Brain recalibration - a cost of living/modern life thread
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I'd say at least half of my son's year had a gap year, and that's spread between both the private kids and the state kids.
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Donate it to the institution(s) of your choice would be the obvious route. The world is not short of options put the money more directly to good use.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
But healthy food is soooo expensive which is why poor people eat junk apparently.
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healthy food requires prepping and cooking, not many in the poor neighbourhood have learnt those skills, courtesy of the previous generations, which thought that working and entertaining themselves was more important than cooking
left the forum March 20230 -
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£8 for the burrito meal deal here in Durham - that includes fries and a drink.
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Indian restaurants still have to decide which way to go… my excellent local curry house charges about £12 for a main, say lamb Madras… another one in Leamington wants £18 for something very similar.
left the forum March 20230 -
Yeah but that's not the argument that tends to get put forward. You hear lots of people say they eat unhealthy food due to healthy food being expensive. You even have the various charities spouting that argument. I'm a lot more sympathetic to the argument that hard working families find it hard to make time to cook especially when they have kids waiting to be fed the moment they get in the door.
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again… if by healthy food they mean steak and bagged salad, then they are indeed correct… anything cheap tends to involve quite a lot of work and time or at least some know how.
left the forum March 20230 -
There has never been so much readily available information out there about how to cook - TV, books, YouTube, Internet.
Jamie Oliver alone has done books and TV series covering meals you can make in 15 or 30 minutes, meals on a budget, dishes with only 5 ingredients, one pot meals, easy veggie meals. The vast majority of his recipes are available free online on on YouTube.
People are just lazy.
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they are…
left the forum March 20230 -
"People are just lazy."
Careful now, somebody might take offence on their behalf but they are not on today as they are not "working". 🤣
The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.1 -
It’s the time to think of, plan, buy, cook, wash up that is the barrier.
Jamie makes his 30 min meals work by making 45 mins worth of washing and clearing up.
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Durham isn't cheap - went to some Thai place called Zen last year and it was at least the same price as London.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Nice place though - one of our favourites.
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Yep, have to admit the food was good. Might try the steak place at Ramside next time, heard that's worth going to.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Few decent options in the town these days, Coarse, Rabbit Hole, Holi and Bhang. Sod all shops but the restaurant scene is improving.
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Cheers for the tips - will bear those in mind next time I'm up.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Insurance premiums! House cover due end of month, time to start doing the research.
Current provider (Aviva) quote increased by 175%. One hundred and seventy five! FFS. I've not made any claims or anything.
Maybe got a good deal last year as a new customer. Cheapest found so far is still +69%.
F knows how the mowtah insurance due May will appear.
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Seems strange, Admiral put my home insurance up by about £3 so I just let it renew.
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Getting increasingly weird. Quote prices found so far now ranging from + £19 to + £254, exc those stupid ones on the comparison sites that obvs don't want the business. The building and contents cost last year did seem low at £113. Digging around continues...
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Thanks. I do make regular contributions to causes close to my heart, but my comment was more about the case for tax increases to fund spending on such causes. (Not just mine, obviously, but causes that would appeal widely to the population.) Me giving all my dosh away won't achieve much on the grand scale of things, and would be somewhat arbitrary in terms of who benefits, so unless as part of a nationwide, government policy, I'll "keep it in the family".
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Maybe I poked a (virtual) stick into the Aviva pot. Just got a renewal invite via email at less than 1/2 what the initial quote was, still plus £40 year on year but not so radically stupid. Now the cheapest of all the big name providers I've checked.
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Not an enormously helpful comment but if you are doing research into insurers you really ought to research the quality of the claims process, as that is ultimately the product you are buying and, having seen it from multiple sides, there is a big discrepancy there.
I once did a search for a Head of Claims for a big personal lines insurer (aka homes and cars) and the quality of the claims functions varied wildly.
The cheapest underwriter may not be the cheapest overall if you end up claiming.
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Wasn't meant to be read personally. As a counterpoint, I think relatively small amounts of money can make huge differences to small local charities or even individuals in need. Of course that's arbitrary but I don't think that matters.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
But how do you do such "research"? Can you at all trust online reviews?
I posted online review about some well known company. The service was as bad, so was the review. No offensive language or anything, just plain and honest. The next day my review vanished.
Meanwhile, I see many positive review about that company.
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You can look up who the suppliers are for the repairs for example.
I'll give you an example. A guy at work is a real car nut and some other driver scratched his car. He had gone for the cheapest insurer at the time (DLG) and ended up in a real barny with the insurer over who did the repair - he wanted a VW Group approved repairer in order to get the 20 year quality guarantee. The insurer insisted he go with an unapproved one.
I went with Hastings (as I happen to know they're good) and when my car was keyed I was immediately sent to the VW approved repairer.
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Is this an example you've been through, or a story you made up?
I have experience at both end: going with the cheapest, and getting a great service or product, and going with expensive and getting poor value.
But if we consumers adopt the mantra "they're lower price, surely quality must be poor", we're actually sending the message to business that they should push prices up (even if their services/products are good), otherwise they're seen as bad.
Reminds me of an experiment I read in freakonomics. Professional wine experts, 500 of them, were sent very cheap and very expensive wines and asked for judgement (wine labels were removed): 47% of them said the cheap wine should have costed more than the expensive one.
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