Who's feeling the pinch?

[Magentus]

really starting to feel the pinch now as work has nearly ceased I'm a self-employed builder and theres no work out there at all and with 2 young ankle biters and rent to pay were trying to live of my girl-friends £6.25 an hour wage

Sorry to hear about your situation Andie - I supposed you've already investigated this, but have you applied for housing benefit or family tax credit? Might make surviving on a low wage more possible.

Either way - hope it picks up for you.

 

[rik_uk3]

Do we see an Issue of Peak Education?? Too many people , training and studying too long for too few jobs?? , I wonder what the advantage is to those that fund so many people into such things via student loans?

Oh no , I think I get it now....

I think we have to some extent. Another problem with Tony Blands idea of a degree for 50% of the population (or more) is the degree's people study, Media Studies, Sports Science, Forensic Science, Golf Course Design bla bla bla are all but useless in today's job market.

There was a chap recently talking about hiring I.T. graduates and why so many were from overseas. His answer was that the I.T. degree's in the UK were not up to the job, if he hired a UK graduate he would often have to train them from scratch where the overseas applicants came ready equipped with the skills needed and could go to work from day one. We allow children to cruise through education picking the easy options that in fact give them 'skills' that are not appropriate to their or industries future needs. Has education been 'dumbed down' ? You better believe it has

End of rant.

 

[Suffolksteve]

it isn't the TV or electronics that are stolen, but the contents of the larder! Hams, sausage, canned goods are all taken, this was especially true last winter.

When I went to a parish council meeting to try and chase them about setting up some allotments the local police officer was there to report on a few local crimes, he commented that a freezers in out buildings like sheds were increasingly targetted and emptied by thieves instead of breaking into the house and that this was expected to increase. This was back in 2009 and it has only got worse since.

I would imagine you would have to be feeling the pinch pretty hard to do that as it doesn't sound like the crime of a hardened criminal to me.

 

[Suffolksteve]

Sorry to hear about your situation Andie - I supposed you've already investigated this, but have you applied for housing benefit or family tax credit? Might make surviving on a low wage more possible.

Either way - hope it picks up for you.

couldn't agree with this more. The number of people who don't do this amazes me. You will be paying enough in tax and NI contributions throughout your career that you should look into every piece of help available while times are hard.

 

[Bush Matt]

How can any thread of this nature not be political?

I actually believe that 60%+ of this recesion is the retiring of the baby boomer generation. The credit crunch should really be renamed credit normalisation as it is a return to long term levels of affordable debt. Politicians and bankers make for a much easier target in the papers - no need to discuss them though!

Cheers

 

[shogun]

i am feeling the pinch just now as i am out of work at the moment...so at the moment life sucks!!

 

[knifefan]

I like the general idea of this thread - but are we not missing the point!! The reason that we are feeling "the pinch" is that our government and general population have become used to easy "credit" !!! and yes we can blame the banks - but people were begging for 110% mortages !! Now that you have to "SAVE" and stump up at the very least 10% it's all "tears at bedtime" ooh my the banks arn't lending

At the end of the day if an interest rise of 1% is life or death to you - you couldn't afford the loan anyway !!!! This not only applys to the population but most of the world governments.

I think there is a lot worse to come - I know quite a few people who are aiding their debt payments by using their credit cards "D'oh !!"

 

[locum76]

I'm going to invest in goats, I reckon they're gonna become a good commodity in the future what with being good for milk, wool, cheese and meat. Not to mention they're good lawn mowers and don't require any fossil fuels to work.

I'll start speculating in goat futures in the city on Monday.

 

[spiritwalker]

why did the irish originally call their currency the punt...
because it rhymed with bank manager...

we are feeling the pinch too, whilst we both are fortunate to have jobs the cost of mortgages these days means both of us have to work and well having kids means childcare which has robbed us recently especially with the rising food costs and fuel etc. We both work hard just to stay afloat and i thought the point of life was to raise kids it seems families are being hit the most in an ideal world only one wage would be necessary allowing one of us to be a mum or dad and well freeing up jobs for more people...

 

[Scottishwanderer]

It's liberating having less money embrace it =)

 

[Stringmaker]

"...At the end of the day if an interest rise of 1% is life or death to you - you couldn't afford the loan anyway !!!! This not only applys to the population but most of the world governments...."
QUOTE]

Nailed it.

Too many people have been borrowing too much money they can't really afford, to buy an overpriced asset (housing). Along the way, an awful lot of people have been making an awful lot of money but now it's over, unless you have cash and can avoid borrowing at all.

To answer the OP, no, I am not feeling the pinch, partly through circumstance but largely due to not borrowing more than I could afford (including allowing for interest rate rises). I bought my first home (a studio flat) when mortgage interest rates were 14%; and stayed there for 8 years. When we relocated to our current home I deliberately kept my borrowing as low as I could and am now thankful that I did.

My heart goes out to those of you feeling the pain; I know how fortunate I am and I wish you well.

 

[lub0]

i thought the point of life was to raise kids it seems families are being hit the most in an ideal world only one wage would be necessary allowing one of us to be a mum or dad and well freeing up jobs for more people...

It is... but it's been one of the goals of the powers that be over the past 50 years to break up the family unit completely so that each consecutive generation is dumber and unhealthier than the last until we end up with a completely brain washed, disconnected and homo/bisexual bunch of mentally twisted politically correct acquiescing zombies.

 

[spiritwalker]

lol harsh but very true in a lot of cases

It is... but it's been one of the goals of the powers that be over the past 50 years to break up the family unit completely so that each consecutive generation is dumber and unhealthier than the last until we end up with a completely brain washed, disconnected and homo/bisexual bunch of mentally twisted politically correct acquiescing zombies.

 

[knifefan]

thought the point of life was to raise kids it seems families are being hit the most in an ideal world only one wage would be necessary allowing one of us to be a mum or dad and well freeing up jobs for more people...

It seems the only people who can do this is the "dole" culture who see every extra child as a additional family allowance payment, a bigger house and more benefits!!!! When we have a society where in some instances children are being brought up in households of 4 generations of the family have never worked !!!!!What chance has the family who procreate within their financial means !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!