One of the businesses in our group operates on the web selling medium ticket household products (£250-£3000ish items) and the last 6-8 weeks sales have fallen through the floor for no obvious reason.

Still got good Google ranking, adwords are working, visitor numbers are where they should be – but no-one seems to be buying!!

Just wondered if you had cut back on your spending recently?

Nope

I don’t (need to) spend on expensive things anyway 😉

Definately.

Me and the wife are both nurses, she in acute, me in community learning disabilities.

Her job may be reasonably safe but I’m ultimately paid by Social Services which is not protected.

Add our pay freezes, increases in bills this past year, children growing older and becoming more expensive, **** all interest on savings and the likelihood of both our pensions being decimated – you bet I’m watching what I spend.

No, I’m delaying buying stuff because I’m skint.

I never bought stuff in that range anyway!

I havent bought What Mountain bike for the last few months, have i missed anything.

Yes and no.

Yes, because the whole thing makes me feel very uncomfortable. Though I’m only 34, I remember how filthy everywhere was under Thatcher. I feel a sense of grimy Britain returning, and it does make me want to spend.

No, because I may lose my job next year, as may Mrs North, and we’ve just had a child.

Well, I opted against a McFlurry after my medium value meal last night. But, on the other hand I happily spent £400+ on a new snowboard deck.

2 years of public-sector pay freezes, and rising prices of practically everything mean i have no money to spend anyway…

I’ve moved to Australia. Despite the obvious home sickness, I’d strongly recommend it to anyone else…

I hope that my new found frugality will continue, suprising how much crap you buy but don’t need which just goes to line the pockets of already rich businessmen.

I’ve moved to Australia. Despite the obvious home sickness, I’d strongly recommend it to anyone else…

I’ve been. No intention of returning.

Zokes. That’s part of the long term plan. How easy or difficult was it to get the required visas etc?

Was thinking Canada myself. Better skiing.

We haven’t stopped buying things as such, but we are spending more time looking for the absolute cheapest prices and thinking about whether or not we really need stuff.

I’ve been. No intention of returning.

Good 😉

Zokes. That’s part of the long term plan. How easy or difficult was it to get the required visas etc?

They are really tightening up here, as bizarrely, for a country almost entirely formed from immigrants, these damned ‘boat people’ will drag the country to ruin 🙄

As for people who come on planes, well:

1) The points system changes quite regularly, and has been known to change whilst people are having their applications processed, leaving them high and dry. It also takes about 18 months, and unless you’re married, demonstrating that your significant other really is significant can take some doing

2) Either apply for a high end job or get head hunted (which is sort of what happened to me). Here, the employer sponsors your application (they pay a wedge to immigration and say how important your skills are and why an Aussie won’t do). This took about 4 months of sorting out. Again, demonstrating my wife (who was merely a fiancee at the point when we lodged the application) actually is significant can be an issue. Sadly it’s not cheap either – visas cost more than £1k when we got ours.

Aus itself is also quite expensive, so make sure you are earning quite a bit more over here than you were back in blighty, otherwise you may be in for a shock…

However, their economy is mainly based on digging stuff up and selling it to China. I can’t see that going wrong for quite some time!

ourmaninthenorth –
Member
Yes and no.
Yes, because the whole thing makes me feel very uncomfortable. Though I’m only 34, I remember how filthy everywhere was under Thatcher.

That would have been the mess left when the unions, under the Callaghan government, forced the 3 day week and the streets were piling up with refuse.

Guess the spending cuts are hitting harder than we realised!
Pikey cot

Zokes, you’re spot on, my wee brother emigrated to Mackay last year, his wife is an ausie, he’s working repairing mining equipment, unskilled basicly an electricians mate and is earning double what he would get in the UK, he says the scale of the mining is mental, plans for another port to be built to handle the amount of stuff going to China, makes me think that our efforts to cut co2 will mean nothing,
PJ

If there is an essential item that you’re thinking of buying, don’t forget the VAT increase as at 4th Jan. Everything standard-rated will go up by 2.5%

Sloppy – Member
If there is a non-essential item that you’re thinking of buying, don’t forget the VAT increase as at 4th Jan. Everything standard-rated will go up by 2.5%

T.FIFY.