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lobanri · 4 years ago

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i wrote a -shitty, tbh, but it wouldn’t stop haunting my shower time- richie tozier’s stand up post-canon thing, on a everyone lives au. i lost the thread a bit near the end, so i’m putting it up here and maybe i’ll post it on ao3 at some point. enjoy.

So I’m guessing- and I’m probably right, which is decidedly not how my guesses tend to go- that a lot of you came here to see if I could offer a better explanation than the tabloids about what happened last show, because (voice changes to a higher pitched, mocking voice): ‘Richie, what the genuine fuck was that’, (voice switches back.) right?

Well gee! Am I ever here to answer. And also maybe to give a stand-up performance whose entire script I threw out in favour of, like, maybe four jokes I scraped together with what’s left of my brain.

But! Explanation first.

Okay. (short pause.) So. Imagine you’re me, the fantastic -that’s a joke in itself, right there- Richie ‘Trashmouth’ Tozier. You’re about to go out and perform in front of, okay, maybe not that many people, but still a good number, and you’re like, only a bit nervous. And then.

You get a phone call.

It’s an unknown number. It says so, right there on the screen of your phone that’s all smudged and disgusting and maybe a little bit cracked ‘cause you keep dropping it doing dumb shit.

(again, his voice changes to a higher pitched, mocking voice)

“Oh Richie, was it someone you knew?” (voice switches back.) Of course not, dumbass, that’s why I said unknown. Duh.

But on with the tale.

Now, am I the type of person that answers unknown numbers? Normally, no. If your phone got stolen and you’ve ever called me from a burrowed phone about it, now you know why nobody picked up. But remember, I was about to go out into the level of hell that is an audience- not that I don't love it, I do, but being stared, and occasionally laughed at for around an hour is not what most people find a relaxing afternoon experience.

So I picked up. Thought it’d maybe be a wrong number that would leave the other person feeling very awkward and me only slightly less so. Maybe I’d get an idea for a joke, who knows.

Suffice to say, given the whole clusterfuck that was my last show, it wasn’t a wrong number.

I pick up. I go, “Hello, who is this?”, because that’s what you say when you answer a call.

The other dude goes “Hi Richie, it’s Mike.”

In my head, I go ‘oh’. So first, apparently this is not a wrong number! Second, Mike? I don’t know any Mikes, who’s Mike?

Third, I go “Oh, shit.”

Now, have you ever noticed that a lot of comedians talk about their childhoods a lot? I’ve realized that they do this for one of three reasons; either their parents are funny, they had very fun childhoods, or they had a lot of therapy. I don’t talk about my childhood because none of those applied to me, and also because I repressed like a full 90% of it from trauma. I now have a therapist, which means I can tell you people some of it. Also because most of it came back from repression-land right there and then, because turns out I do in fact know a Mike!

Mike my childhood friend! From my childhood gang!

...The same childhood I happily repressed for twenty seven years, in fact.

Mostly from trauma.

Now you might realize that it’s literally two minutes until I have to go out in front of all you lovely judging strangers who have expectations of me already!

I certainly did. So did my agent- lovely man, genuinely hates me so much- who nevertheless had to send me out like some poor lost lamb sent to be sacrificed at the altar. So I come out- not in that way, but keep tuned to that-

Oh wow that was loud. We’ll get to that, don’t you worry. Now that’s going to be fun. If you haven’t seen Twitter, have fun figuring this out.

But let’s try to keep this mess chronological -big word for me, I know, I stole it off some other guy.

I come out, and then I can’t remember my joke, and I can’t remember my name, and I don’t remember where I am, but turns out I can remember the time my friends and I found a corpse!

So anyway, I puke on stage.

Glamorous way to end a show, I know, but in my defense I was pretty busy.

I’d like to make a segue here- who here grew up in a small town?

Yeah? Okay, this entire bit is for y’all. The rest of you big city folk can just check your phones or whatever.

So I grew up in a small town in Maine, called Derry. Pretty quaint, didn’t have much, there was one arcade, one pharmacy owned by a pedophile, one old abandoned -extremely haunted- crack house, and like a couple tiny stores. My friends and I used to hang out at the quarry and at that same old house, which was cool at the time and gross in hindsight.

I’ll tell you what it’s most known for; it’s the child murder capitol of the entire United States.

Oh, that’s some silence there. Are you perhaps uncomfortable? Maybe wondering if you heard that right? I’ll repeat it louder then.

IT WAS THE CHILD. MURDER. CAPITOL.

OF THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES.

AND I GREW UP THERE. A CHILD.

Is it clearer now why I repressed that entire experience?

So. Derry. Terrible, terrible, racist, homophobic, sexist Derry. Would I have loved to never go back? Yeah, of course. Who would?

This idiot. And his entire gang of childhood friends. Because Mike called us and went ‘Hey, could you guys come back? It’s important.’ And we went, because Mikey literally never asks for shit, so clearly this was going to be terrible. If Mike was on fire, I’m pretty sure he’d take care of it and then never mention it again.

I’ve mentioned the others a couple of times before- of course, Mike, who’s a librarian in Derry- or was, but that’s later. But, there are seven of us in our little Loser’s Club! That is the actual name, by the way. Seven Losers.

Even if Stan made us think that was wrong, because while my reaction to remembering Derry was to puke, his was to fake his death. Yes. If you can believe it, he literally fucking faked his death to get out of that reunion.

I’ll move on a bit so I don’t spend the rest of the show dissing Stan the Man and his extreme as fuck reactions- would you believe that this man is an accountant? Like, what the fuck? Now whenever I see an accountant I wonder if they’re the type of person that would fake their death to get out of things and it’s fucking with my head every time I have to go to the bank.

Okay. Seven- six not counting me, we’ve talked about Mike, and I’ve already said why Stan wasn’t there- we’re left with the weirdest group you’ve seen; Ben Hanscom, or Handsome really, that man got so hot, who’s a famous architect, Beverly Marsh, Bevs, very famous fashion designer -hell yeah she is actually my friend, I know, it’s weird- William Denbrough, Big Bill himself, horror author with terrible endings, leader of out weird gang, and last but the very opposite of least Eddie Kapsbrak, risk analyzer, the most germaphobic person I’ve met, who also wore fanny packs while we were kids. The last part tells you very little about him but I feel like I have to mention it from time to time, because he’s hot and all now but in my head he always had a fanny pack and it freaks me out a bit to see him without one. I also made ‘your mom’ jokes at him all the time, mostly for attention but also because sometimes he’d snap back and just verbally gut me like a fish, and I? Loved that shit.

