How is the credit crunch affecting you?

[old.user4556]

Theres so much talk at the minute, I just wondered how people were feeling about it. Have you felt the pinch? Are you a debtor or saver? Does the rate cut help or hinder you? Are you a contractor that's seen the market dry up?

Personally, so far, the slowdown has given me more disposable money by the rates going way down and the price of fuel going down from about 117p a litre to 92p a litre. My gas and leccy has gone up, but only to about £88 a month from £70 a month. The biggest impact for me will be if I get made redundant.

 

[Ch3tan]

Work is scary, retail as a whole is screwed. Last xmas was tight with people penny pinching more than ever, this xmas will be far worse.

Sales are down despite lots of "events" to draw people in to spend. This year people cannot get credit to do their shopping as easily as well (about time we stopped the buy now pay later culture in this country).

On a personal note it has not affected me much, I don't drive, I am annoyed the rate cuts have hit my savings, but at the same time my mortgage repayments come down.

I handed in my notice yesterday though, so I will be unemployed in 4 weeks. I guess thats when the crunch will start affecting me.

 

[Calaen]

I was fortunate I sold my house for ceiling price to a friend in February so I have a nice sum sitting in savings to use in case of an emergency (currently renting)

Trips to the supermarket is a lot more expensive buying what I normally would, I guess redundancy will put a lot of people in the shitter, what kills me is the £600 quid a month I pay for childcare for Eden.

 

[pez]

I stubbed my toe hard this morning. It hurt a lot. Pretty sure its the credit crunch's fault.

 

[Raven]

The company I work for who are in the construction, though very specialised is turning work away at the moment because we have so much of it. I decided not to buy a house because of the heavily inflated prices a couple of years ago so do not have a mortgage. I have plenty of savings which are safely tucked away (As safe as anything can be these days)

Not really effecting me at all to be honest, apart from the increase in petrol and food prices it. A lot of it is blown out of proportion by the media anyway.

 

[old.Tohtori]

I haven't pooped well for two days, bet it's crunch fault.

No wait....oh credit crunch...no effect or even affect.

 

[Scouse]

I'm a contractor and have been looking for work since October after an enforced 10-month layoff. There's fuck all out there. The 10 months cleared me of my savings and my boiler went pop yesterday

Mate's business has just gone down the pan - had to sack 35 staff. He's gutted as he'd hand picked each one of them and they were all friends.

Ah well. Could be worse.

 

[Chilly]

Even the gambling industry is taking a small hit, but me personally as a renter and a saver I fel virtually no pain. My job is secure and if my employer WERE to fold tomorrow I would have no large liabilities hanging over me. I Could get up and move back home to parents place for a month or two while I found another job (I run a small online contracting thingy which gets plenty of work, I have to limit the hours I do).

Overall I'd say that, personally, it's a good thing. When I want to buy a house (over the next year or two) the prices will be far more reasonable than for my brother who bought 18 months ago. Also potentially because I am young and these economic things tend to be cyclic, I may even experience a boom starting in the next few years and continuing throughout my career until the next clusterfuck. Plenty of time to pay for my house and save up some bullion

 

[kirennia]

Well being a third year student, I had to pay my way over this summer so ended up coming into this year with no savings and nothing left on my overdraft. Last year I had the same thing and went out, ate well and still wasn't broke.

This year I have been out twice, both times cost me under £10 and I've been eating prepared meals all the time so I thought this would offset the rising cost of eating. Sadly this isn't the case. I still have a month left of this semester and currently have £5 to my name and very little food in the cupboards so will be asking a few of my friends to see if any of them would mind sponsering me until the end of the year. The fact that basically the money has disappeared two months earlier could be attributed to bills being paid in bulk at the beginning of the year but the gas/electric would only add up to around £150 and I'd spent at least that much last year on going out by christmas. Okay so the rent is a couple of pounds more but it's all inclusive so it's offset itself. I'm just glad it's a static amount...

It's annoying but at the same time, I've quit drinking, now got a regular sleeping pattern for the first time in 6 years after having insomnia problems and am generally a lot healthier, even though I've lost a bit too much weight.

When you have a lot of money you don't notice the difference but when you're on a low budget, it's more of a hard punch then a pinch.

 

[Cadelin]

Exchange rate is screwed. Hurts when you are paid in pounds but work abroad.

 

[Furr]

No effect, Our family learnt its lesson during the last recession, even though that meant we didn't have the biggest best car or new bathroom and kitchen. No credit card debts, mortgages or loans and healthy, but lately badly performing, savings.

 

[Tom]

I have to say I haven't noticed any difference in my workload. If anything I'm busier now than I was last year.

I won't be buying a new car though, just in case...

