Live on £4000 for a year - part 4 (Oct - Dec 2008)

Brighton_belle

Thanks Marru - that was helpful - when my new A&L account is finally up and running I was beginning to wonder what I had let myself in for with other observations today. They are still in the process of transfering all my ddm's. When its all done, I will hold two separate accounts - one for all the bills and the other for everything else so I'm hoping that will help control what I spend where even more.
Jusy collected a fantastic set of shelves from a freecycler - we had to spend a hour dismantling them/ ripping them of her wall (she's having it all redecorated) -they were built in and made to last! We will need to sand them down and remantle on our own wall, but they are 5f x 6.5ft and really solid quality wood:j . Also picked up 2 lilo's we've been given for our camping trial next year and have the cerise food protector I found, so a very good haul, all costing nothing, other than goodwill and supporting a priciple of waste not want not:T .
I've now finished the store cupboard inventory and deducted the cost of it from last weeks shop so feel much better about what i spent now. I must remember to factor in the cost to what ever month I use any item.
Thriftylass - the history of housing in this country is very interesting. Up until the 1st WW a vast overwhelming majority rented property. Mortgages were just not possible/available for most. My own parents born in the 20's grew up in rooms, not even a self contained flat. Between the wars, changes in legislation made it possible for the burgeoning lower/middle classes to get mortgages and there was a huge interwar house building boom and suberbia spread like wildfire. That's when it all started. Housing leglisation as a result of various campaigners from the victorian period onwards campaigning for better quality living housing conditions for the working classes also resulted in masses of council housing being built - all part of the new labour party movement in the early 1st half of the 20th Century. The 1st ww changed a lot of attitiudes as well and the need for homes for heros. The legislation of the tory government of the 1980's resulted in the mass selling off of council property which has contributed to a shortage of rented accomodation now, but did enable many to get on the property ladder.
Thats a very simplified potted history anyway.

thriftylass

Thanks Brighton Belle for the short history of the housing market. In Germany that never happened for whatever reason. Everyone rents (buying/ building is rare) and getting a mortgage is rather unusual (has very negative/risk associated reputation) and noone really takes out loans either as far as I know definitely not to the extent people do here. But that also means that we (I say we the Germans although my home is here now - for eeeever) have much better rented accomodation ( i guess a case of the customer rules). When I first came here I was appalled at what rented accomodation I could afford, plus mostly it's furnished and if not it's not much cheaper anyway. Back home I had a lovely flat for a fraction of the prices here. In Germany you treat your rented property like your own, you have much more freedom and don't feel you live in someone elses house. I moved into my BF's flat here and we'll buy together at some point, but because of the attitude towards mortgages you should hear my mum sometimes although I tried to explain to her things are different here. At least she taught me be cautious in those matters.


[strike]:mad:Aaargh....all my T*luna points just dissapeared. :mad:Did this happen to anyone before?[/strike] It's ok I found another thread that deals with that.

Marru

Hi all,

I had a great day at Cotswold Wildlife Park where I was on study tour with college. Unfortunately now I am suffering from terrible migrane and can't do anything. I was going to pull some info out from few books that expire tomorrow but now I need to go and beg the librarian to allow me to renew them once more. Yes I did have my own sandwich, sweeties and crisps with me. My only spends were: 1 cup of coffee, notepad (to use for my spends), little toy for DD, 1 cup of tea and info booklet about the park (which will help me with my assignments) total £5.90.

Anyway, I need to go to bed now as I have a mystery shop arranged for tomorrow after college and before college I need to pack and post books I had sold today. After two weeks of no sales I have sold six this week, three of them today.

Bails, thank you so much for your help today with The Dog!!!

I can't remember what else I was going to say so off I go now...

Marru

cw18

taka wrote: »

:eek: Thats crappy cw18... I take it the mortgage assistance is BoE base rate linked? Thats a bit worrying as presumably people who qualify for mortgage assistance are in need of help for whatever reason (like caring for your OH) and are going to have less leeway in the budget for such changes to outgoings!

