Before everything tanked,
I was living paycheck to paycheck in a rented "studio" apartment (glorified bedsit) and was struggling to keep up with my expenses (after 6 years of sharing expenses with the ex).

When mum died, we knew she'd left bro and I some money but didn't quite know how much. Once everything came in, we split quite a nice amount of English Pounds Sterling between us. Enough that we each have a modest amount to fall back on for a while if it becomes necessary.

Now, of course, those nice English Pounds had to be transferred to my bank in the US. And the exchange rate that day was $1.98 to the pound....... almost "doubled" the money.

I held on to it a while, and invested in some strong shares when the prices dipped. They're still low but I've made some money on them.

And as rents have gone down, and I got a 15% payrise (we fired two people and I took over their jobs), I moved into a lovely new 1 bedroom apartment a month ago and can afford my monthly expenses with a little left over for fishing trips. Yay!
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 21:12, Reply)

Erm......
After twelve months in the semi employed hand to mouth, penniless jobless wilderness, just had my contract extended for another 12 months on a job I still can't believe I got that pays well into six figures in GBP tax free and I love every minute of.......however, I'm working in Africa where I get looked after very nicely thankyou - relatively anyway - I have a driver, get my meals and healthcare and really manage to bank everything every month that I take home..Yay me. What's coming, and what few people are seeing while they fret over their impending bad credit rating or having to give up the lease payments on the car is that a proportionally large section of the worlds population lives on the edge - they don't worry about the superficial stuff but they scrape by on subsistence. They basically feed themselves and their families through their emplyment and that's about it - in the cities it's drivers, street hawkers and cleaners and in the rural areas it's subsitence farmwrs but they all rely on their staple foodstuffs. Basically the price of these (rice for example) is at some point going to proportionally rocket and a lot of people are about to suddenly going to be unable to afford to eat...and that my friends, is where the global wheels are going to fall off for a while. Should what I've said sound a little confusing, go back to your plasma screen, sit on your unpaid for sofa and hope someone else'll come along and sort it out...because if they don't, there's going to be slaughter and famine on an unprecedented scale in what we call the Developing World as they all start scrapping over what they can get.
(Oil Slick, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 20:47, 6 replies)

Cheese
Even if I have less money, I still save a little bit every week to buy cheese.
(powervator and NONE SHALL PASS, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 20:21, 9 replies)

Whats all the fuss about?
Where I work our sales our up nearly 50% on our yearly target and Im getting a nice big bonus :)
The actual atore I work in is up around 20% and theyre creating new jobs
My auntie just sold her house for the asking price.
My cousin just bought a swanky new house. Not the same one

So at the moment I have other more important things to think about...
(i should have joined myspace, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 20:06, Reply)

I like crunchies
what is credit?
( SkUG >_O i got a couple of stitches in my eyeball... ow, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 20:01, Reply)

negative fucking equity
that is all.


/bitter.
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 19:58, 6 replies)

Credit crunch hurting the rich....
Being in the food industry for almost 14 years, it's a pretty good place to be in in times of desperation such as this, as everyone has to eat.
But my story is this, A certain recovery operator I know is pulling his hair out,
Each Recover lorry he buys (from the u.s.a) costs him around £250000. He now has 11 of them.
And good luck to him too. Self made etc....

Pulling his hair out because ONE of his saving accounts is losing £300.00 a DAY in intrest.

Shame.



Just proves the old saying "money goes to money"?
(Murran_Butchstansanger Good bye Tony, R.I.P, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 19:54, Reply)

Credit Crunch? Whatever...
I was on the train down to Cambridge on Tuesday from Barnsley and I had to change in Peterborough (amongst other places)... Being 9am, it was that time of the day when I needed to take the kids to the baths (my body runs like clockwork and it knows that that's the time when I normally get into the office). There was no toilet paper in Peterborough Station's gents, so I went to the shop and bought Kleenex with Balsam, with which I luxuriated my geographically-confused poo tube.

If I can do that while the economy's in recession, what will it be like when it's in boom? Portable bidet or gold-trimmed babywipes, methinks.
(mr major no thanks, I don't use the horse, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 19:31, Reply)

I really don't know what . .

the mother fucking ribbitting shit you are all on about...

we have credit crunch every morning in our pond and it's the gnats twat. The wee poles are doing great on the stuff and will soon be exchanging their tails for legs.

