Is the Credit Crunch Just a Great Big Myth?

The Frugal Revolution

Is anyone really feeling the pinch of the credit crunch or is 'the credit crunch' simply something dreamt up by politicians and fed to the nation via the mass media so we spend, spend, spend on luxuries and leave very little for the bare essentials?

Who are the poor and where are they? Can they afford computers or access to the Internet?

Unpacking boxes, I came across some paperwork from the 90's and started flicking through it to take a look at some of the prices from back then.

2013 - I live in a fairly rural location but still have a 2Mb broadband connection round the clock for a monthly fee of around £25 including my BT line rental. That allows me (or any guests) to connect wirelessly, if we have devices with such capability, and I can buy anything from anywhere at the touch of a button. I'm blogging from my pink 'notebook', which has 6GB of RAM and a 2.5GHz processor - this part means absolutely nothing to me. The laptop comes complete with full colour screen, graphics, video, CD/DVD, inbuilt wireless modem, camera and microphone plus a whole host of other stuff. All I do is switch it on and I'm online and virtually working, shopping, checking my bank balance or reading the news in minutes. It cost less than £400.00

1994 - The year we got our first computer, but I think it took us three years to pay for it! Need I say any more on this subject? (Please note this is not a photo of the computer we bought, it is just to draw a comparison between then and now - a duration of almost 20 years.)

Yes, readers, that really does say £2,375.00 + VAT for colour and on top of that was another £99.00 + VAT for a 9,600bps fax modem, monthly BT line rental, monthly Internet membership fees plus, if I remember correctly, we were charged around 4p per minute for going online to surf the World Wide Web. It was very limiting, as not many people I knew were online at that time.

It took until after the release of Windows 95 for me to actually get around to posting stuff online, opening my first proper 'store' in 1998 in a bid to try and offset the costs of being online in the first place.

As someone said to me earlier today, "We adapt and evolve... after a couple of years it becomes normal."

What lesson did I learn from looking back at my own past? For a start I learned that had I held off and saved to pay cash, rather than buying the computer on interest free credit, then I'd have had a much better computer for far less money!

By 1998, it cost me £399.99 for a new desktop computer. By then, Internet access had reduced to 1p per minute plus a monthly fee of £19.99 (plus your BT line rental).

The moral of this story is... Technology moves much faster than credit agreements.

There's more to come!

Stand and Deliver!

Your Money and Your Life - Literally!

Highwayman

I've recently returned from a trip away for a few days, one that took me to a place many would call civilisation. By this, I mean I left the relaxed atmosphere of my tranquil little lane in this rural idyll and crossed over into the modern world. Don't get me wrong, we are quite modern here - we now have broadband speeds of almost 2Mb, power failures occur mainly during bad weather and it's only a mile's walk to the main road, where a bus passes twice a day. But a few miles away, in nearby suburbia and urbania, I really do hope the citizens there have adequate insurance!

Not once, but twice in the past I have found myself the subject of identity theft, I have experienced three burglaries at the homes of family members, one car theft and I've even had a horse stolen. A friend had her cylinders of gas stolen, another had their oil-tank drained while elsewhere there are poultry and pet thieves! It's getting beyond ridiculous, what with all these citizens' rights, unintelligible laws, red tape and few rights left for law-abiding citizens to defend themselves or their property.

If your dog bites an intruder, you could be sued and your dog the subject of a humane destruction notice. If you tackle a would-be thief, you can find yourself charged with assault. If you try to protect your property by means that could inflict injury to any chancer trying to break-in, you could face prosecution. Insurance is our safest option, whether it's buildings, contents, pets, cars or our own lives. We of the frugal living ilk may think we have few possessions worth stealing, but we need to reassess this situation and look much more closely at what we have, rather than what we have not. (Can one insure against being sued by a burglar, I wonder?)

Now we have 'apps' for everything - online applications that involve our real lives. Mobile phones have instant access to global networks at the push of a button, they have cameras, they may carry all your personal information, your apps can be password linked directly to your bank accounts, credit cards, debit cards, online stores and all manner of home and family associated information. Likewise with desktops, laptops, palmtops, tablets, games consoles, e-book readers and smartphones. Even portable media players are Wi-Fi enabled for quick access to electronic wizardry.

Blackberry picking

Please, just for a few minutes, do consider the implications of losing your most important 'gadget' - it could be stolen, lost, fall in the sea, dropped on the road, run over by a bus... any number of possibilities exist. How much of your life are you carrying about with you and how much are you leaving at home in an empty house? How much would your life be affected, even temporarily, and at what cost to make good any losses? In real financial terms, how wise is it to insure something that may be costing you hundreds of pounds each year to guarantee your personal convenience at the push of a button?

Your money and your life really are in your hands if you own any type of modern technology. It looks as though insurance is our best choice, especially if we let vigilance, safety or security slip. With this in mind, I think we should be looking at frugal security measures to help protect our futures because even the fruit and vegetables in our own gardens could become the target of thieves during times of need. If this wasn't the case, sheep rustling wouldn't be on the increase in some areas!

Frugaldom.

Photo credit: JLM Photography. / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND (Blackberry picking)