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Life Expenses in the UK
it's 2020 now so imagine how much worse it IS NOW than the following study
The 2015 study found that a single adult would need £682.80 a month to cover essentials. This includes £79.28 on fuel bills, £197.98 on food and £125.60 on travel. This would also cover £88.09 for household goods and services such as detergent or getting an appliance fixed and £69.24 for personal goods and services, such as toiletries or a trip to the dentist.
Assuming rent was £394, that would leave £94.20 a month for everything else, including clothing, any socialising, leisure activities, birthday and Christmas presents, holidays, pension contributions and general savings.
Amy, 32, from Huddersfield, who did not wish to give her surname, knows just how difficult it is to keep to a strict budget. She has struggled on a minimum wage of £6.90 an hour as a retail assistant. She lives on her own in a council flat, which she couldn't afford without housing benefit. It would be far too expensive to run a car, she says, and so she relies on local buses. Most months she must decide between food and bills.
@Gandalf
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
If you need that to cover essentials, then what is the issue there? If you are on say 15,000 a year by today's minimum full time standards, then why would you be struggling so much? Granted it is not a great salary, but at the same time if you are grown up in terms of how you are living, that is not a struggle. I would like to know more about Amy as people who complain about money are in my experience sometimes pretty bad with money. Oh, weekend trip. Oh, nice restaurant. Oh, Thursday night 5 pints down the pub. Oh, must have those shoes next day on hangover shopping trip. Suddenly.....credit for the month. I am not Scrooge like, but balance and moderation is sometimes lacking in a consumer society.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gandalf
If you need that to cover essentials, then what is the issue there? If you are on say 15,000 a year by today's minimum full time standards, then why would you be struggling so much? Granted it is not a great salary, but at the same time if you are grown up in terms of how you are living, that is not a struggle. I would like to know more about Amy as people who complain about money are in my experience sometimes pretty bad with money. Oh, weekend trip. Oh, nice restaurant. Oh, Thursday night 5 pints down the pub. Oh, must have those shoes next day on hangover shopping trip. Suddenly.....credit for the month. I am not Scrooge like, but balance and moderation is sometimes lacking in a consumer society.
Oh you want to know more about Amy do you?
"I don't have home internet and I only have freeview TV and I have to be very careful with supermarket shops. I occasionally have to turn down socialising with friends, especially if it involves more expensive pubs or restaurants."
Amy spends £20 a month on a pay as you go phone, which she swapped to from a contract to save money. Her electricity bill is normally around £20 a month while gas can vary from £20 to £50 depending on how cold it gets.
"I normally don't have much left over for socialising - £50 a month if I'm lucky. I have generous friends who help me out with this," she says.
"At the moment I have a Netflix subscription [currently £5.99 a month, and typically watched on her phone using wi-fi at university or the pub, or using her mobile data package at home], but that's my only real indulgence. I can't remember the last time I had a holiday."
She thinks a wage increase to £8.20, "would probably get spent on gas and electric as I'm on prepay meters, or on food."
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fatboxingfan
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gandalf
If you need that to cover essentials, then what is the issue there? If you are on say 15,000 a year by today's minimum full time standards, then why would you be struggling so much? Granted it is not a great salary, but at the same time if you are grown up in terms of how you are living, that is not a struggle. I would like to know more about Amy as people who complain about money are in my experience sometimes pretty bad with money. Oh, weekend trip. Oh, nice restaurant. Oh, Thursday night 5 pints down the pub. Oh, must have those shoes next day on hangover shopping trip. Suddenly.....credit for the month. I am not Scrooge like, but balance and moderation is sometimes lacking in a consumer society.
Oh you want to know more about Amy do you?
"I don't have home internet and I only have freeview TV and I have to be very careful with supermarket shops. I occasionally have to turn down socialising with friends, especially if it involves more expensive pubs or restaurants."
Amy spends £20 a month on a pay as you go phone, which she swapped to from a contract to save money. Her electricity bill is normally around £20 a month while gas can vary from £20 to £50 depending on how cold it gets.
"I normally don't have much left over for socialising - £50 a month if I'm lucky. I have generous friends who help me out with this," she says.
