If I can't afford it

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If I can't afford it

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Florence

Joined: 15 Mar 2025
Posts: 670

Posted: Mon Jun 08, 26 9:25 am Post subject: If I can't afford it

If I can't afford it, I can't afford the interest on the credit card either.

A useful thought when budgeting. Been there, done that and survived. Do we teach youngsters at school enough about budgeting. Do the teachers have the knowledge? There was an economics class at the school for the two youngest and the training was how to apply for jobseekers allowance and such. Not how to manage gas, electricity, rent, food if you worked.

Last school I went to had no idea about the breadline. It was a state grammar school with ideas above its state. it cost the parents. Didn't help me with everyday living - housing, food, rent, mortgage, bills.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44886
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Jun 08, 26 12:23 pm Post subject:
a lack of understanding of financial matters, large and small, makes the serfs easier to control and exploit.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 17282

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 26 8:26 pm Post subject:

I have no idea if it is taught in schools these days, but it needs to be. Because we have always lived within our income, we were able to ride 2 crises; one when I went off long term sick and my pay halved, then when husband was made redundant. There have been difficult times, mainly to do with new mortgages, but we have managed thank goodness.

To some extent it is something children learn from their parents. If the parents are always spending beyond their means, then the children don't have a good example to follow.

I didn't learn about it at school either. I went to a good grammar school, and we did learn some life skills there, as well as discussing various topics from the wider world so we got a good general education as well as an academic one.

Florence

Joined: 15 Mar 2025
Posts: 670

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 26 5:19 pm Post subject:

Looking at the BBC website, there's an awful lot of case studies of people who haven't lived within their budgets. Some of them due to no fault of their own, some of them through their own choices which they admit weren't good ones.

Locally there's a cafÃ© on one of the local parks that doubles over as a sort of social support outlet as well as ensuring that the park keeps its green flag status. However, on the social side they claim to be a cafÃ© and community hub. There's cheap offerings from Fareshare that make Greggs look like a 5 star top end cafÃ©. It's scary on what some of the local children must be growing up eating and not knowing any better.

If that's poverty level or people just thinking that Greggs/McDonalds is normal, there's a whole level of the future with little hope unless there's more and better paid employment.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 9707
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 26 10:33 am Post subject:
Florence it is scary when people see Greggs (aka Smegs!) as a highlight of their day... I never had any budgeting or advice line that in school. Just had Make do and Mend dinned into me at home! Thanks grandma!! I just hope that I've passed on not using credit unless it is sensible to my crew So far so good!

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 17282

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 26 7:20 pm Post subject:

Unfortunately there is a generation or more that hasn't been taught to cook and hasn't been taught nutrition either. On the other hand, having had to explain to someone my age in the past what carbohydrates and proteins are, perhaps it isn't a new problem.

It is easier to buy lunch at somewhere like Greggs nowadays, and a lot of people seem to do that rather than making their own sandwiches. I know when you have children to get ready for school, then get out at a certain time for work, things get rather frantic in the mornings; I have been there, done that. I did sometimes get lunch at the canteen at work, but often managed to take sandwiches, and never thought to buy them. We have more time in the mornings now, so I nearly always make them.

Glad to say, that unless son has got a 'Magic Bag' with something suitable in it, he makes his own sandwiches and has to leave some for his wife too.

As far as budgeting goes, we have been through some pretty bad times, and we did stop using the credit card at one point as we were afraid we wouldn't be able to pay the bills. Fortunately, things took a turn for the better.

Florence

Joined: 15 Mar 2025
Posts: 670

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 26 1:12 pm Post subject:
Amazon Prime is no longer my place. The books went downhill when people were allowed to self publish. Back to the library. Never worth Â£8.99 a month. Mind, I don't travel much nowadays so can use library, second hand book shops. And then there's the buy now, pay later world. Clothes are a temptation to all the world from teens upward.

Florence

Joined: 15 Mar 2025
Posts: 670

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 26 1:13 pm Post subject:
Amazon Prime is no longer my place. The books went downhill when people were allowed to self publish. Back to the library. Never worth Â£8.99 a month. Mind, I don't travel much nowadays so can use library, second hand book shops. And then there's the buy now, pay later world. Clothes are a temptation to all the world from teens upward.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 17282

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 26 5:30 pm Post subject:

Before we had internet shopping there were the catalogues. I only used one once, and was disappointed with what I was sent, so it went straight back and haven't used anything like that since. I like to see what I am buying.

I do tend to use a second hand book shop at the garden centre we sometimes use. The nearest library isn't very convenient, and I haven't got the time to get there. The village one used to be quite useful as I could just go up there on my way to my weekly shop, and the mobile was even better.

Florence

Joined: 15 Mar 2025
Posts: 670

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 26 7:33 am Post subject:
The buy now pay later system applies if you go into a shop to buy something as well as online you now. That's the not fun side of the system.

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