How skint is this country and the people in it?
- Thread starter Cottis
- Start date
Morkai
Well-Known Member
You have a couple of years on me (we are Geriatric Millenials) but I'm the same. I earn more than my dad did but due to the house price to wages ratio, he was better off.
I'm not skint by any means but he did well with far less income.
None of the rest apart from old tats, but I do enjoy my pipe. I very rarely visit the village pub now, at £4.80 a pint. It's only high days and National occasions. I content myself with amber nectar (all donated). Even sold my own personal truck after the insurance more than doubled.
Fast improving on my miserable, grumpy old git image.
Morkai
Well-Known Member
Some people didn't have good start in life and have never recovered/caught up.
Some people are in areas that are hard to escape with no industry & crap education so they dont even have the option of being a digital nomad.
Some have dependants and cant risk changing career or afford retraining for a better job.
Some people are far too comfortable with credit and don't realise it only takes the lack of a couple of payslips to all fall apart.
Some people were ok and now cost increases have tipped the balance out of their favour.
Some people are lazy.
Some people are just dogsh*t with money.
And one of my absolutely favourites....shutting down the country for Covid, paying out furlough, Eat Out to Help Out, everybody acting like it was a free jolly that never needed to be paid back....we should have carried on as normal (but we got called names for suggesting that at the time).
Some people are in areas that are hard to escape with no industry & crap education so they dont even have the option of being a digital nomad.
Some have dependants and cant risk changing career or afford retraining for a better job.
Some people are far too comfortable with credit and don't realise it only takes the lack of a couple of payslips to all fall apart.
Some people were ok and now cost increases have tipped the balance out of their favour.
Some people are lazy.
Some people are just dogsh*t with money.
And one of my absolutely favourites....shutting down the country for Covid, paying out furlough, Eat Out to Help Out, everybody acting like it was a free jolly that never needed to be paid back....we should have carried on as normal (but we got called names for suggesting that at the time).
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alberta boy
Well-Known Member
I do the same , there has been a change in who is showing up at food banks over the last year or two . A definite rise in the working poor numbers over here as well .
AB
Jagare
Well-Known Member
Tats are OK if people can afford them. When I was in the concrete repair game the amount of times that blokes turned up on Monday, proudly showing up their new tat but had no money for food for the week or wanted a sub.None of the rest apart from old tats, but I do enjoy my pipe. I very rarely visit the village pub now, at £4.80 a pint. It's only high days and National occasions. I content myself with amber nectar (all donated). Even sold my own personal truck after the insurance more than doubled.
Fast improving on my miserable, grumpy old git image.
Gave up the pipe nearly 30 years ago but still love the smell of pipe or cigar smoke and if today I had a pipe in my pocket I would need to buy tobacco for it.
The grumpy old git image is formed on us by having to put up with the idiots we have to put up with as we go through life.
Dunwaters
Well-Known Member
It costs 3-4 times more to clear and develop a brownfield site than to develop a greenfield one.
It’s the same with refurbishing an old property.
To bring an old building up to current building standards is eye wateringly expensive compared to a new build .
Your new estates are being developed as a direct consequence of your increased population.
But expectation still outstrips earnings. Multiple foreign hols etc. There are people by me with cars on lease at +£700 per month most will be above av earners but not to that extent !!!!
Lots of these grumpy old gits in this country are living alone in a 4 bedroom house that’s paid for, and worth £500k and they’re complaining about the prices of food, fuel for their camper vans, utilities, council tax, energy, gas to heat the place……instead of downsizing and using equity to pay for what they need.
Lots of younger people can’t be bothered to try and save for a mortgage that’s never going to happen, so they just blow their wages on whatever they feel like.
Some get lucky and parents help them get on the ladder of course, but not many.
Crazy wages to house price ratio needs addressing.
Lots of younger people can’t be bothered to try and save for a mortgage that’s never going to happen, so they just blow their wages on whatever they feel like.
Some get lucky and parents help them get on the ladder of course, but not many.
Crazy wages to house price ratio needs addressing.
nun_hunter
Well-Known Member
I don't think saving hard or working hard has anything to do with house prices rising over 10X it is just the luck of being old enough to buy a property that was cheap then using the ever increasing equity to buy more houses, further compounding the issue, making money out of younger generations who can't afford to buy a house because wages haven't even remotely kept up with house prices or general inflation.
Much like developed western countries who have exploited the rest of the world to get to where they are now and then complain about how it's unfair developing countries are producing more CO² doing exactly what they did 50 years ago.