"Credit Crunch, the smunchy cereal with the nutty punch" now with things resembling raisins...



crrrredit it's grrrreat. . . (picture tony the tiger cept he's a frog)
(The Cats Twat, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 19:21, Reply)

What recession?
My family owns an "independent hardware retailer" in the Midlands.
In Summer 2007, one of our premises happened to be located a bit too close to the River Arrow when it flooded, so we've needed a new floor and shelving for a year and a half now.
The local shop-fitting company went bust, so instead of letting the insurance company make bad decisions for us, which had delayed us enough already, we took their money and went to a near-ish Woolworths and bought all their shelving.
A fucking lot of shelving.
For 10% what the refitters quoted us: £60k for our two shops (may as well do them both).
So on Sunday 4th we took all the family and some regular customers to Woolies with 4 commercial vehicles (2 of which we'd borrowed) and loaded/unloaded roughly 15 pickup-loads of metal, some of which we lost going round a roundabout.
It just so happened that their counters hadn't been sold, so another 2 truckloads later, we had counters that were worth £3,000 altogether for just £100.

So thanks to Woolies being shit, we saved £53,900.

Also, one of our competitors went bust so our takings are even better than before this so called "recession".

Oh, and we do locksmithing. Always lucrative when houses are being repossessed.
(EvilFred is investing in scuba gear., Thu 22 Jan 2009, 19:11, Reply)

Bring it on.
I'm nearly 3 years into my mortgage, and having paid as much as possible off it it's now about 1/3 of my annual gross wage. I reckon it'll be finished in two years.

Only downside is I have my dad's place to fix up and sell on, which will be expensive in the short term. However I'm sure the current financial climate will mean I have a fair few bargaining chips.

My job is boring, but relatively stable, and I'm sure I can curb my wanderlust until things look up.
(_(_(_(_(_(_(_(_(_ =o.o=, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 19:10, Reply)

Crisis? What Crisis?
Bonus last month £1,800 (on top of £35k basic).

Mortgage fallen by £650 pcm in last six months.

Min 6 months pay if I am made redundant.

The only credit crunch I see...is using my Amex card to bash out lumps from the weekend's stash.
( Albert Marshmallow is a completely irredeemable cunt, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 18:18, 4 replies)

Bargain !
Strolling through local Woolies the week before it was due to close me and a friend decided to ask if random items were for sale (eg floor tiles, windows, shopping baskets), turns out the baskets were for sale! £1 each or a group of them and the holder for a fiver - result!
Fast forward about 30 mins to me and my friend struggling to get on the train with 25 Woolworths shopping baskets and 2 wheelie holders.
What did we do with them?

Basket chariots :D
(marmitemarmite, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 18:16, 1 reply)

Damn. damn. damn.
So there's all of you lot sitting happily in your homes with low mortgages, secure jobs etc... and there's twat face here.

Yes, me.

I'm QUITTING my (relatively) secure job with a Software Consultancy with no job lined up in March to move to Canada with my Girlfriend. With the financial situation being so crap it means that instead of $2 (Canadian) to the £, i now get 1.74 which means a loss of about 1000$ on my savings.

Bollocks...

I asked for it, didn't i?
( Axai is in Montréal, Canada O.o, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 18:09, 4 replies)

We got busier...
Working in a business that has a very specific target market (students) and a very sought after product (cheap booze) with some very attractive extras (the possibility of a shag) means that we've seen no decline whatsoever and are in fact trading up nearly 30% on last year.

My job looks pretty safe, I spend 3 nights a week looking at beautiful young women and mocking the pissed idiots, whilst working with a team that I'm very proud of.
The other four nights are spent drinking some very nice boozes that I generally get at a discount because I work 'in the trade'.

Not too bad all round.

Except I've now had to kick a life long habit... I no longer read/watch the news.

It's all a bunch of arse-twittery using phrases that are blatantly made up by an idiot who works at the BBC.
( Ril3y is a brit abroad.. bring on the Stella / Asahi, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 18:05, Reply)

I've found it really tough,
but then I've just taken up photography and spending £300 on a new fisheye lens will kind of screw up your finances. So I guess it's my own stupidity then?
(The Oscillating Gibbon is eating curried squid, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 17:57, Reply)

Lots LOL's this week
My job's okay being over paid the same amount

But my mortgage has dropped by nearly £300

Quids in ;)
(sittingduck Attention seeking, bullshitting fuck-knuckle, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 17:50, Reply)

Explaining inflation to a child
"I can normally buy a Snickers AND a Twix with my pocket money" said the eleven year old boy sat in front of me.

