Christmas and debt!!!

Heard on the news last night that people who haven't got the cash for Christmas are simply borrowing it!! Loan Companies are thriving!! some of their adverts ought to be banned I think, they make it sound sooooo easy and soooo preferable to doing without! They said that by 2012 over a million people will be in debt!! festivities over, money all spent, then the Loan Co. gets a bit less friendly and it's "PAY UP"!!!
Christmas now is nothing more than a huge retail frenzy, madness!! :gaagh:

Val

 

I got no dosh at the moment, so its time to work out what to make for everyone.

 

Val, the tradition went out of Christmas years ago. It is now just a ploy for unscrupless companies to empty our pockets.

 

Unfortunately Gemini, I think you're absolutely right, and its crazy.

In our household, for the first time ever, thanks to a new job closer to home (one tank of fuel per month, instead of per week), we're not going to be completely broke this christmas.

Despite this, I've still rained in my expenditure. Our son is getting a few brand new things for christmas, but the wife and I palmed him off on my mam last weekend to enable us to go to the local car boot sale. £25 spent and we came away with a full carrier bag of toys, plus a massive fire engine thing that wouldn't fit in a bag. Some of the stuff will probably get stored away for his birthday, or next christmas, otherwise there'll be no room to move on christmas morning.

The point is, he will be happy because he's getting loads of new stuff. The wife and I will be happy because the credit cards haven't even been touched (in fact I'm not entirely sure where they are at this moment).

You don't need to spend a fortune to do a good christmas.

 

The 'borrow money now, pay back tomorrow' adverts we see on the UK channels here are quite mind boggling .. rates of 5,000 plus percent ...

We owe no one anything .. if we don't have the money, we don't buy it!

 

For exactly this reason, I've instructed my missus that if the lad watches any telly, it is CBeebies only (the BBC's younger kid's channel). We used to let him watch Milshake (channel 5) at breakfast time but he was clearly wanting everything that was advertised. I was a bit annoyed at this. The ads are clearly aimed at the kids, showing the toy in a way that the parents realise is totally unrealistic, but that seems mindblowingly exciting to kids, so that the parents then feel the guilt (despite having done nothing wrong) knowing that they are not going to buy everything on the ads.

To give one example, there is a 'transformer' (a toy lorry that turns into a robot). The add shows the gleaming lorry blazing down a road, then some fancy visuals, as it very rapidly converts into a laser wielding battle robot. As an adult, you just know that it is going to be some flimsy plastic rubbish that will be broken within a day, it will take half an hour to convert between lorry and robot, and when it is a robot it wont fly into battle against another robot with laser beams flying everywhere. It will be a flimsy plastic piece of boring rubbish that even with the vivid imagination of a young unspoilt mind, will be in the bottom of the toy box, never to see the light of day again, inside a week.

 

I soon learned to not want much for Christmas, when I wanted a new toy garage, Mum & Dad got it for me, but I then found half my old toys had been sold to pay for it.

 

We'll be Ok this year now.
I'va had a Phone call offering me 4x the value for some shares as part of a Hostgile Takeover.
After filling in the Non Disclosure Agreement, to stop me blabbing about the deal, all I need to do is send them my Certificate - oh and deposit a "Returnable Escro Deposit" as a sign of compliance.

Sounds great doesn't it?

Don't Panic. I can spot a wrong-un.

Beware of any phone call from Winchester Consultancy Group.
I've done a check and found they have offered similar deals to holders of Aviva, Centrica, Avis etc.

 

Was that from Ed Winchester?

 

It all helps to create a culture where people don't want to say "no" to their children. And everything has to be new or the best available. I can understand parents wanting to provide stuff that's essential for education and development, but lots of children are loaded down with total rubbish and fripperies.


The result will be a generation with (as the euphemism goes ) "A well-developed sense of entitlement."

 

I have some Polish Neigbours
They are great, they are families as familes always were and at the moment are at the equivelent of our 1950's

The Christmas deccies are the paper link ones hand made
The tree at the door is an old broken branch painted white and gold

They give us a card at Christmas hand made, they make all their cards, it is wonderful to think that someone has spent half an hour making a card for you other than going to the shops and paying £5 for fifty and sticking pre printed stickers on FROM X AND X LOVE X

They are respectable lovely families, and they do not have much,but make the effort
ie he cuts his hedge and grass with hand shears, so I pop along and lend him my petrol mower, and hedge trimmers

He works locally at the farm produce place and drops off a sack of vegetables now and then

His car battery is flat, I jump start or charge it for him

This week his wife, knocked on the door (a very rare thing for Polish ladies to venture to a neighbour)

She gave us the most beautiful hand made Christmas wreath, within the centre of it is a Goose egg blown and cut out with hearts and diamonds like japanese Ivory carvings all done by herself, must have taken weeks to make

He is fluent but she said in broken English Thank you so much for being so nice, more friendly than some Polish people thank you

Quite honestly I could have cried, simple and hand made work, the time put into it all better than any play station

The kids have good stuff, but I bet on Christmas morning the young boy will be out in his hand made wooden car with pedals and I think back to my own child hood, how great it was

Jack McHammocklashing (off on me tangents)

 

Is that the guy that invented the Rifle? It sounds like a holdup

She sounded Chinese, called Melissa and rang using a 01202 number

 

Quick send her your bank details and Pin number you do not want to miss out

Jack McH