Oh goody another ST journalist whinging about not being able to afford Waitrose anymore

[emkana]

this type of article always brings me out in a rash even though she is slightly more self=aware than others

Heather Mills' picture is right next to the article - she could slip her a few bob

i have the rash

"The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation". - V.I. Lenin

i think she's got a very valid point.

it isn't about Waitrose.

it's about being nickeled and dimed till you wonder what the hell is the point anymore, and then start a thread on here about people on benefits.

if she's thinks it's bad from where she stands, she should try being working poor.

but hey ho, i catch her drift.

If I read one more whinge from a middle-class West London journalist who is feeling short-changed because the place in the privileged elite they believed they should have inherited has been swept away by 30 years of social change, I will fucking find a barricade in Shepherd's Bush and personally man it until they get with the fucking programme.

I'd stand there with you, Rosa!

Increased cost of living isn't just affecting the middle class, Rosa.

And as the journo points out at the end, for many of us, it's not about Waitrose.

It's about even being able to make ends meet at all.

She's right about the cities, too.

London's not the only place like that.

It's just a mirror of what's happening in plenty of other places in the UK.

And when you start getting professionals who leave the country or the profession in droves, you start running into trouble.

I think anyone who thinks this economy is immune to recession is deluding himself.

I totally agree that increased cost of living isn't JUST affecting the middle class Expat. In fact, it is affecting the middle class LESS than it is people on more restricted and less inflation-proof incomes. I agree that she did acknowledge this at the end of the article but in a rather Marie Antoinetteish way. Social justice should work from the bottom up, it shouldn't rely on a trickle-down effect.
You said it yourself in an earlier post 'if she thinks it is bad from where she stands, she should try being working poor.'
A recession is definitely looming, and we are all having to tighten our belts, but there is no room for special pleading on behalf of the whinging coping class.

Yes expat. Agreed there may be a point about the general downturn of economy and price of living. Which will undoubtably effect and harm the working class more than any other.

It still galls to hear it from the perspective of "Certainly my children aren?t going to be familiar with the delights of summers spent in Mediterranean villas with glorious swimming pools, where my brothers and sisters and I once walked to dusty old shops to buy croissants and practise our French, or cycled to markets spilling over with ripe peaches and riper cheese. Skiing holidays were also a highlight of my childhood "

It just ends up reading like another oh no I can't holiday in the Alps so my darlings will be all the more poorer in experience. And it sucks for those who are 'poorer' in that experience and always were.

I agree Rosa, they think they're struggling by giving up their luxuries, pah, that's nothing compared with what real poor people have to struggle with.

Well, yes, it does suck.

I guess it's just more of a shock for people who are accustomed to popping over to teh chalet for a bit of skiing to have to shop with the hoi polloi.

I should leave her a comment that if she doesn't prefer to rub elbows with the unwashed masses, many Tescos and ASDAs are open 24-hours so she can do her shopping in the wee hours.

Of course, she'll have to change money with grunts like my husband, who worked at the tills there for years.

And whilst I do love IKEA, the only thing about beds from there is that you have to get teh sheets there, too.

British ones don't fit well.

My landlords left theirs, and we had to go get IKEA sheets for it.

I have the rash...

whilst we chose to only have one income whilst dc's are small, tight doesn't begin to describe our budget. but we get by. just.

Oh, and waitrose isn't much pricer than tescos on many of the basics. has she only shopped at waitrose for the last few years then?

I am expecting to be slated here and I admit to have never shopped at Waitrose as I think it is too expensive abyway...

But the credit crunch is a problem for everyone.
WE are really struggling ATM and i am frightened about money like the journalist.
I admit that i am a lucky person so far in my life not to have to worry about money in a big way. that said, I do understand about living on benefits etc and have been working and volunteering over the years to help vulnerable people.

We bought our house when life was easier, and I stopped working as I couldn't afford childcare.
We have bene struggling a bit with just DH's salary and I have bene doing weekend shifts to help out.

Over the last 3 months we have slowly slowly gone further and further into the red at the end of the month.
It is frightening.

I suppose the easy answer is to sell up and move somwhere cheaper and have less of a mortgage repayment. But that is a really hard thing to do all of a sudden and won't sort it out for the forseeable futher-.
it would take 3-6months to mve and cost £10-15k I supsect.
And then we'd both have to find new jobs in the cheaper area of the country- which may not be so easy..
And food bills, petrol bills and council tax are prob similar wherever you live....

I agree wholeheartedly that it is affecting everyone, all levels of income.
Not sure what i am trying to say apart from Fuck, it's a bloody nightmare and yes, I have been lucky so far not to have been affected, but it doesn't make me any less upset now and frightened that we are going to lose our home over our heads IYSWIM.

She could always do home shopping if she found grunts like expats dh (and myself when I worked there) too common. save the rest of us having to rub elbows with her!

It's a tough life if one has the difficult descision of sqitzerland or the med.

wonder hwo she's going to cope with the toilet block at the camp site.

and tesco is expensive now too...

Lidl has organic products, though, head .

i tend not to shop in supermarkets these days...and the time of organic produce is longfrickin' gone

Everything is expensive now. Fuel went up at my local petrol station last night for the 3rd night running...

Will get to the point where DH cannot afford to drive to work anymore, and public transport is out, as he does antisocial shifts.

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Don't see why you'd be slated headinthesand.

Ah, see, the other day I was trying to go all Buddhist.

Really, the lesson I needed to learn is this life is to let go.

Of everything.

Even a roof over our heads.

I have had to learn this the hard way and it's not always been pleasant.

But now I see the silver lining!

See, it's not so hard a fall after the first few times.

Still doesn't get any easier, but it is less of a shock.

BUT, whilst you have less and less to lose, you soon come to realise that your definition of hell just got worse.

Message withdrawn

Ah hello oops