# 21 (2013) Zimbabwe Has Just £138 Left In The Bank

Zimbabwe's finance minister announced last week that the country has just £138.34 left in the state bank accounts. This devastating situation has been the result of years of financial rape and catastrophic, bloody minded decision making by the country's president Robert Mugabe, who in turn points the finger at others and blames them for the current situation.

The realisation that I have more money in the bank than an entire country is shocking but doesn't make me sit back and breathe a sigh of relief.

This year I am taking a tougher approach to spending less. I knew I wasn't sticking to the strict budget I had set myself because if I had, I wouldn't be living a life. I haven't gone mad yet so I must be spending too much. But I needed to know exactly where it was going. So at the beginning of January I started keeping an accurate list of where every penny goes.

This month I have spent £770 of which about £80 is what I class as socialising. It takes the form of  lunches out using 2-4-1 offers and other deals of which there are plenty about. The rest of it is house hold bills, presents for family, supermarket shopping. Because of the lunches out, my supermarket shop was only £32 this month so effectively I've spent about £28 a week on food which isn't bad although it's far more than when I was at Uni.

I drew a piechart for you but it wouldn't load on the page. The fact that I even made a pie chart makes me realise I really need to get out more,

But how does that fit into my budget?

# 20 (2013) Student Applications are Up Up Up

Several days ago The Lincolnite announced that the University of Lincoln had seen a 25% rise in applications for September 2013 - 15,000 applications - the highest in its history. Am I surprised? No.

The reality of student loans is that many students will never have to pay them back under the current system. They're not seen as 'bad loans' because let's face it, everyone of a certain generation has one. And what's the alternative to going to university right now?

I was unimpressed with the student protests last year. I was a student then and even now I owe about £20,000. Am I bothered? Nope. I'm not paying it back because the reality is that me reaching the £15,000 earning bracket I need to start paying it back isn't likely in the foreseeable future. If it is, I'll just be happy to be earning that kind of money again.

Any one of you about to start Uni this year may be racking up loans of £30,000 or £40,000 by the time you leave but until you hit £21,000 in earnings you won't be paying it back. And I hate to put a downer on it but how many of you are going to enjoy that kind of earning potential with the way things are? And if you do, then you damn well do need to pay it back because you're doing better than the rest of us. 

At least the courses getting the highest percentage of applications are useful ones - engineering, computing and nursing. This country needs industry, skills that will kick start the economy.

Everyone seems to want a classless society, for education to be a right not a privilege. But it does not work like that because society and people are built on class and the pecking order. That will never change. It's things like that which cause break downs in society. We are all good at something, but some are better than others.

Getting a student loan is not one of these divisions. Loans and maintenance grants are there for all and they will get you through university if you use them properly.

Or not as it so predictably turns out (source)

# 19 (2013) Hit Rates

Is it all about the hits or it is the content of your blog that makes it successful?

I finally reached my 6000 hits milestone this last week. I've been running this site for over a year now and I have friends who have been running blogs for far less time and have more hits than me. But is it the hits that count, the content or the quality of the content?

If you're looking for a blog to read do you look at their hit counter first or study the subject matter or do you search by tag words? I tend to struggle with blogs that are poorly spelt so even if the content is interesting I will probably be distracted enough by the way it is written to go elsewhere.

Whilst I am guilty of posting up 'Wooooo look how many hits I've got' style updates, it's more about generating interest in keenly felt subjects or just venting because if I don't I may well explode.  My particular subjects of interest are body image, economy, business and finance and general day to day well being.

Clearly people are reading my blog but I don't worry about how many or who because I know that what I post isn't for everyone but for the people that do read it, it is useful or amuses. Many of my posts are personal to me or local in nature and won't necessarily relate to many of my readers but I do try to touch on subjects that I think will have readership appeal. 

And of course I do check my statistics to see where the trends lie generally or in regards to individual posts. Even so, I have no idea if I have a readership following or if I am randomly collecting readers on a post by post basis. Google tells me I have only three followers but I know more are regularly dropping by.

Some of my fellow bloggers post on subjects that will naturally generate higher hit rates. Fashion, ethical subjects, feminism, naturism and sex are cases in point and I know that if I tag posts that relate to these subjects that the hit rates on these entries will receive more attention. To prove the point I will be tagging the aforementioned words in this one and comparing the results over the next few weeks.

As well as regular readers there are drifters, people who pass through using search words to find individual subjects that interest them. Feminism, sex and business being cases in point.

More than anything, this is where I post what is going on in my life. I know that people have huge concerns about privacy and not letting the world know all about 'you'. I'm not about to post up my address or other intensely personal information but I find this place incredibly useful to me.

I also try to take care that I am not overly posting on subjects that directly link to those around me in real life. Well, not usually anyway. But if something really needs saying, I will say it.

I have many pent up emotions and frustrations and find that they are often best communicated in type face. I never kept a diary, I couldn't see the point in writing only for myself. Once I've written about something I don't necessarily want to be reminded about it. But I love to write. It has always been one of my passions and it's one of the things I have kept up with throughout my life.

Besides which I can reach a lot more people and that can only be a good thing, right?

(source)