Global Economy or a drain without a plug?

It isn't all that long ago that I was working from home .
I had a little business and managed to keep myself busy and get paid to do so.
The Business was chugging along nicely with minimal outlay .
Then it plummeted into the abyss.

My clients were it seems ,all interconnected.
The main client (Client A) ,it turned out, also employed 2 of my other clients (client B And C) who in turn, employed me.
So when Client A decided that  they could get a partial service from workers in India who would do the basics for 20p an item, they dispensed with my own more extensive services at £1.50 an item and also with those of Clients B and C,who as a repercussion, could no longer employ me .

At first sight this would seem logical and money saving on the part of Client A but if you look into it a bit more carefully, you will see that the money that previously was paid to the workers in the UK, instead of being used to buy things within the UK and therefore remaining in the UK economy, is now paid to workers in India who buy things in India and have no intention of spending it elsewhere(India having a lower cost of living ,who can blame them?).

Client A are not the only company contracting out to the far off lands, several other companies also do so and some companies (even our local bus service) recruit from far away, despite the fact that there are people in the UK queuing up for jobs back home.
The workers that are recruited, send money back for their family to live on and so there again, the money leaves the country,never to return.

While the Government is cutting costs all over the country, there is still a schism that is leaking the economy and they seem blind to it.

I don't blame the workers in these remote countries, they are being given opportunities and who would not jump on the gravy train if they saw it beckoning?
I do think that there needs to be a brake on the practice though or this country is going to become a population of massively overcrowded ,overweight, depressed ,embittered people with no prospects ,relying on unhealthy vices to keep them from either rebelling against the system or warring amongst themselves.
We need laws that give priority to those in this country where work is offered by companies here.

Prospects?

Recently there has been some news regarding the work opportunities given to those on Job seekers allowance in the UK.
Some companies signed up to a scheme in which the JSA claimants would work for them, receive the same JSA that they are paid anyway and expenses and nothing more.
People quickly pointed out that if they did no work, they got JSA and if they worked for these companies, they got nothing else.
The companies were offering 'work' but not advertising it for people to apply for and be paid a wage for.
When the scheme has run it's course, because the companies have not openly stated that there were vacancies,they can dispense with the 'workers' because they don't have a position for them to fill.

Our own graduates are unable to find work having studied for 3 or 4 years and clocked up a student debt.
The Government want young people to continue on in Education  past the compulsory 16 years of age but with no additional prospect of being employed when they obtain their degree.

Young people are pushed from one training scheme to another with no target in mind.
They are told that training will lead to employment.

They are asked at 14 to choose their subjects to study so that they can use them to get a job but no one at 14 has any great idea of how their life will progress and so often the choice is blind or made on the balance of teachers liked, lessons friends will be in, amount of effort needed,likely hood of getting rich quick.
(Performing arts are a popular choice in school).

Tablets

Whinge Alert!!


OH really liked my e-reader when he saw me using it.
He looked on Ebay and couldn't find one as good for the money (no shit sherlock) .
So he bought an Android tablet second hand(70 odd pounds).
It didn't work properly so he sent it back and was refunded.
Then yesterday, the new replacement turned up.
This one is brand new and was over £100.

Needless to say, I am not impressed.
I mean I love it, it is small and neat and clever and can do lots of things but why?
He has a Netbook ,a laptop and an android phone.
There is no reasoning with him,he just doesn't bother to answer if he cant justify an expense, he will look on silently until I shut up.

I thought about it for a bit and wondered if I could say the same about my having bought an e-reader.
Was I just being silly and impulsive?

But I honestly can justify my reader.
For a start it was cheap because I mended it myself.
The money to buy it was entirely from surveys.

I already had lots and lots of free books that were on my laptop but were awkward to read because I
couldn't have the laptop on in the bedroom at night in bed. (It is one I got from DD and I  mended by  wiring through the battery connection so it cant work without being plugged in).
OH of course shares the room and has to sleep in the bed  too and a 17" laptop is in the way however you position it.

It can display PDF which is handy as recipes are often put online and I  can print to PDF then take it into the kitchen to follow the instructions which is awkward with a laptop  and takes up loads less room.
I have used it every night since Christmas Eve.

Hobsons Choice

Anyway , it makes me reluctant to spend my squirreled pennies on anything  in which I don't have full choice .

I had planned on buying a new front door from ebay with survey money but when I mentioned it to OH a couple of weeks ago, he went browsing ebay and as usual looks to the absolute top end of what we could afford and then thinks about adding on extras like finishing ,then looks at me as though I am going to say ,okay I will save £ 600 so that we can get the one you choose . Well that is NOT happening.
It would take me more than a month to accrue enough just to get a door sealed for *****s sake,what is wrong with buying the door and sealing it ourselves?

We could buy a new hardwood glazed door for under £200 but shrug, that ain't going to happen.

I give up.

My survey money is going to reestablish itself as mums pin money and that is that.
That doesn't include money saved from the housekeeping of course, that is family money and gets used for unexpected bills and saving.

Always look on The Bright side of Life

Good things that have come from stopping the self employment.

I now have pin money that is considered to be mine,it is trickle pennies but I don't care .
Earnings from self employment were not mine and the choice as to what to spend it on was mysteriously lacking too.
I can stay in bed till 8 am instead of getting up at 6 am.
I get breakfast away from the computer.
I get a lunch break and eat away from the computer.
I have time to cook from scratch every day.
I can sit in the living room and watch TV in the evening.
I get a Saturday and Sunday and if DS wants company into town during the week, I can go.
I am back to bargain hunting when Grocery shopping.
It is cheaper when I go shopping for food! A lot cheaper, less than half the cost of sending OH.
The Garden can get back into production and we will have cheap,organic,fresh fruit and veg.
I have time to exercise every day.
Answering the phone or the front door do not have me doing mental sums to work out how much time/money it  is costing .
We have our dining room back and can eat like civilized people without dropping food down ourselves and being bombarded by the bloody Television. Absolute Bliss!

