The Poorest Day, Inflation up, Debts Sky-High...let's not stay there!
I've just been on BBC News 24 talking about how today is the poorest day of the year (according to uSwitch's PR people anyway so of course it must be true).
Apparently our monthly disposable income falls from an average of £387 a month to around £270. thousands of people will default on bills in January and the end of the month will be particularly tough as many people were paid just before Christmas and will probably have run out of money by now.
I was also on Radio 5 and BBC Southern Counties radio yesterday talking about inflation going up to 3% and how some people's personal inflation rate is even higher than that.
It's all looking like a continuous wet weekend in Whitby for a lot of people, particularly parents, with bills of every sort going up and the days still drawing in far too early. So shall we all slit our wrists?
Nah...my feeling is that this is the perfect opportunity to turn everything around. Why not? As the song goes 'the only way is up'. I think this is a time to decide to spend less on useless rubbish, to be less lazy, to live more and to find ways of making more money (or getting more stuff for free) so that we get a bigger life rather than scrimping, saving, chasing bits of cash and feeling ground down all the time.
Frankly, economically it ain't gonna get much better for consumers this year. The macro economy will probably continue to flourish on the whole - although I'm glad I don't invest in retail stocks - but for individuals, prices and interest rates are going to carry on going up so now looks like a very good time to take control, turn things around and create some of our own sunshine. First good step would be to stop watching Big Brother and spend the time doing something more useful and fulfilling like picking the fluff out of your navel, sewing your lips together or lying on the floor, covering yourself with yellow post-it notes and pretending to be a field of rapeseed. Any other ideas???
I've just been on BBC News 24 talking about how today is the poorest day of the year (according to uSwitch's PR people anyway so of course it must be true).
Apparently our monthly disposable income falls from an average of £387 a month to around £270. thousands of people will default on bills in January and the end of the month will be particularly tough as many people were paid just before Christmas and will probably have run out of money by now.
I was also on Radio 5 and BBC Southern Counties radio yesterday talking about inflation going up to 3% and how some people's personal inflation rate is even higher than that.
It's all looking like a continuous wet weekend in Whitby for a lot of people, particularly parents, with bills of every sort going up and the days still drawing in far too early. So shall we all slit our wrists?
Nah...my feeling is that this is the perfect opportunity to turn everything around. Why not? As the song goes 'the only way is up'. I think this is a time to decide to spend less on useless rubbish, to be less lazy, to live more and to find ways of making more money (or getting more stuff for free) so that we get a bigger life rather than scrimping, saving, chasing bits of cash and feeling ground down all the time.
Frankly, economically it ain't gonna get much better for consumers this year. The macro economy will probably continue to flourish on the whole - although I'm glad I don't invest in retail stocks - but for individuals, prices and interest rates are going to carry on going up so now looks like a very good time to take control, turn things around and create some of our own sunshine. First good step would be to stop watching Big Brother and spend the time doing something more useful and fulfilling like picking the fluff out of your navel, sewing your lips together or lying on the floor, covering yourself with yellow post-it notes and pretending to be a field of rapeseed. Any other ideas???
posted by Jasmine Birtles @ 7:39 AM
2 Comments:
At 2:00 AM,
Anonymous said…
Actually this time of year when it's too cold to go out on an evening is the perfect time to start doing some serious research on the interest rates everyone's offering .How many of us still have current accounts paying 0.1% interest? Or savings accounts paying as little as 3% ? I've spent 2 weeks reserching all my bank accounts and savings I currently have and I was surprised to find that by switching the money around into higher interest accounts as well as taking full advantage of tax-free savings I'd earn as much in interest at the end of this year as I would working a month's worth of overtime.Someone said you can either be time rich and cash poor or cash rich and time poor - I personally think you can actually have a happy balance .We should all be reviewing our finances and setting ourselves realistic budgets.Personally I have no loans apart from a mortgage which is on a fixed rate lower than the interest I recieve in my savings.One bit of news that did alarm me so far this year was the announcement that banks will stop offering fixed rate mortgages it's not going to effect me but it will make it harder for people and young families struggling to get their first home.
At 5:22 AM,
Anonymous said…
Ya know this is exactly the philosophy that we in our household have just adopted. Back to basics really does work, cooking meals from scratch, turning lights off, boiling 1 cup of water instead of a whole kettle. Also freecycle, an organisation which has local groups, nationwide, globally is a great sourcse of money saving. \give stuff away, receive stuff for free. www.uk freecycle
Post a Comment
<< Home