INTEREST RATE CUT

In case you haven’t already heard the Bank of England has dropped its base rate 0.5% points to 1%. Since the inception of the BoE this is their lowest rate ever. There are concerns throughout the financial sector that this is going to bring on more banking woes.

With interest rates so low people will not be keen on putting their savings into bank accounts, anyone with cash will be looking to invest this for a more lucrative return. And so begins another downwards spiral… with the general populous not investing their savings into banks, they (the banks) are concerned that there will be minimal funds for mortgages, with no-one able to get a mortgage, no properties will be sold etc, etc, etc. The BoE meanwhile believes that these rate cuts will help to kick start the property market however with most lenders asking for 25% deposit buying a house is still out of the reach of most people.

In some respects A & I are actually quite lucky as we bought our house last year just as everything started crashing.. okay that was not the lucky part, BUT imagine if we had had all our life savings in one of the banks that folded? We would have had nothing or still had something but been earning no interest. Anyway I love our home so it makes no difference whether it was sensible or not.

Since the recent cold snap we have been keeping our heating on at a very low but constant temperature and have noticed that our front door .. which is incredibly temperamental, has become easier to open.

You see, the minute it started raining the door swelled, it swelled so much that I could hardly get out the house. This was fine as Americo could wrestle the door into submission. Unfortunately one morning he decided to actually get up when his alarm went off and left before me. (Mornings are really not when I am at my most inspirational. In fact as a general rule I do not encourage people to talk to me until at least 10am, preferably not before 12pm and most DEFINITELY not before I have had my morning coca cola!) So down I trundle in my 5” heels, and pull open the door… only I pulled and the door did not open.

I discussed, with the door, the various merits of letting me out, namely to earn a living in order to keep on affording the mortgage…. Nothing. By this time I was running late, my hands were sore and I was losing humour – fast, plus I had to call my ‘lord and master’ to explain that due to technical difficulties I could not get out the house and would be late for work. Unsurprisingly he was sarcastic and completely unsympathetic to my cause! I tried shouting over the wall for my neighbour to HELP but my cries went unanswered, eventually I managed to coax some stranger walking outside to come and push the door from their side whilst I pulled. At last – FREEDOM!!

The Door and I have now come to an agreement…. Leave Americo to do all the opening, just as my mother told me!!