"...but today a Snickers AND a Twix is £1.10. I can't afford both. How did that happen?"

His inquisitive and moistening eyes met mine as he desperately searched for an answer to his conundrum. It didn't seem fair. The pound in his pocket was still the same, the sweets hadn't gotten any bigger or better to explain the cost.

Sensing the opportunity to explain a valuable lesson about life, economics and the importance of fiscal prudence I seized the moment.

"Well it's like this. People have got less money. Cadburys are selling less chocolate. Cadburys have to put their prices up to pay all their employees" I ventured.

"But... But why have people got less money?" he asked. I sensed that this discussion could last a long time.

"You know that Gordon Brown bloke on the telly?" I replied

"The Prime Minister?" he answered.

"Yes. Him, and his friends Peter Mandelson and Alistair Darling."

He nodded in recognition.

"They caused it"

I went back to my copy of the Times and left him to ponder.

I am a bad man.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Thu 22 Jan 2009, 17:48, 5 replies)

Working late
Well i've got to stay at work late cos the company needs the business and i need the money as i can't afford to quit for another two months. So i figured out how to bypass the security filters on a work mobile (no internet in the shop) so i could get onto b3ta!
(Amputated is tickling the exit wound, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 17:47, Reply)

Please, can everyone shut the hell up before it's all too late?
Considering that my financial situation before the 'crunch' consisted of me making (very small amounts of) money on an hourly wage, getting said money and then immediatly spending that money on clothes and alcohol, the credit crunch shouldn't really affect me at all.
I don't own any properties, I'm young enough to still live with my parents and not be judged for it by society and the only shares I've ever owned have been won in games of Monopoly.

And yet, it has.

By boring me to bloody tears.

Forget the fear of losing all you own and of dying poor and alone on the streets of some post apocalyptic wasteland, one hand out begging passersby for a loan- before that ever happens you will have become so sick of hearing about the credit crunch you will have died of boredom after being unable to stomach yet another newspaper piece using every synonem available for 'pretty shit' to describe the situation, followed by fruitless searching through the t.v. channels to find a show that hasn't managed to somehow, however weakly, link its plot to the crisis after which you flip desperatly through pages of magazines only to find a slightly incorrect summary of what the newspapers have already reported but with a much lower quality in writing and then when at last you think you know where you can escape all this overwhelming tedium you log onto the internet only to find that bloody b3ta is now rabbiting on about it too!

Aaaaaaaaaaaagh. *dies*.

(is also sorry to anyone who is actually properly affected by an actually pretty shit situation)
(Mr._F is not actually a man- this username is a lie!, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 17:36, 4 replies)

No complaints here...
Company's made a few redundancies. But, with a few exceptions, it's the dead weight that's gone, making the place feel a lot nicer all round really.

As of this afternoon I've just had the green light on my mortgage (first-time buyer) and found out that the property I've fallen in lust with has been dropped £25k.

Viewing again on Sat am, offer a few minutes later I suspect!

Yes, things are a little unstable at the moment, but I work bloody hard, am not over-stretching myself with my (potential) mortgage, in fact it will be less than my current rent, and will take out the relevant insurance to ensure that if I AM made redundant it doesn't all go tits up.

Oh, and I got a Woolworths bargain - a Hayden Panne-whotsit poster for 35p.

It's for my 9-year-old son.

His love of High School Musical and, specifically, Zak Effron is beginning to cause me some concern.
(Penguins_Made_Me_Do_It is a dolt ... and she don't care, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 17:36, Reply)

No Change
I got paid fuck-all then, and I get paid fuck-all now.
The only problem is my savings are getting less without me actually spending them. Which is why I'm looking for a new job...
(Sneezy Badger can't wait to quit his job on, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 17:31, Reply)

Not really me but my brother:
At his university they had a party because of the new VAT of 15% meaning cheaper booze - the slogan being "cheers, Darlin'!"
( xihpete A neutrino walks straight through a bar, with v>c., Thu 22 Jan 2009, 17:25, 4 replies)

David Bowie.
I won't be playing any of his CDs* until the weird-eyed, androgynous twat says he is sorry for getting us in this mess.

