Credit crunch/recession/everyone is skint.. blah blah..

welly

welly

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A comment in one of the threads got me thinking..

I mean in today's economy who really can afford to spend upwards of £700?
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This whole credit crunch thing and today's economy.. For me, not a home owner and someone who works for himself, I've not felt the effect of this credit crunch and the recession whatsoever. In fact, I've not had so much work in my life as a freelancer (web developer). This is literally the first time I've ever had to turn work down. I couldn't take on any more work and as such I've been able to buy myself toys I couldn't have done previously.

What effect have you (or anyone) felt from the credit crunch or the recession? I'm a little confused by the whole situation and I've spoken to a few friends, one or two of whom are home owners, and they're as confused as me because their salaries haven't gone down, the price of things haven't gone up and their mortgages have stayed the same. What's the deal?
 
welly said:
the price of things haven't gone up
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I take it you don't do any grocery shopping, or buy camera gear? Every time I go to Tescos the prices have gone up again, some things have doubled in price in the last 2 or 3 months and as for the price of lenses and bodies....:bang:
 
Flash In The Pan said:
I take it you don't do any grocery shopping, or buy camera gear? Every time I go to Tescos the prices have gone up again, some things have doubled in price in the last 2 or 3 months and as for the price of lenses and bodies....:bang:
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Fair comment on the price of camera gear. Some definitely has (pro gear), some definitely hasn't though (point and shoots etc. - you get far more camera for your money). Consumer electronics as a whole don't seem to have got any more expensive and you get more TV set/DVD player for your money than you used to. The price of computers are always dropping as well.

I don't find groceries have gone up significantly compared with any other time in the last 10 years though. A can of Heinz beans is 48p in Asda, I remember it being around the 35p mark but that was years ago! I don't tend to pay too much attention to the individual price of an item when I go shopping and my shopping bill hasn't significantly increased recently. My local has put the price of a pint up from £1.22 to £1.60 a pint but that's been over the course of a few years. I don't remember it jumping from 1.22 to 1.60. It's a Sam Smiths pub anyway and they're historically cheap.
 
A bottle of tomato sauce in both Asda and Tesco has gone from 25p to 48p in a matter of weeks - that's more than the quoted 1% methinks :lol:
 
25p on a bottle of tomato sauce?! 48p?! Who'd ruin their egg and chips with a bottle of 48p tomato sauce!?
 
That's the supermarkets profiteering because the reckon more people will buy own brands at the moment.

As for the overall crunch, my mortgage is the lowest it has ever been. Which is nice.
 
It has affected me / us in a number of ways:

Salary freeze.
Salary scale reduced by almost £4000 pa without consultation.
collegues being made redundant.
Grocery prices have gone crackers.
Partners salary under review with probable reduction in next few months.
Posts being frozen within her work place.

Lots of people have it very bad at the minute. What would shock one or two is that I work in Child Protection / Courts and she works with people with Dementia. Think about what the general perception is at the minute re Baby Peter etc and the government / media outcry. Tally that if you can with the above information / cuts. Also the impact on services / families caring for people with dementia. Tis a very strange world we live in at the minute.

Chris :)
 
RichardtheSane said:
That's the supermarkets profiteering because the reckon more people will buy own brands at the moment.
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Supermarkets don't need to have high profits to make money. They don't actually need to make any profit on goods they sell.

The business model is: Sell product to customer and receive money immediately but don't pay the supplier for sixty days.

That way they always have one sixth of their yearly turnover in the bank available to invest and/or earn interest at any time.

I don't know what Tesco's yearly turnover is but a sixth of that invested wisely would make a good return on investment.


Steve.
 
It has affected us

my brother has been made redundant.

both husband and I have no pay rises this year [even though both companies record massive profits]

electric gone up

gas gone up

council tax gone up

food shopping has gone up [a lot]
 
as i work for my dad i suppose im on a ok pay plus odd benifits uses of works vehicles etc etc

but for the 1st time i have know we are at our busiest with us being one of the biggest motorcycle parts specialist on ebay we have just taken on a lad who just got made redudan so we saved some one from all this and i feel good about this knowing we have helped out a family the credit crunch has been good for us as most people / some people now use there bike to go to work so becomes strong for us
 
Welly - you're one of the lucky ones then.

Effects for us:

Husband got made redundant and has been out of work now for 3 months. He was in the building industry
 
The company my husband works for has just called the receivers in.
He earns far more than me. I am part time/part year to look after the kids. If his job goes then life could get scary.
 
I think its gone 2 ways:

1) People being made redundant, really suffering the economy etc...

2) Some people not losing their jobs, mortages going down due to cut interest rates making them financially better off.

