A Zillion Ideas

Some finance writers talk about the 50-30-20 rule, meaning that those on average earnings should spend 50% of their disposable income on essentials like housing, food, energy and communications. Then 30% on enjoying life; socialising, holidays and so on. The other 20% should go to savings and investments. They often call these groups, needs, wants…

Whether it is a picture on the fridge drawn by a small child or a masterpiece in an art gallery, images are valued. The crayon drawing created by the small child is valued by its mother and the masterpiece might be valued at many millions of pounds by art experts.

My mind has been on food this week after that MP said he could cook a meal for 30p in a swipe against poor people who use food banks. I wondered how cheaply I could do a meal and whether advice to people on how to prepare a meal could be useful. At the moment…

Today I will get a dividend from Taylor Wimpey and yesterday it was Standard Chartered. I won’t receive huge amounts of money but those small payments add to my discretionary income, that income I have left when I’ve paid for all the essentials like housing, energy, food and telecommunications. Discretionary income is that income that…

On Wednesday the tory MP Lee Anderson claimed he can cook a meal for 30p. He also claimed that people who used food banks couldn’t budget or cook. Obviously, you can cook a meal for 30p, but not every meal. The baked beans I used for this picture were Asda’s own brand and as I…

When I’m composing a photograph I try to give it some depth. That means I try to put something in the foreground or use leading lines going away from me to give the picture a sense of depth. In this picture, we have the shops, the subject of the image, in the middle ground and…

This week was the local elections and many candidates took to social media to try to influence us to vote for them. The turnout where I live was around 25% so perhaps there should have been an influence or nudge campaign to encourage people to actually vote. Anyway, there are millions of people on social…

The British government had to borrow from the Bank of England and spend to cope with the pandemic. The Bank of England had to print money like never before too. Much of that extra money was paying over-paid office staff to “work from home”. Now Rees-Mogg is trying to bully them back to the office.…

In 2020, the government said the over 70s should isolate or shield, as they later put it. I stocked up on food and decided to isolate myself at home. The government then changed its mind. By then I had a recuring delivery slot with the supermarket and was resigned to the ordeal ahead. Many other…

The Staffordshire Old Horse Coven had a meet up on Barr Beacon in Staffordshire yesterday to celebrate Beltane which is a celebration just halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice in June. It is associated with fire and is said to be the high point of spring when we first see signs of…