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With the news full of the phrases 鈥渃redit crunch鈥�, 鈥渇inancial crisis鈥� and 鈥渞ecession鈥� 鈥� it seems that the global economy is on the verge of complete collapse. But over the past few weeks, we have found stories that either confirm the general trend or buck it.

For example, we spoke to Peter Ballantyne from the Milton Keynes Pensioners Association to find out how the credit crunch is affecting people in this area and it seems that, with food and fuel prices rising, it鈥檚 really affecting those who are on a tight budget or who only have a state pension to live on.

Struggling

"More and more people are coming to us and saying how much they're suffering at the moment" said Peter.

"Some of the stories we hear are really very harrowing indeed.听 Single women seem to be hit the hardest; they're often on the lowest of pensions 鈥� somewhere around 拢50 per week and they are really struggling, especially if they have no other form of income coming in.

"But now, even those lucky enough to be on very good pensions are now beginning to find it difficult to manage and some of our members tell us that they've stopped using the car as much and are having to cut back on all sorts of things.

"Some pensioners really are having to make the choice between heating their homes and eating.鈥�

On the other side of the coin, it seems that whether you are feeling the effects of the credit crunch or not, very much depends on the sector that you work in.
You鈥檇 be inclined to think that the travel and entertainment industries might suffer because these might be the kind of luxuries that are the first to go if you are watching your pennies.

Forget troubles

But a St Albans-based company seems to be doing OK.

Theatre Breaks organise short breaks combined with theatre tickets in London, Stratford-upon-Avon and Paris and Managing Director Simon Harding told us that actually things were going rather well and why he thought this was.

听鈥淭ravel in general is not at the top of everybody鈥檚 list to go out and buy on a day to day basis鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut if you鈥檝e had six dodgy old months and you鈥檝e maybe not been able to afford the holiday that you wanted, or maybe you鈥檝e not had time to go because you鈥檙e working too hard, then actually getting out for a quick theatre break up to London, and forgetting about your troubles for a while is exactly what people do in these times.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not a big cost and it鈥檚 something you can do at the drop of a hat - and people like to forget about their woes for a while and stop hearing about banks and their problems.
鈥淲e鈥檙e doing very well. This year, since May, we鈥檙e 11-12 per cent up on this time last year.鈥�

Of course, while companies like Theatre Breaks know their own figures a lot of what is said is also based on what they feel and this too is important. It鈥檚 people鈥檚 attitudes that can lead to recession because if they think that they shouldn鈥檛 be spending money, they don鈥檛, and if money doesn鈥檛 go into the economy, this only makes things worse.

So with this in mind, we want to hear your stories, both good AND bad, of how the current financial situation is affecting you, so that we can begin to see if things really are bad for everyone, or whether some are having a good time and some aren鈥檛 鈥� just like normal life!