Eating at the table

We are trying to get the dining room back into commission.
Last year it was my office and so was full of scanners and computers.
We had 3 big scanners (A3 size) and then a large A4 flat bed and 2 film scanners.
Then there were the computers.
2 Windows PC's
3 Macs and of course their keyboards, Mice and monitors.
There was hardly room to sidle.

Well that all fell through when the economy took another downturn and so we have had a room full of white elephants.
Yesterday and today was spent in moving stuff about so we can have our room back.

We put two of the big scanners under the stairs.
The other is in the corner.
The macs are put away where they will fit.
One PC is in the cupboard and the other, the better one, is on a computer trolley.

Todays dinner was the first we have had around the table in about 10 months.
It was so lovely to see the fireplace again and be able to sit upright properly to eat.
Cant wait for Christmas and now we can have Xmas dinners in the old family manner with chatting and manners instead of in the sitting room with the 'telly' butting in and everyone glowering at Mr oblivious because it is another bless'ed war film..

I have the small drawer unit that was under my desk, as a bed side table now, it is lovely and deep and there is a lock.
OH doesn't know that I found the key shhh.

No more self employement

I have officially deployed myself,as in, I am no longer employing myself .

I rang the insurance people to confess my lack of work for the last 6 months.
They took all the details then gave me another number to ring as in the words of the telephonist ,'we don't talk to the other sections of the national insurance offices so you have to do it yourself'.

Anyway at the end of the second phone call ,guess what?

I am given a third number because you guessed it, there is a third section who ought to be told but they cant tell them as they have no physical connection!

ARGH!

Anyway I haven't managed to contact them as they are constantly too busy to answer the phone and their web page is non existent.

Busy with little projects

I have been surveying like mad today.
No not for the building industry !
This is my Trickle feed income when I have no other .
That is most of the time!

I thought I would make a separate page about it and add new links as I discover where the most reliable or useful places to earn a little bit extra ,actually are.

Often the survey companies start to become busier as the season turns towards Christmas or other major Holidays .

Today I have done about 10 surveys and about 3 hours of  other stuff.

Anyway if you are interested,pop over to the new page,the link is at the top.

Still pulling on the bar

The OH went back to work today so our pull up bar made it back upstairs where it is used the most.
I managed 10 and lots of lesser amounts till I had done around 58.
I am still improving on the one legged pistol squats. Less wobbling.
The temperature is finally beginning to kick in here and it was only 17 degrees downstairs so we have been upstairs in the warmer rooms all day.

Making spare cash trickle feed style


I joined Shop and scan this week. It is a company that asks for you to scan all the bar codes on your shopping and you upload the scans( they loan you a scanning device) and a picture of your receipt (to prove you didn't just scan the contents of the shop) and send to them once a week. 

They reward in vouchers which will be so handy for Birthday present buying.


I am trying out Amazon MTurk too.
This is an american company .
You sign up and do little tasks on line for small payments in cents.
The UK participants are paid in US Amazon com vouchers only spendable on the US version of Amazon , so I thought I would have a go and see how handy they are once I have earned some.
If they are not really very spendable because of import duties making them worthless ,I will stop doing them.


I enjoy this kind of thing though, it is my trickle feed approach to life yet again.
If you stick at anything long enough, you will see rewards or at least know why you shouldn't continue.
Most of the tricklers have proved useful in one way or another .
Now the freelancing has dried up ,this is helping to fill in the time and provides a little bit of something for the very few times when I feel like parting with earnings.

Thurs and fri in the garden

The garden was screaming for attention LOL
So for the last 2 days, I have been out there digging and hoeing for a couple of hours each.

Last evening,we ran as usual and it being a nice night,we managed a nearly 3 miler without too much gasping.

Today I walked into town to buy Onion sets and paint.
The onions will go in the garden when I have cleared sufficient weeds out of the way.
Onion sets were £2 each pack and I bought 3 packs of 50.That sounds pricey until you realise that 3 full sized onions in Asda is about  £1 . I will buy a bulb of garlic next time I am there as I'm not paying £2 for garlic if I can get it for less.
The paint is for the gate as my son wants to paint it to save it rotting away after he went to the effort of making it.
Also as it was only the worst half that was replaced, it has been a two coloured pair of gates for a few weeks which does stick out like a sore thumb.
Now it is half dark grey undercoat and half old blue paint and if it doesn't rain, it will be all blue tomorrow.

I have had to rethink my self employment.
After not really having any significant work for some months, I decided it was better to give it up than to sit on my behind and look hopefully in the direction of the company that had been sending me work last year.
With the economy up the spout just about everywhere, there isn't the demand for retouching ,especially when people are quite willing to have a go themselves or put up with a few spots and scratches on their prints.

While I am disappointed that things didn't really pan out with it, it is sort of liberating to have made the decision.

The pull ups have been going surprisingly well.
On Thursday,I didn't do even one because I am trying to be sensible and let the muscles rest between attempts.
Today I did 5 in a row twice and 4 once so far.
That is such a quick improvement.
It seems that once I got past two in a row, it is just a question of building from there because Wednesday was the first day I managed 4 and I think Monday was the first day I managed 3 .

The gardening has been quite an arm workout on its own but I am finding that using the tools is so much easier since my push ups,pull ups and dips have improved so drastically.