Base rate plus 1.58%, so will be dropping to 4.58%.

Frugaldom

cw18, I just had a thought that may be helpful to you! It's probably been covered elsewhere but anything is worth a shot. Is the weekly care allowance a means tested benefit?

Forgot about free bingo - just logged in and managed to claim tickets for free games running every 10 minutes from now until 11.50pm on Ga!a

redglass_2

Thanks, Marru,for explaining A&L. Hope your migraine is better soon. x

cw18

nykmedia wrote: »

cw18, I just had a thought that may be helpful to you! It's probably been covered elsewhere but anything is worth a shot. Is the weekly care allowance a means tested benefit?

I assume you mean carer's allowance? It's means tested in that you can't get it if you have employment income of £95 or more a week (which means I can't get it yet). But I'm banging a claim for it in on 27th November (first day of unemployment) as I believe this (along with the Child Benefit which is being reinstated in my name -- was in DH's for a while) gives me Home Responsibilities Protection (ie. NI credits for my State Pension).

But it is taxable!! So as I've had other income this tax year that exceeds my personal allowance, I'll be taxed on the piddling £50.55/week that it's worth :mad:

Janey51

Good morning Fellow Frugallers
I have returned refreshed from my break.

I was a tad concerned about the interest rate drop (as I can see everyone else is from a quick skim through recent posts).

I am lucky because a chunk of my savings is in a fixed rate BS account....an advantage of being over 50 :rotfl:
And, my other bits and pieces seem to be untouched (interest wise) so far.
I just need to check my ISAs but I know that at least one of them is a fixed rate so again I am lucky :T

Came back from hols to evil letter from a firm of vultures trying to make me pay for one of DH's debts...which of course died with him but I have Googled these people and they will stop at nothing to claw back money. I even read in one article that they had actually been to a graveyard to check the person was dead....I can't believe that is true and suspect it is a bit of journalistic story enhancing

My big shop last week to try and last me for 2 months has really been good so far. It is good to know I have all the basics just ready to use. A side effect is that, as I am not going into food shops so often to look for the reduced stuff, I am not being tempted by other things which I don't really need.
Since last Wednesday (29th Oct) I have only bought some fruit and a small wholemeal loaf (44p reduced) :T

I made a couple of big quiches with some bacon from the freezer, eggs I was given and cheese which needed to be used. These sliced into 20 slices which will be great for unexpected visitors.
I also made a sultana tray bake from stuff in cupboard so they can have pudding as well :j

Mum's Memory of the Day
Mum's first job was working as an Office Junior during WW2. The firm she worked for was a general grocery supplier and received stocks of all the rations which were given out. The owner rather liked Mum (she had great legs) and on Friday, Mum would arrive back home with little extra treats for the family.
My Mum....the Black Marketeer :rotfl:

Frugaldom

Good morning all,

Going to collect keys for new house this morning so I started early to get the morning's work done before 9am. It's almost done.

Janey, glad to see you back, hope you have had a good time and sorry about the rotten letter that met you on your return.

cw - I was just thinking that it may benefit you to set up as self-employed for 30+ hours a week doing whatever you like doing best and turning it into cash. If your income after all expenses was around the £90 per week mark then you could qualify for your carer's allowance, plus you would be working from home, so would be there for OH. That way there's nobody stopping you from paying off whatever debts/mortgage etc that you want from your redundancy money and savings. You could also apply for working tax credits and child tax credit of you have a child in fulltime education.

Catch up with everyone soon, off to postie then to new house

redglass_2

Janey51 wrote: »

I even read in one article that they had actually been to a graveyard to check the person was dead....I can't believe that is true and suspect it is a bit of journalistic story enhancing

What a horrible way to carry on, but the fact they have been reported before is actually good for you; you could threaten to start up another story if they don't back off. I can understand why they'd go to a graveyard, actually; pestering someone who's been bereaved is inexcusable, but in their line of work they must also find quite a lot of people trying to work scams, including people 'playing dead'.