Generation Skint

MrDT

abaxas wrote: »

Look at it this way.

2008 - everyone can afford ipods/computers but cant afford to go out and drink or smoke

1970 - !!!!!! is an ipod/computer but I can drink myself to death in a pub and smoke 40 coffin nails a day.

We are no better off, just the goalposts moved from social situation/additions to buying tat.

Sorry, but what I see round here is people living at home with mummy and daddy well into their late twenties (and beyond) and spending every penny they earn on booze, fags, plasma tv's, and nasty 'mods' to their crappy cars.

Being priced out of the housing market the majority of locals seem to just spend what they earn on crap as "houses will 'never' be affordable" :rolleyes:

I can't complain too much, this puts me in a great position really, little in the way of competition from first time buyers when the time is right for me. I do despair at times though, when I see people my age spending £150+ a week on booze and fags, getting loads of pointless gadgets on credit, and spend what's left on their skip on wheels instead of rent or maybe even saving.

I liked a previous posters term, "young fogey" (edit - oops i seem to have confused this with another thread, young fogeys seem to get premature dementia ). I suppose I fit into this category Don't get me wrong, I have a TV, a PC, and a mobile, I go on holiday at least once a year, and I go out for a drink once in a while (once every 2-3 weeks), I still 'have a life' Where I differ from the majority of my peers is that I save half of my salary each month, rent my own place instead of leeching off the parentals, and only ever buy something with money in the bank not credit (debt). Oh god i even have a pension, fetch me the tweed!

I disagree that it's a generation of young fogeys though, more a generation of peter and petra pans, the young fogeys are the exception to the rule.

Jonbvn

Maz wrote: »

I can relate to this. When I go into other peoples homes, I'm staggered at the 'appliances' and gadgets they have, not just in the kitchen but throughout the entire place! Tellys in just about every room, amazing bits of kit in the kitchen, ipods etc.

My kitchen is smallish so no microwave, have a hob kettle, do my toast under the grill and got rid of the telly long ago. I see all these appliances as unecessary clutter for me and more importantly, as a waste of my money!

Fond :rolleyes: memories of doing the washing for a family of four in the bath too! Usually in cold water as we only had a back boiler behind the coal fire and could only afford to light it every couple of days. Then a friend of my Mum's donated an old washer to me. It was round and had an electric mangle on the top! Did the job tho and we didn't have central heating for years, until we bought our first house. Washing still goes out on a washing line, I did have a tumble drier many years ago but couldn't afford the leccy to use it, sold it in the end.

As time goes on, I find myself simplifying lots of areas in my life and even growing my own veg this year (that's a first for me!)

I do have a hoover tho............

Do you have a tank-top and those tartan slippers with a zip down the middle?:p:p:p:D:D

m00m00

I must be the spawn of satan,

i have virtually all the gadgets mentioned in this thread

dishwasher (I'm lazy)
Tumble drier (no garden)
Ipod (I like music)
flat screen tv, microwaves, multiple computers

all bought with boring old cash, at no opportunity cost.

fiscal reasons hasn't stopped me buying a house here, other reasons have.

margaretclare

Can I jump into this debate? I'm older than any of you.

I grew up in a tiny cottage without electricity and a loo in the back-yard. It wasn't even a loo as you'd understand it, but we won't go into that. I did my homework by oil-lamp and I went to bed by candle-light.

1958 we had electricity installed. By then, a lot of the neighbours had TV they all told my mum how wonderful it was, she could have a TV. 'No chance' she retorted. 'I'm having a washing machine'. And she did too - a second-hand top-loader with power wringer. After the years of boiling and scrubbing, she thought all her Christmases had come at one.

In those years and the years that followed, I was the first in my family to go to grammar school, the first to have a profession, the first to go to university (well, all right, it's now a university but it was a Polytechnic then), to buy my own car and to buy our own home (which my first husband and I bought in 1962 and lost a decade later because of financial mismanagement).

Fast forward to 2008, in my second marriage and living in my own home. I wouldn't be without a washing machine - I've never washed by hand since about 1962 - but I have no dishwasher nor tumble-drier. I like hanging washing out on the line, and when weather is inclement I dry washing on a little airer in the kitchen. We have ONE television set, we see no need for more. But we have a computer each and I have an iPod because I like listening to audiobooks. Despite free bus passes we insist on still driving our own car. We each have a mobile phone and DH insists I take it with me everywhere, even down the garden because 'you might fall and I might not hear you'. Mobiles for older people we regard as life-enhancing and can be life-saving.

