greent's mfw journey

apple_muncher

Y6 doing macbeth?! Yikes!

greent

apple_muncher said:

Y6 doing macbeth?! Yikes!

It's a version for primary schools, so much condensed, thankfully! - have seen several Shakespeare plays over the years this way with my brood in - they're usually quite good - best was when several schools did A Comedy of Errors - each taking on one Act, so the performers changed each time (costumes were colour themed to help identify who was whom) - really impressive   (I want the clapping hands smiley back!!)

Suffolk_lass

Emojipedia is good for lots of emojis if you can't find them on here any more. I have some display issues though on this macbook

greent

I'm not fussed on the display on my phone - but am beginning to get used to this. The colour is a real 'head thing' for me, though - I never changed from the old green forum, so MSE to me is green!  

Money from Mus1cmagpie was paid to me today, so I've sent that (rounded up) to hol fund. Waiting for a flebay fvf offer - have a pile of stuff to list, all over £10, so don't want to pay 10% fees if I can pay £1/ item instead   

Have  really been rootling around in the freezer to use up things - found a bag of frozen Mediterranean roasting veg (possibly got it free with a shopping app.... it's not something I'd normally buy) so roasted them, chopped them small and added them to a bolognaise along with lots of grated HG courgettes & tomatoes from the freezer, Also found a bag of 'roasting veg with thyme' (definite freebie from Icyland with a Xmas promo) so have roasted up a pile of those (carrot and parsnip) and they are good cold as a snack Used a heap of the carrots and all of the red onions (not many) from the bag to make lentil/ carrot/ bacon soup, too - finishing up the last of the ood lentils and some long-ago frozen bacon and not-very-nice lardons. Easy food for me - always fab! A tidy of the pantry/ bathroom resulted in 53 things for DS2's school foodbank this week - mainly single-portion things and airline toothbrushes and some samples of washing powder, and some freebie (full sized things) from shopping apps which I'm unlikely to use in reality. Nothing has a BBD which is earlier than 01/2021, so all good   And I have some real space appearing!! - ok - it'll probably get filled up again, but I'm enjoying it for the time being

greent

Flebay selling offer arrived in my inbox this morning! - so that's a job for the wet weekend... Will hopefully shift some stuff out

Off to town shortly for a haircut - more expensive than I'd usually pay, but I don't like what I've been having done at our local one, so thought I'd treat myself and go to a funkier one in town. Have been there once before (years ago) and liked what they did so (wasn't prepared to pay the prices on an ongoing basis then) am going again. Will see what I think - am slightly nervous - have booked in for a restyle, as opposed to a cut-n-blow-dry.

Was shifting some money around yesterday - and I think we have enough in our hol fund now (jumping smiley x several here) (well, when DD's boyf fully repays us) - will continue saving in there for now until I'm more than sure (and just in case we decide to let him off some of his 'bill' (flights and park tickets) - but it should mean we can pay more off the BTL this year Mind you, DH wants to get some house projects done (as in get people in, as they are bigger jobs), so the money may well get diverted to a new 'house fund' account instead...… I'm torn between living life now and paying the BTL down hard and shoving more money into pensions. I guess I need to find a balance that works. I know at the mo we have been spending more on takeaways (albeit cheap takeaways) - but we can afford it no problem and DH really likes them (and sees them as a reward for all the hours he works, I guess - he is the sort that needs an immediate 'reward' - long term goals are really not his thing...!)


Have a bag of old (not CS-saleable) clothes/ fabric to take to HnM today to swap for another £5 voucher - DS2 has agreed that he really needs more clothes (most of his are hand me downs from DS1 anyway - and there's no more to come) so a shopping trip is required. We've agreed to try and wait until Easter hols - he hates clothes shopping and thinks he can manage until then (the test being a week of next week - see if he runs out of clothes/ only wears a handful of things) He could also do with some funkier things - he's 14 and this starts to matter more now (although he goes to a very geeky/ nerdy school, so they don't really care as a whole - well. the boys don't anyway)  Also have a box filled for CS - but have decided to hang onto CS items until new tax year - all donations are now in DH's name and he's a HR taxpayer from April (just squeaks in this tax year, I think - if not, exiting Gift Aid stuff will bring it down anyway) so any Gift Aiding made from the greent household will be made in his name and then used for his tax return Haven't had to think about HR tax rates for years - not since he went to being a contractor and effectively self employed. (although him now being a 'proper' employee again means we're now paying all the mobile bills, rather than the company...  so we've gone to SIM only deals )

Karmacat

You've really got to keep your eye on the ball, greent, haven't you - thats fascinating about the gift aid.  And I hope you like the new haircut style, do you have any idea of what you want them to do?

Suffolk_lass

The other obvious way to reduce his tax is to pop a bit into a pension - either his occupational (if his employer will up their contribution) or a personal pension of some sort :taps nose in MSE emoji:

greent

Hi Suffolk lass - we will certainly be putting more into his pension too - he is maxed out on employer contrib rates so anything else he puts in won't get any further payments from them. Our alternatives are still upping his contrib rate anyway - saving on NI and tax I think, as it's sal sacrifice? - but committing to it for several months min...... or putting some in his personal pension - if we decide to do this I'd probably put in a small lump at start of tax year and then larger towards end of tax year (will have 2 monthly savers maturing after Xmas 2020) - we'd know how much we'd need for planned house projects at that point (1 depends on level of spends if DD moves back home after uni - which depends where she gets a job) He's also angling for a grade/ pay rise, as his job now has more responsibilities than when he took it back in Sept (such as having ppl in US report directly into him and US travel - and possibly Dubai - and some other stuff which is apparently hush-hush so I don't know any details!

Storm Dennis has taken down some fence in rear garden (was already damaged anyway - but also now have some newly damaged in front) - we need to replace a min of 5 panels/ 3 posts - but probably can't get it done (DH will do it himself) until late March/ early April - there are more storms due and the ground is just too waterlogged for anything to set. So some more fence painting will be in order for me when the weather is nice - at least it will be less than I had to do last year

Quiet day (well, as a household - the weather is anything but!!) - a gentle start to half term hols - nothing really achieved by anyone!

Suffolk_lass

Yes, you are right about the saving on personal tax and national insurance for salary sacrifice. I believe you can also use it around the £50k threshold to continue to be entitled to claim Child Benefit, which is based on pay. Not sure what Dennis has done here yet. We have delayed building the new greenhouse though...

Edit to add, Storm Dennis has lifted the cast iron register plate in the chimney above the aga - got a layer of sooty debris all over the top. Not sure it the arch will return to normal after the winds stop (still very windy here this morning) but even if it does, it is no longer fixed by mortar so that is really a much bigger job for the summer, even if we can make a temporary repair now

brizzlegirl

Sorry to hear your sad news. Hope all the arrangements go well.
money situation sounds good, well done