Waterford Loyal......or Yes to Ulster!

paddy1mac

Ok..... as we all know we are in the grips of a major recession. We are all affected one way or the other. jobs are been lost on a daily basis and making ends meet here is getting more and more difficult.

Our governments response to this was to hit us all even harder with the tax levy, the Vat increase, the VHI increases, and the child allowance reductions to name a few.

It's means what little we had left in our pockets is going to be even less when these kick in.

In Britain and Northern Ireland the government is going about things differently to what we are doing - they are cutting VAT and income taxes etc. Basically they are encouraging people to spend and in doing so inject some much neeeded cash into the economy.

Now, as we know the Euro has never been stronger against the pound and with the VAT reduction, going to the North will obviously be very attractive to us hard pressed southern shoppers.

The deal with me is that I have recently been put on a 3 day week and to be honest things are very tight at the moment.

Therefore I am seriously considering a trip North to avail of these savings.

But this is where I am caught - do I head off and take my money out of the local economy or do I remain loyal to Waterford where things are bad enough and spend it here.

I'd like to hear what other people think because this is the 1st time I have ever considered this.

But like i said I have a lot less to spend this year and cant see things improving anytime soon so obviously whatever value for money I can get is now more important than ever.

But i am also conscious of the fact that if I and many others head off it will seriously dent our local economy and jobs as if they are not bad enough.

mike65

Its a long way to Norn Iron even for a "big shop", you'll need to be buying high value-big savings items and you can do that cheaper over the net.

Mike

Woodgate

Being loyal would be great in an ideal world, but in reality we are paying over the odds for the vast majority of things in waterford, but ireland in general. Supporting the local economy is great but when you are being screwed on prices it's not right. Retailers are in bu siness to make money but in Ireland its to screw every last cent out of you, proven when even the UK retailers that enter the market charge higher prices then the UK for the same products. You cannot feel guilty buying an item for the best price when the retailers here have every opportunity to sell at more competitive prices. Obviously shopping locally is great for back up and problems, etc... but how much is it worth.