What positive moves have you made during the recession?

theTinker

Mods please feel free to move.

So for me the recession started 2 years ago when i lost my job and all that comes with it. Im lucky enough now to have just moved into general employment again so i'm thrilled.

While off work I was on the social...a very required but unpleasant experience.
I worked quite hard all the time thinking of ways in which i could turn things around for myself, Started 2 small businesses. One failed. One didnt.
I sold some domain names I registered and made a decent piece from them.
I've also become skilled at budgeting for the first time in my life.

I would like to ask the good people of boards,

Has the recession made you more money wise and more responsible?
Have you gained any entrepreneurial skills by necessity?
Have you become a master budgetor of your income and expenses?
Did you take the extra time from losing your job and start something you've always wanted like a small home business etc?

In short, What have you done to turn the recession into something positive for you?

Please keep the banter to a minimal, I'd really like to hear some good ideas etc.

starbelgrade

theTinker wrote: »

Please keep the banter to a minimal

Meh.

Helix

i left ireland and increased my income by just over 500%

Cill Dara Abu

theTinker wrote: »

Please keep the banter to a minimal

That doesn't even make sense

Frank Black

theTinker wrote: »

Has the recession made you more money wise and more responsible?

Yes.

But I enjoyed the whole 'spending like a drunken sailor' thing so much - so this is a negative for me.

starbelgrade

Cill Dara Abu wrote: »

That doesn't even make sense

When I was reading the opening post, I was thinking of a reply. Then I got to the bit where it turned into something a school teacher would say & thought, "fuck that - I only came here for the banter".

HalloweenJack

Out of Ireland.

Johro

I turned over in bed.

westendgirlie

Tut tut OP. You were on the dole and flogging website domains at the same time

Cupcake_Crisis

I went back to college

Johro

starbelgrade wrote: »

When I was reading the opening post, I was thinking of a reply. Then I got to the bit where it turned into something a school teacher would say & thought, "fuck that - I only came here for the banter".

'Please keep the banter to a minimal'
Yeah.

staker

Nowadays I fap live to Rachel Riley.

Johro

theTinker wrote: »

Mods please feel free to move.

So for me the recession started 2 years ago when i lost my job and all that comes with it. Im lucky enough now to have just moved into general employment again so i'm thrilled.

While off work I was on the social...a very required but unpleasant experience.
I worked quite hard all the time thinking of ways in which i could turn things around for myself, Started 2 small businesses. One failed. One didnt.
I sold some domain names I registered and made a decent piece from them.
I've also become skilled at budgeting for the first time in my life.

I would like to ask the good people of boards,

Has the recession made you more money wise and more responsible?
Have you gained any entrepreneurial skills by necessity?
Have you become a master budgetor of your income and expenses?
Did you take the extra time from losing your job and start something you've always wanted like a small home business etc?

In short, What have you done to turn the recession into something positive for you?

Please keep the banter to a minimal, I'd really like to hear some good ideas etc.

Does 'master burglar' count as positive?

TheZohanS

banter

Tony10

I've given up smoking ( saving money & health ) and gone back to college to up skill. I was away for 2 years on a working holiday visa in OZ and when i got back there were no jobs for me here,reasons being i hadn't been working in ireland for the previous 2 years and also the work i was doing in OZ was not in the same field as my old employment (office work), so employers weren't too keen to hire someone who didn't have 10+yrs experience or a masters or two as well. Now i'm studying something I love (digital media) and yes, i'm pretty much a broke student again (at 33!!!), but at least the future looks brighter for me now, and hopefully, my next job will be enjoyed ten times more than any i've had before.

Johro

staker wrote: »

Nowadays I fap live to Rachel Riley.

As a career or just for kicks?

LeeHoffmann

Has the recession made you more money wise and more responsible?
Have you gained any entrepreneurial skills by necessity?
Have you become a master budgetor of your income and expenses?
Did you take the extra time from losing your job and start something you've always wanted like a small home business etc?

No. I was good at these things already.

In short, What have you done to turn the recession into something positive for you?

nothing

Have I made any positive moves? Not really. Hoping to eventually get out of here and go travelling next year. Hopefully things will be better when I get back

Fair play to you OP for keeping your spirits up and managing all that

staker

Johro wrote: »

As a career or just for kicks?

