Preparedness for when

moneyistooshorttomention

Thriftwizard

I emphasise - I did not mean yourself. The point I was making is they chose to spend their money on having children. I chose to spend my money in other ways. I was making that point - because this family have made comments/etc that clearly indicate they think I have more than them and are jealous of me for it - when that actually isn't the case, ie because I chose to spend my money differently (I very much doubt I had any more money - hardly likely as a poorly-paid single person...).

I am assuming that, by and large, that any size of family pretty much supports itself iyswim.

pollyanna_26

Well said GQ ,Thriftwizard and Mrs LW .
polly:T

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

Not been watching the TV series, gave the telly away in 1987.

I've just realised that the current fashion for nostalgic TV would include what you were watching when you last had a TV. (And that some of what may have watched were repeats that are still being repeated on satellite channels).

Frugalsod

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

In fairness - re the TPTB not having an idea how badly off many are - yep...I guess I would probably agree with that. It doesn't make it easy for them I guess - when they spot people still buying lots of consumer goodies (cars, fags, etc, etc) etc. I know I tend to assume "They're driving a car around for leisure purposes, have just bought some ready meals, just had another child - well they must be doing okay for money". I guess we don't know just how much of all that has been spent on credit.

Its sometimes not easy to get in someone else's "skin" on that one. I've figured out that one of my awful neighbour households are jealous of my finances - but they don't bother to stop to think I could turn round and say "Well you spent your money instead on having a big family and buying a bigger house than mine", whereas I lived within my means - so jealousy isn't applicable in those circumstances..

So its not necessarily easy to compare like with like.

Not so. Smoking is an addiction so many people will smoke no matter how poor they are. Same with alcoholics and booze. Also many people will try and give signals that they are doing better than they really are. It is pride.

Also when you hear comments about someone having a big screen TV on benefits completely ignores the fact that they might not have any other luxuries in their life. They can at least sit and watch it all day if not working. Also they ignore how it is funded.

I have known people who earned £40 000 a month, and were still over drawn every month. So while they might have a multi million pound house they have a huge mortgage and expenses that drain that income dry.

Frugalsod

nuatha wrote: »

I've just realised that the current fashion for nostalgic TV would include what you were watching when you last had a TV. (And that some of what may have watched were repeats that are still being repeated on satellite channels).

I heard a joke that the channel Dave is really BBC2 plus three years. :rotfl:

GreyQueen

nuatha wrote: »

I've just realised that the current fashion for nostalgic TV would include what you were watching when you last had a TV. (And that some of what may have watched were repeats that are still being repeated on satellite channels).

Hell, I barely watched TV in the 1980s, I was a student living away from home for the first time and RL was a lot more interesting than dress-up-and-pretend on a black & white portable.:rotfl:

Bearing in mind you could probably count the amount of hours of TV-watching-at-other-people's-homes which I do per annum on the fingers of both hands, it amazes me when I glance at the schedules how much of this stuff I have already seen.

I sometimes take a highlighter pen to the BBC schedule in the newspaper at the folks, highlighting things I've seen before. It's usually on the order of 40-50% regurgitations, and the rest is snooze programmes, sports and flipping quizzes. They should be embarrassed to charge the license fee every year for these warmed-over leavings.

Oh, and TVL were visiting chez moi again this month (I was out, living my life) despite having promised not to harrass me for a whole two years only last autumn. Lying little s0ds.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Thriftwizard

I emphasise - I did not mean yourself. The point I was making is they chose to spend their money on having children. I chose to spend my money in other ways. I was making that point - because this family have made comments/etc that clearly indicate they think I have more than them and are jealous of me for it - when that actually isn't the case, ie because I chose to spend my money differently (I very much doubt I had any more money - hardly likely as a poorly-paid single person...).

I am assuming that, by and large, that any size of family pretty much supports itself iyswim.

Have they said this dire tly to you?? Or is it your attitude towards them and their family that they don't like??

As the saying goes never judge a book by its cover, and never presume things about people..