"At the moment I have a Netflix subscription [currently £5.99 a month, and typically watched on her phone using wi-fi at university or the pub, or using her mobile data package at home], but that's my only real indulgence. I can't remember the last time I had a holiday."
She thinks a wage increase to £8.20, "would probably get spent on gas and electric as I'm on prepay meters, or on food."
So on 6.90 she would have been on 1200 a month and 14,350 a year and the government was topping up her rent in a council house? Where was she living? Did she have a partner? Any children? There is more to that than meets the eye.
She was using wifi at a University? Was she a student too?
Let's do some math for a single person called Amy living in Huddersfield.
14,350 pounds a year (untaxed up to 12,500 pounds, so basically little income tax), meaning about 1200 a month.
Rent would be say 500 a month for a reasonable flat (yet she gets housing benefit).
So where is the money going?
Something going on with Amy there.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Minimum income required for acceptable standard of living, excl rent (Joseph Rowntree Foundation study)
Item Cost per month for a single adult
Social/cultural participation £196
Food £187.98
Travel costs £115.61
Energy bills (electricity/gas/water) £96.50
Household goods and services £78.09
Council Tax £64
Personal goods and services £59.24
Clothing £31.42
Alcohol £21.15
Total £849.99
Families on the minimum wage must also contend with a raft of other costs from nappies to nursery fees, which are partially offset by child benefits and tax credits.
Tracey's latest money worry is how she will afford her son's new uniform. She lives in Blackpool and works part time in a shoe shop while her husband works full time at a factory. They are both on the current minimum wage of £6.70.
"I always have to think carefully about money. I can't just buy what I want in the shops and plan all our meals. If I want to take my son out for the day to the soft play or the cinema I have to plan it a few weeks in advance and save up."
The couple aren't eligible for housing benefits but they are just able to afford to rent their house because it is owned by another family member. If she had the money Tracey would love to get passports for the family and move to a place with a larger garden for her son to play in. The couple spend £100 a month on gas and electricity.
"Our son comes first and we go without. We had a birthday party for him, I was paying it off in £10 instalments for months. He is four now, but since he was born we have only been on one holiday to Cornwall and that was with my family's help."
The family got caught in a spiral of debt after Tracey went on maternity leave and they relied on payday loans. They are now putting aside money each month to pay it off through a scheme with the debt charity Step Change.
The National Living Wage of £7.20 is due to rise to £9 by 2020. However, it currently falls short of the UK Living Wage, an hourly rate based on the cost of living that businesses can choose to pay workers voluntarily. That is currently set at £8.25 outside of London and £9.40 inside London
@Gandalf
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Social/cultural participation? Go to a coffee shop for coffee and a cake. It will set you back a fiver a week. :-\
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gandalf
Social/cultural participation? Go to a coffee shop for coffee and a cake. It will set you back a fiver a week. :-\
dude if you work for a company they have Christmas parties and they have things like that and you have to go there they have baby showers and they have things like that and they have wedding receptions for co-workers and you are invited and you have to buy a wedding gift or something or a baby shower gift this is what is social participation. You're living with people and working with people you can't just sit inside like a hermit and not go to the office Christmas party for example or the grab bag or the potluck dinner
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fatboxingfan
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gandalf
Social/cultural participation? Go to a coffee shop for coffee and a cake. It will set you back a fiver a week. :-\
dude if you work for a company they have Christmas parties and they have things like that and you have to go there they have baby showers and they have things like that and they have wedding receptions for co-workers and you are invited and you have to buy a wedding gift or something or a baby shower gift this is what is social participation. You're living with people and working with people you can't just sit inside like a hermit and not go to the office Christmas party for example or the grab bag or the potluck dinner
If you are at a company Christmas party it is typically paid for by the company, not you. And as for Weddings or what have you and you are genuinely struggling then people would understand. Would you really want to force someone struggling to give you their last dime? Or drag them along. Of course not. They would probably pay for their transportation if family or close friends, but........how much of what they say is true.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Oh, I notice now that Amy is living alone....but needs housing support for a council home? So I am curious why she needs such support and where her money is going. Council housing is very cheap and clearly designed for lower income earners like Amy. What exactly is her issue?