(* Except for side 2 of Low, because that was more Eno than Bowie - and as far as I am aware baldy is in no way to blame for any facet of the current recession.)
(Tugnut I got them all..., Thu 22 Jan 2009, 17:23, 2 replies)

I had a quarter of a ton drop on my head at work !
Tis true.. I was working on a machine and it fell on the back of my head, smashing it against solid steel..making my skull the meat in a metal sandwich.

Sadly, it didn't affect my shit sense of humour and I remain a fuckwit.

However ! The good news is, I don't leave the house much..so I don't spend much cash, and as the company are paying me in full.. I get paid to go on B3ta, and watch Pron all day !

HURRAH !

So..you could say, my skull experienced a Crunch of its own !
(TheRiddler Hmmmmm... I concur., Thu 22 Jan 2009, 17:21, Reply)

When I lost my job
It wasn't because of the credit crunch, it was because my boss sadly lost his battle with cancer. The pub restaurant was practically closed down until someone new could be found to take over the business as my other boss (his wife) is too full of grief to run the place on her own.

R.I.P Les, you were a great boss and I'm glad you're not around to see what a state the country's gotten into.
(Mrs Ballunatic counting calories, not votes., Thu 22 Jan 2009, 17:18, 2 replies)

Crisis.
The bastards that I work for are actually expecting me to some work rather than pissing around on the internet all day - hence the lack of posts over the last few months.

This better end soon or I might break into a sweat which is in no way fetching for a man with my lack of ambition.
(Tugnut I got them all..., Thu 22 Jan 2009, 17:14, 1 reply)

media twattery...
Yes, there is a recession, caused by a bunch of cunts (have you ever met a Merchant Banker? Arrogant wankers to a man and generally thick as pig-shit, but "Father is the Earl of blah-di-blah-shire") lending money to feckless morons who thought borrowing £20k at 40% interest when they didn't have a job and lived in housing, that I (and other tax payers) have basically given them out of charity, was a good idea.

On the basis of this monumentally stupid thinking, the said B/Wankers then sell that debt to other banks as optential income and use this to borrow ever larger amounts of money. The reality is that if everyone with a bank account went into their local branch and asked to empty their account, there wouldn't be enough money to do so - it's all smoke and mirrors.

So, we are now in a situation where idiots won't lend to morons because their stupidity has caused a house of cards with no cards at the bottom to collapse - purely because someone had the balls to turn round and say "actually, I think I'd rather take the money than keep playing this game".

Interest rates go up, we all suffer, they go down and tehre is another reason given for us to continue suffering. Usually by some shiny faced cunt in a blue Gieves and Hawkes suit who works for one of the banks who caused the fucking problems in the first place.

Then we ahve the media who are loving every second - "House prices crash!" (only where they were stupidly over-inflated in the first place), "Unemployment soars!" (well, it's gone up a bit, but we've had basically 3+Million out of work since about 1999/2000, but Labour called them something else, so they weren't "unemployed), "Worst recession since the last one!" (not as bad as 1987 where everything died on its ass, or the last time we had a Labour government tax-and-spending it's way into a four day week and the total collapse of British Industry, complete with power cuts to domestic housing). Basically, it's the latest thing and they are on it like flies on shit.

If everyone turned off Sky News (and their "Everything's fine, so PANIC!" attitude), went out and saw that the streets aren't awash with looters, paedos and murderers, that you can still buy what you need (as long as you actually have cash for it and can, thus, afford it) - you can buy whatever you like. The only businesses that have failed are those that were a) failing before this recession hit and, b) those with fundamentally bad business practices.

If we stop listening to people who think that £40k wage plus an £80k bonus makes for a bad year for financial advice and just go and ask our mums and dads who have lived through World Wars, rationing, the Cold War, the Winter of Discontent, three recessions that I can remember and god knows what else, I think we would find that things aren't actually bad at all - we're not being bombed or told to be a soldier and fight in a war, for a start...

Twats in banks and twats in the in media are fuelling this thing between themselves, so I say we all just ignore them and do what is needed. What do you reckon?

Sorry about the length, but I needed that rant!
(Chad, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 16:58, 8 replies)

I lost my life savings last October when Icesave went tits up
Luckily, after a trouser filling 6 weeks of "will they or won't they pay up" Gordon Brown got it back for me. Gordon, if you are reading this, all is forgiven and I will make salty man-love to your saggy Scottish face if you so wish.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 16:51, 5 replies)