Be Excellent To Each Other

This, obviously, depends on your situation.

Edit: @ Squirt and whoever was above Squirt.

Also, if the 1.3m jobs supposedly created that aren't ZHCs are not paying enough to allow the workers to meet the NLW (or hell, even the NMW in some cases, e.g. apprenticeships) then it's hardly worth shouting from the rooftops as something to be lauded.

I think the thing I take from discussions around this is that you can't just look at the numbers, you have to look at the bigger picture. I saw an apprenticeship listed the other day for a Subway Sandwich Artist, that paid £3.60 per hour. It's pure slave labour, there's nothing about that job that you couldn't learn within 3 days tops, calling it an apprenticeship is just utter bollocks.

Compare that to my brother, who started working for Perkins as an apprentice when he left school, but learned a decent trade (engineering, although he now works in IT for them, having worked there for nearly 30 years) - that's what an apprenticeship should be, something you can make a damned career out of.

//edit: Link no longer works, presumably they took it down thanks to the negativity.

Except you're making the mistake of thinking that every single zero-hour contract puts employees on their arse for weeks at a time, because those are the ones you read about - much like all people on benefits are cheating scroungers.

I have literally no idea what percentage of zero-hour contracts do mess with employees to that extent, but it's not all of them. I'd be surprised if it's half of them (as that doesn't make any business sense), but I don't know.

You're making the mistake of thinking that I'm basing this on people I've read about and not from multiple anecdotes within my own social circle.

I could literally spend all day talking about the utter mess zero hour contracts put my brother's family into and I can't even stand the guy, so it does little for me moan about the shit system for his benefit.

Of course it's not all of them - I am sure, such as your anecdote, there are people happy on zero hour contracts - just like there are people unhappy in full time employment.

My point - way before we started talking about numbers and figures and ONS and all that - was that there has been a HUGE increase in zero hour contracts since 2010 and we cannot ignore this when talking about employment figures.

That's your opinion - I don't agree with you. Being paid more counts for a lot, and this government has made a big thing about "you're always better off working".
Plus you know, I've already said I'm not here to defend zero hours contracts. *My* problem was the "430,000 jobs" thing, whereas the reality is "2,000,000 jobs, of which 1,300,000 are not zero-hours contract jobs", which is quite different - and now dealt with.

I'm sitting here tell you that the cash value of unemployment can be greater than the cash value of a zero hour contract income + fractured benefits and you're repeating government mantra like it's truth? I literally experienced a situation - albeit due to childcare costs etc - where it was demonstrably NOT better to work and it means nothing because the government says so?



It's not opinion, it's lived and breathed experience.

Your "problem", Cavey, started with you rabidly defending the Tories way before I even mentioned any numbers despite the fact that at no point did I criticise the Tories or their policy. You assumed I was attacking your precious government when I had to fucking Google when they came into power because I literally couldn't give a fuck who is leading us and ONLY give a fuck about how it affects people like me.

Not much more I can add Jem TBH.

Cavey doesn't seem to "get" how zero hour contracts work.

He also doesn't seem to "get" that in low- and minimum- wage employment, which zero hour contracts are, you need to claim state top-ups like working tax credits to survive financially. Top-ups which you in most cases cannot claim while on a zero hour contract.

I've never understood the defence of the Tory party like it's a religion either, particularly when he's said or hinted that he's not a member. (Not that being a member of a party means you need to defend it on everything. Some of the people who are most critical of political parties are often paying members, from my experience.)

Oh boy.

Zzzzzz.

Beyond that, even - how many people have the '3 months salary for a rainy day' that is such standard financial advice I read it multiple times a year? An awful lot of people would be in huge trouble if they didn't get paid one month.

So it's not as if those who are poorer are worse at managing their cashflow. It's the way things are for a lot of people.

I reckon she'll call a general election soon. She would be insane to waste an opposition as fucking shambolic as the Labour Party.

Get ready for fifteen years of a Tory government.

I might have about a days salary in savings. I'd be screwed if I missed more than a month of salary ( and would probably reallt struggle if missed just one )

We've got a cash buffer of about 75% of one month's income (which is my wage + DLA + Carer's Allowance), but even that's a fairly recent development. Beyond that we'd be living on credit.

I can't ever imagine getting to the three month stage. Indeed, for the longest time we were basically skint at the end of every month, and bills would have to wait for payday to arrive.

We don't have a mortgage (yet), but when we've been researching it seems that they can allow you overpayments to build up a cash reserve so that you can underpay in future (up to the value of the overpayments).

