20 great things about the recession

Harvey Jones gives the lowdown on why the recession rules...

A friend said a funny thing to me the other day: 'Recession? What's not to like?' I quickly named several things, pointing out that her husband had lost his job (he later found another one). But undeterred, she reeled off a list of things that the recession has changed for the better.

And when I thought about it, I saw she had a point. I'm not saying the recession is good news, but it isn't all bad either.

The boom couldn't go on forever

Gordon Brown thought he could put an end to boom and bust, but he was wrong. Sadly, we needed the bust to put an end to the excesses of the boom: rampant debt, 125% mortgages, sky-high property prices, reckless consumerism, and the bizarre notion that the nation could live on credit forever.

It can't, and the longer the boom went on, the bigger the bust was going to be. Recessions are rubbish, but they also have a point.

Mortgages are getting smaller

Who says big is beautiful? It certainly isn't when it comes to mortgages. Homeowners repaid a record amount of their mortgages in the first three months of 2009, some £8.1 billion. They have cleared £23 billion in the last 12 months. In the previous seven years, homeowners borrowed more than £300 billion against the rising value of their homes. You tell me which is healthier.

Savings accounts are getting bigger

Yes, I know, the interest you earn on your savings is rubbish, but that won't last forever. There are plenty of reasons why it's still worth saving, and the good news is that more of us are doing it than we have done for a long, long time.

Old is the new new

Knitting is cool (I kid you not). Making your own clothes is both a fashion and a finance statement. Some crazies (like me) have even tried growing their own vegetables. Frugal is fun. Many have discovered the joys of simpler, creative pleasures, beyond shopping and spending.

Politics is back

A booming economy and regular Tony Blair landslides took the bite out of politics. The next election gives us a stark choice between Labour cuts or, um, Tory cuts. Who do you trust most to slash state spending to the bone?

Jam sandwiches are in

Who needs organic tuna lips, hand-raised olives and pan-seared basil shavings on rye bread when you can lunch on a 75p jam sarnie instead, courtesy of Marks & Spencer.

House prices are affordable

Or rather, less unaffordable. First-time buyers are edging back into the market, with a helping hand from their folks. In some of the cheapest parts of the country, you can now buy a place for less than £40,000 (although I wouldn't recommend you do).

Stamp duty costs less

If you're buying a house, you should now save on stamp duty. If you splashed out £280,000 on a property before the crash, stamp duty at 3% would cost you £8,400.

Assuming that same property is worth 20% less at £224,000, stamp duty at 1% would cost you just £2,240. So that's a saving of £6,160. Not to mention the fact that the property was £56,000 cheaper.

Better still, the average home now costs £156,442, according to Nationwide, safely below the £175,000 stamp duty threshold - which means many buyers now pay nothing at all (until the end of the year).

Debt is out

It has finally happened. The never-never has actually arrived, and people are now battling to Get out of debt. Here's 125 ways to make sure it doesn't happen to you.

Dinner parties are bearable again

'Ohmigod, my neighbour has just sold their house, for £500,000! They only bought it two years ago, for £275,000. That's £225,000 of clean profit. OK, there's stamp duty and removals, but even so. I mean, that's five or six years' of my salary! Tax-free! We've just had ours valued, and you'll never guess what! £525,000. Incredible! And we only paid....' Oh do shut up.

The death of the celebrity property speculator

A shocked nation went into mourning when it heard that 'celeb' turned property guru Grant Bovey had filed for bankruptcy. But we soon got over it.

You can holiday for a quid

Staying in a nice hotel used to be expensive. But low occupancy rates have left hotel scrambling for your business. Alison Hunt has discovered some Bargain hotel breaks from £1. Szu Ping Chan has even worked out how to Make money from your holiday.

Haggling

The boom years made us soft. Most of us didn't haggle, we just paid the asking price. Not anymore. Is your mobile phone contract coming up for renewal? Haggle. Buying a new car? Haggle. Looking for a cheap summer break? Haggle. I know it isn't very British, but at least you should give it a go.

Career rethink

Redundancy is probably one of the worst things that can happen to you in a recession, but two of my friends who lost their jobs have since a more rewarding line of work.

Credit is no longer cool

The Yanks had a snappy phrase for it: 'maxing out' your credit card. And millions thought it sounded so much fun, they did exactly that. We even boasted about it. 'It was a great trip, I totally maxed out my credit card!'

Now we have learned this isn't such a good idea after all.

Shopping

During the boom, it became the fashion for intelligent women to venerate footwear and handbags, turning two practical items with a minor decorative function into objects of idolatry, lavishing hundreds of pounds on them every month and talking about Jimmy Choo as if he was Buddha. No longer.

Payment in kind is back

People are discovering that there is more to life than money. If you haven't got any cash, and can't find credit, then trade what you do have. Website Swapaskill.com allows you to swap skills - whether it's computers, cooking, languages, massage, photography... the list goes on.

Free is funky

Everybody likes a freebie, and never more so than when we can't afford to pay for anything. You can send off for free samples from websites such as Freebielist.com or Bobsfreestuffforum.co.uk.

Make do and mend

Instead of buying cheap street fashion from Primark, wearing it twice, then throwing it away, we now buy cheap street fashion from Primark, wear it three times and throw it away. That's progress, of sorts.

Property TV turn-off

My girlfriend now switches off Grand Designs, 60 Minute Makeover, Location, Location, Location, Property Ladder, Homes Under the Hammer and - praise be! - US schluck-fest Extreme Makeover, thus saving our relationship.

So perhaps the recession does have its benefits after all...

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