britexpat76

Just reading this and thinking WTF.........


Why buy your sons presents if you are going to have to borrow the money from them to pay your debts?? Surely its easier just to explain you cannot afford to get anything for them etc......

If it had been my mother I would of been more pissed off she spent money she could ill afford too, I would rather have nothing.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...-off-debt.html

claimsboys

Agreed. Maybe i'm anal, but if I was on my arse and I had grown children, I'd make an effort to put something aside each week/month. A few small gifts, and a family meal at Christmas is better than getting into debt and borrowing from your kids.

Still, when your not in such situations its easy to see clearly. Hopefully I'll never be in such a place.

Beakersful

Part time work, fun isn't it? The government is going to have an online calculator on one of their websites when Universal Credit comes in, for part time workers to input their hours and wages and see how much better off they could be if they just increase their hours. 2.4mil unemployed (probably 3mil with the 'hidden' unemployed) and 460,000 jobs, of which, in some areas, 4/5 are part time jobs only. That calculator is only going to serve to stick the knife in.

Meow

I initially wondered why her daughter (the one on the left in the photo) was called George. Was she practusing her hairdressing on him?

"Despite her cash worries, Jo insisted on giving the boys a proper Christmas"

What does that mean? Expensive presents? Is that really all Christmas has come to mean?

Beakersful

I know a single mother who used to spend an average of £800-900 on each of her 5 kids each xmas, buying things each week when she saw them in sales, and storing them. Meanwhile she did without any luxuries for herself, and denied the kids a xmas dinner, just giving them sausage rolls and pork pies because it'd stress the kids who just want to be opening their presents and playing with them all day. Not that she had a dining room table for them to sit and eat round, they tend to eat standing up at the kitchen counter. They've grown up unable to understand the value of money and will not be prepared for life (the rest of the things she did wrong are not fit for publishing here, but there is a chasm between good and bad parenting in the UK that is moving towards central position)

britexpat76

Was exactly what I thought............ I am happy for a day off and be around family - Presents I can do without and always have. Was doing a paper round at 13 so bought most things I wanted

Patsy Stoned

I think that may be the difference darling....back in the day, we all had Saturday/holiday jobs from aged 14/15. We learnt the value of money.

My parents gave us a small amount of pocket money (half a crown when we got to 13, 1/6d up until then)
We were never short of money because we all worked at weekends and through the holidays. The extra money we earned was used for all the extras that, as children, we wanted to buy that our parents wouldn't buy us.

Meow

Exactly and we didn't expect to get everything we asked for at birthday's and Christmas.

It does children no favours to be spoilt by giving them everything. Far better to teach the value and benefits of work and to appreciate what you have.

Do teenagers in the UK no longer have p/t jobs?

britexpat76

Think that still depends on the family. I was working sat and all school holidays for 80p an hour at 14 in a family friends steel fabrication yard (20+ years ago). I was lugging stuff around moving the wagons, vans and using the folklift trucks. Can you imagine that happening now though? The HSE and do gooders would have him shut down, so I suppose it is harder in that respect.

Beakersful

Have a wild guess how much a paperboy can make a week nowaday?

OleJanx

I have absolutely no idea. £15-20, perhaps?

scot47

I got 10 shillings a week as a paperboy in the early1960s.

I think we sometimes forget the extenmt of inflation - and it is getting worse ! Weimar, here we come ?

Beakersful

£20-25 round my area is quite common. I know a 17 year old who does 3x rounds a day and pays for a college course whilst his family let him live at home for free. I know loads of working adults with less disposable funds than that lad.

I remember getting £4 for 6 afternoon rounds a week, an extra £1 if I turned up on Sunday morning. I couldn't buy anything with that at the time. I had a classmate who was shattered from working everyday after school and all day Saturday in a factory sewing clothes so he could buy things. We all have a thing about child labour nowadays though.

Blue Cat

There is more encouragement in the UK and pressure to buy at Christmas time, think of all the adverts on the telly. We don't overspend and don't get into debt either. Not worth it, but I have to admit January has been a bit tight.