feeling the pinch

[strummbo]

stupid question probably but is anyone not feeling the pinch right now?

there are tons of arguments and economic reasons from all sides and i find the array of explanations bewildering and baffling, almost contradictory at times

on this very forum and countless others, people all talking about a variety of things that are related, from truck drivers wages to money for stopping smoking, the olympic games, the commonwealth games, subsidising the arts, tax breaks, hedge fund managers getting 3billion bonus pay, bin men on strike, petrol prices, food prices, exorbitant salaries, pittance wages and so on and so on, all related by, at the bottom line, money. Some got none, some got loads, some got enough, some got just enough to live, barely existing at one end.

Take our government, are they not wasting a portion of the kitty raised by taxation on a frivolous thing like the olympics. we know that businesses will sponsor probably the majority but is that not money that could be paid to lower paid people? most naive probably to think that that and i know the reasons why it couldn't happen

Next thing, we'll be getting the Ministry of Information raised from the dead with propaganda films about cutting your cloth and switch of electrical appliances and grow your own veggies

HAs anyone else noticed the return of cheaper cuts of meat and offal in the shops, aye, austere times ahead i reckon.

sort it out Petrie!

Or maybe Obama...:hmmm:

THe reason I say was driven to write this is that my fixed term freestyle mortgage has just ended with standard life and i asked months ago about getting a better deal only to be told that all mortgage products had been withdrawn subject to review. Hardly bloomin freestyle

its a mighty long line from my mortgage or a northern irish binmans wages to Obama, does it even exist, or i am i just being naive and selfish?

I have also just re-read The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists to co-incide with the radio play version currently being broadcast on the bbc so if i come across as a dillusional leftie then fair enough, great book by the way.


Am away for a little libation, i hope to see some replies when i get back
from stompin round the house moaning saying switch that bl00dy light off to the kids


PS i probably should have read this before i posted it but i'm slightly squiffy to start with...

[bobbyhibs1983]

I think pretty much everyone is feeling the pinch at the moment from your typical teen to an older o.a.p.Very good post btw.

Just everything has went up, petrol/deisel, energy/heating prices, food prices the lot, i dunno bout you or anyone else but i dont think ANYTHING has went down.
There was an artical in the sun newspaper yesterday about petrol prices and well it showed you the prices(or average prices) from the last 5 years and in 2004(when i started driving) the average price of petrol was like 77.9p per letrie.Now it is £1.17 per letrie.now thats 30p per letrie, x say 10 letries a week(witch i used to do weekly) thats £3 a letrie up on 4 years.
Now times that over a year and your are talking bout £150 to fill the car up.
another thing that really annoys me is just recently mp's smp's or anyone in govenment have been awarded a huge pay rise.

What for?:grr:



Just really annoys me that hard working people are ripped off.
Does anyone feel the country has inproved?
Does anyone feel safer?
does anyone have much savings?

I hope im not alone in thinking that life is tougher now than a few years ago, mainly due to money.

another point i would like to make regarding the fuel prices, enery prices and what not, is these comapanies make billions and billions of £'s of money every yearly, so why the hell an increase?

Mainly it is due to tax i feel, The reason i think we pay tax is to pay police, the nhs and the brave servicemen and woman but tell me, do you feel these nurses/dr's deserve more money than our mp's?

I sure due but mp's are paid huge amounts of money and well nurses., police, servicemen and woman are paid next to nothing .
anyone agree/disagree?

[steakbake]

i feel quite lucky in some ways. i am on a good salary and i am thankful for that, but at face value, what appears to be plenty to live off now is starting to become just enough to keep afloat.

i really have no idea how people on lower incomes survive. if i was on the same money i was getting even a couple of years ago, i think my options would be very limited indeed.

i really resent some of the things the government spends money on. the iraq war and afghanistan for one, id cards for another.

i remember when i was just about to vote for my first time back in 1997 and i was all set to vote labour, which i eventually did for the first and only time since.

my aunt, a lovely lady but very much a committed conservative told me that labour would spend all the country's money and keep spending until it was literally coming out of my pockets and they would also make it difficult to travel abroad (i always wanted to be a diplomat).

seems she was right in some respects!

prudence the chancellor indeed. complete chancer more like!