We think we live pretty simply but we certainly live comfortably.

I do feel sorry for the young people because, with all the disadvantages of our youth, there were plenty of jobs available. They do expect a lot now but jobs seem to be harder to come by.

MissMoneypenny

BACKFRMTHEEDGE wrote: »

Hi CarolT,

Oh I see - you really do want to take us back to the 50's. I'm afraid my memories are not as rosy as yours of this era. Life for my mum was very hard without kitchen appliances and central heating. Have you ever tried to light a fire on a cold winters morning when the blasted thing just wont light and you have 5 freezing kids at your knees? Not to mention the horrendous pollution that comes from burning coal, but each to their own.

Back in the 50s the people were experts at lighting fires. When I moved to a house with a coal fire and fancied using it, I struggled to light it with firelighters! My mother had it lit in moment with her rolled up and twisted bits of newspaper. When I was a kid, the fire was made up in the morning by my mother and we just put a match to it when we came home from school. It is all in the way the fire is stacked. Lots of people still use coal fires through choice.

clobber_2

I feel a point has been missed about "labour-saving devices" such as washing machines, hoovers and so on.

50 years ago, women were expected to be housewives and had time to wash stuff by hand and light fires every day and sweep the floors daily.

I work full time plus on-call, as does my partner. I know how to handwash but if I had to rely on it I would never have anything clean to wear. The hoover makes keeping the flat clean a relatively easy and therefore acheivable job.

I could manage without my telly, ipod, kettle, coffee grinder etc but without a maid or a housewife I would find it hard to manage without the practical stuff.

Edit: My partner has just accused me of pontificating on things I know nothing about. Tis true, he does the hoovering.

Toto

We do have a dishwasher, tumble dryer, (one) tv, laptops, ice machine (in the kitchen) and ipods (which we need for work... really). However, we do have reasonable electricity bills and save a large amount of our salaries each month.

I would estimate over the years I have probably spent about 5k on this household luxury stuff. But, hand on heart I can say that it isn't the lack of 5k which is stopping me from buying a house right now, it's the other 495k I would need for an ok 4 bed house in an ok part of town.

WTF?_2

I think the real difference today is credit.

If people didn't have the ability to spend money that they didn't actually have and had to make do with only the cash they had from savings/monthly income then you wouldn't see anything like the proliferation of luxuries and gizmos that we currently see.

I spent a month visiting friends in a country that was officially 'third world' though actually pretty modern and you pretty soon see how much our society depends on credit. It just wasn't available there and as a result, people lived within their means.

If 'no cash in the wallet or the bank' really meant 'you have absolutely no spending power' then life in the UK would be very, very different.

You have to bear in mind that everything that is borrowed eventually has to be paid back with interest. We are now at the point where most people inclined to borrow have done so to the hilt. Their spending power is reduced by the need to pay back debt and they are horribly exposed to an economic recession. Prepare for things to get very much worse in the year or two ahead.

PasturesNew

It's the paying back bit that would stop me getting credit.

If I can't afford it today, how can I guarantee I can afford each of the payments for the next X months. Jobs can finish as quickly as "can I have a word with you in the office?" or "staff meeting at 11am"

When I work I do so against a backdrop of "I have a job today, by 6pm tonight I will know if I have a job tomorrow". Most people's expectations seem to be "oh my job's safe, in fact I'll get more money shortly".

As a single person over 25, if I lose a job and HAVE to go onto JSA, I'd have £60/week to settle all household bills and apply for jobs/attend interviews. Which, when you're running a house single-handedly, means it's tight to start with. So I don't like to sign up for any contracts or commitments.

Cash is king. Long live the king.

fc123

abaxas wrote: »

Look at it this way.

2008 - everyone can afford ipods/computers but cant afford to go out and drink or smoke

1970 - !!!!!! is an ipod/computer but I can drink myself to death in a pub and smoke 40 coffin nails a day.

We are no better off, just the goalposts moved from social situation/additions to buying tat.

Different time and different costs for things.
Pair of jeans from a value store cost less than 20 ciggies now.
We hadn't bought a new washing machine for about 11 years. Did so last year and I'm sure we paid less than half the price paid 11 yrs previously.
Not smart enough to factor in inflation.
Our gas bill this winter was terrifying.....and I struggled (lighting it that is) with a real fire all winter too.