Credit Crunch - affecting you?

[Perdita]

Are you affected by the credit crunch, especially with Christmas coming up?
I certainly will have to curtail my spending this Christmas and more than likely for quite a while longer :(

[Trinity]

I am mainly affected by the propoerty market crash - I had hoped to move, but the market has slowed so much I would not be able to sell my own home.

I also have an account with icesave (frozen!) and quite a lot of shares that are now worth half their value only a month ago.

I am lucky that my mortgage is paid off and both my hubby and I are working. I still feel scared though, the news every night is enough to give anyone the heebie jeebies.

I don't think I would move now even if I could sell my house, I would have to take out a mortgage and although I do have one approved on principal I wouldn't like to see something I buy worth less than I paid for it!

I am also feeling ambivalent about booking my holiday for next year. I just feel worried that things are going to get a lot worse.

My employeer is asking for 50 people to take voluntary severance, and if they don't get them then there will be compulsary redundancies. I don't think thatI am in any danger as my job is essential and I am the only one who does it my school but I can see that fewer vacancies are being filled as well which puts additional pressure on the remaining staff.

In summary, my household monthly income has infact risen above the rate of inflation but my savings have been decimated, my confidence in the markets is shot and I am delaying large expenditure.

[Siobhan]

Well after our budget yesterday, I will be tighten the purse strings.. but I was never over zealous with spending.. always saved for everything and didn't borrow to buy the kids christmas presents. If I couldn't afford them, they didn't get it and they never had an unhappy christmas!

[Trinity]

That is really true. Kids who get everything they ask for are not 'happier' than ones who get what their family can afford.

Christmas should be a time for families, and this doesn't mean stressing yourself out spending money you don't have on the latest 'must have' items for your kids.

Spend time making mince pies, christmas cards and decorating the tree with your kids and those are the things that they remember and pass on to their own kids.

If there is one item that your kids cannot do without then sharing the cost with extended family is one way to get it. Most kids don't want the spy kit from auntie Mary and the book they have already read from uncle John. And they should learn that they cannot have everything they see on TV, because in life you can't.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7671282.stm

Do we really want all this rubbish this for our kids?

[Jojo]

So far, we've been very lucky - our business hasn't been affected, in fact we've been getting busier, but we are watching the finances as business accounts aren't covered by the governments guarantees unlike personal accounts, so that is rather concerning.

We, fortunately or unfortunately, are having to move because our house is too small for us all now. But we have been lucky in that we've part exchanged it for a new property and have received over the asking price, plus other incentives. Plus we aren't going to be moving for many years and have luckily made so much profit on our home that *touches wood* we should be ok.

I think people have to try not to panic though as just the panic itself can make situations worse.

With Christmas coming, I've been buying bits and pieces throughout the year, especially with having so many children and needing to spread spends, so have a lot of it covered, but it is so commercialised now, its more about which top gadgets/toys etc you can have than the actual thought that went into the whole giving of presents in the first place and the true meaning behind it all.

[Abbie]

I sort of understand it, but then again not really, I mean my tutor was talking about interviews at uni and knowing about some current news stuff and talked about the banks and wrote stuff on the board and only 3 other people got involved discussing it and I was like



:confused:

[di marco]

I sort of understand it, but then again not really, I mean my tutor was talking about interviews at uni and knowing about some current news stuff and talked about the banks and wrote stuff on the board and only 3 other people got involved discussing it and I was like



:confused:

dont worry about it, if youre not going to do a course at uni which is about current affairs then your interviewer wont ask you questions about it

[Abbie]

I know but still I felt bad that Im clueless about these things!

[matt1378]

pretty much everyone i know is skint and i am too

[Abi]

It hasn't really affected me much, as i don't have any credit. I know people who are having problems trying to get their first homes though, which is causing a lot of irritations. The prices are low, so it should be the ideal time to be a first time buyer, but the banks aren't giving out mortgages very readily, which makes for a frustrating time. I suspect that this is the worst of it though, and that around Feb/March next year we might see some improvements.

[Kirsty :]]

I sort of understand it.. it's not affecting me directly, but is affecting my Nan and Granch and my Mum and Dad and things are quite rocky, luckily, my Nan is good with maths and money, she only struggles with spelling and writing so even if we're short, we get by. My Mum and Dad on the other hand, can't handle money at all and are in trouble.. that's their fault though as they ahve lots of credit and that but I think at the moment, thats our only worry. My Nan can't give me left right and centre money now but I dn't mind at all because even thoguh it's nice.. I'm ahving too mcuh money off them as it is and I don't liek it and I'd like to learn to keep my own money safe what with all this going on..

[Chloe O'brien]

Being a single parent my finances are limited regardless of the credit crunch, but I have seen an increase in the shopping and fuel bills. As for Christmas Marley only gets presents twice a year Christmas and Birthday. It has been that way since she was a baby. She had her birthday a month ago and once Christmas is over with she will have to wait until next September for anymore gifts. My job is safe at the moment as I am like Trin I work in education its more likely that lecturing staff or higher grading staff that will be axed before the frontline staff.