For those of you that look like you just came to a realization, yes. You’d be right. But we’re just gonna ignore it for now, because some of the others didn’t get it yet, and I’m not gonna hold your hand until you do, I feel like I’ve dropped enough hints already.

Where was I? Oh, yeah.

They’re all hot and I hate it. How come they get to grow up and get muscles and I get to grow up to look like a beanstalk with some fucking bug-eyes and a shitty party city wig? I used to call Eddie “Eddie Spaghetti”, but then turns out that the actual noddle here was me all along.

Well. I’ll get the reunion out of the way and move to the important part; what did Mike call us there for? The answer may not surprise you, given that we were in fact in Derry, but guess what? If you thought ‘child murder’ you win nothing at all, but you’d be right. There was in fact a serial killer! Who was, uh, also… a cannibal.

Terrible, right?

But you’d think ‘this sounds weird’, right? Some unknown dude is killing and eating people, yes, but what does that have to do with lil ol’ me?

Now’d be the time to point out that Bill’s little brother Georgie disappeared twenty seven years previous and turned out to have been literally murdered and possibly eaten along with like, some other six or seven people. And at the time, Big Bill made us all go along to go look for him. In the sewers. While we were also kids. Y’know, like those other kids that got killed.

Big Bill was charismatic, but that doesn’t mean he was the wisest guy, okay. And we were also dumb and young, so that was pretty much all it took.

Thing is that we, uh, …did actually end up finding a serial killer in the sewers. So.

Who was it? Henry Bowers. Our middle school bully. To those true crime fans that recognize the name, yeah, that Bowers.

It didn’t turn out to be that much of a surprise that our bully was the dude killing people, actually, because he was the most fucked-up kid I ever met. He broke Eds’s arm and tried to carve his name on Ben, which is genuinely fucking nuts, right? Like, what? The everliving fuck? I think he liked to kick puppies.

Now, this time around, you’d think it was some fucked up copycat or something? Nope. Dude escaped to try again, this time dressed as a clown.

You think I’m joking here? He literally dressed as a clown to kill people. I could not begin to tell you why.

He can’t tell you, either, because he’s currently, uh, sort of dead. As in, someone buried an axe in his spine and he died.

In my defense-

(louder)

he was trying to kill Mike and you’ve already heard that I’d go back into Derry for him, so.

If you’d wondered why I came back really late, yeah, that was part of it.

The other part is that before dying he managed to stab Eddie Spaghetti in the face and make us go into that one old ass, extremely haunted crack house- don’t ask, I don’t know either- in which an entire beam fell on him. I’m genuinely baffled at how this didn’t happen earlier, because this was literally our childhood hangout spot. But karma or fate or whatever caught up with us, so it did.

By the way, he’s okay now. We all thought he was gonna die first, of course, because how the hell else do you react when a dude’s been impaled right in front of you? He didn’t. But when we all thought he was gonna die in front of me, holding his hand -him included- he looked at me in the eye and, with all the strength his failing body could muster up, he said:

“I fucked your mom.”

So does it come as a surprise to anyone that we’re dating now?

#reddie #my snippets #my fics #richie tozier #richie tozier's stand up #i'm proud of this one #it was written almost entirely yesterday evening while i waited for the clothes to dry #think i'll post it on ao3 actually #i've read way too many of these not to want to contribute a bit

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brajeshupadhyay · 4 years ago

