Posts Tagged ‘Money’

Money, money, money…

Money can be one of the most difficult things to talk about with an employer - some people sweat profusely, others have panic attacks, while others take it in their stride…however you handle the situation you should be aware of what you should keep in mind when talking pounds and pennies.

Research

You should spend some time researching the stability and validity of the company you are dealing with.  How can you be sure that they are in a position to negotiate price with you - you might push them and lose the job altogether…

If you have recently been brought in by a company who has recently made a number of cut backs due to the recession then you probably won’t have much chance to start handing out demands.

Homework

You should be aware of how much you should be charging for your services by looking at what other people in your position are charging.  By determining your market value you will be able to stay competitive with the rest o the work force in the market without being worried about being ripped off yourself.

Start with salary guides and publications that give a good idea of pay rates for different jobs - keep in mind that geography plays an important role when charging as London based workers will be in a position to charge more than workers based in Colwyn Bay.

Look Beyond the Pay

Don’t focus all your energy on getting the most money out of the position - you should also be thinking about your roles in the position.  What responsibilities will you be given, will you have a larger workload then your previous position?  Will you be spending less time at home?  You should think about all the aspects of the position.

Also think about what benefits the job will be supplying - will they outweigh a smaller pay packet?  Would you prefer health and dental insurance over a larger wage?  You should look at both sides of the coin before deciding whether or not you want to fight for the job or not.

Value

If it is possible you should try and prove to the company how employing you will pay off.  You need to show them that you are an investment for them and they need to pay into the idea of “you”.  If the opportunity arises show them quantative examples of how you paid off for previous employers.

If you can do this effectively then you should be able to make them feel that they won’t be able to continue without you and that is obviously a perfect position to be in!

Write It Down

Once you have the job, remember to get it in writing!  You need to have salary and job description written down so that there are no confusions later on.  Protect yourself!

Money Talks

Have you experienced difficulty talking about money with an employer in the past?  Has it been a problem you have managed to overcome?  Let us know!

Baking bread – have you thought about doing it?

Have you ever really put a lot of thought into the possibility of making your own bread?  Do you struggle against the possibility or are you slightly intimidated by the thought of having a loaf that doesn’t come wrapped in a plastic bag?  Baking your own bread can be a great thing to do…but why?

Healthy

That’s right – it’s quite obvious but baking your own bread is a lot healthier for you than buying a loaf from the supermarket.  For a start you are the one putting in the ingredients and if you can’t trust yourself then who can you trust.

Say goodbye to breads that contain the likes of chemical additives, hydrogenated oils, unhealthy preservatives and sweeteners.  Instead welcome in the freshness of eggs, flour and our old favourite, nutrition!

The shops tend to want to trick unsuspecting shoppers in an attempt to get as much money out of them as possible – this is not new news.  When you go out and buy your whole meal bread you aren’t always getting what you think – a lot of the time whole meal bread is just white bread that is given the colouring of whole meal to make you think that it is filling you up with healthy treats.

You aren’t going to fall into that naughty little trap at home, are you?  You can be 100 per cent sure of exactly what is going into your loaf and therefore what exactly you are going to get out when it is ready!  You want whole meal, you get whole meal…no arguments from your ingredients.

Taste

Imagine a bread that is made entirely out of fresh ingredients.  It’s going to taste good and fresh – that’s what you are going to get when you bake your loaf at home.  You will probably be shocked at how good home made bread can taste – many people claim to be able to taste the chemicals in shop bread after a while on the home made stuff.

We don’t eat bread because it’s good for us and it’s a necessity – we eat bread as an indulgance most of the time…a little bread and butter or jam or marmalade – we want the taste!  So why not get the most out of your loaf by making it yourself.  Welcome to flavour country!

Money

You might think that it is cheaper to buy supermarket loaves at 80p a loaf, or even 30p in some cheaper supermarkets, compared to a couple of quid for the ingredients you will use to make the bread yourself.  But the thing is you need to keep in mind how many loaves you will be able to make for your couple of quid – the ingredients should last you for ages while your supermarket loaf will last you a couple of days before going green.

What about you?

