The Credit Crunch

Well instead of showing pictures of a lovely trip somewhere exotic, this time my blogspot is about life in the Credit Crunch. Surprisingly to me many people are only just starting to feel the pinch due to the credit crunch. For those of us that work in the FSI (Financial Services Industry) area the CC has been a reality since the beginning of the year.

The events over the last couple of weeks have been amazing to watch. I've worked on the Lloyds TSB account for the past 2 years and a more conservative customer I have not met. In what seems to be a fairy tale story like the tortoise and the hare, Lloyds TSB have come through this winningly. The top job at my company on this account recently became available. After waiting in the wings for 2 years I, like a few others, threw my hat in the ring. On the morning of the interview, Thursday 18th September it was announced that Lloyds TSB had bought HBOS and was now double the bank - a 'megabank' the BBC called it. So being interviewed for a job that had now changed scope was very interesting.

Needless to say, our boss took the safest route on this one and has stepped down all of his original candidates in favour of getting in a 'big hitter'. Who is a 'big hitter?' Where do they come from? And how do you become one? We are all waiting to see what this 'big hitter' will do to save the day.

On a personal note, this time of financial instability has been a challenge. For those of you that arent aware how all of this started, the over-confident banks in the US decided to lend money to people who couldnt pay it back - and for some reason they didnt think that would be a problem down the track. For those of us who did take out a mortgage at the end of last year - just before property prices started to fall the choice was endless. I was offered magnificent amounts of money but fortuntely only took what I could affort to pay back. Simple concept really. As the months have rolled by and my monthly pay has diminshed I've been set the interesting challenge of life with no 'luxury fund'. Shopping has gone from M&S food and the occasional dip into the vintage section of wines at Waitrose to selecting the 2 for 1 specials at Morrisons & Tesco - even if I dont normally eat the product :-) Wine is now more for necessity than entertainment. The £2.99 introductory priced wines are now a hot favourite. Shoes get re-heeled and suits get repaired. I'm fortunate that after paying my essential bills I can afford to live the rest of the month. A great line in a newspaper column read "I'm finding that at the end of my money there still plenty of month left". It has been a sobering experience (thank god for the introductory wine offers) and probably a good 'down to earth' exercise. On a funny note I was shocked to see that someone had stolen our green recycling bin from outside our front door. We suspect its our neighbour who has suddenly acquired a green bin. I was quite happy to ignore and order another until I found out that a replacement is £33.00. I'm now planning a night retrieval of said-bin, so that could be my entertainment for this evening!

Here's hoping that we are now in the 'eye of the storm'