Well, now that we are in the heart of the recession which has been driven by fuel companies trying to squeeze every last drop out of the economy and the banks which have then realised that they cannot keep lending more than people can afford to pay, maybe now is the time for a reality check.
The petrol companies will continue to use the motorist for profit, unless we boycott the main forecourts and use the cheapest petrol stations -
Petrol Prices.com is a useful site to find the best prices in your area. They always find an excuse - the latest excuse for continued price rises, despite the fact that oil is now half the price it was this time last year, is the British weather - with the hot weather, we all drive further, and so demand is up, pushing petrol back above £1 per litre (yes for the yanks moaning about their $2.50 a GALLON, we pay £1 per LITRE!). The dollar exchange rate is another excuse, but they still think the British motorist will continue to pay exhorbitant prices with no alternative. The competition in the market disappeared years ago. With the recession, petrol usage in the UK must have dropped substantially, but do they care whether people can afford to go to work? Not on your nelly!
Gas and Electricity prices continue to be high - with no signs of them returning anywhere near the early 2008 levels - again, the only way the consumer can apply pressure is by constantly checking prices and switching to the cheapest supplier - if we all did this, then it may drive down prices as they might want our custom -
USwitch is an invaluable tool here.
It is not all doom and gloom however.
The low exchange rates for the pound mean that whilst imports are a lot more expensive, oversees customers are seeing a significant reduction in the price to them - certainly our own sales have increased substantially to oversees customers - those in the Euro zone have seen an almost 40% reduction in our prices, whilst those in the USA have seen closer to a 50% reduction.
This can be a boon to UK based business if people seize the chance and could even help us to being a producer nation again, as the cost of getting goods made in the UK is becoming more economical. Prices of shipping goods abroad can also be reduced through using couriers such as
Parcel2Go.
A recession is also a boon to setting up smaller businesses, perhaps using your redundancy money to help fund the start up -
Internet Business Angels offer advice on advertising your business and sites such as
Go Freelance can assist with finding other freelancers to work with you.
There might be low interest rates in the UK, although we have gone back to our original bank to make most of it by fixing our mortgage at an all time low of 4.59% fixed for 5 years. I guess the trading history with that bank helped here - we were seen as a lower risk than a new customer. Additional cash can still earn an amazing
5% gross interest by opening an Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct current account.Holidays in the UK are also now more attractive, as people don't get as many euros for their money, and with a long hot summer forecast for the UK, why go abroad, when you can enjoy some of the wonderful UK landscape and help keep the economy going by spending your money here !
Finally, in a recession, people are tempted more and more to win the lottery and escape - this makes the
online lottery syndicate more attractive than ever and we are seeing an up-surge in people joining the scheme. With no more affiliate fees, it is now better than ever to join and sell the scheme to others.
Labels: make money in a recession, rip-off britain
