Olympics–love it or hate it?

It’s Finance Friday and the Olympics start today. I am not a fan, too expensive for tax payers in a time of recession and austerity. We probably wouldn’t be in a recession if it wasn’t for all these jollies for the rich. So far this year in the UK there has been the Jubilee, Ascot, Henley, Wimbledon and a host of other champagne and strawberry events. I doubt if there will be much champagne at this one. I read  a bottle of water is £1.60 ($2.50) and  a small bottle (300ml) of Heineken lager is £4.20 ($6.50). Don’t have the plate of curry at £8.50 or you’ll need even more water! You can’t make it up…

As you might have guessed, I went looking for bargains at Aldi and bought an iceberg lettuce for 39p, that is one of the ‘super six’ this week. Four baking potatoes were the same price. I managed to get past the traditional sweets this week without buying any!

I read somewhere that heating bills are set to go up by 300% because we have had a cold wet summer so far. What rubbish! The winter was mild compared to 2010-2011 and so I’m £200 in credit. My monthly direct debit has been cut by £28 until I get that cash back. I did notice that my electricity usage goes up from about 5 units a day in summer to about 7 or 8 in a cold winter. This is mainly boiling kettles and the electric shower. The reason is that the water that is heated is much colder, freezing in fact. Wouldn’t it be great if it could be heated a little before it goes through the shower? If a heat pump could extract the heat from the water going down drains and recycle it to the inlet of showers, it would save a few quid. Just a thought…

I tried to pay my line rental on my phone line in advance to save £60 a year. They took the money twice and I still didn’t get my discount. TalkTalk send me a cheque, but I still don’t have my  cheap line rental. I’ll get the cheque in the bank before I start the whole process again.

The stock market is taking a hammering because of countries like Spain having their credit ratings cut and then having to pay higher interest rates on bonds. If they want a single currency, do it properly. Individual nations shouldn’t be issuing bonds, the EU as a whole should issue Eurobonds for the whole economic bloc. Politicians never see the bleeding obvious…

Yesterday, I wrote about things for kids to do during their summer holidays. You can read Thrifty Thursday | School holidays on this site or pop over to a Zillion Ideas to read Free Days Out for Kids that had nice photos. I was reminded that in Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the Southern hemisphere it’s winter and they don’t have summer hols. Next week, how to build a snowman…

There are more amazing blogs to read on the home page. Please share with your Facebook friends. My window cleaner says the women’s soccer team are worth watching in the Olympics. Bet they are…

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