Daft Property - Irish Property News

How our young will get through the recession... BASICS: Sewing and baking is key... THE younger generation is being urged to get back to basics and learn the long forgotten skills of sewing, baking and fending for themselves in a series of classes to be held in Dublin city. Celebrity chef Darina Allen recently said that elderly people have the know-how to cope with limited budgets, but those in younger age groups may find it difficult to survive in the recession. Helpless "People have been so focused on careers and academia that they are helpless when they lose their jobs," she said. "They don't have money and they realise they don't have skills that would help them through. "From a small budget, grandmothers were able to feed the family," she added. "They could look in the fridge and make a meal out of all sorts of little scraps . That is a skill that's lost - being able to judge it yourself when food is safe to eat and when it is not. It'

We're getting back to basics in these recessionary times... ANYONE WHO, like me, has only recently learned to appreciate the wonders of Lidl will not be surprised by Ulster Bank's recent revelation that spending took the biggest nosedive since 1983 in the first three quarters of this year and Irish consumers continue to spend cautiously in the run up to Christmas. There was a time when the stark lighting, the anaemic decor (would a cheery sunburst yellow colour scheme be out of the question Mr Lidl?) and that curiously earthy smell once you hit the door (what is that?) was enough to have some of us running to the more sweet smelling Superquinn for cover. But our priorities are changing and we're discovering that rampant parsimony has its thrills. The psyche of a nation, formed over 10 years of profligate spending, is under review and it's not just property we're holding back on, but household goods, which Ulster Bank attributes to the weakness in the housing market,