A smart phone is a computer, phone, email, camera, home office all in one and in today's world is almost essential, especially if you're actively in work or looking for employment.
Dunwaters
Well-Known Member
Definitely, if you haven’t got enough income to cover your own and your family’s daily needs and expenses, together with a small surplus for emergencies, you are poor.
You should also have enough discretionary income that you can buy stuff that you want but don’t actually need now and again.
nun_hunter
Well-Known Member
This made me laugh and reminded me of a friend's mother-in-law who when boiling the kettle puts the spare water into a thermos to save for the next cup of tea so it will cost less to boil the kettle again. She doesn't seem to realise that living alone in a 3 bed house, paying to heat and light it, council tax etc costs far more than the 8 pence or so she could save each week using the thermos trick.
Just like my dad who is so tight he uses the cold washing up water to 'flush' the downstairs toilet to save on his water bill. All well and good until he accidentally tipped a fork down the toilet and blocked it which lead to him having replace the toilet and waste pipe as it got stuck
When you need to save £30k for a deposit and it'll take you 7 years but knowing that the £30k will then need to be £60k by the time you've saved it means most people quite rightly think what's the point.
The vast majority of these new cars are not owned but are on some form of HP agreement.
Most car dealers don't want you to buy a car as selling finance packages is how they make their money.
15+ years of ultra low mortgage rates has done untold damage to house buyers and savers. Whilst inflation has dropped food and energy prices have doubled and show no signs of decreasing. My household budget as a pensioner has been trashed and I am still paying income tax!
D
Most car dealers don't want you to buy a car as selling finance packages is how they make their money.
15+ years of ultra low mortgage rates has done untold damage to house buyers and savers. Whilst inflation has dropped food and energy prices have doubled and show no signs of decreasing. My household budget as a pensioner has been trashed and I am still paying income tax!
D
Correct on all counts. We were so busy worrying about Fascism and Communism that we didn't notice our slide into NeoliberalismIt's about models of capitalism - Scandinavian countries are capitalist, but have a philosophy of just enough and share out. Norway have funded a whole health service and education system from oil. Whose pockets did our north sea oil profits go in???
Since 2008 it has just been one big social engineering project - jobs/prospects, the NHS, education has been deprived through 'Austerity'. The young can't afford a house or college, there are few careers that make sense to them or hold a future in this country.
But it has kept certain pockets full!!??
Everything is commercialised for profit including the deer which over run the country.
I am lucky enough to have stalking which costs me nothing. The land owner (wealthy) gets a beast I get a beast and so on - we both see the value in that. It is greed, selfishness and a F*** you mentality and everyman for himself view which this system of capitalism thrives on...
Anyway glad I got that off my chest, I might try and find a nice rabbit to make a tikka masala with and ponder the coat of the source.
K
The Norwegians have kept a tally of every barrel of oil extracted, and how much it made for their commonwealth.
We have no idea what Shell took. All while we were distracted by the pantomime of Conservative vs Labour
This one lives on a 2 bed cottage funded by savings and life threatening actions in my late twenties. I owe no money to anyone, still spend half my income on unprocessed food as earlier in life and have no credit cards. Both my sons have houses, self financed by hard work. One by service and building the other by progressing from traffic clerk to Vice president of a huge haulage concern and now operations director.of a large port. It's all out there for youngsters if they want it. Too much clubbing, drinking and want this/want that before they settle down is not conducive to saving for anything.
Far more important than any of this financial chat is what on earth was your dad doing in the toilet with a fork?This made me laugh and reminded me of a friend's mother-in-law who when boiling the kettle puts the spare water into a thermos to save for the next cup of tea so it will cost less to boil the kettle again. She doesn't seem to realise that living alone in a 3 bed house, paying to heat and light it, council tax etc costs far more than the 8 pence or so she could save each week using the thermos trick.
Just like my dad who is so tight he uses the cold washing up water to 'flush' the downstairs toilet to save on his water bill. All well and good until he accidentally tipped a fork down the toilet and blocked it which lead to him having replace the toilet and waste pipe as it got stuck
When you need to save £30k for a deposit and it'll take you 7 years but knowing that the £30k will then need to be £60k by the time you've saved it means most people quite rightly think what's the point.
I cant imagine hiring someone who didn't have a smart phone. case in point in the office i'm sitting in right now we don't provide telephones, just Ringcentral which we all install on our phones.
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