How's the financial crisis affecting you? Take the AM poll

Online Surveys & Market Research

Be sure to post in more detail about what's going on with you in the comments space below.

Comments

[Miss May]

PS: This year one son and I sold our cars and now walk and bike and take public transportation. A large amount of money was freed up by not owning cars! I can now ride the buses and trains at half price. When I reach 75 in 7 years, I can ride free on anything for the rest of my life. YEAAAAAA! Talk it up in your own community if you don't have this.

[Miss May]

OK here! Living on very little income but it is enough! My real saving grace is that three years ago I got a senior apartment with rent on a sliding scale according to income. The utilities are very low. I live pretty well, pay all my bills, save some and have money left over! It is a miracle! My children are grown and have good jobs. They both bought and paid off their houses in ten years, didn't want to pay any more interest to the banks! I never had enough money to buy a house, and have not missed one. I just plant flowers wherever I go like Miss Rumphius( Barbara Cooney) Bloom where you are planted, I say! happy New Year!

[SC]

Our daughter is 7 months old and travelling with her is a bit of a nightmare so we have stopped doing holidays, trips out etc. This is nothing to do with the credit crunch as we would have done it anyway. As this was the bulk of our discretionary spending there isn't really much to cut back. Both of us grew up in homes where our parents never threw anything away so were so surrounded with clutter that we have an aversion to non-essential consumer goods. Hence we never spent much on 'things' anyway

[Christine]

I "downshifted" a few months ago to a job closer to home - lower salary but I save money on fares and lunches, and I see more of my children. We don't have a car, which is a huge saving. Because of my cut in salary I am more careful about buying luxuries for myself - e.g. more clothes than I need - but otherwise nothing has changed really. Hubby and I don't go out in the evening together a lot (mostly because of the babysitting costs!) and are happy with a DVD and a bar of chocolate of an evening. Hubby is careful with money and that helps to curb my spending habits. Before I married I didn't always pay off my credit card bill straight away - I always do now, and some of that is down to not spending too much in the first place. We have discovered the joys of charity shops and Freecycle. We paid off our mortgage a few years ago. Despite rumours of possible redundancies at work I keep reminding myself that even if I lose my job, hey, we won't starve.

[Alex]

I'm finding tightening our belts stressful, I have be so careful now with the weekly food shop, I don't go out as much, and I'm missing out on fun day trips out with my 1-year old. However, I also think this recession could be a good thing in some ways, as it will force us to reevaluate how we spend our money, what we consume and how much we waste, and hopefully, make us all a bit less materialistic.

[TickTock]

I voted 'It's weighing on my mind' on Monday morning (20th).
At 3pm I got told I'm being made redundant on Nov 20.

How a few hours can really change your vote... :-)

[Helen]

Fortunately my son is now at state primary school - we got rid of the nursery fees last year. We just have a mortgage and no other debt and savings which would pay for mortage for a year or so (not sure how we'd eat and pay the other bills if we BOTH lost our jobs though, but at least we'd not lose the house). I am being more careful with money and trying to spend out of income rather than savings when I buy something big like a holiday. We've always tended to live under our means and hopefully that means we'll be in a decent position, especially if we can both hold onto our jobs, even if it's just part-time hours.

[Debbie]

You're welcome LM. Sometimes I think I should just send my salary direct to the school and allow them to deduct whatever they feel like - School fees, childcare, swimming lessons, sponsorships, day trips, uniforms etc etc and so it goes on and on and on.... and maybe there will be about 50c left over for me at the end!

[LM]

Thanks Debbie - I was confused. Ow, school and childcare fees - that's pricey. (Sorry, I knew it was Darwin; can't think why I said Brisbane, Sunday short-term memory loss, perhaps).

[Debbie]

Hi LM, no its me, Debbie living in Australia with 2 kids, although we live in Darwin, right up in the top end of Australia. Actually I phrased that badly, I have 2 kids, one is in school full time, and the other does preschool in the mornings and childcare in the afternoon, so we get stung for school fees AND daycare fees. Double whammy! Hopefully only for another few months and then she will start school full time. Phew!

[divorced mum]

since my divorce 4 years ago we've had to live carefully and frugally. fortunately i have a job and the household outgoings are not huge. i've had a 4 year start compared to everyone else on this credit crunch!

[LM]

Not quite on topic, but are there two people posting on AM with the moniker "Debbie"? Usually Debbie is a Brit living in Australia (I want to say Brisbane area) with two daughters & a husband in the military & she works as a baker.

The Debbie here has 3 kids...

Can we get clarity? (Sorry to be a pedant but it confuses me).

On financial crisis, biggest effect on us is the huge amount of funding my husband's department has been losing over the last few years due to cuts in funding for environmental issues going to pay for this godforsaken (and I use the word with full intent) war. (I'm in the US). We should probably revisit our personal spending/planning though, as that's a good idea anyway.