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Thousands of us have picked up a surprise savings habit in lockdown, a Money Mail survey reveals today. The coronavirus crisis has inflicted job losses and pay cuts – and still threatens to kill off many struggling businesses. But despite the doom and gloom, many Mail readers have found they are saving hundreds of pounds thanks to lockdown, and becoming more financially secure as a result. Spending cuts: Despite the doom and gloom, many readers have found themselves saving hundreds of pounds thanks to lockdown and becoming more financially secure as a result Large expenses such as holidays, commuting costs and entertainment have vanished following unprecedented social-distancing restrictions – giving households the chance to set aside money during an economically uncertain time. Exclusive research for Money Mail by Consumer Intelligence today suggests 16 per cent of people now feel financially better off. Almost half are spending less since social-distancing restrictions were introduced, with 38 per cent saving more. Nearly four in five families say they have more money to spend since lockdown, with a quarter having between £200 and £500 more in disposable income each month. The findings come as figures from the Bank of England yesterday showed the nation saved £16.2 billion in April. In the six months to February households saved an average of £5 billion every month. What is more, households cleared an astonishing £5 billion of credit-card debt, which was more than double the previous record of £2.4 billion paid off in March. In a standard month the nation would usually clear £300 million of credit-card debt. Becky O’Connor, personal finance specialist at insurer Royal London, says: ‘A financial divide has opened up during lockdown. ‘While some are really struggling on reduced incomes, there’s another group whose experience has been almost the exact opposite. ‘If you are in a position to do so, there might never be a better time to ‘build back better’ and save.’ Here, Money Mail meets some of the nation’s new ‘accidental savers’. At last, I’ve managed to build a little nest egg By HENRY DEEDES All my life I’ve been a spender rather than a saver. Whatever I’ve earned during my career, my bank account has always puffed and wheezed its way through to pay day. I’ve tried to be sensible. I’ve opened saving accounts, dabbled in Isas. I even bought Premium Bonds once. Much good it’s done me. You see, any disposable cash I’ve ever had has this annoying habit of winking at me through the computer glass, urging me to go out and enjoy it. Terrible, I know, but there’s something innately therapeutic about rewarding yourself after a busy week with a little something. A case of wine, something new to hang in the flat. Perhaps another ill-advised addition to the summer wardrobe from a tempting online emporium. Invariably, no sooner have I clicked the purchase button and the boiler will suddenly crank to halt and there’ll be nothing in the cookie jar to pay for a repair. I never learn. Lockdown has changed all that. Like a lot of people, I imagine, being trapped inside an apartment for the best part of three months has brought about a vast reduction in expenses. No need now for expensive Travelcards, pricey gym memberships or all those overpriced cups of coffee every day. And that’s before you’ve taken into account what I used to spend going out to see friends. Remember socialising? Drinks rounds, restaurant bills. I dread to think how much I used to splurge on late-night Uber journeys during normal times. But it was a lot. And so with all these weighty charges lifted from my balance sheet, I’ve started to experience a novelty. When I check my balance at the end of the month, there’s now actually something left in the kitty. In the past I’d have been tempted to do something extravagant. ‘Why not?’ would have been my attitude. But in these times of enforced isolation, that thinking has been replaced with what’s the point? Instead, I’ve been putting it in an online investment Isa with savings app Moneybox. I pay a set amount in each month, as well as any additional funds I might have left over. It also has a nifty feature which rounds up all my debit card transactions to the nearest pound and automatically squirrels away the extra cash. H ow satisfying it has been, how oddly empowering. Each time I check to see how my savings are accruing I now get that same whoosh of excitement I used to get when an Amazon parcel would plonk through my letterbox. It would be nice to think that when this is all over, when the High Street tills begin to ring again and when the beer pumps start flowing, I will be able to maintain this spirit of restraint. If nothing else, this pandemic has taught us how quickly life can go south. In bleak times it pays to be prudent. Doubtless this is the last thing Chancellor Rishi Sunak wants to hear. As we re-emerge from lockdown, he needs as many idiots like me as possible flashing their plastic around with reckless abandon to get our ravaged economy moving. But if this crisis does make some a little more financially responsible, surely that’s no bad thing in the long term. I have cleared my credit card Olivia McCulla, who works in PR, has saved by moving back in with her parents By moving back in with her parents, Olivia McCulla, who works in PR, has saved enough to pay off her £1,000 credit card debt. She still pays £775 a month in rent for her flat in North-West London but gets £100 back that would usually go on bills because she isn’t there. Her £120-a-month travel costs and £150-a-week work lunch habit have also disappeared while she works from her parents’ home near Leeds. She has also saved thousands after the two hen-dos and four weddings she was supposed to attend this summer were postponed. However, she now has eight weddings in the diary next year to budget for. Olivia, 29, who wants to buy a property in the next few years, has opened a new savings account. She says: ‘It feels more important than ever to have a rainy-day fund with things being so uncertain. ‘In London I was paying £9.50 for a gin and tonic and through the nose for a very small flat I dread going back to. ‘Lockdown has made me question if I even want to buy in London.’ Before the coronavirus crisis, Olivia was saving about £100 a month. Her father Bernard, 65, and his wife Susan, 66, have seen their household costs rise slightly since their daughter moved home but are also saving money each month. They previously spent £100 eating out each week, so their bank balance is boosted by £400 a month. And instead of paying a tradesman £2,000 to replace his patio with a flower garden, Bernard did it himself and slashed the cost in half. Before social-distancing regulations were relaxed, Bernard was also saving £180 a month on his golf and walking-football memberships. He says: ‘We are very fortunate. Lockdown has made me think we should live more for today and enjoy our pensions more.’ I feel guilty I’m better off Quids in: Ashleigh Meale is saving between £500 and £700 a month Ashleigh Meale says her ‘stripped-back life’ means she is now saving between £500 and £700 a month. This is despite her grocery bill doubling to £400 a month and signing up to a TV and film- streaming service costing £60 a year. Before lockdown, the 27-year-old recruitment consultant, who is currently working from home, was putting away between £250 and £500 but would spend hundreds of pounds a month socialising with friends at expensive bars and restaurants. Now, she and her boyfriend Rob, 38, cook their meals from scratch at home. Ashleigh, who lives in Sheffield, is also saving £70 a month by working from home and not having to pay to commute by bus. She has also been unable to spend money on holidays since the Government warned against non-essential travel. Ashleigh admits that, while she is not a natural saver, she has now realised how much she spends unnecessarily and hopes to remain mindful about what expenses she reintroduces when restrictions are finally lifted. She says: ‘Feeling better off financially during this time is a strange position to be in and it does make me feel guilty when so many people are struggling. But it has given me time to re-evaluate things, and I have no intention of blowing what I’ve saved. ‘I don’t need to be out all the time spending money on eating out and drinks when I could be just as happy with a barbecue in someone’s garden. What I have missed the most is my friends — not the expensive socialising.’ Pay cut but £400-a-month saving Sally Walsh is saving an extra £400 a month on top of £200 she was already setting aside in a help-to-buy Isa Sally Walsh was worried when she was told she would have to take a 10 per cent pay cut in March. But despite the shock announcement, the 24-year-old engineer has found her finances have improved during lockdown. She is now saving an extra £400 a month on top of £200 she was already setting aside in a help-to-buy Isa. Since working from home, Sally has saved around £200 a month by not having to commute to central London, and a further £200 by not eating or drinking out after work. The only bill to go up is her food cost now she cooks almost every meal at home. Sally, who has lived with her parents in Bromley, South-East London since graduating, is determined to continue saving even after lockdown lifts. She says: ‘My goal is to move out as soon as possible. I feel like I am closer to it now. ‘I don’t have to spend so much on going out. I hope I will soon be able to have people over and cook for them.’ Childcare cut by thousands Claire Jarrett and her partner Jon Howell are saving £50 a day in train fares alone Claire Jarrett and her partner Jon Howell have saved enough since lockdown to pay for renovations on their home. The couple need to fix the roof on their house in West Malling, Kent, and want to make the garden more child-friendly for their one-year-old daughter, Eleanor, to play. Claire, 31, had only been back at work for two days after returning from maternity leave before staff were told they had to work from home. With Jon, also 31, working from home too, they are saving £50 a day in train fares alone by not having to commute to the insurance firm where they both work in Bromley, South-East London. They are also saving around £5 a day on lunches at work, £80 a month on petrol and £200 a month by not eating out. But their biggest saving has been on childcare. It usually costs £800 a month to send Eleanor to nursery — but the couple have not had to pay since March. It has helped the couple to replenish their savings after Claire’s maternity leave and move their renovation plans a bit further forward. However Claire says their financial gain is likely to be short-lived. She says: ‘Lockdown has made us realise we do not need to go out as much but lots of the costs will be re-introduced when life goes back to normal, unfortunately.’ Not relying on investments Retired Gerry Short is making savings by not playing golf, employing a cleaner or taking weekend theatre trips Retired Gerry Short has seen such a drop in his spending that he has decided to stop withdrawing income from his investments for the next couple of years. Gerry, 61, a former college principal, has two pensions that pay £20,000 a year. He gets a further £16,000 a year from investments. After the pandemic hit the stock market, his investments plummeted. While they have recovered slightly, he wants to give them time to recover. His reduced outgoings mean he can do this as he is making savings on weekend theatre trips which can cost up to £100 a time. He was refunded £60 of his golf-club membership. He also stopped spending £20 on drinks three or four times a week after games. The father-of-one, who lives in Leicestershire, also no longer employs a cleaner, which cost £100 a month. He says: ‘I was aware I was spending a lot as a distraction after my wife died and knew it couldn’t continue. Lockdown has given me time to plan further in the future.’ Windfall from lost holiday Dannielle Phillips has had to put expensive holiday plans on halt Dannielle Phillips, 32, spends most of her spare cash on trips away. But since lockdown kicked in, expensive holiday plans have ground to a halt. She has already got an £870 refund for a trip to Mexico that was supposed to take place in April. And she has received a £500 voucher she can use to re-book her holiday to Portugal in June for next year. Dannielle, a senior marketing consultant, had always put £250 a month into Premium Bonds, but has since increased this to £750 a month. Since lockdown began, she has saved around £2,500 in total, which she says would have been impossible for her before. She has always checked her banking apps frequently, but is definitely more aware of incoming and outgoing transactions now. Dannielle, who lives in Croydon, South London, says she also feels very lucky it worked out like this because she had originally handed in her notice in February and was planning to leave after finishing a project six weeks later. But the new job she had been offered fell through so her company agreed to rehire her. Dannielle says: ‘I am looking forward to lockdown ending but also dreading it because I will need to rebalance old habits. ‘I’m going to try to budget more at the weekends because I want to keep saving to buy a house. ‘Building up my savings has become more important to me because the future feels so uncertain.’ [email protected] Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence. The post UK’s accidental savers: Poll shows many are better off in lockdown appeared first on Sansaar Times.