Normal folk only kick after pissing;)

theTinker

Cupcake_Crisis wrote: »

I went back to college

Tony10 wrote: »

I've given up smoking ( saving money & health ) and gone back to college to up skill. I was away for 2 years on a working holiday visa in OZ and when i got back there were no jobs for me here,reasons being i hadn't been working in ireland for the previous 2 years and also the work i was doing in OZ was not in the same field as my old employment (office work), so employers weren't too keen to hire someone who didn't have 10+yrs experience or a masters or two as well. Now i'm studying something I love (digital media) and yes, i'm pretty much a broke student again (at 33!!!), but at least the future looks brighter for me now, and hopefully, my next job will be enjoyed ten times more than any i've had before.

I think reskilling during this time is a great idea. Especially since career advancement in established places is at a nil these days. I considered doing this myself. but with a mortgage, i just couldnt manage it.

LeeHoffmann wrote: »

No. I was good at these things already.

nothing

Have I made any positive moves? Not really. Hoping to eventually get out of here and go travelling next year. Hopefully things will be better when I get back

Fair play to you OP for keeping your spirits up and managing all that

I was terrible when it came to money. Im a 26 year old celtic tiger child. Didnt know the value of a cent until i ran out of money for food last year and had to ask for a schoolfriends lunch money for my groceries!
Now, I dont spend a penny unless i record it in my budget, and 2euro world halogen lights and 5bars for 2euro make alot more sense than a €1.10cadburys.
In weeks now were my savings are less than my expenses. I treat it as a failure and find another Red Column on the page to reduce.

Thanks. Good luck with ur travels and return!

El Weirdo

King 4 to Knight 6.

EGAR

No changes for me I plod on as I have before and during boom. I never bought anything I couldn't pay for straight away and that has not changed.

tvercetti

I now eat my chips with mayonnaise as opposed to ketchup.

leggo

Yeah, recession was the best thing to ever happen to me actually. No lies.

Beforehand, was in a job that I didn't particularly like but...given that it paid well and I was good at it, had started to think about moving up the career ladder and settle down for a 'boring' life (in my eyes). In the background, I'd been flirting with the idea of starting a radio show and putting myself out there for DJ gigs for months but had done nothing major to progress either. During the dayjob, I'd dream about quitting, going back to a part-time job that I'd done before and living slightly broke for the long-term greater good.

Well, recession kicked in and early into it the company began to throw out anything that wasn't bolted down. Myself included. My hand was forced.

Was a pain in the hole at times, broke as fook others, but I made it work working extremely casually and on the casual JB when I couldn't get anything. The lows were massively low (e.g. getting caught in the door-to-door scam business/getting cut off the welfare without warning 2 weeks before Christmas) but the highs were incredible too.

Got started in radio and used the extra time to learn the **** outta that. Got to a stage where I was gigging 2-3 times a week and really coming along in DJ-ing. After previously giving up on one 'extra-cirricular' part of my life that I'd sacrificed a lot else for, I'd finally found my passion. I also finally got the wheels moving on leaving for the States, which had always been on the agenda but handy circumstances at home put it off.

Now I'm back working full-time in a nice job that allows me the flexibility to still continue with my passions and give me time - and savings - to ensure that when I do leave, I can set myself up properly and it's not a panic move. 2010 was the best year - financially and otherwise - of my life and 2011 has given me the platform to build something bigger out of that.

All thanks to the recession. If I hadn't lost my job, though, I'd probably be an area manager at this stage, over-worked and under-appreciated, with a mortgage I couldn't afford and hating every single second of it.

It doesn't have to be the end...it can be a wake up call and a fresh start if people choose to look at it that way...

Dangerous Man

theTinker wrote: »

Mods please feel free to move.

So for me the recession started 2 years ago when i lost my job and all that comes with it. Im lucky enough now to have just moved into general employment again so i'm thrilled.

While off work I was on the social...a very required but unpleasant experience.
I worked quite hard all the time thinking of ways in which i could turn things around for myself, Started 2 small businesses. One failed. One didnt.
I sold some domain names I registered and made a decent piece from them.
I've also become skilled at budgeting for the first time in my life.

I would like to ask the good people of boards,

Has the recession made you more money wise and more responsible?
Have you gained any entrepreneurial skills by necessity?
Have you become a master budgetor of your income and expenses?
Did you take the extra time from losing your job and start something you've always wanted like a small home business etc?

In short, What have you done to turn the recession into something positive for you?

Please keep the banter to a minimal, I'd really like to hear some good ideas etc.

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