How can people be so greedy?

sunshinejoclaire

chrisandanne wrote: »

If BB puts his £100k at interest at 6.5% = £650 he can pay rent with that and wait and see if the housing market falls...if it doesn't...tough, that's how it is, it's no good whinging that you have a 100K and house prices are too expensive..they are what they are, I'm pretty sure Blue Monkey would like to be in BB's position. She has my sympathy and I hope things work out for her and her family.

As I asid in my previous post - *know* I am lucky where I live

but £650 rent a month would get me this beauty if I had 100K and was savy enough to do as you suggest!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-14909480.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=rent


*edited to change my post to something sensible.. instead of resembling a 70's episode of batman :rotfl:

MrsE_2

Sapphire wrote: »

I know that many people born in the 1950s didn't have hot water or central heating. There used to be frost on the windowpanes in the mornings. Water had to be boiled in huge pans, and the place was heated by paraffin heaters – the light from them made a pretty pattern on the ceiling, but they were easy to knock over and therefore dangerous. It would be hard to imagine such circumstances in this country today.

I think everyone had electricity, though.

I was born in 1967 (shhhh)

I didn't live in a house with central heating till I was about 18 & I was brought up in London. We had ice INSIDE the windows in the winter too:eek:

I used to visit my granny in the west of Ireland as a child. She had one cold tap in the pantry, a turf fueled range & an outside loo.

All those were luxuries to her, my mum remembers it without all those.

jennifernil

PasturesNew wrote: »

You had it free because not so many got the chance of the education.

It was largely reserved for the middle classes and in my day people going to Uni was about 12% and mostly boys.

Now 50% can go and they're all told about Uni.

I went to Uni in the 60s, there were almost as many girls as boys at my Uni.

Sapphire

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

My parents' house in Kent doesn't have central heating *now*, never mind the 1950s! I've done the glass-of-water-by-the-bed freezing thing many times over the years (-:

There are wood burning stoves downstairs, and an Aga in the kitchen. The stairs have doors at the bottom, which keeps the warmth in downstairs. As you ascend in the winter, the temperature drops with every step up!

It's a tudor, wood and plaster house, and central heating's not a good idea, as it dries everything out too much.

Yes, but that is probably your parents' choice, isn't it? My brother's cottage in the Welsh Borders doesn't have central heating as such. Like in your parents' house, the house is heated by an Aga, and it is absolutely freezing in winter in the bedrooms upstairs. No one usually lives there at that time – it is simply too cold and isolated (though in a beautiful place).

In the 1950s many people did not have heating or hot water because of social conditions, rather than through choice. Many also did not go on holiday, apart from to places like Bournemouth and Brighton – which could in fact be quite magical for children!

neverdespairgirl

Sapphire wrote: »

Yes, but that is probably your parents' choice, isn't it? My brother's cottage in the Welsh Borders doesn't have central heating as such. Like in your parents' house, the house is heated by an Aga, and it is absolutely freezing in winter in the bedroom upstairs. No one usually lives there at that time – it is simply too cold and isolated (though in a beautiful place).

In the 1950s many people did not have heating or hot water because of social conditions, rather than through choice. Many also did not go on holiday, apart from to places like Bournemouth and Brighton – which could in fact be quite magical for children!

You said, "It would be hard to imagine such circumstances in this country today.", but lots of houses don't have central heating. The reason this house doesn't is because wood and plaster Tudor houses have a nasty habit of drying out and falling down if central heating is put in.

It's a country house - my sisters live there full time, and as a child I spent weekends and school holidays (including winters) there. Very thick duvets and lots of jumpers LOL

My Granny used to get a heater in her room - she was in her 80s, and very cold weather was bad for her. The winter my DS was born, I got to use the electric heater, which was great.

Sapphire

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

You said, "It would be hard to imagine such circumstances in this country today.", but lots of houses don't have central heating. The reason this house doesn't is because wood and plaster Tudor houses have a nasty habit of drying out and falling down if central heating is put in.

