lasted for 15 years because that's how long you kept it. people tend to buy a new TV more often these days because the technology has been improving at a rapid pace and they are relatively cheap. if you've only spent £500 in today's money on a TV then it isn't going to cause you too much sleep to chuck it or stick it on ebay for £50 after 18 months and get something better.

that said, my TV alleges that you can leave it on constantly for 34 years before it it is worn out. i spent nearly £3k on it and have had it for four years. i don't expect to be replacing it for at least another six.