Internet News Blog
January 31st, 2010
Fridays are my favourite day at work, not only because we are facing the weekend, people always bring in a few foodie treats, but mainly because I get to leave a little bit earlier. This means I get to avoid the hellish Friday night traffic before it gets really bad. This Friday completely without notice we were told we had a last minute meeting and had to stay late. I was gutted, no early start to the weekend and a whole load of sitting still in traffic. As always on a Friday I was expected to meet some friends in the pub, I was over two hours late and completely furious by the time I finally arrived.
While I was ranting about me stupid job and my rubbish day, I realised my companions were looking a little uncomfortable and I guessed I had put my foot in it somewhere. It transpired that one of my friends was drowning his sorrows after unexpectedly losing his job that very day. I have heard plenty on the news about companies closing and people losing their jobs but it luckily hadn’t effected me personally until that moment.
This was always going to be bad news, but it was made even worse by the fact that he had recently purchased his first house, which he has only just got looking like he wants. Two years ago back when property prices were falling, he found it really easy to get some good mortgages deals and jumped at the chance to be a home owner. Now he is really regretting that decision as he is not the kind of person to bury his head in the sand, he will not be able to handle any repossession problems.
Needless to say, I have had better nights as we were all pretty down. We spend the evening thrashing out ideas as to how he could avoid repossession, but short from getting another job fast (not an easy thing at the moment) we were not much help.
He sadly decided that in order to keep his sanity, he would have to consider selling his house and moving back in with his parents. And he won’t be the only one, in the news recently, repossession are on the rise, and the main reason - unemployment.Tags: housing, jobs, unemployment
Posted in Finance, Property | Comments (0)
January 30th, 2010
It’s the end of January and even though I have had a relatively cheap Christmas I am still feeling the pinch like most people. January is always a bit of a low time of year with Christmas over and nothing to look forward until Easter and all that chocolate.
January is of course the month for the day dubbed Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year. On that Monday the radio was full of how it was scientifically proven to be the most depressing day. It sounds strange that scientists would want to prove something like that but then they always seems to be proving something strange. Well it turns out to be a load of rubbish made up by a PR company for a holiday company who paid a scientist to put his name to it.
It is understandable why people may be depressed, during Christmas there is a lot of pressure to spend a lot of money and many people end up with a lot of debt on their credit card with no chance to clear it any time soon. I can imagine debt advice companies being run off their feet at the moment.
I think at the moment there is a lot of advice for people about their money. I think we need it as well, we seem to live in a generation that does not know how to manage money as if we want something there is always a company that is willing to give out unsecured personal loans to anyone who asks. In fact the companies actively look for customers, I used to get automated phone calls from a debt company who were very concerned about my debt problems and were going to give me another loan to solve them.
I still think that to be in debt is quite a foolish thing to do, and can be avoided. Mortgages are an unavoidable thing, but if you let your self get into unaffordable debt though personal loans then the answer should be to write it off and pay off only what you can afford. You should be forced to sell all valuables like flat screen TV’s and expensive cards and then pay off what they can afford of what is left. This month I have lived on very little because I have had to and with websites like This is money around it makes it much easier.
Tags: debt, Finance, january, money
Posted in Finance | Comments (0)
January 17th, 2010
The snow has finally gone, it was a real surprise looking out of the window to see green on Saturday. It feeling like ages since there has been any colour in the outside world. We opened the curtains and were amazed it is like spring has arrived, out bulbs are already emerging and it is actually a nice temperature to be outside.
We have decided to do some spring cleaning early this year to get it done and out of the way. We already have 3 big boxes of stuff to go to the charity shop, a big pile for Ebay and three big bin liners of rubbish. There is something very nice about getting rid of all the junk to give us some space. In our house we are both hoarders of things, we have never thrown much away so over the years we have accumulated an unbelievable about of junk.
We have found loads of things we never knew we had, a case of unlabelled CD that were full of all our music all ordered in folders, something that we haven’t had since my old computer died.
Next weekend as long as the weather stays ok we are going to tackle the garden and get it all neat and tidy for when we start growing out veg. Growing veg is our new thing for the year (we had a go last year, but I am ignoring that because of the major failure it was). We still have leaves from last year in the beds and now everything has died down its our chance to clean behind the fence in our garden where people throw junk.
With all the fresh veg and living on a budget very heading towards the Good Life.
Tags: cleaning, clearing out, gardening
Posted in gardening, housing | Comments (0)
January 17th, 2010
With my wife still out of work and not getting any benefits, and me not getting paid a lot budgeting has become a big thing in my house. It isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, we have always been careful with money, but now if we don’t need it to live we don’t buy it. One of the biggest changes we have made is not going to supermarkets. They are terrible for getting us to buy things we didn’t really need because they are on offer at the end of the aisles tempting us.
I think that the most important thing with keeping your money in check is the finacial planning you put in place for yourself. Making sure you know how much your bills are going to come to every month. I love my online banking for this, I pay all my bills by direct debit so by just logging on to my account I can see all my monthly outgoings in one simple list. From that I know how much I have to spend on other things like food and petrol.
