Eating Soup

I was with some friends down the pub the other day, having those conversations that only a few pints and a large slice of self righteousness can bring about. The topic wandered briefly on to trying to get a 'work life balance' but was soon changed as the answer 'fat chance' was proposed and no one could come up with a counter proposal. The perennial question "do you work to live or live to work" falls into the category of sentences that has become endowed with a level of wisdom far greater than it deserves. Other such sentences (and I can feel my blood pressure rising as I type) include the statement "yes, but rent is wasted money" (unlike of course mortgage interest) and "you should use a bus because it's cheaper" (not if you are talking about the incremental cost of that journey). I am sure I will come back to both of these personal bugbears (what is a "bugbear" by the way?) but in the meantime back to the point. The answer ...

One of the painful truths of the current downturn is that many of us, Squirrels included, have been living our lives based on expanding our spending to fit our income..or worse, exceed it. Early on in our career (-verb, to run at full speed, usually downhill) we have to compromise and buy say a small car, or rent a less than ideal flat. Later, if we are lucky, we get more money and we arrive at the wonderful position of having 'enough'..a reliable car, a nice house and can afford two weeks in the sun. This is where the problems start however. If the career is going well, pay rises have (traditionally) followed and usually with them arrive a whole heap more work, more stress and less 'life'. We compensate for this by using the extra money we earn to either buy new toys or shoes or upgrade the toys we already have, like a faster car or new house, new kitchen, new wardrobe, new hairstyle, new sofa and more new shoes (your list may vary!) . The law of diminishing returns is...