Inflation to rise by 5%

 Dear Merv!

I can tell by the look on your face (both sides of it!!!) that you are a worried man. The economy continues to shrink, the national debt increases, jobs are disappearing and prices of commodities just keep increasing. According the BBC, the rising costs of hotels, restaurants, furniture, transport, fuel and alcohol  are adding to the rate of inflation. Which is why, and sorry to rub your nose in it as I can see you're in the sticky stuff and you're up to your armpits, I have not felt the increase in VAT or general price increases.     

I'm just making matters worse for you all round. I don't feel your pain because I've given up shopping. I ration water and energy, I walk or cycle and only use the car when I can't possibly get there by any other means. I use old knickers as dusters and I'm sitting here in three layers so I don't have to put the heating on. I go without anything I can't get from Freecycle and I can spread 'Flora' thinner than anyone else who has ever tried to get into the Guiness book of records.


I'm just not helping am I Merv? You and the rest of the bean counters in the Bank of England and your mates in the treasury, will just have to hold your nerve. But then, sorry to point this out, but you are in your older years and we've been here before...............many times. We had mortgage rates of 15% and could only get a mortgage at three times our income with a reference from our employers, six months bank statements and pay slips and a 25% deposit. Credit card limits were equivilant of three months wages. People forget how tough it was to get a job and some where to live at the end of the 70's and beginning of the 80's.

Well, we're back here again and like you, I will see this pattern repeat itself. Well you and the rest of the city boys can continue this all you like, but I, and the rest of the frugal army will not be fighting on the side of consumerism and 'growth' ever again. We will do little to contribute the debt, we will do nothing to add to the up turn or down turn, in fact we will sustain from as much economic activity as possible. In future, there will be more and more of us who will say no to credit, no to shopping, no to new gadgets and yes to bird watching, yes to star gazing, yes to quilting and yes to rambling. I'm sorry I can't help you with the economy but I'm abstaining from involvement. From now on, if I'm fed, if I'm wearing a clean pair of knickers and the roof over my head doesn't leak; then I'm done.

Yours truly,

Froogsxxx