credit crunched boaters

[gaggle]

Umm folks aren't we now several lights years beyond the original topic I don't think this has much to do with the OP or "General Boating" any longer. Perhaps it should get shifted to the Virtual Pub instead.

new mod ?

[Naughty Cal]

Shall we try and get back on topic?

 

Are any of you seasoned boaters feeling the pinch?

[churchward]

new mod ?

 

Nope, just my opinion and request.

[gaggle]

The person who suggested putting an extra £2 on the minimum wage was, I trust, joking. The minimum wage is too high already - I do not know the exact figue but I believe that it has climbed to over £5 an hour. Raising it still further would lead to fewer new staff being taken on, and to existing staff losing their jobs.

so that work will never get done.?

[Athy]

So the Minimum wage for an adult of 21 or over is now (based on a 40-hour week) £228? That's nearly £12,000 a year. These people don't know they're born - at least, the ones who have jobs, as many employers surely cannot afford to pay them..

[grahoom]

Interestingly, we tried to recrut a two new tempory packers this week for my team at work. We got a few more CV's than usual, but none that were any better than usual. Result - We got one Polish girl recruted by our current Polish employees asking round for us, and who has proved to be A1, and one amiable blockhead from the job centre, who was so incapable of understanding instructions we let him go after a week. If all these newly redunant people are desperate for jobs, where were their CV's - unless these redundancys are all amongst those who are barely employable anyway? (In our firm of about 60-70 people, there is a turnover of shop floor staff of about 60% in a year, almost all of whom are people that are sacked either for laziness(mostly) or exceptional stupidiy (occasionally)).

 

You have to hand in a CV to become a packer?????

 

 

The person who suggested putting an extra £2 on the minimum wage was, I trust, joking. The minimum wage is too high already - I do not know the exact figue but I believe that it has climbed to over £5 an hour. Raising it still further would lead to fewer new staff being taken on, and to existing staff losing their jobs.

 

Athy, have you lived on the minimal wage?

[bottle]

So the Minimum wage for an adult of 21 or over is now (based on a 40-hour week) £228? That's nearly £12,000 a year. These people don't know they're born - at least, the ones who have jobs, as many employers surely cannot afford to pay them..

 

Athy

 

Yes it is nearly £12.000 actually it is £11,918.41 but from that they will have to pay income tax and national insurance, in round figures that is about 25 to 30% in total deductions.

 

Let us take your figure of £12,000 then take home will be about £8.400 to £9,000 per annum or the equivalent of about £161 to £173 per week.

 

Shall we start looking at electricity costs, gas costs, rent/mortgage costs, clothing. OOPS!!! forgot about food

[wonderdust]

You would pay tax and ni on around £7000 only you forgot the tax allowance code, whatever that is these days around the £5000 touch i think.

Edited November 21, 2008 by wonderdust

[grahoom]

Athy

 

Yes it is nearly £12.000 actually it is £11,918.41 but from that they will have to pay income tax and national insurance, in round figures that is about 25 to 30% in total deductions.

 

Let us take your figure of £12,000 then take home will be about £8.400 to £9,000 per annum or the equivalent of about £161 to £173 per week.

 

Shall we start looking at electricity costs, gas costs, rent/mortgage costs, clothing. OOPS!!! forgot about food

 

it works out as the following (after PAYE and NI)

 

Yearly

£10,087.60

 

Monthy

£840.63

 

Weekly

£193.99

 

Daily

£38.80

Edited November 21, 2008 by grahoom

[greywolf]

So the Minimum wage for an adult of 21 or over is now (based on a 40-hour week) £228? That's nearly £12,000 a year. These people don't know they're born - at least, the ones who have jobs, as many employers surely cannot afford to pay them..

 

You of course have survived recently on less?The job i did payed800 a month before deductions.after 620 a month less £60 a month bus fare it soon goes.

[david and julie]

Readers will have to refer to your original post, but you say "we have". That is the present tense. It implies that all the woes you mention have occurred now or thereabouts. It is incorrect to state that much of what you chose to post has just happened, which is what, by using the present tense, you posted. Simple as that. It did not come across as a critique of the last 25 years. And I don't genuinely think you intended it as such.The present tense is the correct tense to use when discussing current problems. It doesn't signify when those problems first arose, only that we have them now.

 

What was untrue? - the pound falling through the floor for starters.

You only quoted the Euro and on that day the pound did indeed rise in relation to the Euro by around .01% however on the same day the pound fell against the dollar and given we use the dollar for buying most commodities the latter is more significent to the UK.

 

Am I a politician - no. Am I interested in politics - yes. Do I get bemused when members of the electorate moan about policies that they actively supported in the first place - definitely. Churchill once said, or words to this effect and I can't be bothered to Google it - "Democracy is a bad system, but it is the best bad system we have."

 

You state, "Politicians,regardless of shade, care about one thing and one thing only - themselves." That displays a complete disenchantment with democracy. What is your alternative then?

To suggest the public are moaners simplifies the problem. People moan when manifesto's are completely ignored once a party takes office. The easy one to quote for this would be the EU referendum promise made by Labour where the electorate were held in utter contempt. My preferred alternative to the current democratic system would be a true democracy instead of the current sham.

 

We are inclined to blame government - it is an easy scapegoat. But I really do not believe that all politicians are there for nothing more than self interest.

I think its probably fair to say that most people who enter politics do so in the hope they can change things. Once there though, they no doubt get completely bogged down by the other self interest factions.

 

I'm not sure where your trying to go with this. What I think happened is that you read my post as directed solely at the current Governement and in their defence you went back a to period before they took office.