I am a lucky one in boat number 2, i have never been in a stronger position financially and its helping me pay off my debts that i built up when i was in a worse position. The company i work for have no fears of reducing work etc so the job is safe. My partner has more of a worry as the company keeps making structural changes and laying off odd people but as long as they dont make her redundant, we are in a very good position.

I have real sympathy for those people who are in Boat number 1, and i hope that they are lucky in finding work soon, i really do!
 
welly said:
My local has put the price of a pint up from £1.22 to £1.60 a pint but that's been over the course of a few years. I don't remember it jumping from 1.22 to 1.60.
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I stopped drinking a long time ago when it hit £2.00 a pint, you must be living in a time warp village.

As for groceries, I buy the same things every week, I do not impulse buy at all when in the supermarket and I can tell you food has shot up in price over the last 12 - 18 months.
 
welly said:
My local has put the price of a pint up from £1.22 to £1.60 a pint but that's been over the course of a few years. I don't remember it jumping from 1.22 to 1.60. It's a Sam Smiths pub anyway and they're historically cheap.
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Wow, our rugby club is £2.70 a pint and that's cheaper than the pubs!
 
Steve Smith said:
Supermarkets don't need to have high profits to make money. They don't actually need to make any profit on goods they sell.

The business model is: Sell product to customer and receive money immediately but don't pay the supplier for sixty days.

That way they always have one sixth of their yearly turnover in the bank available to invest and/or earn interest at any time.

I don't know what Tesco's yearly turnover is but a sixth of that invested wisely would make a good return on investment.


Steve.
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YOu are of course correct, but just because they don't need to make high profits doesn't mean they won't.

I spot a lot of little things like that - 'Value' packs of product are priced higher than buying the products in the pack seperately. I have recently noticed this on a few items in my local Tesco. It may be coincedence however I think their pricing weenies know people will be drawn to 'Value' and therefore price a little higher.
 
I'm just about to leave University with an expected 2:1 in BSc (Hons) Psychology. There are jobs out there, but they don't want someone with just a degree, they want a whole lot more. Is setting up my own business at 20 good enough? No. How about at 18? No. Volounteer work since I was 16? No thanks. Web development experience? No use.

Companies are just not taking enough people on, so what do I do? Postgrad study or get work in some bar (if I'm lucky - it seems I'm overqualified). As far as I can see I'm stuck with even more debt than before and no job to show for it. If I'd have been a plumber I'd be on £30k+ by now. So to all those thinking of taking a Psychology degree, don't.

:(
 
My main income is from manufacturing a niche product which is sold by mail, and to independent retailers. For the year ending April I was down 15% compared to the previous year, but had been 5% up until September. It's shop sales that have been affected. They have been ordering recently, rather than last November/December (I normally get orders once or twice a year).

I did a charity calendar last year and asked at a meeting in early October whether the downturn was likely to affect business sponsorship. There were no worries back then, but it rapidly changed over the course of a month.

Back then, I had already suffered the collapse of IceSave, which was my instant access account. Nice Mr Darling refunded that in December but the interest rates are now pants and it wasn't fun to temporarily lose my first safety net.

A neighbour with a soft spot for Taylor Wimpey took a punt earlier in the year and has trebled his stake.
 
I want to live in the OP's world!

As above...

Pay freeze for this year
Wife at risk of redundancy
Petrol costs increased
Supermarket prices have increased (average weekly shop of around £110, around £80 a year ago)
Council tax/Electricity/Gas/Water costs have all increased
Car tax risen (from £210 to £440 :eek:)

:bang:
 
Both my daughters were made redundant by BT half way through December (rats).

My own work is also looking decidedly iffy.

Food prices are just plain stupid - the big boy supermarkets are just taking advantage.

... but I'm buying all the tog kit I need/want at the moment anyway - live for the moment; you're only here once.... :D
 
Well Welly you are lucky.

I was made redundant if Feb. So now I get £64 per week jobseekers allowance. For 6 months only. Then after that I have been told that I will, not be able to claim, income related benifit, due to my wifes disibility allowance takes us over the threshold. I left school at 15 years old, and have never claimed anything before.

And at 60 years of age, the chanches of getting a job in my line of work, is zero.
 
