Nice people thread part 8 - worth the wait

LydiaJ

lemonjelly wrote: »

A recent survey for example, showed that of 16-25 year olds, 90% would spend their money on their phone rather than food.:eek: Poor prioritisation is having a big knock on effect.

A large number of those 16-25 year olds are probably living with parents who provide them with food, but leave them to pay their own phone bills. Under those circumstances, it's sensible to prioritise the phone.

Even if they are living independently, I'm not sure that the statistic is as shocking as it looks at first glance. I certainly found it very striking when I first read it, but a lot more comprehensible when I gave it some thought. For one thing, what does it mean to "spend money on their phone rather than food"? Pretty much all of the ones who are living independently are presumably spending some money on food and some money on phone, so the question must be about priorities if money is a bit short and you can't afford everything you might wish. I don't imagine any of them are taking that to the extreme of spending no money on food at all, and starving to death, or even going significantly hungry. It's more likely that what they mean is economising by eating cheaper food in order to afford a nicer phone. I'm not sure that's particularly better or worse than making do with a basic phone in order to afford more expensive food.

lemonjelly

Badly phrased on my part. The survey asked what they would spend their money on/go without. The 80% said they would go without food to spend money on their phone.

lostinrates

Actually, I do think spending on cheaper food as Lydia suggests could be 'a worse choice' demding what the choices are. If they are spending a minimal amount on say, a snack of fruit, over a superfluous mac meal great, but if their choices impact on long term health ( e.g. never eating anything fresh, being malnourished etc etc) then it does seem a poor choice .

Lemon jellies example makes it clear this is not solely a problem of elites appreciating what they have' but something we are riddled with through out our very lucky circumstances.

There are many people I feel genuinely, genuinely poorly served in a country with such comfort, but not as many as those to the left of me would like me to.

LydiaJ

Oh sure, economising on food can be unhealthy. No argument with that here. But among 16-25 year olds, I have my doubts as to whether spending more on food would be particularly likely to be healthier. Spending more could well just mean eating more junk.

I also doubt the extent to which someone that age would actually put up with significant hunger, even if they did tick a survey box referring to "go without food". It's too amorphous. One survey respondent might mean "eat in instead of eating out with my friends", another might mean "cook from scratch instead of buying ready meals", another might mean "eat toast instead of cooking a proper meal" and another might mean "skip breakfast". A really extreme one might mean "live on nothing but porridge all month" and yet another might mean "I'm anorexic and avoid eating as far as I can anyway". We have no way of knowing what was in their minds when they ticked it. So I think it tells us that the young attach a lot of importance to their phones, but we haven't got enough information to know how they really feel about food.

michaels

I am the tiniest bit suspicious cause the garage quoted me a price which included parts at 'list' price; they agreed to fit the parts I ordered (of course without warranty) for the same fitting cost but the parts I ordered were almost exactly the same amount cheaper than the garage list price as the garage increased their labour charge by. and my feeling is what Bugs said - a written quotation should be stuck to not increasde if it turned out to be wrong - all my work is priced by the deliverable not 'time and materials'.

LIR I think our tank is about 250/300l and we have 2x3kw immersions, one which heats the top half of the tank for light hot water use and the other at the bottom, noth on for max power and this was enough for hotwater for the 5 of us in the summer before the boiler was commissioned. However we have seperate pipe 'circuits' for the heating and hot water so the heating will never cool down the hot water which you may not have? However I am surprised that your immersion can not at least give a hot shower.

Re the phone vs food it is the laziness over money that gets me. Using quidco/topcashback and redemption contracts I get my phones and minutes for free/minimal cost and when I was a student extreme money saving was the norm for pretty much everyone not something you didn't bother with.

lostinrates

Tbh, feeling sense of sympathy with the not prioriting food youth ATM.

I was given a fruit basket for Easter.....majorly good gift!) but I'm too cold today to relish chewing down on cold mango, banana or passion fruit.

Obviously feeling a lot better because I can breath in without that stabby ache one gets I. The intercostals and shoulders and neck when sick, ( hurrah!) but also because I really fancy squid. There is no way I am going out to buy squid. I have soup for tonight but nothing that I want to eat now even though I am peckish.

michaels

lostinrates wrote: »

I was given a fruit basket for Easter.....majorly good gift!) but I'm too cold today to relish chewing down on cold mango, banana or passion fruit.

I'm sure the snow we have in London now is probably on its way to you later today if that helps?

lostinrates

michaels wrote: »

I am the tiniest bit suspicious cause the garage quoted me a price which included parts at 'list' price; they agreed to fit the parts I ordered (of course without warranty) for the same fitting cost but the parts I ordered were almost exactly the same amount cheaper than the garage list price as the garage increased their labour charge by. and my feeling is what Bugs said - a written quotation should be stuck to not increasde if it turned out to be wrong - all my work is priced by the deliverable not 'time and materials'.

LIR I think our tank is about 250/300l and we have 2x3kw immersions, one which heats the top half of the tank for light hot water use and the other at the bottom, noth on for max power and this was enough for hotwater for the 5 of us in the summer before the boiler was commissioned. However we have seperate pipe 'circuits' for the heating and hot water so the heating will never cool down the hot water which you may not have? However I am surprised that your immersion can not at least give a hot shower.

Re the phone vs food it is the laziness over money that gets me. Using quidco/topcashback and redemption contracts I get my phones and minutes for free/minimal cost and when I was a student extreme money saving was the norm for pretty much everyone not something you didn't bother with.

We have the 500 litre tank and an immersion that i know it's not standard, but its not sufficient. I want to say five or six kw but not sure why...truthfully i cannot remember. Boiler man did admit it would only ever take chill off. Having initially said it was sufficient and would even give low level heating. Phooey.

The water is not connected from the tank to the shower, that's a separate think nice builder put in while we had no tank. We do have hot shower water, but its very weak...dribbles, and phases through to cold so one has to feel quite determined! The tank is connected to the bath now over which the temporary shower is fixed......but no use if the water in the tank not hot.

michaels

My win of the last few days is to open a lump sum £500 Fidelity footsie tracker ISA for self and DW. We don't normally do S&S ISAs but in this case we just have to keep it open for 3 months and we get £100 quidco each, as long as the footsie doesn't fall by more than 20% in that time we make a profit. I think tomorrow is 12/13 isa deadline day.

If things go really well we will be able to close the accounts after 3 months and then repeat with our 13/14 isa next year.

lostinrates

michaels wrote: »

I'm sure the snow we have in London now is probably on its way to you later today if that helps?

Haha, dh already warned me. I'm ok with it today. It's not so bad when you don't feel sick


I will light the woodburner later to get some warmth into the sitting room and parent's room as parent might be back tonight.


ATM I am in the kitchen, with an electric heater, so its not like I risk hypothermia. I am watching old horse who is grazing in the back garden.