Just because myself and my hubby are not slaves of fashion, and wear clothes that we feel comfortable in, we have often been asked what benefits we are on!!!! Apart from child benefit and a stint of working tax credits years ago.. We have worked dam hard all our lives, ..

And just to add, regardless how much I have spend on my children.. And the headache and the frustration I get with them, even now that they are 21 and 19, I would spend every last penny I had on them.... Maybe they are not jealous of you,

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Frugalsod. I also have other bank accounts ..

I have started taking money out at the cash point, but as you said, also spend with it, and get cash back too...

On the TV, they were saying that the wobble in the world's finances could knock us back to where we were 7-8 years ago. . they didn't say the 2008 crash, but that's what they ment...

Exit......

Talking about crashes, the pig/ pork industry is on its knees due to Russia putting a ban on pork imports , so there is a huge glut across Europe, with the Luke's of Denmark, Holland etc flooding the British markets with their low welfare meat..
Its even hitting the small hobby breeders/ producers like us, we took stores to market on Friday, and we brought them home.. No one would pay more than £10!!!! Loads of weaners were being sold for £1 as the owners didn't want to take them home.. Some didn't even get bids..

There is an anthrax a are in Wiltshire too

thriftwizard

MrsLW, where it does become your business is when you hear that they've been muttering in the pub about "criminals & layabouts" getting state handouts & enormous houses for having hordes of kids. He'd seen OH being dropped off home by a squad car, and assumed that it was because he'd been "assisting with enquiries"... evidently the blue serge trousers, white shirt with epaulettes and black DMs didn't impinge on his consciousness! More than one neighbour has attempted to correct his misapprehensions over the years, but it's never sunk in. This kind of thing can be quite damaging, if newcomers believed him, which they sometimes do - for a while!

At one stage, he held the family next door to him up with a pitchfork on the doorstep, having called the police & denounced them as drug-dealers, as they often had gatherings of young people there. Actually he was the local church's youth worker, and she was a very quiet & respectable teaching assistant. She was shaking & bursting into tears for weeks, and they moved on a few months later... with someone like him, you really can't just live & let live.

jk0

That reminds me... something quite shockingly similar happened with one of my tenants.

I have a flat in a block that used to be 100% Asian, until I let my flat to a Polish guy last year. One of the neighbours sent this laughable email to their letting agent last month:

I have concerns about the neighbours living in Flat
No * (bottom floor flat in our block) and I wonder if you can help please- I have strong suspicions that it may be being used by prostitutes.

There are black out curtains on this property and they're constantly drawn although there is a red light in one of the windows (cliche I know).
Last week a man came up to me in the car park as I was unloading my car - asked me if I lived there and said that there were '2 girls working as prostitutes in no * and that they were being 'run' by 2 Polish men' I believe he mentioned this to another resident in the car park at the same time- said he thought I should know as it wasn't very nice.

There's nearly always a smell of cannabis coming from this property which fills the stairwell.

I only ever see men going in and out of that property but hear a women's voice answering the door. I've not seen the same man twice yet. As an example I saw three come in and out on Saturday afternoon (just as I happened to be coming in and out of the building) and last night when I got home at 6pm, one was leaving and another went in within the space of a minute.

I realise this isn't proof of anything untoward going on but I'm pretty sure it is and it isn't nice. Particularly if a significant number of non-residents are gaining access to our building (you can actually get in the main front door without a key). I am very concerned about this and am embarrassed to invite friends and family to visit - it doesn't feel very safe living there at the moment.

This flat is let through ****** and I telephoned them last week to report my concerns but they didn't take any details, said they would 'pass on to colleagues' and I didn't feel very confident that that they would follow up.

I am also slightly anxious about reporting this directly for fear of some sort of reprisal if they know exactly who might have reported them. Pretty horrible all round really.

Can you help please?
Please do let me know if you need any further information.
Thanks

They reported this to the freeholder, who wrote to me threatening to forfeit the lease. It all turned out to be a lot of nonsense, due to disapproval of my tenant's lifestyle.


Very annoying & worrying for me for a while though.