If it really is so tough on that money then why doesn't she take a few classes, upgrade her skills? Anyone can get a student loan and not pay it off until earning a set amount.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/property...-rent-280.html
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Why doesn't she find a job closer if the transport is too much? She could even do my old relief work and all transportation costs would be refunded the following month. There is always a way. Maybe she could apply at Lidl where it is 9-10 pounds an hour. Amy seems eager to complain, but doesn't appear very driven. Why are other people able to do better than her? Why was I earning more than her as a student in the year 2001? Something odd with Amy.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
This whole you two pretending to feud is a lark.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
p4pking
This whole you two pretending to feud is a lark.
What is even stranger is that we are the same person!
I get that wages for some like Amy are low, but surely she considered transportation and wages before starting the job and she gets support for her council home rent. She is an enigma.
People like Amy are the exception rather than the norm. There are hundreds of jobs that require skills and qualifications but you need to work for it. I know a chap who went home from here to study speech therapy as he knows there are jobs at the end and it will pay. It just requires a bit of common sense and a modicum of smarts.
Tommy Robinson gets mocked by the snobs on here, but he made money by learning and working hard. Many do from your Al's, to your X's, to others like Master and Memphis who hold down steady decent work.
Why didn't they go wrong? It is because we often end up where we are by the choices we make. This is where child nurture is key so that we do not end up with Amy's. It isn't the government that made her ignore skills and having the ambition to obtain the skills to do something.
I also do not understand where all her money is going. She is probably paying 300 quid a month rent or something.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
If I were a single person I'd be proper fucked off if I was blowing 200 quid a month on food. I don't spend that much now, not even close. We eat well, proper food, meat, veg, fruit. Occasionally chuck a pizza in the oven. I'd consider that quite normal.
I think Amy isn't on a full time wage.
There's always something lurking. I'd wager in most cases it's smoking. Struggling to buy or pay for the essentials but the fags remain. Not suggesting that's the case with Amy.
My Mrs is a proper grafter. Has been since 13, two jobs right through until college, working evenings and weekends at college, full time job plus weekend work. Still at it now, works 6 days a week most weeks. You'd think that was something instilled in her by her parents. Her parents are proper lazy, her words not mine. Always considered work a nasty word, didn't/still don't want to do it. She routinely props them up financially because they've run out of the essentials, can't pay a bill. Still smoking though.
Just to add. I appreciate that there are genuine people genuinely struggling for one reason or another. In my experience though, there's a clear and avoidable reason. Personally if ever I've been skint, I know exactly why and that it was in most cases avoidable. I'm going to buy this, or go here, or do that. It'll clean me out but fuck it, I'm doing it anyway.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Well said, Memphis. That's my take on it too. There is something up with Amy and she is likely playing it up. I have been skint and it wasn't because there wasn't money coming in, it was simply because I was young and reckless with it. I turned around completely in my mid 20's and find it easy without earning a fortune. You just need to avoid going to the pub and drinking 8 pints a night, ordering take aways several days a week, and for sure avoid the cigs. You save a fortune on that alone. Have a cig, have a drink, have a pizza, but understand moderation.
I honestly think poverty is often a choice and many want to take you for a mug with the hard luck stories. Seen it all too often in my life. All that 'I could be dead tomorrow so I better spend now' nonsense. Good luck with that when you are not dead. It will probably rain at some point though. Be prepared.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Miles mate poverty is not a choice let's say you fuck up loose your job your wife fucks off your broke.
Right no job your wife taken your money you lost your house your head has gone.
On the streets POVERTY mate does not take much that just a example of what can go wrong.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dia bando
Miles mate poverty is not a choice let's say you fuck up loose your job your wife fucks off your broke.
Right no job your wife taken your money you lost your house your head has gone.
On the streets POVERTY mate does not take much that just a example of what can go wrong.
Myles definitely oversimplifies things
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fatboxingfan
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dia bando
Miles mate poverty is not a choice let's say you fuck up loose your job your wife fucks off your broke.
Right no job your wife taken your money you lost your house your head has gone.
On the streets POVERTY mate does not take much that just a example of what can go wrong.
