Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

I must be missing something here.......what jab are Labour planning to use on fat unemployed people ? Is it designed to make them thin and employable or just one or the other ?? What's the magic ingredient ?
Agreed that there are many people who could afford to eat a healthier and cheaper diet but life expectations have changed drastically over the last 40 years. The likes of McDonalds and the rest of them presumably found the UK easy pickings and made the most of changing habits. It has become the norm to walk around with a cup of coffe in one hand and a mobile phone in the other.
I've not yet noticed a govt here ( of whatever colour ) attempting to make the effort to alter this - difficult admittedly when this lifestyle is what they are seemingly promoting - spend your money ( whether you have earned it yourself or not ) on pub meals/ fast foods/ over priced football/concert tickets/ holidays/updating your funrniture every couple of years and so on.
Perhaps some mad scientist will invent a vaccine which protects against stupidity - one can only hope

 

Indeed! But I think we need to move away from ordinary people being thrown crumbs off the table by way of appeasement so it seems acceptable for the rich to siphon off megabucks with their schemes and dodges. The benefit from ISAs is very minimal. Scrap them ... along with the whole idea that any form of tax avoidance is tolerated. Have a level playing field that applies to everyone, no exceptions.

@KT53, it's tricky for teachers. And manhandling a child should not be necessary. It sounds as though your grandson is either testing boundaries or doesn't accept the ones in place. Possibly the earlier incident has made him resentful that things are unfair, so why cooperate.

 

Not my grandson, thankfully! He was always a very polite kid but moved up to senior school in September. I suspect concerns are growing about those he mixes with.

 

I don't know about over there, but here, it is cheaper to buy a box of KD Mac n cheese, than to buy a head of lettuce. That is why many can't afford healthier food. A bowl of lettuce is not going to take away hunger long but a bowl of pasta will fill bellies. Similar but with a few vitamins added, to trying to live on a diet of mostly potatoes.

I struggled for years, as a single working Mum, to try to afford healthy sides to go with belly fillers.

I was always hungry as a child and ate lots of wild things that sometimes made me feel terrible.

Unless you've been there, you just don't understand. It teaches you to accept a crap diet.

When I moved up in jobs and pay, the dinner table got very healthy. Not everyone can break that cycle.

Take out? No way. Too expensive. Your social assistance must be quite the enabler!

 

I've often thought of having a meal delivered but honestly its cheaper to buy your own stuff and cook it yourself.
Obviously I'm on my own and they have a minimum payment.

People say fresh veg and fruit is expensive, not that I have noticed.

 

I dont mind crumbs, if that is how you see it.

But stop us getting the scraps, easy, but you will never stop the super rich, that is just wishful thinking, and some of those kept me in work for a good few years.

 

The difference between having your savings in a Fixed Rate Bond and having them in a Fixed Rate Cash ISA is not much, @pete, as interest rates for the former almost always outstrip the latter. If ISAs disappeared, you could get a better rate, with fewer complicated rules, limits, etc, and pay a little tax on it.

I think the whole concept of using methods to reduce tax is a flawed one. But, you need not worry as I am not in charge.

 

Oops, sorry! I got so involved in the story of your post, I forgot the first line!

 

I have stocks and shares ISA so not sure how that compares, but any method that means I pay less tax is beneficial to me personally.

 

I have a stocks and shares ISA too and it does save tax. It also means there is no complicated paperwork that needs to be kept and no figures have to be reported on your tax return. It makes life so much easier. Now that the CGT annual allowance is £3,000 they are more usefull than ever.

Anyone can open one too.

 

@pete I think when you (and I) grew up the food was completely different. I don't know if somebody ever made a study about bread from 100 years ago and the bread that is made nowadays. I'm quite sure that the ingredients on its own already make people fatter even they eat the same amount that people ate 100 years ago.
The problem started in the 70's when the food industry started to use ingredients that obviously have changed the way how bodies absorb food. There has something happened to the worse with the genes and all these things in a body. The 70's were also that time when health systems like the NHS started to give advise on food that should be consumed and which made people literally sick. Just remember the crazy idea that eating without fat makes you healthy. The opposite has happened.
I personally think that this could be reversed with eating plain food over many years, but looking at the shelves in supermarkets, there is so much food offered that cannot be healthy, people don't want to eat just plain veggies and a piece of meat on a Sunday.
@CanadianLori If you compare only the 1 burger at MD and a Lettuce in a supermarket, then you would be right. But 1 burger doesn't make you full for an entire day. I'm sure that eating healthy over the day is cheaper than spending money on this fast food.
I spend around £35 for a weekly farm shop basket with just veggies and occasional stuff like cheese and sausages. That's £5 a day. I'm sure that people who eat at MD spend more. I eat 3 days from a Lettuce. A carrot lasts for 3 days, a small leek costs 60p, a courgette lasts for 3 to 4 days, bag of spinach for that time, too. I have lunch for 3 to 4 days for £10. I stopped using salt 20 years ago and that makes a huge difference. People no longer taste the original ingredients of plain veggies.

 

That's interesting about bread @simone_in_wiltshire. The Chorleywood method used in commercial bread making these days isn't very easy on the gut. Dough should be proved twice at the very least.

 

I didn't know that there is a name for the crap bread that you can buy at supermarkets