[GreenandGlaikit]

i feel quite lucky in some ways. i am on a good salary and i am thankful for that, but at face value, what appears to be plenty to live off now is starting to become just enough to keep afloat.

i really have no idea how people on lower incomes survive. if i was on the same money i was getting even a couple of years ago, i think my options would be very limited indeed.

i really resent some of the things the government spends money on. the iraq war and afghanistan for one, id cards for another.

i remember when i was just about to vote for my first time back in 1997 and i was all set to vote labour, which i eventually did for the first and only time since.



my aunt, a lovely lady but very much a committed conservative told me that labour would spend all the country's money and keep spending until it was literally coming out of my pockets and they would also make it difficult to travel abroad (i always wanted to be a diplomat).




seems she was right in some respects!

prudence the chancellor indeed. complete chancer more like!

Yer Aunt should stick tae her knitting. :thumbsup:

[steakbake]

Yer Aunt should stick tae her knitting. :thumbsup:

Back in the 30s she was a communist - so yeah, perhaps she doesn't really know anything about politics after all!

[toaosi]

Things are tough for almost everyone just now and is going to get a lot harder for a long time to come. Food, fuel and just about anything you are having to pay is becoming ridiculous.
I work in the mortgage industry and for the last 2/3 years, more and more people have been borrowing up to 90% loan to values on their properties to pay of credit cards and loans due to overspending and it looked obvious that they would be back in another 2/3 years to do the same again. That was at a fixed rate of about 5.8% which is now about 7% so obviously they will be in ever deeper doo doo. Believe me that is tip of the iceberg stuff and if interest rates go up again which they look like they might then if will frightening the amount of people that are going to lose their homes.

One thing I did last week was to fix my gas and electric price with Scottish Power untill 2011 as the stories last week were rises of up to 40% by the end of the year!!!! Got info from the guy of the telly, Martin Lewis, his website, Moneysavingexpert.com. is well worth a look.

Good luck folks, I think we are goinfg to need it.:grr:

[Jack]

Totally agree with all the above and cant think that anyone wont have noticed – except those who are able to fix their own salaries like MPs and MSPs.

… and while it’s bad news that all these things have gone up in price has anyone noticed the silent protests happening in Leith Walk and other streets around the country?














Big fat blokes walking slowly up and down the street parading their beer bellies in protest at beer going up by more than 33p a litre in the last year!!! :duck:

[GreenandGlaikit]

Back in the 30s she was a communist - so yeah, perhaps she doesn't really know anything about politics after all!

Clearly. :wink:

[Crossgates Hibs]

Things are tough for almost everyone just now and is going to get a lot harder for a long time to come. Food, fuel and just about anything you are having to pay is becoming ridiculous.
I work in the mortgage industry and for the last 2/3 years, more and more people have been borrowing up to 90% loan to values on their properties to pay of credit cards and loans due to overspending and it looked obvious that they would be back in another 2/3 years to do the same again. That was at a fixed rate of about 5.8% which is now about 7% so obviously they will be in ever deeper doo doo. Believe me that is tip of the iceberg stuff and if interest rates go up again which they look like they might then if will frightening the amount of people that are going to lose their homes.

One thing I did last week was to fix my gas and electric price with Scottish Power untill 2011 as the stories last week were rises of up to 40% by the end of the year!!!! Got info from the guy of the telly, Martin Lewis, his website, Moneysavingexpert.com. is well worth a look.

Good luck folks, I think we are goinfg to need it.:grr:



Half of these numpties borrowing against their mortgages will already be in negative equity. Its unbelievable how this has been allowed to go on polititions and bankers should be facing jail over all of this. I still get call offering me money all the time drives me mad.:grr:

[Crossgates Hibs]

I think pretty much everyone is feeling the pinch at the moment from your typical teen to an older o.a.p.Very good post btw.

Just everything has went up, petrol/deisel, energy/heating prices, food prices the lot, i dunno bout you or anyone else but i dont think ANYTHING has went down.
There was an artical in the sun newspaper yesterday about petrol prices and well it showed you the prices(or average prices) from the last 5 years and in 2004(when i started driving) the average price of petrol was like 77.9p per letrie.Now it is £1.17 per letrie.now thats 30p per letrie, x say 10 letries a week(witch i used to do weekly) thats £3 a letrie up on 4 years.
Now times that over a year and your are talking bout £150 to fill the car up.
another thing that really annoys me is just recently mp's smp's or anyone in govenment have been awarded a huge pay rise.