Myles definitely oversimplifies things
It is like reverse virtue signalling. Being a Devil's advocate for it's own sake to the point where it is completely bizarre.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
I don't think anyone in there right mind wants to be stuck in poverty.
Miles your a professional mate so I think you judge people by your standards remember not everyone is academicly smart.
My take on life sometimes you need some luck and good contacts to get on nothing in life is a give me.!
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dia bando
I don't think anyone in there right mind wants to be stuck in poverty.
Miles your a professional mate so I think you judge people by your standards remember not everyone is academicly smart.
My take on life sometimes you need some luck and good contacts to get on nothing in life is a give me.!
miles is skipping the whole part about how the red carpet has been rolled out for him in South Korea like it is for all white people who work over there in the far East. The red carpet gets rolled out you are a VIP you are somebody special you stick out in the crowd like a sore thumb because the crowd is 99.5% Korean or Japanese if you are in Japan for example. I'm not saying that he is not a professional and I know that he is a good English teacher and works very hard at it but he is judging the poor people in the UK or in the US for example on a standard as if they are VIPs in expats living in a country like South Korea or Japan in which the red carpet is rolled out for these people. You have all heard the old adage all those schools really want over there in South Korea or Japan is a white face a white Western face that they can show the parents of the students. There are tons of white people in Japan and South Korea who cannot teach worth a damn but because they speak native English and they are white they get the red carpet treatment. So Miles has been over there so long he thinks it is so easy as it is for him for everybody in this world. It would not be as easy as he thinks if he was in the United States or the UK because then he will just be a dime a dozen
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dia bando
I don't think anyone in there right mind wants to be stuck in poverty.
Miles your a professional mate so I think you judge people by your standards remember not everyone is academicly smart.
My take on life sometimes you need some luck and good contacts to get on nothing in life is a give me.!
There's an important caveat in your post.
Sometimes there's luck involved, sometimes it's poor judgement and mistakes.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
El Kabong
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dia bando
I don't think anyone in there right mind wants to be stuck in poverty.
Miles your a professional mate so I think you judge people by your standards remember not everyone is academicly smart.
My take on life sometimes you need some luck and good contacts to get on nothing in life is a give me.!
There's an important caveat in your post.
Sometimes there's luck involved, sometimes it's poor judgement and mistakes.
He knows that. he was just pointing out to miles that it isn't always because people are merely lazy.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fatboxingfan
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dia bando
I don't think anyone in there right mind wants to be stuck in poverty.
Miles your a professional mate so I think you judge people by your standards remember not everyone is academicly smart.
My take on life sometimes you need some luck and good contacts to get on nothing in life is a give me.!
miles is skipping the whole part about how the red carpet has been rolled out for him in South Korea like it is for all white people who work over there in the far East. The red carpet gets rolled out you are a VIP you are somebody special you stick out in the crowd like a sore thumb because the crowd is 99.5% Korean or Japanese if you are in Japan for example. I'm not saying that he is not a professional and I know that he is a good English teacher and works very hard at it but he is judging the poor people in the UK or in the US for example on a standard as if they are VIPs in expats living in a country like South Korea or Japan in which the red carpet is rolled out for these people. You have all heard the old adage all those schools really want over there in South Korea or Japan is a white face a white Western face that they can show the parents of the students. There are tons of white people in Japan and South Korea who cannot teach worth a damn but because they speak native English and they are white they get the red carpet treatment. So Miles has been over there so long he thinks it is so easy as it is for him for everybody in this world. It would not be as easy as he thinks if he was in the United States or the UK because then he will just be a dime a dozen
Well that explains a hell of a lot. Gandalf admitted as much years back but I thought he was joking.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
I can’t say I’ve completely followed this thread, but what I would say is £6.90 per hour is not a minimum wage rate, either she’s 18-20 years old, so she’s on more than the minimum wage, or she’s over 20 and being paid illegally below the NMW.
I am also not of the opinion that spending £20 a month on a mobile phone and having a Netflix subscription constitutes to being in poverty.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fatboxingfan
Quote:
Originally Posted by
El Kabong
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dia bando
I don't think anyone in there right mind wants to be stuck in poverty.