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topfygad · 5 years ago

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Street excursion by way of the Florida Keys

Simply after a unbelievable 48 a number of hours in Miami, I used to be lucky sufficient to tick off a single of my best bucket guidelines targets of all time. I took a 7 days-very lengthy road journey via the Florida Keys.

Forward of we deliberate our highway journey by way of the Florida Keys, I’d spoken to so lots of people who had frequented this chain of tropical islands. They’d all commented on its fantastic surroundings, wonderful outside routines, Caribbean-like vibe and beautiful sunsets. And what can also make this one explicit of America’s best freeway outings is the breath-having Overseas Freeway and the enduring Seven Mile Bridge which perches on stilts over the turquoise waters.

Overseas Freeway

The Overseas Freeway is only one of America’s best feats of engineering and is sort of actually the picture that you just think about of when any person mentions this island chain.

Our eco boat journey within the Florida Keys

As a person who skilled loads of queries concerning the Florida Keys proper earlier than my journey, I thought-about I’d share a mini guidebook with you on the placement. From what to depend on if you search the companies of a auto in Florida to data about each part of the Keys, optimistically , it should act as a mini-guideline when you ever system your particular person highway trip via the Florida Keys.

Taking a road journey via the Florida Keys: A mini-manual

The Florida Keys: On a regular basis residing simply after the hurricane

The most important motive I used to be utilizing a road journey by way of the Florida Keys was part of a do the job journey, to provide concerning the restoration of the area subsequent Hurricane Irma (you’ll be able to learn the report right here).

When the tropical storm hit the Caribbean and southern components of the USA in September 2017, it devastated a number of areas of the world. I keep in mind seeing it on the information and asking your self how are you going to maybe get better from this sort of a horrific operate?

As we attained the beginning of the Keys from Miami, the impact of the hurricane wasn’t instantly obvious. As we drove extra south whereas, we began to acknowledge vacation homes and caravan parks skilled been devastated, palm timber ended up down and a few of the vegetation was terribly broken.

It was so unlucky to see, however I’ve to say, the speed at which they’ve recovered and turned issues round has been extraordinary. Inside eight months of the storm, almost three quarters of the lodging within the Florida Keys had reopened and you’re going to discover that solely a bit of proportion of the sights have nevertheless to re-open their doorways.

There are somewhat a a number of new motels additionally set to begin this calendar 12 months, just like the area’s fairly first all-inclusive trip resort, Bungalows Essential Largo. The area has actually bounced again once more and folks right now haven’t been set off coming proper right here.

The Essential Largo Bay Marriott Seaside Resort

Whereas it was straightforward to overlook that the hurricane at any time transpired, it did come up in dialogue now and another time with individuals we achieved. Some spoke concerning the households (and of sophistication, life) that had been dropped although others talked about the affect it skilled had on the wildlife.

However, a single factor that struck me was how resilient this space is. Particularly once we seen the hashtag #Islamoradastrong displayed all through constructions and once we frequented the Hurricane monument in Islamorada, a tribute to the 408 women and men who died within the hurricane of 1935.

The straightforward indisputable fact that hurricanes have created an look within the area’s file quite a few cases doesn’t make it any rather a lot much less devastating when a unique storm hits. However as we seen the constructing of latest stilted housing developments and the revamp of marinas, we realised how correctly this location copes within the wake of such disasters.

The place by are the Florida Keys and the way had been being the Florida Keys shaped? A bit of little bit of historical past

You’ll discover the Florida Keys on the southernmost portion of Florida in America. They’re a sequence of islands that construct a light arch into the ocean off the Florida peninsula, beneath the Everglades Nationwide Park. On one side you’ve gotten the Gulf of Mexico (the ‘Bayside’ of the Keys) and on the opposite, you’ve gotten the Atlantic Ocean (the ‘Oceanside’).

The second the Keys have been nothing in any respect extra than a swamp land inhabited by crocodiles however the Caloosa and Tequesta Native People lastly inhabited the placement proper till Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon arrived into the house within the 16thCentury.

The realm didn’t significantly develop into liveable until industrialist Henry Flagler constructed the famed East Shoreline railroad in Florida and resolved to delay it to the Keys. The situation hit difficulties simply after the 1935 hurricane however they managed to rebuild the infrastructure within the 1940s and ignite the tourism you see at present. With a great deal of heritage, wildlife, idyllic landscapes and fantastic meals, it’s easy to see why so quite a few people come on vacation getaway proper right here.

Easy methods to get to the Florida Keys

The perfect option to get to the Florida Keys and the best manner to try the Florida Keys is to get a freeway tour from Miami. We picked up a make use of automobile within the heart of town after which it was round 50 miles from right here to the beginning out of the island chain.

The second you get to Crucial Largo, you’re formally at Mile 100. These mile markers then function all the way in which all the way down to the southernmost isle of Essential West, acknowledged as ‘Mile Zero’. We uncovered the guests and highways in Miami a bit of bit loopy (there are so quite a lot of numerous lanes!) however it’s very easy if you hit the Keys as it’s only a particular person straight highway and the driving will get a lot extra chilled out – which signifies you’ll be able to loosen up a bit extra and benefit from the landscapes.

