&#39;huge, queer and tawdry&#39; but &#39;much admired by the public&#39;

I am now regretting even mentioning mortgages, as it seems to be having a 'speak of the devil' effect. Also: sorry to hear about yr transport failings, that really blows.

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Mortgages are for interesting people. I've been colour-coding my graph of how much electricity we use into seasons.

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I love them now that my buy to let colleagues are asking me why they can't rent out their 1 bed archway flat at 1250 a month. BECAUSE IF YOU HAD THAT SORT OF MONEY YOU WOULD HAVE BOUGHT ONE YOURSELF.

The end is nigh. Just as I have my deposit saved.

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Yes that is quite amusing. I like reading the Housing board on Moneysavingexpert.com. "Hi! I just paid £280k for a lovely new flat right in the centre of Manchester. I'm going to rent it out, so what do I do next???"

Do you want to see my amusing graph? I made it because people kept saying "prices won't go down here, it's a desireable area". People who are meant to understand how supply and demand works, mind you.

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That's stumped me for a comeback as much as the artichoke line last week.

Have you written anything about this groceries/housing thing? I was stunned. I have always spent less money on sustenance than housing. I would have to eat out for every meal to even begin to scale the loft heights of my rent these days. And even in 1998 I would have been hard pushed to spend more than £300 a month on food. Who are these people and what are they eating - and where were they living????

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Well, my father lived on England's Lane in Belsize Park during the summer of the 1966 World Cup, I forget what he paid but it was in the order of £10 a week. The flat in question is now two smaller flats, each available for £260 a week. In contrast bread was even then about 12p a loaf, and so on.

So I dunno, in 1966 you could rent a flat for a week for the cost of 83 loaves of bread, whereas what's a cheap loaf now, £1.20? So the same space would cost you 433 loaves.

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But...how have we only just got to this stage? What were people eating in 1998? Caviar and Unicorn chips?

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You have to think of the UK average.

The average house price at the start of 1998 was £62,000, and interest rates were 7%, so the interest on an average mortgage with a 25% deposit (hardly that unusual back in those days) would have been just over £60 a week.

Easy to spend £60 a week on food I reckon. I probably used to before I decided it wasn't good value for money and cut back and started cooking more.

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Yeah - but only very rich families would have had a plus £60 a week food shop. I was on a budget of £15-20 a week for groceries back then.

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So a family with 2.5 children could easily be on well over £60, if a single 24 year old was on £15-20, no?

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No. It's my opinion that they could have spent less and also 2.5 is not what the average was in 1998, I think it was 2.3 even then.

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Right. I've found the Family Expenditure Survey. In fiscal 08-09 the average household spent £58.90 a week on food, and a further £14 on booze.

Edited Date: 2008-02-03 02:41 am (UTC)

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jimyojimbo.livejournal.com

£1.20 for a cheap loaf?! For that price I'd want bread made of gold.

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Watch the commodity index, the price of bread has something like doubled in the last year. I know even the cheapest loaf in the Co-op is over £1 now. Well, except the one that isn't actually loaf sized.

Right. On their website Tesco (who sell bread at a loss) Value bread is 40p. Tesco own-brand but not value bread is 60p, but basic loaves from any of the branded sellers (Hovis, Kingsmill, Warburton) are in the £1.10-£1.30 range.

£11,960 for that weight of gold, at current prices. Hovis Seed Sensation seems to be the most expensive standard loaf on the market, at £1.56.

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In one of the very first issues of 2000AD, from 1977, one of the bits of visual shorthand which established the horror of life in Russian-occupied Britain was the protestors calling for bread to be reduced to £1 a loaf.
See also: the opening of Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, where the price of Ford Prefect's last round on Earth is almost as startling as the planet's fate.

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Ah, Buy To Let 'investors' - that irresistible combination of stupidity and evil.

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And to think I was considering my Facebook Visual Bookshelf habit worryingly dull...

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oneofthose.livejournal.com

I've gone off him now.

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Seriously?

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oneofthose.livejournal.com

Of course not.

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Hah, that's brilliant!

People's tastes do change in the strangest ways sometimes, and I didn't recall his name cropping up last time I saw you, so anything was possible...

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oneofthose.livejournal.com

He was in my LJ posts today. Talking about ladies knickers.

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Well I've seen that *now*, but I was working my way back through two days' worth of friendslist, so the most recent post when I started was a couple before you. Stephen Fry talking about gadgets, as it happens. And not the sort of gadget ladies put in their knickers.

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Oh - and I'm nearly 34 and I still find his voice hilarious and can't sit still to listen to him. He's a vocal fold or two away from Cartman.

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I KNOW! And yet...

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dreamingofme.livejournal.com

Ew, Bob. I have issues with him for various reasons so I can't imagine i will ever like him.

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I used to feel the same way! And I used to be told I'd come round and I'd say, oh no, the songs are OK but his delivery - ew! And I don't even like the whole of this Best Of, but still...they got to me.

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jimyojimbo.livejournal.com

Just so long as you stop before the point he starts talking about The Jesus.

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There was a definite mention of the Bible in one of these tracks...

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moleintheground.livejournal.com

Hello Alex.

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Thank you for resisting the urge to gloat.

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pippaalice.livejournal.com

I find converstations about morgages boring and I have one. I find dylan even more so however...

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