Miles your a professional mate so I think you judge people by your standards remember not everyone is academicly smart.
My take on life sometimes you need some luck and good contacts to get on nothing in life is a give me.!
There's an important caveat in your post.
Sometimes there's luck involved, sometimes it's poor judgement and mistakes.
He knows that. he was just pointing out to miles that it isn't always because people are merely lazy.
Well Gandalf didn't say "people are merely lazy" so yeah, there's that for you to ponder Monsieur
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fatboxingfan
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dia bando
I don't think anyone in there right mind wants to be stuck in poverty.
Miles your a professional mate so I think you judge people by your standards remember not everyone is academicly smart.
My take on life sometimes you need some luck and good contacts to get on nothing in life is a give me.!
miles is skipping the whole part about how the red carpet has been rolled out for him in South Korea like it is for all white people who work over there in the far East. The red carpet gets rolled out you are a VIP you are somebody special you stick out in the crowd like a sore thumb because the crowd is 99.5% Korean or Japanese if you are in Japan for example. I'm not saying that he is not a professional and I know that he is a good English teacher and works very hard at it but he is judging the poor people in the UK or in the US for example on a standard as if they are VIPs in expats living in a country like South Korea or Japan in which the red carpet is rolled out for these people. You have all heard the old adage all those schools really want over there in South Korea or Japan is a white face a white Western face that they can show the parents of the students. There are tons of white people in Japan and South Korea who cannot teach worth a damn but because they speak native English and they are white they get the red carpet treatment. So Miles has been over there so long he thinks it is so easy as it is for him for everybody in this world. It would not be as easy as he thinks if he was in the United States or the UK because then he will just be a dime a dozen
Those white people are generally in the lowest quality schools and the students get the education they deserve. The teachers last a year or two max, burnout, and go home. Their pension and health likely never paid. They are sometimes not paid on time and sometimes treated like crap and farmed out to earn the school extra coin. That is what changed me in my mid 20's when a school was going wrong. I had chosen my poverty by not saving when I had been paid okay despite my crazy hours, and then had to sue them. From that point on I resolved never to experience poverty again. I had chosen it by my own decisions which were then compounded by bad circumstances.
There was no VIP treatment. For those jobs you are earning less than most Koreans. That is when you upgrade skills, decide to be an expert, and find new revenue sources, and work at it all. You choose your path.
The reality is I was earning above these minimum wage levels as an 18 year old and with a few courses going beyond that. It wasn't incredible money, but the work was there and you were free to spend or save. As a youth I would spend. As an adult I prefer to save. In truth if I had stayed there my income level wouldn't be massively different to now due to promotion. It would just mean more hours.
You choose your path. In terms of Dia's argument, I would say choose a good wife, invest well, insure your health, buy a home upfront, save for the things you want before buying them or just do not have them, put money away for rainy days, etc. Prepare for the worst just in case. Then when things do go wrong, and they will, you are in a position to handle it.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Beanz
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fatboxingfan
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dia bando
Miles mate poverty is not a choice let's say you fuck up loose your job your wife fucks off your broke.
Right no job your wife taken your money you lost your house your head has gone.
On the streets POVERTY mate does not take much that just a example of what can go wrong.
Myles definitely oversimplifies things
It is like reverse virtue signalling. Being a Devil's advocate for it's own sake to the point where it is completely bizarre.
I am not being a Devil's Advocate. Fats is more doing that and started this thread. All I am doing is arguing that a single person can, if they want to, live on 8 pounds an hour and indeed even save money too.
I also suggest any issues probably stem from bad habits. It is not rocket science. You can rent reasonably in the UK. Bills are pricey, but by contrast food is cheap. The trains are a rip off, but in a normal town you wouldn't need one.
Not sure what I am missing when one cannot cope on 15 grand a year.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dia bando
I don't think anyone in there right mind wants to be stuck in poverty.
Miles your a professional mate so I think you judge people by your standards remember not everyone is academicly smart.
My take on life sometimes you need some luck and good contacts to get on nothing in life is a give me.!
