How do they do it ?

[Papaumau]

With this austere society brought-about by draconian cuts, frozen or reduced wages and frozen or reduced pensions and benefits and a rising cost of living I wonder how the thousands of people who I see via the news-programmes find the money to form up into crowds to go fighting each-other at the sales.

Either there is much more money available than they tell us there is or these people are stumbling into even more debt after a very hard year for most of us.

What drives people to spend, spend, spend, when really they should be trying to save for the next rainy day that comes along ?

The way things are going we might expect lots of those "rainy days" in the not too distant future !

Don't you agree ?

[Rita Postlethwaite]

Hi Papa, had a good holiday I hope?  :)Yes I very much agree with you. Have just been listening to the radio when the host commented on the "mad sales" behaviour and said "Surely something is only a bargain if you went out in the first place to buy that item!" That is the best common sense statement I have heard in a very long time. I have often heard of people buying something that was "a great bargain" only to stuff it in the back of a cupboard never to see light of day again!  Totally pointless.

[Dottie1943]

Personally I dont know how they can afford these sales.

I went into Peterborough today just to drop off a member of the visiting family at the train station making his way back home, where the journey would normally only take me 15 minuets door to door it took 50 min's today because the cars were all lining up to get into the car parks!!!! Madness!!!!

[granny bee]

It just proves how brainwashed they are in this 'I want society' - the latest electronic widget, the must have designer handbag, shoes etc.etc.  On the other hand I guess many will have been given money or gift tokens for Christmas.  Personally the older I get the fewer crowds I want to be in!

[Papaumau]

Yeah guys...The great thing is that a lot of the money that is going to be spent trying to get a "bargain" will be spent using credit cards, or much worse - store cards, at ridiculous rates of interest - and these nasty little bits of plastic will get some people so deeply into debt that they will still be paying back the plastic NEXT Christmas.

I am lucky inasmuch as I can afford to never get myself or my immediate family into debt that cannot be paid off completely each month, but I feel sorry for those that have been forced to spend money that they simply don't have so that they can feel that they are "keeping up with the Joneses". 

[Oldtimer]

Happy New Year Everyone and a much better one.
Over the last few years I have developed a better shopping method for my self.
I ask my self questions:-
Do I really Need It?
Will I save money by keeping my money in my pocket?
Is it a practical saving on a necessity?
I add the price of petrol and the cost of any Parking to every shopping Trip.
I try to avoid impulse purchases (That's a Bargain?)
I always have something to eat before shopping to avoid unnecessary food purchases.
I don't posses a credit card just debit cards.

[avalonmpk2]

Everyone should follow your example personal debt in this country is scandalous

[Oldtimer]

I think a lot of it has to do with the mind numbing  number of adverts
on TV and the fact that the sound Volume increases when the adverts appear.
With kids there is a lot of peer pressure to have the latest and the greatest.
Having said that we spoil the kIds and grand kids on Birthdays  & Christmas and I think that that goes back to the days when we had nothing..But this year we told the older grandkids we could not afford to buy xmas gifts for them as they are all in their twenties and probably earn more money than we get pensions  plus the fact we only see them  at Xmas & Birthdays even though they live locally. They got quite upset LOL    
It is rampant consumerism we have learned to live with and keeping up with the Jones's.
I also think alot of it has to do with built in obsolesence.
A gadget you buy can be out of date in 6 months.
We purchased a new bathroom suite from B&Q and the seat collapsed
(No jokes please) we sought to replace it and found it was no longer in   production.We had to modify an alternative seat.
The list of items that have been replaced Cassete Tapes,VCR's,Cd's for Blue Ray updated Mobiles out of production as soon as they are released.
What a world we live in.
The truth is now that more people buy clothes excetera from Charity shops and car boot sales.

[xetog]

Like you Oldtimer, now I am retired I run a strict budget control system.  O.K., I would like more coming in (wouldn't we all), but I run two spreadsheets on my PC, the first is an annual approximation of all income and expenditure, itemised by month.  The second is a prediction 2 months ahead of the bank account status.  this enables me to plan ahead our limited income to ensure that money is there for the things that we want.  We do use credit cards as this enables me to defray and expense and ensure that enough is in the account for when the bill arrives.  They are paid off by Direct Debit every month as is every other regular bill we have.  I applaud your 'rules', those we apply are very similar, so at present we even manage to save a little each month.
M.

[Rita Postlethwaite]

Got a REAL bargain yesterday at our local charity shop, two 1000 piece jig-saws for one pound. Should keep Feisty Fox and me busy for a while. 

[Papaumau]

Bet there is one piece missing out of each ! 

Funny you should mention charity-shop buying as the wife and the daughter regularly go round the charity shops and they almost always come back with some terrific bargains.

I guess that if you are not a snob you can enjoy the fruits of this kind of shopping ?

Anyway....

Got to get ready for the Hogmanay revelries as this is one night when Scotland comes into it's own. I just love the Jools Holland music show on Hogmanay.

Awrabest when it comes !

[Rita Postlethwaite]

Oh yea of little faith Papa! both have been counted and contain the required 1000 pieces (hopefully they all belong to the correct puzzle!) eventually they will appear in the Puzzle section of the forum so watch this space!
PS Hope you had a great Hogmanay.

[Papaumau]

Thanks Rita and partner and family and I hope you too had a great New Year.

"Ma heid is still nippin a bit" as they say, but all of the revelries went off without a hitch and nobody fell out with anybody, and that is a strange thing to happen at Neerday.

Never had a look at the "games" section yet but I might give it a visit soon.

Hope all of your jigsaw puzzles go together without any hitches.....

I bought a large spherical jigsaw, ( the world ), for my middle grandson last Christmas and I have never seen or heard from it since, I might ask him how he got on with it as I have to admit that the idea of doing a spherical jigsaw fascinated me too.

Anybody tried one of these ?

[Rita Postlethwaite]

Hi Papa, glad you all saw the new year in well. If you care to go on to the hobbies section to look at jig-saws you will see the lovely globe one that Jeff and I did. Certainly not easy and Jeff had to use his craft skill to modify the last three pieces into place but it has pride of place on a unit near our computer and I wouldn`t part with it. (a gift from my sister).

[Papaumau]

Thanks, I will go and have a look at it !

I hope that nobody minds but with my years of experience on the "net" I have found that it is great to include a precise link to any internal forum or sub-forum when one is referring to such a forum. This saves a search for any such referral. Lots of people don't know that it is as easy as highlighting, copying and pasting the address at the top of the actual page that is being referred to when one is on it.

As an example....The page address for the hobbies forum and the jigsaw sub-forum topic is here: http://www.pensionersforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,3025.0.html

A REALLY beautiful globe Rita !

Now I am definitely going to ask the middle grandson what he did with it so I can have a shot.