So it would seem sensible to put all your 'buffer' cash into the mortgage and then 'withdraw' it if you needed it.

Consumer inflation up 27% in Feb from Jan.

CPI at 2.3% (as compared to 1.9% in January), as according to the ONS.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices

Yes, 27%

I make that a rise of 21%? Am I doing my maths wrong?

No, you're not.
I was trying to be delicate about it; not something I'm very good at.

I read 1.8% to 2.3%

The gift that keeps on giving (unlimited political power to the right wing).

Christ on a bike, I don't even think you thought they would be this bad, Cavey!

To be fair - I did! Honestly!
I predicted terminal schism and chaos - and that's what's we got...

It's not like the left have a long and noble history of infighting and squabbling over inconsequential bollocks;



There does seem to be a lot more buyer's remorse appearing for those people that voted for Corbyn though. Those that refuse to countenance any faults in their great leader appear to be entrenching themselves even further to the point where they may as well just call themselves SPLITTERS.

This is my favourite exchange of recent times though, likened on Twitter to an Anime film, a badly dubbed Kung Fu film or terrible game cutscene dialogue.

.... So it's not so much a matter as to see who blinks first, Trousers, more a case of who can achieve the greatest contra-rotational eyeball angular velocities?

Pass the Butterkist....

I do, but only because the wifes granddad died 3 years ago while I was having a particularly bad time at work, and so we carved out an amount of the inheritance into a pot which is known as the "For when he loses freaking mind" account.

We lived hand-to-mouth until relatively recently, and even now I pretty much blow everything on really stupid stuff.
I have the financial planning skills of a 10 year old in a sweetshop.

My 11 year old daughter has more savings than me.

Bravo my son

When my wife worked she always saved and made me do it, as such we have around 18 months salary in savings. Some of that is her pay off from work though.

If I was laid of at work I could probably get another 3 years pay in enhanced payoff and cashing in shares I have.

We have a fair sized mortgage and to clear that would eat most of the money.

Month to month I'm like most people, salary is mostly gone on bills 2 weeks after I'm paid.

If you get a pay rise do you have to add more money to the account?

Technically yes. However for 'reasons' my monthly cash income hasn't changed in four years, so I'm still only hedging the cashflow.

If I do really lose my freaking mind, I'm insured to fuck through the firm after 3 months anyways.

I basically give all my money to MrsZ and ask if it's alright to get stuff when I need it.

We've done alright with this system so far.

Title.

"I've got your back"

My weekly self-flagellation is noting down how much more money the Two Broke Girls have than I do.

Ditto. I never even look at the bank balance - for all I know she's squirrelled all the money away into an escape fund to use with the tennis coach.

Assuming she's honest, she's chucked most of it at the mortgage, and we're putting this year's bonus into savings, so after that we'll have around 6 months' worth of cash for a rainy day.

6 MONTHS!!!!

GET YOURSELF A QUADCOPTER YOU DUMMKOPF!

It's mrs K's money.

Sadly he has 4 years no claims.

If I handed Mrs C all my money, I'd be bankrupt and on my 6th new fitted kitchen in 3 years.

Fortunately we have someone sensible (your humble narrator) at the Caveman financial helm; I spend our money only on essentials, such as GT4s, monster trucks, motorbikes, unfeasibly large fireworks and vintage champagne. (And Werthers butterscotch, Z )

It's a need!

A NEED!

Fantastic news everyone! The cost of living in London has fallen to its lowest level in 20 years.

London: now slightly less unaffordable.

This is the kind of good Brexit news the BBC have been suppressing.

I won't bore you with my finances, but taking a year off taught me to live on less, and that has stuck so far. Thanks to gorgeous George threatening to take away pension tax breaks, I now whack extra into the pension, pay little income tax (sorry, NHS) and the bit of my salary I do get just tops up the cash I live off. I am an aberration.

For people who don't live in the UK.

Anyone who supported Corbyn was either terminally naive, or a far-left entryist. It was very obvious from his history what sort of 'causes' and beliefs that Corbyn supported. (And from a pragmatic point of view, were the PLP ever likely to have been happy about being lead by a man like Corbyn?)

I think Corbyn's political goals are far less alienating than his complete and utter incompetence. I'd be able to vote for someone on a leftist platform, but only if they proved themselves capable at running things.

Corbyn is to the left of me (though he's not some raging insanity / his politics would be considered normal in, say, Norway), but I couldn't vote for him simply because he's completely useless at running his party.