I have been a 'professional' for a short section of my working life. I didn't need academia to do a anything in the UK and still walked into above minimum wage work at 18 with no experience, so what is wrong with Amy? Why can she not do it at 32? I would like to know more about the life choices Amy has made, I suspect her IQ might be significant.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Miles the problem with your point of view is that you are putting far too much responsibility on the individual who cannot foresee future events. You say to choose your wife wisely but that is not a guarantee. Plenty of people change and you could not have foreseen that. You say to choose your career wisely but plenty of people have chosen carefully and that particular field dries up or goes away. People end up in poverty for things that are far out of their control many of the times. You are acting as if the whole thing can be pre-planned and calculated like you are doing some kind of a grocery list and you can follow that list to a t and everything will work out just fine and dandy. That is really not the way reality is at all. d a bando has said it correctly that some people cannot take the pain or the pressure of the unforeseen tragedies and then they lose their minds or they lose their emotional stability and then of course they cannot get themselves back together. It is very cruel of you to assume that they should definitely just pick themselves up by their bootstraps.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
That is my point though, always have a plan B and C. I have a good idea of what I will do next and know it won't be difficult to plan as it is all accounted for. I am someone who is always on his toes. I know others who have done just that in terms of new ventures. I give examples of people who go into different fields all the time and I pay close attention to anyone who leaves to try something new. I know many people who have done what I do for years, gone home and transitioned into very good jobs and not this minimum nonsense we are quibbling about. That stuff is generally the area of the unskilled, lowest, least driven sectors of life.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Not low as in bad, but low as in anyone can do it. Anyone can tape boxes in a factory and no you better not rely on that being a 30 year career.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gandalf
Not low as in bad, but low as in anyone can do it. Anyone can tape boxes in a factory and no you better not rely on that being a 30 year career.
You are completely marginalizing the emotionally unstable and the psychologically unstable and the emotionally unhealthy and the psychologically unhealthy and those who have nervous breakdowns and those whose suddenly minds snap, and those who have late onset disorders and that is millions of people right there we are talkin about maybe tens of millions
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fatboxingfan
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gandalf
Not low as in bad, but low as in anyone can do it. Anyone can tape boxes in a factory and no you better not rely on that being a 30 year career.
You are completely marginalizing the emotionally unstable and the psychologically unstable and the emotionally unhealthy and the psychologically unhealthy and those who have nervous breakdowns and those whose suddenly minds snap, and those who have late onset disorders and that is millions of people right there we are talkin about maybe tens of millions
That is why there are hierarchies and most are in the middle and some at the top and some nearer the bottom. It is not a perfect ride for all and some catch up and others fall. Everyone will have a hard time at some point and everyone will die. You do what you can with the tools you have. You yourself point out that life can be cruel, unfair and that we turn to dust.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
I am very well paid nowadays, and I know that. It somewhat insulates you to many of the everyday concerns of normal and usual people. Very easy to become superior or moralistic about it all.
But I also have been very poor. Not the 'western' definition of poor, but really going to sleep at night hungry when I was a kid.
there are not too many steps/ bad decisions/ failures between any of us today becoming homeless, if you think about it.
Luck has got much more to do with it than we may wish to admit to ourselves?
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Miles , as of September 1st 2019 in the United kingdom there are 344,000 homeless people. In addition to that there are another 46,000 British households on the brink at high risk becoming homeless
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
X
I am very well paid nowadays, and I know that. It somewhat insulates you to many of the everyday concerns of normal and usual people. Very easy to become superior or moralistic about it all.
But I also have been very poor. Not the 'western' definition of poor, but really going to sleep at night hungry when I was a kid.
there are not too many steps/ bad decisions/ failures between any of us today becoming homeless, if you think about it.
Luck has got much more to do with it than we may wish to admit to ourselves?