It's a country house - my sisters live there full time, and as a child I spent weekends and school holidays (including winters) there. Very thick duvets and lots of jumpers LOL

My Granny used to get a heater in her room - she was in her 80s, and very cold weather was bad for her. The winter my DS was born, I got to use the electric heater, which was great.

I suppose I meant that it would be hard to imagine the sorts of circumstances that many people lived in in the 1950s in London, in places that would nowadays all have central heating and hot water. These circumstances were quite common in London Victorian houses. Outside toilets were also a part of them. In fact, there are even houses in my areas that still have the old outside toilets (builders have mentioned this to me), though it is improbable that anyone still uses them these days.

I remember those electric bar heaters – they probably came after the paraffin heaters!

neverdespairgirl

I think there are quite a few outside loos still around - actually, my parents' house in Kent still has one, which my Dad uses when he's gardening so as not to come in and mess up the house. But we have indoor sanitation as well (-:

scorpio_princess

aztec21 wrote: »

Ginger - The reason they encourage them to go into further education is so that they will become more employable and less likely to end up on the dole.

Ha, try telling that to the newly qualified midwives or doctors who can't get a job in this country!

Out of 5 friends who went to uni, only 1 is in a graduate level, professional job. 20% - not great is it?!

Think about it - if 50% of 20 somethings in this country all have degrees, they'll also all be after the same jobs, and there just ain't enough to go round!

Basically universities are businesses - the more people they attract, the bigger their share of government funding. So of course they're going to perpetuate the myth that getting a degree is the only way you will ever earn any decent money. And the government earns big because of the interest students pay on their loans, plus it makes the unemployment statistics look good while these kids are in uni. Smoke and mirrors

PasturesNew

When I grew up we had one coal fire in one room, the living room.
In the winter the ice was thick on the inside of the bedroom window.
We had blankets, not duvets (!!!!!!' cold).
We had lino on the floor in the 60s, which made us a bit posher than the others in our street.
We only got a telephone when I was 10 and we moved into a house with one connected. Wasn't allowed to use it though.

My parents got their first central heating when they retired and moved/bought a house that had it in. That was 1997.

As a kid we'd have a holiday every year. We'd drive (£40, hand-painted wreck) to the seaside, then drive down roads until dad spotted a sign that said "caravan to let". Then we'd spend the week in some dodgy old caravan with gas mantles and an outside shed with a chemical loo in it. On holiday we sat on the beach all day with tomato sandwiches for lunch. We'd stay there as late as possible then back to the caravan and mum'd cook us tea. Maybe 1-2 nights we might have chips as a special treat.

Andy_Hamilton

sunshinejoclaire wrote: »

and after responding to the previous post, which is the first one I have felt strongly enough about to respond to I will say this :-

I'm so thankful for my situation after reading this whole thread. I live in an ex mining town in Co Durham and bought my first home 16 months ago, I'm so thankful I *do* live in an area where I could afford to buy.

Neither my OH or I are graduates (though peversley I do work in a University!), and we don't even earn the 'average' wage. We earned about 30K between us at the time of taking our mortage out. Our lovely 3 bedroomed bungalow in a nice area cost us 87.5K, though we did borrow over that as we could not afford to save up the deposit. We had to move out of our lovely flat fast for reasons I will not go into here, suffice to say they were not pretty, and we would have preferred to save for longer!

I am truly thankful for the above!

We are now planning to get wed and are squirreling away £200 a month (our disposable income) to pay for it.

We are currently 26 and 31 (we were 30 and 25 when we got onto the property ladder!)

I am 27 and moved to an ex-mining village 2 miles from Durham 35 miles away from where I wanted to call "home". I bought a discounted 3 bedroom NEW BUILD home for £82.5K. You had to apply through the council for there first time buyer scheme but no one did thinking that they would be refused. I actually thought why not go for it and I got the house I wanted!!!
£100K in the bank for me would mean mortgage free on a family home with a nestegg for the future.

Affordablility around here is set by the council at £82.5K 3x salary would be £27.5K http://www.chester-le-street.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=9651