[Jos Costello]

Credit card - paid off monthly.
Mortgage - tiny, we bought our house 10 years ago with a 25% deposit, plenty of equity even after a year of falling house prices.
Income - full time wages instead of 30 hours a week, big pay rise for other half plus lump sum back pay coming in
Childcare - both now in full time school, costing a LOT less than nursery fees
Shopping - we were always tight gits.
So no crunching in this household, no champagne swilling either, though.

[Carol]

I've never had any money anyway. I've worked 70 hours or more per week for 20 years now, but still struggle to pay the rent on my 1 bed flat. Honestly, the UK (and indeed most of Europe) is Hell when you're single and childless; you have to slave just to pay the taxes that provide benefits for everyone else.

[Inéz C]

I'm pretty cautious with money as I have too many memories of having none at all. My house is too small to fill with loads of consumer goods, and if I'm going to wear designer clothes then so far as I'm concerned, if I'm advertising them, they can pay me!

[Mike]

Apart from a mortgage - paid off as soon as possible - I have never borrowed a penny, nor paid a bank or credit card (cleared each month)
any charges or interest. The banks liquidity issues has enabled me to get even better long term fixed interest savings rates.than expected.
Long may the credit crunch last, because maybe just maybe banks & customers will live within their limits

[Thatgirl]

I was made redundant for the second time in a year due to the credit crunch - unfortunately I'd taken an admin roll in Estate Agency in January - just before it all started to crash around our ears! It all worked out for the best though as I was doing too many hours and missing out on time with Small Child. Im now working at home two days a week, typing property rental inventories. Nothing that uses my brain like it used to but it's a small sacrifice to pay

[Carol]

Jean Jones makes a good point - I have never had any debt other than a mortgage, the single credit card is paid off in full every month, and I consider shopping to be a chore rather than entertainment. I have lived this way since I was a uni student - I am now 40 with 2 kids, and life is continuing as normal.

[Jane2]

Jennifer
I've written quite a lot about the financial crisis on my blog,
www.ableblog-sensibilia.blogspot.com. Can't really put any more here.
And about cake, (Sarah, your request for recipes in Times 2)
The two things do seem to be interlinked.

[Debbie]

I've just been made redundant from my job out of the blue, which was a bit of a shock with 2 weeks notice. So we are definitely pulling in our horns while I look for another job, as we cannot live on only one income and have any sort of life. With 2 kids in private school, and one still in childcare for half the day, there are a lot of basic expenses to cover. I daren't take her out of childcare as I will lose my place, and then won;t be able to get her back in when I find another one. But luckily round here there are still plenty of jobs, its just a matter of finding the right one. This has happened to my twice before, so maybe I am better prepared to deal with it, as I've done it all before. Life goes on and we will manager no matter what the outcome of it all. Maybe I'll start up my own baking business that I've been dreaming of....

[Andrew Milner]

I realise conspicuous consumption is part of the culture, but for the last 10 years, Brits who are resident in UK have been charging it like there was no tomorrow. Remember the last recession? You couldn’t use the plastic at charity shops because they would only accept cash. But then, someone has to pay retail, an irony that it was those in the direst of straits.
Makes me realise what a smart move I made relocating to Japan in 1973. As an outsider in this society, there's no pressure to "keep up with the Tanakas, far less the Jones". When you're essentially retired in rural Japan, an economy in recession is not all bad. Consumer resistance is likely to keep prices under control, and moving to somewhere really cheap in third world Asia remains an option.

[beta mum]

I've only recently gone back to work after 4 years subsisting on dwindling savings - so I feel better off than I did a year ago. And I have no savings, so haven't lost any.
The relentless coverage of the global downturn would discourage frivolous spending - if I didn't already have so many more urgent claims on my earnings.

[Lucy (without kids. Yet)]

(Though I must say it has made me worry about whether I will ever be able to afford children, which is kinda blog-relevant, I guess.)

[Lucy (without kids. Yet)]

Well, I'm not happy there's the situation, but it does make me feel a lot better about 'wasting my time' doing a postgraduate course! I'm not earning, but the job market is precarious anyway, and I haven't found myself caught up in the mortgage crisis that other people my age are struggling with. Plus, there's always the hope that by the time I come to get a job, the extra education will be seen as useful ... maybe?

Anyway, for me, it's helped assuage the guilt a lot.

[Jean Jones]

Elisa - us too, and why isn't there a category in the poll for people like us? ie 'It hasn't made any difference - I have always had to be careful with money'? Not everyone who reads the Times takes 3 holidays a year, buys handbags at £500 a throw and spends £25 a week on Starbucks coffee...