Have we convinced you to bake your own bread yet?  Are you itching to taste the freshness of home baked bread or are you going to stick to supermarket loaves?  Let us know…

Some people have all the luck, right? I read a story today that is actually making me sick with jealously: Nagging wife forces husband to buy lottery ticket, wins $4.2 million… Sadly, the only thing I get nagged at is for not doing the dishes.

The lucky pair comes from Auckland in Australia New Zealand (i’m a dumbass), and the husband bought his ticket two minutes before the deadline for last Saturday’s lottery draw. The man, who doesn’t want to be named – a practice that is common in New Zealand apparently – said that his, “My wife had been nagging me all week to get a ticket, so I when saw the Lotto sign … I sprinted in to get the ticket before they closed.”

“I must have been their last customer of the night,” he said. In all fairness, the guy deserved a break. The young couple had had what he described as “a rough couple of years” after being reduced to one income after having children.

“I have never been so glad to listen to my wife’s nagging,” the man said

The winners found out they had indeed won the small fortune on Sunday after his wife said she wanted a barbequed sausage. He went shopping to get some, but was too broke to afford one, so he decided he’d best check the lottery ticket he’d bought the night before just in case he’d won a small prize.

“I could not believe it when they said I was actually the big winner,” he said.

He rushed back home to tell the wife: “When she realised how much it really was, she fell to the floor, and then said: ‘but all I wanted was a sausage.”‘

Nice story huh, but I have to admit to being gutted it wasn’t me. Never one for luck, I think I’ve ‘won’ the lottery just once in all the time I’ve played it. I reckon I’ve spent about £300 on lottery tickets (that’s a total guesstimate) and I’ve made £10 back. Well that just sucks.

I think it’s that way that because you want something to happen, it doesn’t. I’m not saying I deserve to be a millionaire, but to crawl out of my overdraft for the first time in years would be nice. The trouble is: a million pounds today will not get you what a million pound did ten years ago.

And ask yourself this: where would you keep your money? With the banks in chaos and any high earners at risk it could all go pear-shaped pretty quickly. I guess you could always hide it under the mattress.

So another day, another company comes crashing to a halt. This time it’s a shop I was in loads as a kid demanding sweets and juice, and generally being a pain in the backside to my parents. My mum even worked in Woolworths when she was younger, and I remember getting my first ‘things’ there, such as my first pair of shoes (Niks), my first computer game (double dragon for the Atari) and my first music CD (Areosmiths greatest hits volume 1).

It’s quite a shame when you see places you used to go to as a kid disappear. I remember loads of shops that are no longer here, and I’m oddly sad about the fact Woolies is gone. Strange yes, I mean, I never worked there, but I have fond memories of running up an down the aisles causing chaos for staff and generally acting like a bull in a China shop.

It’s different these days as the majority of kids buy stuff online, and there is no connection with the shop to build up. They could probably tell you where to find exact products in a website, but have lost the skills (?) of finding stuff on shelves. Like the classic dash to a shelf when you realise you’ve forgot to pick up something and the queue at the till is massive.

It’s a worrying time for a lot of people, I’m struggling to make ends meet, and that’s with a full time job and no kids to worry about, so how people with large families are coping is beyond me…well, actually not completely beyond me…

If you’ve seen the news recently it’s all doom and gloom, end the world as we know it type stories, but if you’ve been in the town centre recently you won’t notice the difference. People are happily throwing money at cashiers, but not real money, in fact not it’s not even their own money…it’s the banks money. Its sales going on credit cards, and overdraughts, but what these people are forgetting is that although the recession is tough at the moment, if anything were to happen to just one of the main banks in the coming months, we’d all be up sh#t creek without a paddle.

And it’ll get worse, just look at every financial analyst. They all look like they are in pain, and that’s because they have lost a ton of money on various shares on multiple companies going down the drain. People need to wise up that its going to get harder, and that its going to stay difficult for at least a year. Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling must be hoping that the conservatives win the next election, so that they can shoulder the massive responsibility of saving a country in crisis.

Anyway, the fact is Woolworths is gone, and we have no money. Merry Xmas.