Yes that's why I always say is there but by the grace of God go we.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fatboxingfan
Miles , as of September 1st 2019 in the United kingdom there are 344,000 homeless people. In addition to that there are another 46,000 British households on the brink at high risk becoming homeless
Speaking for myself, we were homeless because my father who had a job went out drinking every night, had a wife who wouldn't do much, then couldn't afford the rent and then put to sleep dog and boom....homelessness. It was a self inflicted sequence of events and they did it to themselves. Thankfully because there were children the Tories were kind and I learned so much from that experience that I chose a good wife, then decided to save like a man, and at the same age my Dad did that to us bought a home in cash with no mortgage thus showing how life can be done. It was simply about making better judgment calls.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
you have to realize and it takes time to realize this I think I am still realizing it myself that the people who did it to themselves as you put it or how I think of my own parents when I say damn them that they messed up me and my sister so badly with gaslighting and blame-shifting and verbal abuse and physical belt whippings what you have to realize is that they too what damaged when they grow up they did not consciously do any of that stuff maybe or maybe they were helpless to stop themselves from reacting the way they did in certain situations because perhaps that was exactly the way they were treated and abused for so very very long. So what I'm saying is there is a very large element and its of what is beyond our control and what what we are helpless to because we are human beings we are not super beings we are limited human beings who yes should try as hard as we can but there are just certain things that are beyond our grasp. and that is why I just cannot say that all homeless people or poor people are personally to blame
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
millions of people are perfectly normal until they reach their mid-30s or late 30s and then they have what is known as late onset mental illness. Just from one day to the next that is why they call it late onset. Millions and millions of people like that and there's nothing they can do to simply be on their toes as you put it and to try to get their lives back. Then you have people in tornadoes and earthquakes and hurricanes who go from one minute to the next abject poverty through no fault of their own and perhaps can never get it together again. Then you have people living under dictatorships and tyrants who do not Foster an economic environment in which people could actually thrive and so those people to the tune of tens of millions or let's say hundreds of millions in the cases of China and India have no hope of ever getting out of poverty. Now for you to say they should stop having children really doesn't do much for the situation because they are already living on two pennies per day and even if they had no kids would still be in abject poverty with no way out we are talking about hundreds of millions of people here. It's not about them being on their toes
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fatboxingfan
you have to realize and it takes time to realize this I think I am still realizing it myself that the people who did it to themselves as you put it or how I think of my own parents when I say damn them that they messed up me and my sister so badly with gaslighting and blame-shifting and verbal abuse and physical belt whippings what you have to realize is that they too what damaged when they grow up they did not consciously do any of that stuff maybe or maybe they were helpless to stop themselves from reacting the way they did in certain situations because perhaps that was exactly the way they were treated and abused for so very very long. So what I'm saying is there is a very large element and its of what is beyond our control and what what we are helpless to because we are human beings we are not super beings we are limited human beings who yes should try as hard as we can but there are just certain things that are beyond our grasp. and that is why I just cannot say that all homeless people or poor people are personally to blame
Totally and I get you completely. But when we are talking about money and you have lived in Korea yourself know you could save half of that paycheck and over 2 years, that is 24,000 dollars, plus severance, plus pension refund (if the school paid it), you have the choice in all the jobs you have done over 30 years or so to save that 10%, to invest it. You have worked hard, you have got an education, but you lacked nurturing like I did. However, much trauma you still think you have, you have always had it in you to get out there and get a job and the savings potential has always been there for you. You spent years overseas where you don't even pay rent most of the time. Again, loads of little perks. Trauma has not stopped you working. We knuckle down.
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Re: Life Expenses in the UK
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fatboxingfan
millions of people are perfectly normal until they reach their mid-30s or late 30s and then they have what is known as late onset mental illness. Just from one day to the next that is why they call it late onset. Millions and millions of people like that and there's nothing they can do to simply be on their toes as you put it and to try to get their lives back. Then you have people in tornadoes and earthquakes and hurricanes who go from one minute to the next abject poverty through no fault of their own and perhaps can never get it together again. Then you have people living under dictatorships and tyrants who do not Foster an economic environment in which people could actually thrive and so those people to the tune of tens of millions or let's say hundreds of millions in the cases of China and India have no hope of ever getting out of poverty. Now for you to say they should stop having children really doesn't do much for the situation because they are already living on two pennies per day and even if they had no kids would still be in abject poverty with no way out we are talking about hundreds of millions of people here. It's not about them being on their toes
This is actually a thread about life expenses in the UK. A place where they give you benefits if you genuinely cannot work or temporarily lose your job or have a baby etc. It's not like China.