 

I assume this was intended to shift the blame from the current shower to the last rabble?when in actual fact I never blamed anyone in particular.

 

I was making a statement on a several issues which wasn't party political. In truth to me Labour and Tory and same s*** different pile.

[Denis R]

Shall we try and get back on topic?

 

Are any of you seasoned boaters feeling the pinch?

Valiant attempt to get the thread back on topic Phylis! Things were beginning to get tighter but the recent drop in oil prices should ease the load a bit. I think the next biggest benefit I could see would be my finance cost coming down due to lower interest rates. In my case it wouldn't affect my monthly payment but would at least mean I'm not paying for so long.

[Naughty Cal]

Valiant attempt to get the thread back on topic Phylis! Things were beginning to get tighter but the recent drop in oil prices should ease the load a bit. I think the next biggest benefit I could see would be my finance cost coming down due to lower interest rates. In my case it wouldn't affect my monthly payment but would at least mean I'm not paying for so long.

 

We have a similar deal and the benefit of taking it out when rates were higher is that now rates are dropping so is our agreement term.

[Athy]

You of course have survived recently on less?

Have you been peeping at my tax return? Yes indeed, I haven't earned that much for five years (since I left the teaching profession).

[Denis R]

We have a similar deal and the benefit of taking it out when rates were higher is that now rates are dropping so is our agreement term.

If I factor in all the odd bits and pieces I've added and the enhancements made since the boat was built a couple of years back, it adds pretty penny to the overall cost of the boat. With the way things are now, I'm not sure that if I had to sell it at the moment, it would leave me much, if any of a surplus.

[Naughty Cal]

If I factor in all the odd bits and pieces I've added and the enhancements made since the boat was built a couple of years back, it adds pretty penny to the overall cost of the boat. With the way things are now, I'm not sure that if I had to sell it at the moment, it would leave me much, if any of a surplus.

 

We were lucky and got a good deal on ours. We could probably sell her for more than we paid at the minute. We have not had to spend much on "modifying" either. An engine bay heater was the only thing needed. The boat other than that is pretty much what we wanted.

[Athy]

Just noticed your boat name. very clever!

[Naughty Cal]

Not our choice, we inherited that one.

[Pretty Funked Up]

I didnt say resembling modern government. Much earlier than those dates a 'body' (trying not to use word government) was put in the 'firing line' (no guns yet) of the puiblic to protect the monarchy.

 

They had no powers, and were pretty pointless, they were just there as a buffer.

 

Is was quite a lot later said 'body' started to get miffed and used new laws to start shifting real power into their respective laps. This carried on happening (evolving?) till we get to today, where there has been a total shift of power over to government (there i used it, damn) leaving the monarchy with little else to do but open hospitals etc etc etc.

 

sorry... yes very

[greywolf]

We have a similar deal and the benefit of taking it out when rates were higher is that now rates are dropping so is our agreement term.

 

So boat finance is tied to the bank of England rate and not the inter bank lending rate? that's good to hear as by the looks of it interest rates will be zero according to some authorities. I would imagine that in the future like mortgages finance will be difficult to come by and very expensive for boats.

Edited November 21, 2008 by greywolf

[estwdjhn]

I lived on £187 a week after tax between May 07 and May 08. That was from working 40 hours per week for a little less than the current minimum wage.

 

I spent it more or less as follows:

 

Rent - £60pw (shared flat).

50% of the bills for said flat = about £30 a week with council tax

I tried to keep food spending to £30pw

Week's rail ticket was £31, driving a sensible car would have cost similar.

 

That came to about £150 a week, which left £40ish for contingency/luxury saving/spending.

Edited November 21, 2008 by estwdjhn

[Naughty Cal]

So boat finance is tied to the bank of England rate and not the inter bank lending rate? that's good to hear as by the looks of it interest rates will be zero according to some authorities. I would imagine that in the future like mortgages finance will be difficult to come by and very expensive for boats.

 

Its tied to the Finance house rate, which although higher than BOE rates is also predicted to fall over the coming months.

[Mr B]

Its tied to the Finance house rate, which although higher than BOE rates is also predicted to fall over the coming months.

 

I note the Finance house base rates went up from 6% to 6.5% on th 1st November after the 1.5% cut in the BoE base rate!!

 

source - www.moneyfacts.co.uk/economicdata/financehouse.aspx

 

Many boat mortgaes are directly linked to that rate and often set 3% above it.

 

I hope it comes down soon.

 

Barry

[Naughty Cal]

I note the Finance house base rates went up from 6% to 6.5% on th 1st November after the 1.5% cut in the BoE base rate!!

 

source - www.moneyfacts.co.uk/economicdata/financehouse.aspx

 

Many boat mortgaes are directly linked to that rate and often set 3% above it.

 

I hope it comes down soon.

 

Barry

 

Its been tipped to come down so we shall see. Our deal is 3% above the Finance House Rate.

[carlt]

I lived on £187 a week after tax between May 07 and May 08. That was from working 40 hours per week for a little less than the current minimum wage.

 

I spent it more or less as follows:

 

Rent - £60pw (shared flat).

50% of the bills for said flat = about £30 a week with council tax

I tried to keep food spending to £30pw

Week's rail ticket was £31, driving a sensible car would have cost similar.

 

That came to about £150 a week, which left £40ish for contingency/luxury saving/spending.

 

"You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down the mill fourteen hours a day, week in, week out, and when we would go home, dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt."

 

Sorrry......couldn't resist.