The Money Well » life

Jargon For It Costs More At Ryanair

Sid — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:21:53 +0000

There is a classic piece of dubious language on the Ryanair site today. In an effort to ‘incentivise’ customers to travel light they are increasing baggage charges through the summer months.

Now I may be old fashioned but what they are actually doing is to penalise customers who want to take hold baggage? If they were incentivising they would be reducing the cost for those who travel light, wouldn’t they?

It should come as no surprise. Ryanair seems to care only about making money and if they could ship people in cattle trucks I expect they would be glad to reduce the price. There are, apparently, serious plans to charge customers to use toilets on short haul flights. I suspect that will be a financial mistake because who in their right mind will be paying rather steep prices for a cup of coffee or tea on the flight when it costs you a pound to get rid of it?

Apparently they plan to reduce the number of toilets and add a few more seats in their place. This may be the real reason for the proposed change but it makes traveling even more unpleasant if you need to worry about frequent use of the loo. Some people might find they end up spending more money on the loo than the flight cost them, if we ignore booking fees, baggage fees, checkin fees and a million other additional charges.

Time may prove me wrong but I suspect we have seen the peak of air travel as a pleasureable experience. I also suspect that we may see passenger numbers continue to decline even after the recession thanks to the feelings of disrespect air travelers now experience from airlines who are only interested in the bottom line on their accounts.

This is probably the most obvious example of a trend in recent years where companies are so concerned about reducing costs and making efficiencies and profits that they seem to have lost something from the customer experience. Yes, you can travel cheaper now than 20 years ago but is it a price worth paying? So many companies now seem to treat their customers as gold to be mined in the most efficient way possible with little thought apparently given to whether customers truly enjoy dealing with the company.

Companies like Ryanair will no doubt argue that customers continue to use their services because they are so cheap but is this really progress? Surely there is a middle ground where costs are managed but customers can still have a stress free experience, and are not left with the feeling they are being fleeced at every opportunity.

If the journey becomes a battle of wits between the company trying to find additional ways to charge you money and the customer trying to avoid the feeling of having been ripped off who really wins in the end? Probably nobody.

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Coming Soon

Sid — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:05:45 +0000

This looks like a bit of fun to relieve the stress of worrying about money.

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Understanding The Maths Of Shopping

Sid — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:35:13 +0000

To those of us brought up learning multiplication tables and mental arithmetic working out the cost of items we buy is doable though it does get harder with age ) For those people brought up relying on a calculator to do any arithmetic or those who never quite grasped the basics of maths it must be much harder.

I am frequently suprised to discover that buying the special offer may not be the best value for money. For example. One item is on special offer at a reduced price or it is on a ‘buy two get one half price’ yet, if you work out the prices it may be cheaper to buy a larger size which is the same size but cheaper than the two specials.

It does take a little mental arithmetic and I do find if I am in a hurry it does add to the challenge but if maths and mental arithmetic don’t come easily to you it could be too hard to even attempt to work it out.

There is a government run website that is providing advice on free maths courses and even a free DVD to offer help and instruction to improve maths skills for anyone who feels they could benefit.

If you, or anyone you know, struggles with basic maths I suggest you direct them to visit http://geton.direct.gov.uk/get-ahead.html and check out what is on offer.

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You Have Just 86,400 seconds today

Sid — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:57:48 +0000

We sometimes talk about money as though there is nothing else that matters but there are far more important things than money. There is noÂ limit on the amount of money in the world. Banks conjure up more all the time and we have seen the downside to that in recent months but theyÂ can produce more as and when they want to.
Some things are more real and more limited. There is only so much oil in the world and one day there will be no more gold to dig out of theÂ ground but for now there is enough to go around.
There is one very valuable resource with a very limited availablity – Time. Time may go on for ever but your time is limited. You have just 86,400 secondsÂ every day and nobody knows how many days you or IÂ have. Your time is the most valuable commodity avaialable in the world today. Certainly the most valuable commodity in the worldÂ as we know it. So, are you making the best use of it? Are you investing your time wisely?

The richest billionaire has just 86,400 seconds every day as has the poorest man on the planet. We are all equal when it comes to time butÂ some make more efficient use of it than others. You can spend some time today which may save you wasting time tomorrow or you can buy the time of somebody else.

Most of us work to earn the money we need to live. We need the money so we spend our limited time travelling to work, working for hours and thenÂ travelling home again. We spend time shopping for food and other goods and spend time planning for the future but are we making the best useÂ of our time?
Only you can know the answer to that question. If you think that working eight hours a day so you can buy new tv to watch reality shows on it is worthwhile then so be it. Only you can be the judge of that. Take some time, a few more of those precious seconds, and think about it.

There is a famous saying that, ‘Nobody lays on their deathbed wishing they had spent more time in the office.’ Will anybody wish they hadÂ watched more reality tv shows or spent more time shopping?

We all have different interests in life. We all see things differently and our priorities in life are different but the one thing weÂ share is a limited amount of time each day. However much money you have, no matter how many toys and gadgets you possess you have the sameÂ 86,400 seconds every day. Are you making good use of every one of them? You will never get a single one of those seconds back and once theyÂ are gone, they are really gone.
Make every second of your life a second that was worthwhile and invest your time in what really matters to you.

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How Much Do You Give?

Sid — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 18:42:20 +0000

Helping others is a clear demonstration of what makes humans, human. Supporting the less well off and helping others to improve their lives are fine ambitions and worthy things to invest you time and your energy towards. Most of us contibute to good causes in some way or another but few can match.Â Hal Taussig i 83 years old and has been giving it all away all his life and his dedication and enthusiasm for supporting those less well off than himself is remarkable.

He owns a company but gives all of his salary to another cause. He lives frugaly and doesn’t believe in wasting money on unimportant things.Â He is an example to us all. Perhaps a little too extreme for most but he shows what is possible. You can read more about him here… About Hal Taussig

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