Driving in Florida

A pair points to take a look at previous to you use the service of your automobile to get to the Florida Keys are the actual fact your motorized vehicle is feasible to be computerized (so have a observe within the automotive or truck park previous to you go away), you can be driving on the appropriate-hand side of the freeway and you’ll require to shell out a toll for using the Florida Turnpike freeway.

If you’re utilizing the companies of a automobile, take a look at no matter whether or not the toll is included in your automotive use invoice. Or else, you could possibly have to make use of a SunPass transponder. And if you’re a US resident and you’re driving a private automobile, you is perhaps billed simply after your journey. The best level to do is confirm Florida’s Turnpike web-site for the newest particulars.

As quickly as you’re within the desired vacation spot, be ready to pay out for valet parking at your lodge. We discovered this was near $20 for each night and also you’ll be anticipated to tip the valet when you choose up the automotive. Only one factor to reveal in mind.

What are the varied places of the Florida Keys like?

We spent two nights in Crucial Largo and three nights in Important West, so we actually didn’t get to find the total of the Keys however we undoubtedly loved a few of the key highlights. Right here’s what to anticipate within the Higher, Heart and Decrease Keys.

The Increased Keys

The Increased Keys are terrific for diving, fishing and maritime life. Instantly in spite of everything, Key Largo (essentially the most vital of the Florida Keys) is precisely the place friends go to take a look at the John Pennekamp Coral Reef Level out Parkand Florida Keys Nationwide Marine Sanctuary, and the house is dubbed the ‘diving capital of the world.’ Within the meantime, Islamorada is dubbed the ‘sportfishing funds of the world’ and hosts a wide range of fishing and seafood festivals by way of the yr. It’s additionally residence to Robbie’s– a ought to-visit for mangrove excursions and an opportunity to feed the tarpon.

The Heart Keys

The Heart Keys even now have somewhat a modern-day Floridian ‘vacation’ actually really feel, with aquariums and household sights and smart lodging and vacation homes which are successfully geared to travellers. However, very similar to the Higher Keys, there’s additionally a loaded fishing and maritime heritage and an excessive amount of alternatives for boat excursions and excursions.

The rather more you examine, the extra you’ll come throughout quite a lot of the laid-back Keys life fashion commencing to trickle in.

The Decrease Keys

The Diminished Keys is the portion of the Florida Keys you entry after getting cruised over the legendary Seven Mile Bridge, one explicit of essentially the most photographed bridges within the planet.

It’s by which character followers seem to see the Nationwide Essential Deer Refuge in Main Pine, the place you will get kayaking adventures in Blue Hole and the place you’ll be able to relaxation on the seaside on the picturesque Bahia Honda State Park.

The southernmost island of Important West

I’ve to say, side of the pleasure of road tripping the Florida Keys is simply profiting from the environment and stopping at many viewpoints alongside the way in which. We uncovered the Increased Keys felt considerably much more linked to mainland Florida, with drive-via eating institutions and espresso chains and large supermarkets flanking the Freeway. While the additional down the Keys we travelled, the rather more we felt a neighborhood, island actually really feel, with shrimp shacks, artist stalls and neutral retailers beginning to seem.

On the time you hit Key West (my favorite island), it’s an extra story all alongside each other. They joke that Key West is sort of a area all by itself after they tried to type an impartial nation in retaliation to the authorities within the 80s. It might need solely lasted 60 seconds, however Essential Westers proceed to thrill themselves on their ‘Conch Republic’ identification, hanging flags exterior their properties. It’s additionally an individual of the quirkiest spots I’ve frequented. If I ever obtained the chance to think about a road journey by means of the Florida Keys as soon as extra, it could be Important West that will entice me again!

Are there seashores within the Florida Keys?

You will discover some seaside places within the Florida Keys however due to to the coral reef, they’re primarily guy-manufactured. A number of the higher lodges have their very own sandy coves these sorts of as by which we stayed on the Essential Largo Bay Marriott Seaside Trip resort. My favourite was the seaside entrance at The Attain Resort the place we put in a number of evenings. It was a captivating place to reach once more to quickly after a day of testing Essential West.

Are the Florida Keys actually value visiting?

Unquestionably! We favored the environment, the sunshine and the overall working expertise of driving down this paradise island chain. My favourite areas ended up the wonderful seafood, the fantastic boat excursions and the quirky and vibrant island of Essential West. As I say, I’d go once more in a heartbeat and it’s so fantastic to see the Keys have recovered proper after the storm.

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theconservativebrief · 6 years ago

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There were a lot of primaries Tuesday night sprawled out across a bunch of states, too much so for any really clear narrative to emerge across all the results.

But one singular result — a top House Democrat’s loss to a 28-year-old democratic socialist — stands head and shoulders above the rest as a striking defeat for a Democratic Party establishment that despite having taken a lot of licks over the past two years has mostly been able to pull out primary election wins when they needed to. That came to an end Tuesday night in a striking triumph of the anti-establishment.

Meanwhile, Democratic hopes for chaos on the GOP side largely failed to materialize as incumbents coasted to easy wins — though at times wins with intriguing back-stories. Mitt Romney, 71 years young, is poised to re-invent himself yet again as a back-bench United States Senate and Jared Polis is set to make history in a surprisingly low-key way as the probable first openly gay governor in American history.

Here’s what you need to know about a big night in politics.

[embedded content]

There was much more to the shocking defeat of Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) at the hands of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The incumbent was, for starters, simply a terrible demographic match for the district as it’s currently drawn.

He’s a white man in a mostly female party representing a district that’s less than 20 percent non-Hispanic white (and some of those are Republicans) and half Latino. He’s also in the weird situation of being the county party boss of Queens even though a healthy slice of his district is in the Bronx.

Looking back, it’s also striking that Crowley never actually won a competitive congressional election. He was slotted into a safe seat back in 1998 by his predecessor, who only officially retired too late to have an open primary competition for the seat, thus allowing Crowley to be crowned without really running. Crowley is well-liked by his colleagues in the House, but he’s not particularly charismatic. And in retrospect, his decision to skip a couple of debates looks borderline catastrophic.