What for?:grr:



Just really annoys me that hard working people are ripped off.
Does anyone feel the country has inproved?
Does anyone feel safer?
does anyone have much savings?

I hope im not alone in thinking that life is tougher now than a few years ago, mainly due to money.

another point i would like to make regarding the fuel prices, enery prices and what not, is these comapanies make billions and billions of £'s of money every yearly, so why the hell an increase?

Mainly it is due to tax i feel, The reason i think we pay tax is to pay police, the nhs and the brave servicemen and woman but tell me, do you feel these nurses/dr's deserve more money than our mp's?

I sure due but mp's are paid huge amounts of money and well nurses., police, servicemen and woman are paid next to nothing .
anyone agree/disagree?

House prices are going down:agree:

[Westie1875]

Half of these numpties borrowing against their mortgages will already be in negative equity. Its unbelievable how this has been allowed to go on polititions and bankers should be facing jail over all of this. I still get call offering me money all the time drives me mad.:grr:

To be fair most folk borrowing up to 90% would have assumed that would be pretty safe (suppose it depends what the actual value is really) and those people may just be ok. Its the ones who have taken the 100% mortages or even worse above that, it wasnt that long ago there were mortgage deals flying around for something ridiculous like 105 or 110% LTV ratio - the people who took those deals may end up in real bother.

Like a few others Im lucky in that I get paid a decent salary and do have savings to fall back on - on the not so lucky side my fixed rate mortgage runs out in 5 months, not looking forward to re-negotiating that. :boo hoo:

If/when things get much worse its going to be very grim for a LOT more people unfortunately. :bitchy:

[Crossgates Hibs]

To be fair most folk borrowing up to 90% would have assumed that would be pretty safe (suppose it depends what the actual value is really) and those people may just be ok. Its the ones who have taken the 100% mortages or even worse above that, it wasnt that long ago there were mortgage deals flying around for something ridiculous like 105 or 110% LTV ratio - the people who took those deals may end up in real bother.

Like a few others Im lucky in that I get paid a decent salary and do have savings to fall back on - on the not so lucky side my fixed rate mortgage runs out in 5 months, not looking forward to re-negotiating that. :boo hoo:

If/when things get much worse its going to be very grim for a LOT more people unfortunately. :bitchy:



Houses have been overpriced massively since 2004. It was 120% LTV that Northern Rock were offering before they went under. Total madness that this has been allowed to happen. :grr:

[scott7_0(Prague)]

The UK is sinking fast, glad I baled in 2003.

For me life is great here in Prague nice apartment in Prague that I bought 3years ago for 32k and now worth 100k, also building a 5 bedroom house just outside Prague for 80k on land that I bought for 30k.

Some of you guys should try and move before the ships goes totally under!

[Jack]

The UK is sinking fast, glad I baled in 2003.

For me life is great here in Prague nice apartment in Prague that I bought 3years ago for 32k and now worth 100k, also building a 5 bedroom house just outside Prague for 80k on land that I bought for 30k.

Some of you guys should try and move before the ships goes totally under!

Sounds just like the UK 20 years ago. Where are you going next? :wink:

[steakbake]

to be honest, the fiction of the UK economy running well for the past 10yrs is solely based on people taking credit which, in a down turn, they probably wont be able to afford.

those who didn't take out any credit during this time are entitled to sit on their moral high horse and preach to the vast majority who have, but the bottom line is that we have spent our way into a seeming growth period and now we're going to suffer for the results.

key indicators the government like to see - mortgage approvals, higher property prices, high street spending etc etc etc.

its an entirely manufactured period of growth based on easy credit and it is no way to have run the economy.

not saying we're doomed or anything, just that we'll no doubt hear more from the preachy types in times to come while the rest of us are left to pick up the bill for gordon brown's economic "boom".

boom and bust - exactly, unfortunate to have to admit, what many opposition parties said that labour's economic blueprint is based on.

[scott7_0(Prague)]

Sounds just like the UK 20 years ago. Where are you going next? :wink:

No where, in 10 years time all will be paid off and my outgoings will be as low as can be, so why would I want to move. :greengrin