Generation Skint

clobber_2

posh*spice wrote: »

Hi !!!!!!,

I don't know if I move in funny social circles but I would say no-one I know uses credit nor do my family. Do most people really use large amounts of credit

Yes. A huge number of people (mainly my age or younger) are living on credit cards, buying stuff on the never never, permanently overdrawn...

Isn't the personal indebtedness in this country several trillion?

posh*spice

PasturesNew wrote: »

Cash is king. Long live the king.

LOL:rotfl:I Like that one - I'll be using that:D

posh*spice

izzybusy23 wrote: »

The problem these days is that people have lost the 'worth' of money. Everything is too accessible and cheap. We are now sadly a throw away society. People chop and change their kitchen essentials every few months when they fancy a colour change. Terrible really isn't it?

Nooooooo - I absolutely don't know anybody at all who does this.

MrDT

posh*spice wrote: »

Nooooooo - I absolutely don't know anybody at all who does this.

You must have very sensible friends, congratulations You're in the minority though

carolt

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. So really you want HPs to crash and the economy to tank because you want us all to go back to the 50's when life was rosy and Enid Blyton ruled the world

No, I think you rather missed the point of my posts - that I don't believe owning large numbers of material objects buys you happiness, and that being able to afford a secure roof over your head is far more important to said happiness than owning said objects. I don't want to take us back to anywhere - we're going to the future whether we like it or not! - unless you've invented time travel... I've got nothing against modern inventions; I use the internet to work, so obviously it's essential to me for that (although contrary to the impression of me above, I spend little time on internet chatrooms - I have roughly a 1 post a day average, which is hardly excessive!), I just regard gadgets as less essential than a roof over my head.

If you think that makes me a Luddite, go ahead. I think if you can afford the essentials, then luxuries eg washing machines, toasters etc are great to have. But if one can't afford the essentials, gadgets are a poor substitute: opium (or ipods) for the masses...

baileysbattlebus

I am only 53 too and I must admit I can't remember not having a tv or washing machine or a fridge in the house. My grandparents didn't have a fridge but they had a walk in pantry with a cold shelf and I remember they used to keep milk in in a bucket of cold water in the summer.
My parents moved to a house with central heating when I was 18.

We got married in 1975 and went off on a whim to live on the Isle of Man for a while - we'd had a diving holiday there and liked it. Then decided after a year there was only rich or poor on the IoM and we weren't rich.

So went to live in Saudi Arabia for a couple of years (OH got a job there). Hoped we'd get Jeddah, on the coast, maybe a bit of diving, instead got Riyadh.

Once we came back in 1978 we have never been without washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher (1982), vacuum cleaner, tv, nice stereo etc.

My only try at a stove top kettle ended when I had put the kettle on and someone came to the door, chatted, thought I could smell something funny, eventually went into kitchen to find the kettle without a bottom and it had got so hot the plastic handle melted all over the top of the cooker.

Similar for toasting on the grill - twice forgot it was on and only realised when I saw flames coming from the cooker -I had set fire to a bit of fat in the bottom of the grill pan, burnt all the numbers off the oven temperature dial and all the seals around the grill - the 2nd time wasn't too bad, the seals had already gone and I was already having to guess the oven temperature.

Or when I had a cooker with an eye level grill put a tea towel on there and it caught fire.

So give me an electric kettle and a toaster every time.

Things are so cheap now it is unreal, we definately a throw away society and it in most cases it is cheaper to throw something away than to get it repaired. We used to have one those 32" sony flat screen tv sets a few years ago - they had just come out cost about £1100 after about 5 years it went and we took it to be looked at, it was going to cost £650 to put right. So we just bought something else.

We bought our first computer in the mid 1990's an IBM and it cost over £2k. Anyone remember Compuserve? I think my screen name was 12345678.993 or something similar.

In our house we have 5 tv sets, Sky+ in 2 rooms, 1 desk top PC, 2 laptops (wireless), Freeview in a bedroom, 1 stereo in the study, 1 in the living room, 1 in the garage (OH uses the garage as a workshop) and 1 in our bedroom. 4 dvd players, 2 of which record. 1 playstation 3, 1 playstation 2, 1 nintendo wii, 1 psp and 1 gameboy, 2 mp3 players, 1 satnav. But no IPod, are we missing somthing????

I could go on and I don't think we're unusual.

We do have daughter and her 6 year old son with us, his is the only room without a tv or anything else electronic.

posh*spice

carolt wrote: »

opium (or ipods) for the masses...

:rotfl::rotfl:Ooooooo the devil's work is an ipod:rotfl:Is that because it plays "devils music"....What the hecks wrong with an ipod it just plays music or whatever (pod casts etc) They aren't even that expensive as music players go...

posh*spice

baileysbattlebus wrote: »

In our house we have 5 tv sets, Sky+ in 2 rooms, 1 desk top PC, 2 laptops (wireless), Freeview in a bedroom, 1 stereo in the study, 1 in the living room, 1 in the garage (OH uses the garage as a workshop) and 1 in our bedroom. 4 dvd players, 2 of which record. 1 playstation 3, 1 playstation 2, 1 nintendo wii, 1 psp and 1 gameboy, 2 mp3 players, 1 satnav. But no IPod, are we missing somthing????

I could go on and I don't think we're unusual.

We do have daughter and her 6 year old son with us, his is the only room without a tv or anything else electronic.

2 TVs, 4 ipods, 2 ipod docs, 4 steros, 5 computers (wireless), one virgin media box, 1 digi box, 4 mobile phones, 3 handsfree phones, 2 DVD players, 1 Wii, 2 ds's, NO Sat Nav (we barely use our car)...and we use all of them and they are all loved...

MissMoneypenny

izzybusy23 wrote: »

I remember buying a stereo costing £500+ which in those days was a phenomenal amount of money (1980's).

£700 I paid for mine in 1981 - and I still have it.:D

carolt

posh*spice wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl:Ooooooo the devil's work is an ipod:rotfl:Is that because it plays "devils music"....What the hecks wrong with an ipod it just plays music or whatever (pod casts etc) They aren't even that expensive as music players go...

Sorry, couldn't resist the turn of phrase....

Think you've missed the overall point....?