Ocasio-Cortez, meanwhile, is a young, dynamic public speaker in a city whose machine-oriented politics tends to toss up drab nonentities as its politicians. She had uncommon social media savvy, and cut a fantastic video while waging a campaign that did a brilliant job of both channeling long-simmering national progressive disgruntlement with the idea of Crowley’s eventual accession to the Speakership and emphasizing her greater rootedness in the district as currently conceived.

The obvious comparison is to Dave Brat’s defeat of Eric Cantor in the 2014 cycle, but Ocasio-Cortez’s win is in many ways a bigger shock. Ideology-driven defeats of GOP Democratic incumbents are historically much rarer than on the Republican side so claiming any scalps at all would be a big win for the left and Crowley’s is a very big scalp indeed.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images

It’s easy to forget but not so long ago, South Carolina — long a bastion of establishment voting in presidential primaries — was supposed to be the GOP’s firewall against Donald Trump’s takeover of the party. With statewide elected officials including Senator Tim Scott and then-governor Nikki Haley, the Palmetto State offered an unparalleled vision of a diverse, forward-looking version of the Republican Party ideally suited for Marco Rubio’s brand of politics.

Trump faced one of his most difficult primary debates there, in front of a raucous audience mostly hand-picked by the state party.

The exception to the anti-Trump wall was Lieutenant Governor Henry McMaster, one of the very few Republican Party elected officials anywhere in the country to endorse Trump before he wrapped the nomination up. After Trump won the presidency, McMaster was rewarded in the form of Haley’s elevation to the job of UN Ambassador, which secured McMaster an automatic promotion to the governor’s mansion. Tuesday night, he sealed the deal on obtaining the GOP nomination to run in his own right — and given the overwhelming GOP lean of the state he’s all but certain to prevail in December.

Meanwhile, Trump himself has made it clear that he remembers the difference between a true friend like McMaster and the opportunistic sycophants who make up the vast majority of GOP cadres — lavishing multiple tweets and campaign appearances on a race with no particular strategic significance.

Republican U.S Senate candidate Mitt Romney Photo by George Frey/Getty Images

Mitt Romney was a quintessential New England moderate when I voted for him back in the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, promising to protect a woman’s right to choose and in office signing a bill that became a model for what eventually became Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Then after Massachusetts’ Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, Romney re-invented himself as a fire-breathing social conservative and champion of traditional values — discovering a newfound faith-based opposition to abortion rights that had somehow gone missing over the previous decade to stand alongside his commitment to the then-traditional definition of marriage. That persona didn’t secure the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, but four years later he bested Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich with a proto-Trump nativist message and as the Republican nominee he broke with his party’s free trade consensus to slam Obama for going too soft on Chinese imports.

Romney didn’t run in the 2016 cycle, but did briefly audition as a spokesperson for the #NeverTrump movement — slamming nativism and protectionism as inauthentic to the conservative movement and pegging Trump himself as a fraud, though of course when it came time for choosing in the general election Romney couldn’t bring himself to endorse actually voting for the one candidate who could stop the fraud from becoming president.

Tuesday night, he wrapped up the GOP nomination to run for Senate in Utah (where I guess he moved at some point?) which makes his elevation to congress all-but-certain. Romney fans like McKay Coppins say that possession of such a safe seat will make Romney “free—perhaps for the first time in his political career—to be unabashedly who he is, without any serious threat of electoral blowback. That could lead him to hold the president accountable in ways that other Capitol Hill Republicans have shied away from.”

In truth, the best hope for these fantasies would have been for Romney to bow out of running at the last minute leaving people free to dream of what Senator Romney might have been. As an actual elected official, Romney will inevitably end up being unabashedly who he is — one of the most shameless opportunists in the history of American public life who invariably ends up disappointing people who expect him to stick to anything for long.

Former Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Republican Party voters in New York’s 11th Congressional District faced the seemingly easy choice between Dan Donovan, an incumbent House member who’s also a former District Attorney, backed by party leaders including Trump, and ex-con Michael Grimm who used to represent the district until the fact that he’s a criminal forced him out.

The district, located on Staten Island and a weird idiosyncratically conservative swathe of Brooklyn, has long been the only winnable House district for Republicans in New York City. It’s not an overwhelmingly GOP-leaning district, but it is a place where Donald Trump performed better than the average Republican, and it wouldn’t really be a great pickup opportunity for Democrats unless the GOP did something insane and tossed out their incumbent representative in favor of an ex-con.

And … they didn’t do that. In retrospect, “incumbent congressman unaffected by scandal wins reelection against a criminal” was probably a very predictable news story. But the press, unable to resist a colorful yarn and perhaps blinded by the negative stereotypes of Staten Island that prevail in the rest of the city, hyped this race relentlessly.

When I was a kid growing up in NYC we would make fun of Staten for being home to the world’s largest garbage dump. Since that time, it’s been transformed into a lovely park so re-nominating Grimm would have revived the Borough’s joke status in a significant way. But instead its Republican Party voters did the sensible thing and stuck with the incumbent.

Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) speaks during day one of the Democratic National Convention in 2012 Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

In some ways the biggest deal about Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) winning the Democratic nomination to run for governor of the blue-leaning swing state is the extent to which it’s not a big deal.

If he wins, he’ll be the first openly gay man elected governor of any state which is legitimately a big deal except … it just hasn’t been that big of a deal. He’s been the front-runner throughout the whole race, the election has mostly flown below the national radar, his sexual orientation hasn’t been a major topic of discussion, there are no takes on whether Colorado is “ready” for a gay governor or if Democrats are blowing it with a “risky” pick. It just all feels rather normal — a popular congressman with conventional progressive Democratic Party views is going to be the party’s nominee in a blue-leaning swing state and he just so happens to be gay.

It’s an almost unimaginable sea change from the state of US politics twelve years ago when anti-gay backlash was seen as a critical force costing Democrats elections to today. Obviously, LGBT rights issues remain somewhat controversial — as the recent Masterpiece Cakeshop case reminds us — but openly gay people are now such a commonplace in American life that the likely first-ever election of a gay governor just doesn’t feel as momentous as one would have predicted a few years ago.

Original Source -> 3 winners and 2 losers from the June 26 primaries

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topfygad · 5 years ago

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Street excursion by way of the Florida Keys

Overseas Freeway

The Overseas Freeway is only one of America’s best feats of engineering and is sort of actually the picture that you just think about of when any person mentions this island chain.

Our eco boat journey within the Florida Keys

Taking a road journey via the Florida Keys: A mini-manual

The Florida Keys: On a regular basis residing simply after the hurricane

The Essential Largo Bay Marriott Seaside Resort

The place by are the Florida Keys and the way had been being the Florida Keys shaped? A bit of little bit of historical past

Easy methods to get to the Florida Keys

Driving in Florida

What are the varied places of the Florida Keys like?

