tightening our belts

swampy1961

I'm always intrigued when on the news or in the papers, they look at one or two individuals who maintain that they need help but we are never given an insight into how they actually budget their money.
I can remember a few years ago when a colleagues' partner was made redundant - literally when he walked in the door for work!! She sought advice from the CAB and virtually had a row with the advisor about how her daughter still needed her riding lessons and son was into multiple sports. Her perception of how and where to make savings was miles off from reality!!
I do think that once people are actually faced with what they 'need' against what they 'want' then we might see people think twice about updating their mobile phone and going 'sim only' or returning their PCP car because buying a second hand one is far more practical or giving up smoking just because food is more important.
Unfortunately, too many people do not know how to cook either - preferring to buy ready made meals - simply because their education did not include basic cookery skills. We all need help at some or other in our lives but you do have to help yourself too by putting in some effort to try and achieve what you need and not always expect that someone will give you a handout.
Life is harsh some times but you do get through it!!

If you look across the board of those who need help you will find examples like those you've mentioned - but also others who do know how to budget, have budgeted and tightened their belts already, and simply do not have sufficient income for the essentials.

To make assumptions that all people are in one group or the other is wrong. People's circumstances vary widely, as does their ability to cope with impoverishment. Some have been in poverty for a long time - to others, it is a new experience.

But the bottom line is that poverty in this country does exist - with the best will in the world, some people have no control over external events that shape their lives. There, but for the grace of God...

I'm always intrigued when on the news or in the papers, they look at one or two individuals who maintain that they need help but we are never given an insight into how they actually budget their money.
I can remember a few years ago when a colleagues' partner was made redundant - literally when he walked in the door for work!! She sought advice from the CAB and virtually had a row with the advisor about how her daughter still needed her riding lessons and son was into multiple sports. Her perception of how and where to make savings was miles off from reality!!
I do think that once people are actually faced with what they 'need' against what they 'want' then we might see people think twice about updating their mobile phone and going 'sim only' or returning their PCP car because buying a second hand one is far more practical or giving up smoking just because food is more important.
Unfortunately, too many people do not know how to cook either - preferring to buy ready made meals - simply because their education did not include basic cookery skills. We all need help at some or other in our lives but you do have to help yourself too by putting in some effort to try and achieve what you need and not always expect that someone will give you a handout.
Life is harsh some times but you do get through it!!

Most of the comments seem to be about people who, for whatever reason, have been 'on the breadline' for years and know how to make compromises. The prople I wonder about are those that are interviewed on TV saying how difficult things are at the moment (and I do know times are difficult) but are they actually making cutbacks or are they trying to keep their lifestyle as it has been for several years. With the economy in the present state, things such as the lastest mobile phone, takeaways and holidays probably need to be put on hold until times are better.

Many women now also want to work and have a professional career

We are not all cut to be housewives depending on the husband's salary

We are people too with ambitions and dreams, just like men

geekesse

Times have changed. Many mothers have to work, and few have land to grow stuff. Cooking on gas costs as much as the ingredients. A cinema ticket for an adult costs around £11, for a child £6-7. And frankly, you may have been happy, but an awful lot of people were not. Don’t knock today’s young parents who have it way harder than previous generations.

Yes Geekesse, the 1950's were grim for me although I didn't realise until I was 6 or 7. When I was at school I noticed how different I was to most of the other children, they lived in nice houses, some had a family car and they had holidays. I lived in a pre-fab, which was very cold in the winter and we had very little. My mother just accepted it, I hardly heard her grumble until the Suez crisis which meant my dad was put on "short time" and his money was halved. It happened to a few families on our estate where the job of the dad relied on oil. Many men though had decent trades and seemed to do ok, saving the magical few hundred pounds for a house deposit. For those in poverty there was no government help, we just went without. Now even the so-called poorest have TV's, phones and other "essentials". The 60's were better, but my parents seemed to accept their lot and never tried to better themselves, any talk of a nice house was dismissed as "ideas above your station". When I married in the early 70's, my mother thought I was mad getting into debt with a mortgage, she just didn't get it; all my life I had wanted a nice house and decent size garden and I sacrificed new clothes, colour TV, etc. for quite a while to afford it. At least then we had a chance if we worked and saved, my house cost £7,000 and we spent a further £3,000 building a double garage and eventually a nice fitted kitchen, it's worth so much now that if I was young again I could not afford it. When I read about the cost of private rent, and now the costs of utility bills it seems as if, as a country we are going backwards. Covid, Putin and now strikes, where will it end?

