Sounds like good advice.
The old saying goes, "behind every scheme, there's a schemer".
Printable View
Yup. They drink and gamble. One to forget and one on the hope. The they smoke coz they smoke. Nowt to look forward to. I know I'm surrounded by it. I live in a fairly nice bit and quite a few of houses are bought. Rest are fairly well looked after. But other housing in areas near here are bloody awful. Quite a lot of that is the folk who exist there but many decent folk are trapped in places like that. Would drive you to drink and fags
Sent from my G8341 using Tapatalk
What's wrong with drink and fags? Lots of wealthy people booze and smoke - and take shedloads of drugs for that matter. Nothing to do with having no money.
It certainly does. We also live fairly frugally, certainly in terms of seeking value for money and not being wasteful - hence why we do the bulk of our shopping in Lidl!
It's amazing standing behind some folks at supermarket checkouts, and watching how much they spend on SHITE - and expensive shite at that, especially when it comes to junk food and ready meals, plus also their obsession with brand names, and paying hugely over the odds for stuff, when sometimes certain unbranded goods can be cheaper and better - and often it's the same stuff inside apart from the fancy packaging!!
You see the programmes on TV, such as 'How to eat well for less', etc, where families with overspending and dietary problems are shown how to eat better, and more cheaply, whilst replacing some of the branded goods they usually buy with unbranded much cheaper alternatives - and when the final sums are calculated, some of them have saved over TEN GRAND a year!!:eek::eek:
That just shows how ignorant and wasteful folks can be, and with a bit of knowledge, how much money can be saved that would otherwise simply be frittered away...
Now just imagine how much you could save for your retirement, if from day one of becoming married, buying a house and starting a family, say in your 20s, you were saving £10k a year, simply by being a bit more savvy at the supermarket;)
Marco.
There also seems to be some misapprehension that junk food is cheap and fresh 'healthy' food is expensive when it is actually the other way around. When I was poor a takeaway was a rare and serious commitment, as was something like a 'ready meal'. IIRC my budget per meal was about ten bob, so maybe a quid in todays money. You fill up on fresh veg and potatoes because it's cheap and bulky.
Stress. What is it? I would say I have experienced it, but nobody seems to have any idea what it really is.
Is it:
Being in a job where you are out of your depth, and struggling to keep up, or learn how to do it better?
Being with a group of workers you don't get on with.
Not getting enough support in your job for you to do it effectively.
Wanting to try out new ideas and not being able to do so.
Having your ideas put down and dismissed.
Seeing younger people who are less able pushing to gain control.
Seeing older people who are incompetent maintaining their positions.
Reacting to management imposed changes which seem pointless.
Having external problems which impact on work, and which may actually threaten your ability to work effectively.
Worry about whether you can carry on working and continue to pay the bills.
Being tied down to a 9 to 5 existence, and management which insists on fixed work times.
Being bored with one's job.
I had jobs in the public sector mostly, and a couple of jobs in the private sector. I also had some jobs abroad.
Looking back there were good things in most of those, but there were also some really bad times. I think the worst were in the UK, when the degree of nastiness at work reached high levels. It's hard to know where the issues really came from.
I would say its causes are different for everyone. but mental pressure is the strongest form. most folk have felt it, and alas too many these days live with it; the problem with it is its difficult in the modern world to deal with and not get yourself into trouble.
If you are going to retire early you either need to earn a lot of money and save it young or live frugally. Or win the lottery!
Most folk don't bother about retirement until they get older in their 50's and then it's too late to do much about it if you haven't squirrled enough away and been wise with pensions or investments.
Being trapped in work when your old just because you can't afford to retire is not a fun place to be.
Indeed, it's a common misconception, as is the notion that it's expensive to eat well... Often 'eat well' is considered as having T-bone steak every night for tea. It's an education thing, and the education/knowledge necessary to know how to eat well (read as satisfying and healthy), cheaply, is sadly lacking today, particularly as more folks cook from fresh less, as they have no TIME.
Why? Well, take a guess.... We've been discussing it throughout this thread already:rolleyes:
Del made a huge pot of soup last night, produced from leftover fresh vegetables, stock and some barley, which I'll be having for my lunch with crusty bread. When I tasted it last night it was delicious! She's also taken some to her work. And there's enough left for another four servings. Total cost? Less than 50p!!
As Jim has touched upon, in terms of living frugally, there's a very significant problem these days I believe not simply in knowing how to live frugally, but how to BUDGET PROPERLY and make what you earn go further, i.e. basic home economics.
As I highlighted earlier, there are vast sums of money being wasted by people who obviously have it to start with, but simply fritter it away on junk food, and branded goods that often aren't any better than a supermarket's own, and which are often half the price.
Therefore, people might be under a little less stress, financially, and perhaps even able to retire earlier, if they spent the money that they earned more wisely!
Education, education, education... It's an old story. If they hadn't stopped teaching home economics in schools, as they did back in my day, then maybe more people now would know how to cook and manage/maintain a household?
Dave, I'll address your query on stress shortly. Just off to make breakfast. Had a long lie in this morning!:D
Marco.