The Increased Keys

The Heart Keys

The rather more you examine, the extra you’ll come throughout quite a lot of the laid-back Keys life fashion commencing to trickle in.

The Decrease Keys

The southernmost island of Important West

Are there seashores within the Florida Keys?

Are the Florida Keys actually value visiting?

Proceed to maintain your eyes peeled for lots extra posts developing on elements to do in The Florida Keys although you’re there.

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topfygad · 5 years ago

Text

Street excursion by way of the Florida Keys

Overseas Freeway

The Overseas Freeway is only one of America’s best feats of engineering and is sort of actually the picture that you just think about of when any person mentions this island chain.

Our eco boat journey within the Florida Keys

Taking a road journey via the Florida Keys: A mini-manual

The Florida Keys: On a regular basis residing simply after the hurricane

The Essential Largo Bay Marriott Seaside Resort

The place by are the Florida Keys and the way had been being the Florida Keys shaped? A bit of little bit of historical past

Easy methods to get to the Florida Keys

Driving in Florida

What are the varied places of the Florida Keys like?

The Increased Keys

The Heart Keys

The rather more you examine, the extra you’ll come throughout quite a lot of the laid-back Keys life fashion commencing to trickle in.

The Decrease Keys

The southernmost island of Important West

Are there seashores within the Florida Keys?

Are the Florida Keys actually value visiting?

Proceed to maintain your eyes peeled for lots extra posts developing on elements to do in The Florida Keys although you’re there.

Pin Me

Like this:

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A part of this journey was protected by The Florida Keys & Crucial West Vacationer Board

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brajeshupadhyay · 4 years ago

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UK’s accidental savers: Poll shows many are better off in lockdown

Thousands of us have picked up a surprise savings habit in lockdown, a Money Mail survey reveals today.

The coronavirus crisis has inflicted job losses and pay cuts – and still threatens to kill off many struggling businesses.

But despite the doom and gloom, many Mail readers have found they are saving hundreds of pounds thanks to lockdown, and becoming more financially secure as a result.

Spending cuts: Despite the doom and gloom, many readers have found themselves saving hundreds of pounds thanks to lockdown and becoming more financially secure as a result

Large expenses such as holidays, commuting costs and entertainment have vanished following unprecedented social-distancing restrictions – giving households the chance to set aside money during an economically uncertain time.

Exclusive research for Money Mail by Consumer Intelligence today suggests 16 per cent of people now feel financially better off. Almost half are spending less since social-distancing restrictions were introduced, with 38 per cent saving more.

Nearly four in five families say they have more money to spend since lockdown, with a quarter having between £200 and £500 more in disposable income each month.

The findings come as figures from the Bank of England yesterday showed the nation saved £16.2 billion in April. In the six months to February households saved an average of £5 billion every month.

What is more, households cleared an astonishing £5 billion of credit-card debt, which was more than double the previous record of £2.4 billion paid off in March. In a standard month the nation would usually clear £300 million of credit-card debt.

Becky O’Connor, personal finance specialist at insurer Royal London, says: ‘A financial divide has opened up during lockdown.

‘While some are really struggling on reduced incomes, there’s another group whose experience has been almost the exact opposite.

‘If you are in a position to do so, there might never be a better time to ‘build back better’ and save.’

Here, Money Mail meets some of the nation’s new ‘accidental savers’.

At last, I’ve managed to build a little nest egg

By HENRY DEEDES

All my life I’ve been a spender rather than a saver. Whatever I’ve earned during my career, my bank account has always puffed and wheezed its way through to pay day.

I’ve tried to be sensible. I’ve opened saving accounts, dabbled in Isas. I even bought Premium Bonds once. Much good it’s done me.

You see, any disposable cash I’ve ever had has this annoying habit of winking at me through the computer glass, urging me to go out and enjoy it.

Terrible, I know, but there’s something innately therapeutic about rewarding yourself after a busy week with a little something.

A case of wine, something new to hang in the flat. Perhaps another ill-advised addition to the summer wardrobe from a tempting online emporium.

Invariably, no sooner have I clicked the purchase button and the boiler will suddenly crank to halt and there’ll be nothing in the cookie jar to pay for a repair. I never learn.

Lockdown has changed all that. Like a lot of people, I imagine, being trapped inside an apartment for the best part of three months has brought about a vast reduction in expenses.

No need now for expensive Travelcards, pricey gym memberships or all those overpriced cups of coffee every day.

And that’s before you’ve taken into account what I used to spend going out to see friends.

Remember socialising? Drinks rounds, restaurant bills. I dread to think how much I used to splurge on late-night Uber journeys during normal times. But it was a lot.

And so with all these weighty charges lifted from my balance sheet, I’ve started to experience a novelty.

When I check my balance at the end of the month, there’s now actually something left in the kitty. In the past I’d have been tempted to do something extravagant. ‘Why not?’ would have been my attitude.

But in these times of enforced isolation, that thinking has been replaced with what’s the point?

Instead, I’ve been putting it in an online investment Isa with savings app Moneybox. I pay a set amount in each month, as well as any additional funds I might have left over.

It also has a nifty feature which rounds up all my debit card transactions to the nearest pound and automatically squirrels away the extra cash.

H ow satisfying it has been, how oddly empowering. Each time I check to see how my savings are accruing I now get that same whoosh of excitement I used to get when an Amazon parcel would plonk through my letterbox.

It would be nice to think that when this is all over, when the High Street tills begin to ring again and when the beer pumps start flowing, I will be able to maintain this spirit of restraint.

If nothing else, this pandemic has taught us how quickly life can go south. In bleak times it pays to be prudent.

Doubtless this is the last thing Chancellor Rishi Sunak wants to hear. As we re-emerge from lockdown, he needs as many idiots like me as possible flashing their plastic around with reckless abandon to get our ravaged economy moving.

But if this crisis does make some a little more financially responsible, surely that’s no bad thing in the long term.

I have cleared my credit card

Olivia McCulla, who works in PR, has saved by moving back in with her parents

By moving back in with her parents, Olivia McCulla, who works in PR, has saved enough to pay off her £1,000 credit card debt.

She still pays £775 a month in rent for her flat in North-West London but gets £100 back that would usually go on bills because she isn’t there.

Her £120-a-month travel costs and £150-a-week work lunch habit have also disappeared while she works from her parents’ home near Leeds.