The problem I have at the moment is that I am breaking even every month, giving me no extra to save for other expenses such as car insurance or paying more than the interest on the money I borrowed for the house. I know it is an extra expense but I am considering some form of protection for my finances just in case the unforeseen happens. I have looked at cover for critical illness and something new to me called mortgage life insurance but I haven’t decided yet. I think it is important to make sure that you get the right cover, not just the right price, which is why when it came to renewing my home insurance I looked at the latest reviews.
When I do actually have to go shopping or I am looking for a new financial product I always look at the Money Supermarket website. I get the email update and it is always packed full of good ideas and the latest offers.
What ever happens I know that there is always ways to save money, you just have to want to do it.
Tags: budget, saving money
Posted in Finance, money | Comments (0)
January 10th, 2010
It’s that time of year again where it snows and causes havoc. I personally love snow and always have, but what I don’t enjoy is the slushy, icy aftermath of a lot of snow and the inevitable horror stories of people stranded and cold.
I don’t know how many times people need to be told but there are always reports about people falling through thin ice. A local school had to get all the emergency services out to two boys who had made it to an island in the centre of a nearby lake and couldn’t get back, this obviously put everyone who came to help in danger.
I work in a school and there is always the possibility that the school will be closed to pupils. This is usually followed by various complaints about ‘a little snow brings everything to a holt’ and how it has disrupted their parents work. I understand that it must be hard to change plans etc, but the only reason that schools close is due to them being sued by parents for things like children breaking bones on ice in the playground. The schools really are just watching their backs, quite rightly.
The good things about the snow is it makes you feel like a kid again. There is something about it that makes you want to have snow ball fights and go sledging. The night before I was supposed to go back to work it snowed and we had at least 10cm of snow on the floor. I should have gone to bed ready for the next day, instead we took a tray from the kitchen down to the local field and went sledging.
Unfortunately now the snow seems to be melting so the chances of having another day off work are decreasing. I just hope it snows heavily over night.
Tags: snow, Weather
Posted in Weather | Comments (0)
January 10th, 2010
It seems to me that solicitors never seem to ever get things right when it comes to buying property. When I brought my house they messed up the papers so that we were delayed by 2 weeks. Now my brother is buying a house and he was supposed to have moved in by Christmas. We are now part way though January and the end for him is nowhere in sight, money has not even been exchanged and to make matters worse the solicitors have had the paper work for 3 weeks and are yet to even read them.
It seems now that there is even more delay as there is now a new for sale sign up in the garden with a new company so it could be that the owners have got fed up with waiting and put it back on the market.
I was surprised to read that property prices during 2009 actually went up 6% over the whole year. After what seemed a terrible time for the economy one area is recovering. I don’t think anyone knows will happen to property prices in 2010 none of the experts seem to agree. Some seem to think that we are going to see the improvement continue whiles others say we could see a decrease in house prices by 10%.
It is expected that interest rates could be frozen at 0.5% for 2010. You would have thought that because interest rates are low, then the rates for mortgages would be low. But the greedy banks are just using the low interest rates as a way of making more money. The high interest rates could put home buyers & property buyers off during the year. During 2009 property prices were driven up by the lack of supply, but with the prices higher more people could decide to sell. If this happens prices may dip during 2010, I think the best thing to do is watch the people that invest in property as it is their livelihood to know what is going on.
Tags: mortgages, Property
Posted in Property | Comments (1)
December 29th, 2009
In the run up to Christmas last year we had really bad snow on all the roads around where I live, schools were closed and no one could get anywhere safely. We also had the news that the councils were short on stocks of salt and grit to keep the roads safe. After last year you would have thought that they would have made sure they were ready for this year. But according to the AA there is still a shortage in supply and councils just rely on last minute deliveries to clear the roads.
Last night the weather was quite bad and snow had covered every road. Even the main road near my parents had been covered. I had been to my parents to as my uncle had been to visit and it was the only change to see him over the holidays. I set off home at half 11 and everything was ice, it was like driving on an ice skating rink. I was very careful but obviously not careful enough as I managed to hit a car. It was parked and I had skidded for about 20 meters before hitting it. I just completely lost all control. My brakes were on fully and I tried to turn but nothing happened I just went into a straight line. I got off lightly as there was no damage to either car but I did tell the owners about what had happened.
At the time I wasn’t worried, but now thinking about it, will anything happen about it? I know there was no damage, I only tapped the other car, but not everyone is honest. I could end up having to pay my excess if they claim for anything which I will not be happy about.
It is sad that we live in a time where people are ready to claim for anything and if you are honest to admit to a slight knock you end up worried about people claiming against your car insurance. A quick search on the internet and you can find companies with calculators that let you estimate how much you can claim for personal injury, without any assessment of injury. Personal injury claims lawyers are everywhere, its big business with many in the legal profession specialising in it.
At least there was no one in the car to claim for injury, my main worry is even though I have protected my no claims bonus, I know making a claim will cause my car insurance quote to go up next year. It is likely that my quote will go up anyway with the news that insurers are losing money on injury claims.