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Although I had a wage rise November last year, I've not had any overtime since April last year, so my gross pay was £10,000 less than the previous year.
I'm now paying £130 per month for gas and electricity, I was paying around £60-£70.
I used to buy packets of pistachio nuts in Tesco, these have gone up by over £2.00 a bag. The un sweetened black grape juice I buy has gone up from 85p a carton to £1.09.
The bags of porridge oats I buy have gone up from 45p a bag to 90p.
I have had to make cutbacks on a lot of the food I would normally buy. I used to buy uncle bens microwave rice, now I buy rice and other stuff to go in it, works out alot cheaper. I've also started to buy my protein drinks and supplements in bulk to take advantage of savings and free postage. Just take up more kitchen space now to my wifes disgust. :lol:
 
Im with welly in that i work for myself so havent really be affected by the credit crunch, as for prices going up so has what i charge so is just about the same as before. I too am having too turn down work as not only is there so much out there it hard to find people to work for me that are capable of doing the work (not the best hours but money is very good).

As for DTM and his problems with having a degree i know what you mean as i work in IT (mainly network design an implementation) but used to work for a big company and they used to take about 10 new staff a year on half through university training and half through microsoft/comptia training and usually the uni guys didnt have a clue as all they have done is read books on it and cant do it so people always want experience to go with qaulifications.
 
DTM said:
I'm just about to leave University with an expected 2:1 in BSc (Hons) Psychology. There are jobs out there, but they don't want someone with just a degree, they want a whole lot more. Is setting up my own business at 20 good enough? No. How about at 18? No. Volounteer work since I was 16? No thanks. Web development experience? No use.

Companies are just not taking enough people on, so what do I do? Postgrad study or get work in some bar (if I'm lucky - it seems I'm overqualified). As far as I can see I'm stuck with even more debt than before and no job to show for it. If I'd have been a plumber I'd be on £30k+ by now. So to all those thinking of taking a Psychology degree, don't.

:(
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Psychoogy is the most oversubscribed course nationwide and has been for about 5 or 6 years. You need some kind of postgrad to try and get a job out of it, if not post grad and post doc work. The only other option for Psych students is enter a large company's graduate scheme

The company I worked for on my gap year underpaid loads of people by paying the 'average in your local area' - defining local area as EMEA to reduce salaries nearer to those in India. After recording growing profit every year they 'randomly' gave pay rises to 20% of staff. Its amazing that those 20% were nearly always the marketting department (who got to chose who got pay rises) and then the directors.


I've just finished Uni (as of 12:15 this afternoon) - I have seen adverts on job centre online for at least 25 positions that require no experience or qualifications within 5 miles of my post code. How bad really is the recession? I feel sorry for everyone who has lost their jobs, but there are plenty of jobs out there if you are willing to do something you don't necessarily want to do your whole life
 
Just had a meeting about post grad. study - not even sure that would be of help but I'm inclined to try it. Perhaps a business masters along with my experience could be useful.

As for food prices, well... I love the way how the supermarkets 'price match' then tint it so that it looks like you got the best deal when in fact Sainsburys were doing pasta at 21p per bag, then they price matched it to Tescos - 43p per bag. That's more than twice the original price!!! Clever, but underhand.
 
I'm a student so it hasn't affected me - I am still getting my loan (for now!)
I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping it will all have cleared up by the time I graduate...
 
I've never been busier. Or I should say, 'we' as the present Mrs Bloo has quit her day job to work with me in our two businesses.

Some people are enjoying record low mortgage repayments - so I'm told. We're locked in at 5.23% (I think) but we don't mind at all as it is a ten year lock in and we've benefited from that in the past and I'm sure we will do in the future.
 
welly said:
A comment in one of the threads got me thinking..



This whole credit crunch thing and today's economy.. For me, not a home owner and someone who works for himself, I've not felt the effect of this credit crunch and the recession whatsoever. In fact, I've not had so much work in my life as a freelancer (web developer). This is literally the first time I've ever had to turn work down. I couldn't take on any more work and as such I've been able to buy myself toys I couldn't have done previously.

What effect have you (or anyone) felt from the credit crunch or the recession? I'm a little confused by the whole situation and I've spoken to a few friends, one or two of whom are home owners, and they're as confused as me because their salaries haven't gone down, the price of things haven't gone up and their mortgages have stayed the same. What's the deal?
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Do you stay at home?
 
I'm just about to leave University with an expected 2:1 in BSc (Hons) Psychology. There are jobs out there, but they don't want someone with just a degree, they want a whole lot more. Is setting up my own business at 20 good enough? No. How about at 18? No. Volounteer work since I was 16? No thanks. Web development experience? No use.