 

[chipper]

its not affected me as such but i am worried about my job. we are no where near as busy as we should be at this time of year. october to end of december is usually our busy time but this year its just not come if we lose one of our big contracts then jobs are going to go its quite a worrying time i cant afford to lose my job

 

[Aoami]

As a student it hasn't affected me greatly as I get interest-free overdrafts and free money etc. But of course as prices have gone and the student loans haven't and won't it has a minor affect, but everyone is in the same boat i suppose with crap pay rises. Having worked for a few years before becoming a student i definitely find myself worrying about money less now, but i did have a fair amount of wages saved up before i started.

 

[Trem]

Not really affected me apart from the drop in interest rates bothering my savings.

Swear to god I am winning less than I should on the premium bonds, won double last year than I have this year, bloody government!

We have no mortgage, I paid that off a couple of years ago but if we did have one we would be absolutely fucked right now.

I have an interview on Friday for a dream job* (Sainsburys!!!)





















*may not actually be a dream job.

 

[chipper]

a job is a job at the moment m8 just have to be glad of having one really feel for those who are been made redundant.

 

[kirennia]

As a student it hasn't affected me greatly as I get interest-free overdrafts and free money etc. But of course as prices have gone and the student loans haven't and won't it has a minor affect, but everyone is in the same boat i suppose with crap pay rises. Having worked for a few years before becoming a student i definitely find myself worrying about money less now, but i did have a fair amount of wages saved up before i started.

I'm hoping this credit crunch stops by this time next year. £24,000 debt from uni and your bank will only give you a year to pay off your overdraft before it's treated with the same interest as a normal overdraft. At least the bulk of it is on low interest but low numbers of jobs will mean employers can afford to lower wages as more people will want their job...thus the problems of paying off the debt increases

 

[JingleBells]

Not noticed a difference here, although the fuel costs mean I make a bit more out of the mileage money I get from work.

Like Tom said, I'm holding back on getting a new car (although the main reason for that is that insurance companies are *****), and as Trem says my savings won't be getting as much interest.

 

[Kryten]

Difficult here, have gone bankrupt, but that's been planned for a while - the increased cost of living has acted as a catalyst for it though. Have had to cut down on a few nicities but doing that has actually made us look harder for alternatives - we've found them and we're no worse off, so it's probably working out better for us than most people.
Certainly a lot of others in the same situation - sitting in the court waiting room on that day alone, we were 2 people amongst another 40 petitioning for bankruptcy on the same day - some were from companies, most were personal.

It's not a nice time to go through, especially with christmas looming but it's happened before and we've got out the other side even better.

 

[Ormorof]

higher cost of bread has made me switch to oat-meal bread (suprisingly nice and much cheaper ) also on to discount brand free range eggs (£1 for 6 free range eggs = bargain )

thus due to lack of money, i adapt and survive

(for now )

 

[SAS]

My weekly food shop has gone up slightly, with weekly shop now +£10 extra a week. This would be higher, but I've debranded myself and suprised to find Sainsburys own items taste in some cases better than branded goods (try their basics tea bags, best tea ever tasted ).

With a 2 week old baby things might change, but so far all ok.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Applied for 100+ jobs since leaving Uni with a first class degree and several years work experience.

Had one interview.

 

[throdgrain]

My customers now have a new excuse for not paying. They say Oh its the credit crunch, don't you know??

I say yes, the credit crunch is people borrowing money and not paying it back ...

 

[SilverHood]

Department I was contracting in got canned, lock stock and barrel, so currently being a tourist while I wait for something else to come up, but not much hiring in the financial markets atm, so prospects are bleak.

 

[Chilly]

Applied for 100+ jobs since leaving Uni with a first class degree and several years work experience.

Had one interview.

You must have a shite CV. Word template?

 

[KevinUK]

2 of us just lost our jobs.
I'll work on my own projects until I find a new job I guess.

 

[taB]

We're having a crappy month in my small part of the company, still there's one week left in November. The up-side is that we had our best October ever and are out performing our big daddy in London. Still, it seems they're always itching for a reason to shut us.

 

[Ch3tan]

Well the crunch has finally hit me, was looking at what I spend most of my money on.... and what I will have to cut out to be secure. Thats right, I am giving up ze booze

 

[old.user4556]

A lot of people's fringe money, top tier money will be drying up.

Sky TV, gym memberships, boozing at the weekend, spray tans, false finger nails, holidays. Kiss it all goodbye.

 

[Trem]

Sky TV

I'm sorry but people who pay for Sky are a bit mental. Yes they have good telly and sport but fuck me they don't half rip you off. There is loads less footy on Sky now due to Setanta but has Sky dropped its price? Have they fuck, well why should they, ITV own Setanta and Sky pretty much own ITV, its win win for them.

Man I fucking hate Sky, if I ever felt I needed it I would just get a motorised dish in my garden.