Tags: car crash, car insurance, Insurance, snow
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)
December 23rd, 2009
The perceptive among you will see that I haven’t posted anything for quite a long time, with the run up to Christmas and how busy I have been at work I just haven’t found the time. Im happier now as I finish work for the hols next week and I have finally finished my Christmas shopping.
To save money this year on stocking fillers we have made quite a few edibles (there’s nothing quite like waking up in the early hours and eating the Satsuma and chocolates in your stocking) we have filled some jars with favourite sweets, and made some cakes and truffles, yum. The sweets are my favourite just fill empty jars with whatever (mint humbugs look lovely) and add a label, so simple but just as nice as shop brought.
I love buying Christmas presents for the children, because it gives you a great excuse to play in a toy shop for the day. This year we went to toys r us for all of the kid’s gifts. What a brilliant afternoon, although it can get pretty expensive when you have to get alot.
We visit the same store every year to buy all our gifts for women, Boots has a brilliant range of presents, so much choice and its not all makeup and bath stuff, every year they have a new range of national trust, foodie and home gifts too. Its still buy 2 get one free as well which is perfect if you have a lot of gifts to buy. I do try a bit harder for my wife, sister or mum by visiting websites which have a thoughtful gift list.
Im sure im not the only one who finds gifts for men the hardest to get right. I know I would be happy with most gadgets and electronic type gifts, but they can be very expensive. The same goes for experience days, there are many of the experience day activities I would love to do, but they don’t come cheep. Since I seem to spend the majority of my life at work, I do quite like the distraction of some of the gifts and gadgets that plug into USB slots you can get; I got brought a mini greenhouse and people are always commenting (beats chat about the weather). This year I have been buying the boys presents from Amazon, it’s pretty much a one stop shop for just about anything.
Well that’s the gifts sorted, now I have got to wrap them all, mince pies and mulled wine at the ready I think!
Tags: chirstmas, gifts, presents
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December 20th, 2009
Christmas time, one of my favourite times of year. It seems such a special time of years because everyone makes more effort. Everyone decorates their houses, the shops have special displays and all the cities have their Christmas markets. This year I have been to two Christmas markets, Lincoln and Birmingham. I would say that Lincoln Christmas market was definitely the best. Birmingham market could have been very good but it was not organised very well. It is massive, running up the main street but unfortunately there was no guide for where people should go. The streets were packed with people pushing and trying to squeeze through until it was grid locked and no one moved. It took us over an hour to get from one side of the market to the other, and we didn’t get to see much of the stalls. Lincoln market on the other hand was more controlled. Like normal they had the one way system in place to guide people through, it was packed but still ran smoothly. Hey both had the mulled wine and Bratwurst on sale so I would go to both again.
Apart from the Christmas markets there is the songs that reappear every year, Fairy Talk of New York, Sleeps till Santa (from Trent FM) and Mince pies coming out of my ears song (I think this was made up by my primary school teacher but I still sing as much as I can remember every year.
Talking about Mince pies, they are fantastic. So far I have had at least 1 a day, my boss has brought one in for me everyday so far. I am going to make my own (well if you can call store brought pastry and mince meat making my own) when ever I get around to it.
Now I live in a little village it has become even more sweet. We have had Santa coming around tonight to visit all the children. It was the perfect day for it because it is the first day of real snow.
Altogether Christmas is a lovely time of year made for families and will always be my favourite time of the year.
Tags: Christmas, mince pies, traditions
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December 20th, 2009
The one TV programme that I really hate is Big Brother. It has been going on for far to long and the fools that go in there still expect it to be their big break only to find no one cares when they leave the house. Well it looks like with the recession and unemployment at record high channel 4 decided we all needed a cheering up and announced big brother is ending next year *big cheer*.
I think Big Brothers days were numbered anyway, why do we want to see a load of people living under constant surveillance when that is what everyday life is anyway. There are only 3000 CCTV cameras in Nottingham alone.
Every time I leave work I see CCTV camera watching for people using the bus lane but CCTV doesn’t particularly bother me but if you delve a little bit deeper into surveillance of society then it gets a little bit more intrusive. X ray “naked” scanners have been introduced at Manchester airport that allows them to see under you clothes. This is supposed to be instead of the old patting down they used to do to people and I can see the point. I would rather go though that than have someone pat me down, but some people are outraged.
GPS tracking systems for vehicles have always tempted me but it always seems a bit strange that you are always being monitored. It is good because it will let you know where you are and tell you where to go, but I always thought it could be used the other way around, to track you. It is a good idea for commercial companies to monitor their fleet, but could it be used to track individuals to see if they are speeding?
Worst of all I think is RFID tracking something that is completely new to me. It is a form of tracking that uses microchips to track packages. Companies are now wanting to put them into products to allow them to see where they end up and who has brought them. I think this is against common decency, I don’t not want a company to know if I have brought their produce. All they will use it for is to bombard you with targeting junk mail.
No wonder (and thank God) Big Brother is ending, reading the news makes it feel like we are living in that house ourselves.
Tags: CCTV, GPS, surveillance, Tracking
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