This is a guest post from Emma over at BunnyPudding.
If you watch the news of late it may seem like community spirit is in fact dead and buried. People just don’t seem to get on and the economic forecast just gets more and more depressing. It can’t be that bad surely? Well, let’s investigate.
Everybody Needs Good Neighbours
Community spirit was certainly alive and well in October when the legend that is Jason Donovan rushed across the road in just his underpants complete with a fire extinguisher to help a neighbour out whose house has suddenly caught ablaze.
He was praised by the fire squad who stated “everyone needs good neighbours” – I see and very much appreciatewhat they did there… and Jason himself also had a very important message to share with the masses – “always make sure to have a fire extinger at hand, as you never know when a disaster can happen”. When it comes to saving money I think Donovan’s neighbour is quids in here because of Jason’s constant vigilance. It’s a lesson that we can all learn from we think.
Community data, ahoy!
Hilarious celebrity stories aside, and I do that act very loosely, as my 6 year old self is always delighted when Jason Donovan has a relevance culturally again. We must now look to the data. Mobile network giffgaff recently performed some research to further dealve into this subject, when they asked the question, do we feel community spirit is alive and well and if so, what makes a good neighbour?
Community spirit tasks
By looking into neighbour relationations, the study found that relations between a Bristish adult and their nearest neighbors is on average an impressive seven out of ten. Not bad huh?
It also revealed that we also know the first names of nearly a third (31 percent) of the street that we live on. Get in. And more than a quarter (26 percent) even have a neighbour’s spare set of keys in case of emergencies. Now, who hasn’t wishes that they’d saved a sapre key with a neighbour when calling the locksmith out?
In fact, three quarters of Brits claim they could definitely rely on their neighbours in a crisis.
How does this relate to saving Money? Well, not having to call a locksmith is start, as we’ve already mentioned.
There are others too, for example if you have a pet, being on good enough terms in your relationship to ask a neighbour to check in, feed and spend time with your beloved furball can save hundreds of pounds in places like cateries.
They may not be day to day expenses that we often consider but when they happen they can really impact the pocket.
Money saving community
The money saving doesn’t have to end there, as there are many ways that collaborating with your neighbours can be a great way to save money such as grocery shopping – for example when there is a discount on large amounts of washing powder, why not join forces with your neighbour so you can both save money and not have to live in kitchen swamped in large amounts of washing powder boxes?
Want to hold a kids party, why not see if your someone in your community has a child with a birthday around the same date to help split the cost of the location and refreshments?
Now who says the nice guys finish last, when you think about it that way?
If you want to know what type of neighbour your are, and your perfect neighbourhood match, giffgaff also made a quiz. Make sure to share your results with us!
So what about you, do you have any money saving schemes with your neighbours or lovely arrangements that can help avoid disaster? If so, we want to know below.