I did say it was a Development Trust M0nica
Something common all over Britain.
I didn't want to identify our own because this is a public forum. DTAs have been going since 1993 and there are 100s of them
Look at
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_trust

I think the point of writing about a scheme you’re involved in is to make others think about what they can do in their own communities Monica? When schemes are run by volunteers they morph, grow, fold, dependent not only on the scheme itself but on the capacity and commitment of the organisers, and in my experience that’s the key success factor - locally tailored, and sustainable.
I’m sure you didn’t intend to rubbish *Grammaretto’s local scheme, but it did come across like that.

*Casdon, I was not pouring water on a community scheme. In fact I am all for them and mentioned when I had been part of one that worked, but the person concerned wrote as if the whole country should have schemes like those in her community (of which she gave no details) and implied that there was something wrong with anyone who didn't immediately start one or join one. Many such schemes have been set up - and failed - because what works in one place doesn't work at another.

As I said if someone puts up a scheme they must expect those who read it and are enthused by it to examine it, think it through and point out some of the obstacles that could arise. It could be that the promoter of the scheme has faced these problems and found solutions, in which case they can respond to them and explain the solutions.

But what is the point of writing about a scheme if you do not want people who find it interesting to look at it critically and discuss some of the problems that may arise.

M0nica

I am not upset, heaven forfend, but I have an analytical mind and also instinctively avoid all band wagons when they start rolling, so when someone starts enthusing on what they see as the universa panacea for some problem, I immediately start analysing the scheme to consider how effective it actually is and how universal its application could be and in what circumstances.

Unfortunately this usually shows that while the scheme may work wonderfully in the circumstances of the person promulgating the scheme, there are many circumstances where it will not work or will be less effective and if the scheme or idea is to spread, these need to be taken into account.

I am afraid if you post some idea, or indeed anything on GN you can expect others to look at the idea, think about it, and point out the problems that may have eluded you.

Actually there is nothing I like better than posting something on GN and then have other people lay into it and point out all the things I have missed, it is stimulating and enables ideas to be improved and possibly applied more thoughtfully.

The most dangerous thing in society is the majority agreeing, it means sadly that most have not thought about the subject deeply.

One of the things I have noticed, is that when a thread is running and most people are in broad agreement. if I come in and express dissent with what people are saying, other people also come on and express dissent. It as if people are worried about expressing their disagreement with the majority until someone else does it first.

Nothing is perfect in this world though Monica, and I think pouring cold water on a community scheme is quite unhelpful, because nobody is saying it’s the answer to everybody’s prayers, just that it helps some people. Why is there a need to be analytical in that scenario, people are giving their time on a voluntary basis to make other peoples lives better - it’s irrelevant that it’s not widely applicable if it works for the people who need and use it. No voluntary led local scheme would ever get off the ground if stringent ‘worthiness’ or nationwide applicability criteria were applied, and people aren’t saying that Scheme X is the only one that works, are they?

Gabrielle56

inishowen

I think there are elderly people who would happily pass on frugal tips to the young. I'm not talking about my generation of baby boomers. I mean those that lived through the war.

Blimey how many left at age 90++?!

Well, here is one who lived through the war - as a child, admittedly, but I know, nand still use, a lot of the methods that my mother was doing then and she continued to do through the subsequent years of rationing, and beyond, from habit. They were the same things that she learnt how to do as a child after the first war, and practised in the hungry thirties.

I am not upset, heaven forfend, but I have an analytical mind and also instinctively avoid all band wagons when they start rolling, so when someone starts enthusing on what they see as the universa panacea for some problem, I immediately start analysing the scheme to consider how effective it actually is and how universal its application could be and in what circumstances.

Unfortunately this usually shows that while the scheme may work wonderfully in the circumstances of the person promulgating the scheme, there are many circumstances where it will not work or will be less effective and if the scheme or idea is to spread, these need to be taken into account.

I am afraid if you post some idea, or indeed anything on GN you can expect others to look at the idea, think about it, and point out the problems that may have eluded you.

Actually there is nothing I like better than posting something on GN and then have other people lay into it and point out all the things I have missed, it is stimulating and enables ideas to be improved and possibly applied more thoughtfully.

The most dangerous thing in society is the majority agreeing, it means sadly that most have not thought about the subject deeply.

One of the things I have noticed, is that when a thread is running and most people are in broad agreement. if I come in and express dissent with what people are saying, other people also come on and express dissent. It as if people are worried about expressing their disagreement with the majority until someone else does it first.