Companies are just not taking enough people on, so what do I do? Postgrad study or get work in some bar (if I'm lucky - it seems I'm overqualified). As far as I can see I'm stuck with even more debt than before and no job to show for it. If I'd have been a plumber I'd be on £30k+ by now. So to all those thinking of taking a Psychology degree, don't.
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I know this feeling and I sympathise - I graduated in 2008 with a Publishing with English degree from Loughborough and a year's experience working for the Telegraph - went back to them for a few months, but they stopped using freelancers & contractors, and then made large numbers of permanent staff redundant as well :( Have been temping ever since and trying to get a permanent job - until I do, I can't move out or have any sort of proper life as my parents are based in Essex but most of my friends are down in Reading :( There are a lot of us in the same situation, is a nightmare!

I've just finished Uni (as of 12:15 this afternoon) - I have seen adverts on job centre online for at least 25 positions that require no experience or qualifications within 5 miles of my post code. How bad really is the recession? I feel sorry for everyone who has lost their jobs, but there are plenty of jobs out there if you are willing to do something you don't necessarily want to do your whole life
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See, this is what people keep telling me. But although I'm a) very adaptable, b) happy to do almost anything except call centre work and c) not too fussed about starting an actual career just yet, because I know the chances of that are slim... I now have two lever arch files full of applications which have been rejected on grounds such as "we're only interviewing those who live within London" and "the shortlisted candidates have University administration experience" to quote but two. Every single one has been massively oversubscribed (the uni admin one expected 6 or 7 applications and got over 90) and not one single one has denied that I meet all the essential criteria and all or most of the desirable, but they now want you to have a degree, five years of experience in the relevant industry and be willing to work for an absolute pittance.

So I'm willing to do something I don't necessarily want to do my whole life - but I'd rather temp than get a permanent job that ensures I have to live at home for another two or three years because it's paying minimum wage. Obviously if it's a job that will help my career prospects (and actually help them, not just be one more work experience position to shove on my CV) then I'll work for nothing/almost nothing quite happily for quite a long time. But the recession has made me change my outlook to career or money, I don't think it's possible to do both right now :(

apologies for epic post, and no rudeness was intended, only that what seems to be the case and what is actually the case has varied enormously in my experience since graduation!
 
It's a funny recession, that's for sure.
A couple we know are on a tracker mortgage which tracks at a rate lower than the bank of England, meaning that they're paying just under 1% on their mortgage right now, so they've probably never been better off.

As for me, I was given my redundancy at the end of last year, and I'm still looking for a role. Over a dozen interviews for the right kind of role (10 years in IT, 5 in the area I specialise in) and it's still not quite good enough to nail the job in question. Most have been "sorry, you were the most qualified external candidate, but we've given it to someone internal". Change that into English and it probably means one of the following:
- We had no intention of employing a more expensive person from outside, just trying to see how good they are
- It's cheaper to move someone internally even though they've b****r all experience in the role
- Actually, the role was never signed off at the right level and now they've got wind of some pleb thinking he has the authority, the role's been canned

So it's just aswell we're keeping the spending down and I was given a reasonable redundancy package.
 
im finding that whilst my mortgage has come down, other increases in other bills have more than balanced it out. second year of no payrises at work (yet the company still has money to burn as far as i can tell) ive decided i need a change and a career but the upshot of that is that more people than ever are applying to be teachers so competition is high for places on PGCE courses.

the other downside is that im gonna be lucky to make anything on my house due to the downturn in house prices, i might as well keep hold of it at the moment, pay the tiny mortgage (and fix it when the rates go up) and sell it when the market has recovered, that does kind of **** the plan up through!:bang:



strange that unlike the government, the common person cant afford to SPEND their way out of trouble...........
 
yea, not good here, i like the odd point, and my local put its prices up for a pint of guiness from 5euros a pint (extortion!) to 8!!!!! - obv I no longer go there, but im back at university next year, so ill be back to no money, as the student accomodation has increased its prices to above that of the loan, what a joke! - i hear is near impossible to get a job - so im going to be living of toast - and if lucky beans!
 
student accomodation has increased its prices to above that of the loan
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lol, know how you feel there! Stupid aint it?!

Anybody got any jobs going up here in Yorkshire? I'm willing to travel? :D
 
whitewash said:
ive decided i need a change and a career but the upshot of that is that more people than ever are applying to be teachers so competition is high for places on PGCE courses.
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it hasn't really affected me as such, yes I am feeling all the price hikes, but I am lucky in that I still get paid, and I have a job waiting for me in september.

I quit my job in december 07 to retrain to teach, but as I am a civil engineer, I had to do a subject specific enhancement course which started in Jan 08.

Glad I quit when I did tbh. Part of my old job was working on tenders (non commercial aspects) and applying to get on approved lists etc for councils, so I was watching the downturn start back in 2007 - jobs were either massive 10 year projects costing vast sums or they were tiny little things. The company has since made people redundant.
 
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