Preparedness for when

fuddle

Frugalsod wrote: »

Yes but for those with kids part time work is suitable, there can even be some flexibility. Though you would be entitled to holiday pay and sick leave. Zero hour contracts do not have those rights.

In an ideal world frugalsod, in an ideal world.

I have a job whereby I work 9.30am - 2.30pm then I am mam, wife and housewife again. Because I am zero hours I get to not have the worry of £60 per day childcare costs when the children are on school holidays as I dont have to be available for work for 13 weeks of the year.

Hey, I dont like the zero hours totally either but in this day and age there is very little else that fits in with a mother that has to earn a wage too.

Part time work is very, very difficult to come by and even then not as flexible as you would like to paint.

Perplexed_Pineapple

Frugalsod wrote: »

What people need to learn is that until you have paid off the mortgage you are only renting. I have a close friend who has an interest only mortgage and has been suckered into buying his home at an inflated price. So if interest rates rise fast then he is at risk of falling into negative equity. So all those mortgage payments are no better than if he had paid rent.

It's worse than renting really because you have all the liabilities of owning a house - structural maintenance, boiler replacement, those kind of things. On the other hand if we can get on top of the mortgage (and resist upscaling to a bigger place with a bigger mortgage which so many seem to do) we should be clear by the time we retire, or hopefully some time before which will make things easier at that stage. That's the plan, anyway....

lobbyludd

but you could have all of that flexibility and the security of a part time job by having a part-time job on annualised hours or a contract which is permanent with term-time working only and many other ways of working that fit modern life patterns (they exist in my company and many others I know). There are many other ways of giving flexibility to both employee and employer without ALL the risk being carried by the employee.

I'm not saying these options are readily available to you searching for work, I am saying that a zero hours contract is a very cynical trick for an employer to "have it all ways" and that the supposed benefits to the employee can be provided without whipping all security away from them.

FWIW - I do view my mortgage as renting from the bank, and no I don't expect to be able to retire ever, despite always having paid into pensions, and I'm cream-crackered now, I can't imagine how I'll cope in my late sixties, whilst I will probably be caring for elderly parents and still supporting the offspring financially.

paidinchickens

I think the worst thing about zero hour contracts is when they let you turn up and then you are sent home as there is no work. They don't need to do this they can tell you in advance surely?

It was not long ago that there was always a hiring sign outside a popular burger chain and now you have to go through an online test and a computer tells you if your fit to flip burgers or not :rotfl:

I do worry what's going to happen regarding the job front as we have three boys at home :eek:

PiC x

fuddle

I agree with the notion that we knew the interest rates were going to rise and to be fair there has be a good innings has there not? It was only ever a measure to help, not a permanent answer.

I am not a mortgage holder or a saver (beginning but in a pot in the house and a pittance) but I do sympathise because I worry that those people who could afford a 3, 4 or even 5% interest rate 5 years ago have a much, much higher cost of living now really dont they?

fuddle

Think about the care system. If a customer goes into hospital the work is not there, the company doesnt get paid (if cancelled within 24 hours then we both still get paid as too short notice) and then I do not get paid either. No one one earns.

My company are really good at looking after us as best they can. Their hands are tied in this really. Zero hours works well in this niche and I am appreciative of the work I do get but I do realise the system is flawed.

Not all companies are winning out of zero hours, some are as equally dropped in it if the work dies.

[Deleted User]

OK, so I've completed construction of my emergency lighting rig.

It consists of 5m of twin core cable, with a 3 pin plug on one end, and a lamp holder on the other.

In the event of a power cut, I hang the lamp holder end (with a CFL inserted ) through, and just out of the bottom end of, the existing lamp shade, stretch the cable across the room, to hang over the curtain rail, then insert the plug into the Jump Start pack, via my 80W inverter.

Given the CFL is only 11 watts (equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent bulb), I should get a comfortable 15 hours+ out of the pack, before it needs recharging.

It won't be much use in a prolonged power cut, but it'll work nicely during periods of load shedding. :cool:

[Deleted User]

I'm posting this message, from my bed, on my new Notebook.

I might try somewhere different again, tomorrow.

Suggestions (other than the obvious) anyone?

JayneC

pineapple wrote: »

Eat your heart out if you are not on a Tour de France route! On the news they were saying Yorkshire has spent £4 million on repairing it's roads in preparation.
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/racing/tour-de-france/4million-bill-to-fix-yorkshires-roads-ahead-of-tour-de-france-116866
The downside in my locality is that they seem to be doing all the roads at once :mad:.

So that explains the state of the roads round here then. In Yorkshire but not en route as 'twere!! Blimmin awful, just shows how quickly it deteriorates when not maintained.

It's all a nice illusion isn't it, but the gloss is fading rapidly

Uniscots97

GQ, council tax is our second biggest outgoing each month. Goodness knows what out council do with it. The bin men don't care and broke the lid on one of my wheely bins ( our council earn money from recycling all our garden waste, paper, plastic and glass) yet still I have to fork out £200 a month (and that's one of the lower bandings).