She has also saved thousands after the two hen-dos and four weddings she was supposed to attend this summer were postponed.

However, she now has eight weddings in the diary next year to budget for.

Olivia, 29, who wants to buy a property in the next few years, has opened a new savings account.

She says: ‘It feels more important than ever to have a rainy-day fund with things being so uncertain.

‘In London I was paying £9.50 for a gin and tonic and through the nose for a very small flat I dread going back to.

‘Lockdown has made me question if I even want to buy in London.’

Before the coronavirus crisis, Olivia was saving about £100 a month.

Her father Bernard, 65, and his wife Susan, 66, have seen their household costs rise slightly since their daughter moved home but are also saving money each month.

They previously spent £100 eating out each week, so their bank balance is boosted by £400 a month. And instead of paying a tradesman £2,000 to replace his patio with a flower garden, Bernard did it himself and slashed the cost in half.

Before social-distancing regulations were relaxed, Bernard was also saving £180 a month on his golf and walking-football memberships.

He says: ‘We are very fortunate. Lockdown has made me think we should live more for today and enjoy our pensions more.’

I feel guilty I’m better off

Quids in: Ashleigh Meale is saving between £500 and £700 a month

Ashleigh Meale says her ‘stripped-back life’ means she is now saving between £500 and £700 a month.

This is despite her grocery bill doubling to £400 a month and signing up to a TV and film- streaming service costing £60 a year.

Before lockdown, the 27-year-old recruitment consultant, who is currently working from home, was putting away between £250 and £500 but would spend hundreds of pounds a month socialising with friends at expensive bars and restaurants.

Now, she and her boyfriend Rob, 38, cook their meals from scratch at home.

Ashleigh, who lives in Sheffield, is also saving £70 a month by working from home and not having to pay to commute by bus.

She has also been unable to spend money on holidays since the Government warned against non-essential travel.

Ashleigh admits that, while she is not a natural saver, she has now realised how much she spends unnecessarily and hopes to remain mindful about what expenses she reintroduces when restrictions are finally lifted.

She says: ‘Feeling better off financially during this time is a strange position to be in and it does make me feel guilty when so many people are struggling. But it has given me time to re-evaluate things, and I have no intention of blowing what I’ve saved.

‘I don’t need to be out all the time spending money on eating out and drinks when I could be just as happy with a barbecue in someone’s garden. What I have missed the most is my friends — not the expensive socialising.’

Pay cut but £400-a-month saving

Sally Walsh is saving an extra £400 a month on top of £200 she was already setting aside in a help-to-buy Isa

Sally Walsh was worried when she was told she would have to take a 10 per cent pay cut in March.

But despite the shock announcement, the 24-year-old engineer has found her finances have improved during lockdown.

She is now saving an extra £400 a month on top of £200 she was already setting aside in a help-to-buy Isa.

Since working from home, Sally has saved around £200 a month by not having to commute to central London, and a further £200 by not eating or drinking out after work.

The only bill to go up is her food cost now she cooks almost every meal at home.

Sally, who has lived with her parents in Bromley, South-East London since graduating, is determined to continue saving even after lockdown lifts.

She says: ‘My goal is to move out as soon as possible. I feel like I am closer to it now.

‘I don’t have to spend so much on going out. I hope I will soon be able to have people over and cook for them.’

Childcare cut by thousands

Claire Jarrett and her partner Jon Howell are saving £50 a day in train fares alone

Claire Jarrett and her partner Jon Howell have saved enough since lockdown to pay for renovations on their home.

The couple need to fix the roof on their house in West Malling, Kent, and want to make the garden more child-friendly for their one-year-old daughter, Eleanor, to play.

Claire, 31, had only been back at work for two days after returning from maternity leave before staff were told they had to work from home.

With Jon, also 31, working from home too, they are saving £50 a day in train fares alone by not having to commute to the insurance firm where they both work in Bromley, South-East London.

They are also saving around £5 a day on lunches at work, £80 a month on petrol and £200 a month by not eating out.

But their biggest saving has been on childcare.

It usually costs £800 a month to send Eleanor to nursery — but the couple have not had to pay since March.

It has helped the couple to replenish their savings after Claire’s maternity leave and move their renovation plans a bit further forward.

However Claire says their financial gain is likely to be short-lived.

She says: ‘Lockdown has made us realise we do not need to go out as much but lots of the costs will be re-introduced when life goes back to normal, unfortunately.’

Not relying on investments

Retired Gerry Short is making savings by not playing golf, employing a cleaner or taking weekend theatre trips

Retired Gerry Short has seen such a drop in his spending that he has decided to stop withdrawing income from his investments for the next couple of years.

Gerry, 61, a former college principal, has two pensions that pay £20,000 a year. He gets a further £16,000 a year from investments.

After the pandemic hit the stock market, his investments plummeted. While they have recovered slightly, he wants to give them time to recover.

His reduced outgoings mean he can do this as he is making savings on weekend theatre trips which can cost up to £100 a time.

He was refunded £60 of his golf-club membership. He also stopped spending £20 on drinks three or four times a week after games.

The father-of-one, who lives in Leicestershire, also no longer employs a cleaner, which cost £100 a month.

He says: ‘I was aware I was spending a lot as a distraction after my wife died and knew it couldn’t continue. Lockdown has given me time to plan further in the future.’

Windfall from lost holiday

Dannielle Phillips has had to put expensive holiday plans on halt

Dannielle Phillips, 32, spends most of her spare cash on trips away.

But since lockdown kicked in, expensive holiday plans have ground to a halt. She has already got an £870 refund for a trip to Mexico that was supposed to take place in April.

And she has received a £500 voucher she can use to re-book her holiday to Portugal in June for next year.

Dannielle, a senior marketing consultant, had always put £250 a month into Premium Bonds, but has since increased this to £750 a month.

Since lockdown began, she has saved around £2,500 in total, which she says would have been impossible for her before.

She has always checked her banking apps frequently, but is definitely more aware of incoming and outgoing transactions now.

Dannielle, who lives in Croydon, South London, says she also feels very lucky it worked out like this because she had originally handed in her notice in February and was planning to leave after finishing a project six weeks later.

But the new job she had been offered fell through so her company agreed to rehire her.

Dannielle says: ‘I am looking forward to lockdown ending but also dreading it because I will need to rebalance old habits.

‘I’m going to try to budget more at the weekends because I want to keep saving to buy a house.

‘Building up my savings has become more important to me because the future feels so uncertain.’

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