Finance Friday | Priorities
Can you imagine living in a country where you don’t have any opportunities and struggle to get clean water and enough to eat? Here in the UK, most people are lucky, but there is a lot of inequality. Young people on benefits go into MacDonald’s to eat, just because it’s there.
A bank holiday day out?
It’s Bank Holiday in the UK today. Traditionally people would have a day out, in the countryside or take a train to the seaside. Now they tend to go to bloody Ikea. People are obsessed with spending money. It’s a rat race, but is it healthy?
Finance Friday | Needs and Wants
We all need water and food and we need to keep warm in winter. The divide between what we actually need and what we want is getting a little blurred. Do we really need mobile phones, cars and internet? I think we want these things and a lot more, but we don’t need them. We don’t even need television…
Finance Friday | Monetarist mayhem
The town that I live in used to be run by the town clerk from the town hall. Now we have a new civic centre miles away, they didn’t even put it in a central location. Social Housing used to be council housing and people paid their rent and that included rates, water rates and sewage. (more…)
Thrifty Thursday | Surviving austerity
The Aldi super-six this week are leeks (pack), new potatoes (750g), onions (1kg), broccoli (350g), carrots (1kg) and parsnips (600g). They are all 49p, the same as last week. The Thursday special buys today include a pressure washer with a 3 year warranty. You could start a business with one of those, cleaning patios.
Finance Friday | The last Easter Egg
The government’s austerity programme really begins to hit the poorest in society next week as benefits cuts make the poorest even poorer. This could be the last Easter that some kids will get Easter eggs.
Finance Friday | Talk Talk Talk
I answer my phone this morning. This is unusual for me, I usually leave the calls to go to my answering machine because of nuisance calls that could be dealt with easily; but aren’t because they make money for the telecom companies. It was from TalkTalk.
A market economy?
Imagine you had to buy meat at the butchers because no one else sold it. If the prices kept going up, that could be because there was a lack of competition. If there are only two butchers on the High Street and the nearest one apart from those were 50 miles away; they might take advantage of that.
Saturday ideas and thoughts
I don’t usually do sky pictures, they’re boring, but this one is unusual and I’m a bit desperate today. If you look carefully you can see the moon breaking through the clouds. We had another week of financial bad news. Both banks that are partly owned by the tax payer posted losses. Not real losses that would send them into administration like so many High Street businesses; these are just millions and billions lost ‘on paper’. (more…)
Thrifty Valentines day 2013
The Aldi Super-six this week are garlic (3), cucumber, mango, pineapple, kiwi fruit (8) and chestnut mushrooms (250g). They are all 59p each. The Thursday special buys are worth looking at and include lots of gardening items like seed potatoes and a little greenhouse. They also have art supplies, like an art set for £3.99. (more…)
Finance Friday | devaluing people
A few years ago, the refuse collection service where I live was put out to tender. One of those big ‘outsourcing’ companies won the 300 million pound contract. They now collect refuse, a wheelie bin for recycling, a bin for garden waste in summer, a bin for a kitchen waste and a bin that is supposed to be kept in the kitchen for waste too. The staff got a pay cut when it was all reorganised and that wasn’t the only council service to be outsourced.
UK lottery result for 30th January 2013
The lottery was a rollover to Saturday, last night. Have you won anything?
Thrifty food ideas
At Aldi this week the super-six are spring onions (125g), salad potatoes (750g), celery (350g), cucumber, cherry tomatoes (250g) and little gem lettuce (2). They are all 49p each. That offer ends on Saturday. Today’s Thursday offers include work wear for men and some interesting tools.
Champagne and strawberries
While many people are worrying about paying their bills in January after the excesses of Christmas. It was revealed this morning in the Telegraph that one London street has homes valued at £8.1 millions. These houses are a stone’s throw from Harrods and belong to the super-rich. They can afford the best and never need worry about the next gas and electric bill.
We are all in this together
The recession appears to be getting worse. I was watching a programme on television last night about people who become homeless. They get evicted from their homes, because they can’t pay their mortgage or rent. Is it their own fault because they got sick, lost their job or their business failed?
What does ‘price discrimination’ actually mean?
I just looked at chickens in Tesco, they are £4.00 each or 3 for £10. Why do you have to pay a 1/5 more if you only want one? Is this discrimination in favour of families or against single people?
Thrifty Thursday | Stay thrifty
I popped down to Aldi last night. The Super Six this week are cucumbers, beetroot (500g), new potatoes (750g), tomatoes, radish (200g) and avocados. They are all 39 pence. They have some special buys today, but I didn’t see anything very exciting. The petrol powered hedge trimmer might be worth it. For computer and electrical goods check out Comet, they seem to have a few good offers now.
A financial storm brewing?
I keep getting emails telling me that there is a financial storm brewing. I don’t watch the video, they tend to ramble on and you’re none the wiser afterwards. They are after my money, I can be sure of that. So will the recession in the UK get worse? Or better?
What can we waste money on now?
Things are looking up, there is some hope for the future. The weather seems better and the bloody Olympics is nearly finished! I’m sure that the powers that be will come up with something to waste the nations money on now all the usual summer jollies are over. I read somewhere that David Cameron wants to turn Britain into a tax haven. If we didn’t have tax havens there wouldn’t be a world economic crisis mate! Instead of squirrelling money away in secret Swiss bank accounts, try investing it in the country you were bloody born into.
Feeding a family on a budget
I read an article some time ago about feeding a family of four on 60 pounds a week. I thought, I can do better than that! The eggs, chips and peas in the picture cost about 50p to cook. If every meal was as frugal as that, it would be easy! The big problem is that kids can be so fussy and so you do have to present the food in an attractive way for the children. My eggs and chips are multi-coloured; white, yellow, green and red makes it look quite attractive! (more…)
Frugal Friday | Grow your own
It looks very much like the Great British Summer is here, but how long will it last? I think there is time to germinate a few seeds. Runner beans are easy to grow and I am always amazed at how well they crop. I also intend to start some lettuce seed and tomato seeds off later today. I bought some French beans seeds from Aldi, but need some runner bean seed and so I’ll pop out and buy some later. I mentioned how getting your 5 fruit and vegetables a day can prevent some nasty diseases in yesterday’s thrifty blog. You can save money and stay healthy by growing your own. (more…)
Thrifty | Minimalism
It’s not easy living with the minimal number of possessions. But think how much easier and cheaper it would be to keep your house clean without all the decorative stuff like pot plants, ornaments and family photographs around your home. All those little bit and pieces cost money over the years too. Maybe you could have one digital photo frame instead of all those family photos? In fact many televisions can be set up to display all your photos these days. (more…)
Thrifty | Food and essentials
I read about the Black Country Food Bank this morning that distributes food to people who are referred by doctors or various agencies. Food banks get the food from the stock piles of the European Union and also donations. They have food stamps in the US too and I have a particular dislike for schemes that treat our citizens as charitable cases. They are necessary but in wealthy countries they make us realise that there is a deep divide between rich and poor. Many people need this food because they have to pay exorbitant council tax, television licence and even rents for social housing is taking up a large chunk of many people’s income. (more…)
Finance | What would you do?
Lotto
The slogan for this week’s national lottery draw here in the UK is – what would you do? What would you do if you won £4,000,000 on the lottery? Would you buy a lots of food and drinks and have a party to celebrate? This week the British government again pumped 50 billion into the economy, affectively devaluing money again. This will probably cause inflation over the next year of around 5% devaluing £4,000,000 by around £200,000! Michael Winner once described having £3,000,000 as being comfortable; now we find with £4,000,000 you lose £4,000 a week as your money is devalued! (more…)
