Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

lostinrates

vivatifosi wrote: »

First post zag or first NP post?

My first ever post was re council tax banding. The people on the council tax rebanding thread were a considerable help in getting my house downgraded 1 band. I have no idea what my first NP post was, I'll have to go look.

Meantime, has anyone else seen the latest Liz Jones column. She's basically saying that the sports people at the awards last night looked dreadful. Silly mare:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2249229/Out-Lycra--comfort-zone-Liz-Jones-gives-verdict-sports-stars-outfits.html

ETA: have just gone had a look see. My first post on the first NP was to say I was amazed at TWH describing himself as metrosexual. I am still amazed.

I think the female boxer Nicola whose surname I have forgotten looked great,

I fear I am turning into a bit of a liz jones about my heating and local suppliers here. I feel exasperated by it all ATM.

vivatifosi

Generali wrote: »

How do you find out what your first post was?

I can remember what my first one was as all of my first posts were in the same thread.

In terms of your first NP one, I just went to the first NP thread and then carried on until I found it.

You can go back through your old posts in the control panel, but unless they are thanked they don't go that far back. OK for a newbie, not so good for a prolific old timer like you Gen;).

zagubov

Generali wrote: »

How do you find out what your first post was?

Go to Forum Search at the top of the page and inside the dialogue box click Advanced Search look up posts with yourself as post author and put in Ascending order. :beer:

vivatifosi

zagubov wrote: »

Go to Forum Search at the top of the page and inside the dialogue box click Advanced Search look up posts with yourself as post author and put in Ascending order. :beer:

I can get back to late 2007 that way, but can't get any further back and was posting earlier than that. Still, that's way better than I've managed before now so thanks!

zagubov

vivatifosi wrote: »

I can get back to late 2007 that way, but can't get any further back and was posting earlier than that. Still, that's way better than I've managed before now so thanks!

I think some threads I posted on got deleted ages ago if the mods didn't like them. I didn't find the NPs till NP4 so my memory's playing tricks on me.

Generali

I asked a question about business bank accounts back in the days when I was comparatively rich.

It's quite interesting reading, especially where I asked for advice as to which car to buy, ignored the advice and then a few months later asked how much a new fuel pump should cost!

This was my best post. It's all been downhill from there.

SingleSue

My first post...and it happened to be on the House price discussion thread.

Ok, first post but have been reading through the threads for a while.

We bought our house at completely the wrong time in 1990 but as the market had already fallen a fair bit (the previous owner lost 20K) we thought we had got it just at the right time.

How wrong we were!

I was on a decent salary (it would still be classed as decent in this area now!) but hubby was on a pretty poor salary but it didn't worry us, we could sustain extra interest rises (rates were around the 13% mark then) as the mortgage payment was a drop in the ocean compared to my monthly salary.

Then circumstances hit.... I got pregnant (we were told we were unable to have children).

Now the real problem hit, we were in a one bedroom house (as 95% mortgage holders we had not been able to get lending on anything other than a property less than 5 years old - we could have purchased a 2 bedroom for a similar price) and really needed to move to a bigger property.

Ahhh but remember we had looked at the market wrongly and hadn't bought at the lowest level, by the time we realised all of this, our property was already being valued at over 10k less than when we purchased and was definately into negative equity with an endowment mortgage.

Now the real crunch time... I had the baby, spoke to my employers and guess what? Yep in those dark days of the early 90's there was no such thing (or very few anyway) as job share, long maternity rights etc and my company only wanted me back if I could work an extra 3 hours overtime per day unpaid....plus get back to work just 6 weeks after the baby was born which was an impossibilty due to a rather horrendous delivery.

Over the next few months, we tried everything possible to hold onto the house, I took on 2 part time jobs (when hubby was able to cover childcare) to try to cover the shortfall from my loss of earnings even though the doctors were screaming at me to stop, and stop I eventually had to do when I developed signs of kidney failure and also developed pnuemonia in the same week.

Then the proverbial really hit the fan, other half was only earning enough to pay the mortgage with nothing left over for food, utilities etc etc and after a series of meetings with the Halifax (who I have to say were really really good and tried everything for us) it was decided that nothing could be done for us... recovery arrangements wouldn't work because we needed a bigger property (there was not even enough room to put a full size cot in the bedroom).

So then onto court, repossession, the lot.

I now live in a housing association house and have said since that debacle, that I would never ever get a mortgage again but I have watched the property/financial market like an obsession ever since.

The signs were becoming clear to me last year that we were heading for a major slowdown, even recession and blooming soon too. Repo notices up, bankruptcy/insolvency notices up, almost like a carbon copy of the 90's but without the extremely high interest rates which caused the bubble to burst last time.

As I said, I live in housing association rental property so I have no vested interest in the market, well apart from having a 3rd share in my parents home when they eventually pass away but I don't count that as you never know if they may need that to fund any care home that may be needed but the signs are increasingly worrying.

Salaries in this area have not moved much in the last decade or so, in fact you could get a job in the 90's on the same salary on offer now but everything else has gone up like a rocket.... going to the local supermarket is now extremely depressing, foods which were affordable a year ago is now out of my range, more of my money is going on diesel, gas and electric (a rise of £4 a week on gas even though usage is down in the last year alone), so even those of us without oodles of credit to cover, have felt the squeeze, in real terms, I am so much worse off than I was this time last year.

It took us many many years to recover from the last crash and that was with really quite a modest loss compared to what some could lose this time around but the ramifications people suffer from while trying to hang on in there (missed bills to try to pay mortgage etc) go on for years .... thank god, this time I will not be in the same situation, credit had not been available due to the repo and even when it did become available, we decided against it (had got used to putting money by to buy in cash only when we were unable to get credit) but I really do feel for those who do get caught..it only takes one circumstance to change for the worse for it to all come crashing down.


Sorry for rambling along for so long.....

Generali

SingleSue wrote: »

My first post...and it happened to be on the House price discussion thread.

TLDR. IIRC it was the same the first time round!:p

sss555s

My first post in this alias was a reply about transferring ISA's.

I've had 2 previous usernames. The first was the same as I had in another (close knit) forum where I was a mod and had done 1000's of posts, so when it came to asking more personal info I changed my username. The second change was for personal reasons too.

I miss NDG and carolt, though carol could be a bit frustrating on times

The best advice I ever had was from Edinvestor on my endowment mortgage, which saved me many thousands. It was very sad to hear she had passed away.

LydiaJ

lostinrates wrote: »

Dearest spirit,.

Opening your home to friends is the very opposite of useless. What wonderful friends you must be for them to know you are so readily prepared to open your home to them.

What lir said.

lostinrates wrote: »

I recently learned contrary to any thing I have ever done or feel able too, that it's more economy to leave doors open so heat can circulate. The kind of house I have mainly lived in this would be disasterously expensive.

Ultimately I think it probably depends on things like what the house is built of. Houses like mine were meant to have a fire on in at least two rooms most of the time, but not the same second room all of the time, but kitchens probably provided a 'warm core' to the house.

It also depends on whether you are aiming to achieve a whole warm house or merely a warm room or two. If you spend most of your waking hours in the same room, it can be a waste to heat the rest of the house too, especially if the insulation's not good.

Goldiegirl wrote: »

A person after my own heart, I always like to have spare loo rolls in the house.

My nightmare scenario is running out of loo roll and having to use newspaper ! :rotfl:

Welcome Goldiegirl. Nice to have you with us. Do you like mushrooms? Are you Jewish? Do you live in Hertfordshire?