Thanks Casdon. It is hard to enthuse without upsetting people on here, I find.
I was using the term "odd bods " to include myself as well.
Ofcourse nothing is perfect and we as a group have met plenty of hurdles, and lost people through death sadly, but as long as you keep faith with your original vision, good things happen.

M0nica

Grammaretto

We began a Development Trust about 20 years ago originally to save our beloved old buildings in the town from the Council axe.
From there the community just grew from strength to strength.
We, as a group, could challenge the decisions made, could get things done, could apply for grants and sometimes get them.
We were a much needed thorn in the flesh of our complacent council.
I think it empowered people and encouraged them to work for change.
There's always more to be done but now there's the knowledge that a few people can effect change for the better.

Then you say in another post:

You always get a few odd bods in every community ........but you can either give them a wide berth or introduce them to other odd bods.

Seems this community group consists only of people who conform to the majority and is not open to anyone outside the approved group. So anything but inclusive.

In Grammaretto’s defence I’m pretty sure you’ve misinterpreted what she said Monica. In any community scheme there is a good proportion of ‘odd bods’. Giving them a wide berth on a personal level, or introducing them to others who are similar isn’t excluding them from the scheme, it just means they find their level, they are accepted for who they are and are accommodated in the scheme, like everybody else.

Odd bods will be welcome in my imaginary community hub.
Anyone who needs, or can offer something, as long as they're harmless. (Checked by my imaginary checking system)

Grammaretto

We began a Development Trust about 20 years ago originally to save our beloved old buildings in the town from the Council axe.
From there the community just grew from strength to strength.
We, as a group, could challenge the decisions made, could get things done, could apply for grants and sometimes get them.
We were a much needed thorn in the flesh of our complacent council.
I think it empowered people and encouraged them to work for change.
There's always more to be done but now there's the knowledge that a few people can effect change for the better.

Then you say in another post:

You always get a few odd bods in every community ........but you can either give them a wide berth or introduce them to other odd bods.

Seems this community group consists only of people who conform to the majority and is not open to anyone outside the approved group. So anything but inclusive.

Miss Adventure, maybe I can't have my cake and eat it.

Grammaretto

Grammareto, some communities are better than others for odd bods.

I think leaving people isolated and unable to access help is more likely to leave them open to possibly being taken advantage of, than a big, friendly, community based goodwill kind of scheme.

Never thought of speed dating to vet strangers before I love it! Caleo

You always get a few odd bods in every community I am probably one of them but you can either give them a wide berth or introduce them to other odd bods. Think Vicar of Dibley and the parish committee.

Miss Adventure, maybe that depends on who the strangers are. Some strangers may be potential chums while others are better at arms' length. I imagine vetting strangers would be speeded up and enabled by speed dating sort of thing.

The point I was making is that, actually, it doesn't matter how many cars people own. They can only drive one at a time and car sharing doesn't reduce car mileage, just cars. Fine if you regularly buy new cars, but if you mainly drive cars that are 10 years old or more, which we do, and run them until they are only fit for scrap then any saving of vehicle or anything else is moot.

I think car sharing undoubtedly has a place in big conurbations like Edinburgh, where there is abundant public transport, a high density of households, and people are more likely to to work locally and cars are only needed occasionally. But in areas where house hold density is less or in small clusters and public transport is less frequent or doesn't necessarily go to the places people work so that people are using cars on a daily basis, it is just not practical.

It is the same with bike schemes. they work excellently in towns, but, again will not work in areas where household density is lower.

It is horses for courses. car clubs, bike clubs definitely have their place, but they require a lot of organisation and only work in limited specific circumstances. They are not a universal panacea.

What a brilliant idea!

I've always thought of I won the lottery (which I don't do) I would like to set up some sort of community hub.
Lunches, lifts, handyman services, people who can help others, or who need practical help.
Training, all sorts of things, a garden for veggies.

We began a Development Trust about 20 years ago originally to save our beloved old buildings in the town from the Council axe.
From there the community just grew from strength to strength.
We, as a group, could challenge the decisions made, could get things done, could apply for grants and sometimes get them.
We were a much needed thorn in the flesh of our complacent council.
I think it empowered people and encouraged them to work for change.
There's always more to be done but now there's the knowledge that a few people can effect change for the better.

I've often thought the idea of building a real, strong, community is the answer to a lot of problems.

Then though, people are afraid of strangers getting embroiled in their lives.