How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

BitterAndTwisted

Charlies-Aunt! You should have snapped those up! They will still be good to eat for months and months and could have been popped into the freezer in any case. 60 mini-baguettes for a quid!

I wish I had a local 'approved-food" type shop near me. *sobs*

ceridwen

CherryPie wrote: »

I did not know this!! Do you think all councils are the same?? I'm off to try, will pop back on later with hopefully a success story

:beer:

I had to specifically ask about paying Council Tax in 12 installments - rather than 10. They didnt volunteer the information - it came from a work colleague that had severe money problems and suggested I might help my own finances along a bit by doing so.

I thought that Councils were being less "hiding of the facts" about that possibility these days? I recall complaining to my local Council that I had to ask every single year - and why couldnt they just assume that it would remain 12 monthly installments unless and until I told them otherwise. I seem to recall that they were changing things to reflect not expecting people to ask on a yearly basis anymore and do things the way I expect (ie an automatic presumption that things would continue as planned by the council Taxpayer).....

But - it IS always a wise policy when dealing with officials (or indeed anyone pretty much - even in private firms) to have a pre-prepared set of exact questions. Otherwise - you tend to find they will answer the exact words you phrased the question in - and heaven help you if you havent used EXACTLY the best words possible to get a "full and frank" answer. I just assume that "officialdom" has been told not to give that "full and frank" answer and that many people elsewhere won't give the answer to the question being asked unless there is an element of "cross-questioning" because they havent listened properly.

By now - I just expect to have to "cross-question" about everything to get the full range of information they should have volunteered in the first place....:(

shegar

Sorry to hear some of you with problems, hope they all get sorted out........

Been nice day here today , yellow ball out all day and brought a nice bit of warmth :Dwith it. garden is sprouting out every where now, got green buds on 2 of my birches.....got about 11 different species birches and they all bud and drop leaves at different times.........my little wren is still busy building,:j plus ive seen starlings and blackbirds with beaks full of building material, so its all busy in the spring sunshine here.....beautiful time of year.......:D....ive not been on computer during the day this week , cos its a pity to be indoors when theres so much going on and to do outside........so im here after 6 pm.......ive noticed that this thread as slowed up a bit, thank god, :Dhaving to catch up on 6 pages per day was hard work.......:eek:

Ive been living off the freezer again this week and only popped to local shop this morning to buy fresh bread and milk, been using a lot of stuff up in the cupboards too, its all good grub with loads of weeks/months left on the sell by date.......so Ive not only saved on grub but fuel to , to get to tescos which is 22 mile from here.................:Dcatch youall later.....

Charis

GreyQueen wrote: »

I think it's up to each council how they collect the tax but I do know that, legally, each bill is DUE IN FULL ON APRIL 1st. No one has a right to installment payments, its a privilege and can be revoked if an installment is missed and then the balance of the bill for the rest of the year is owed all at once.

I used to work for the Borough Treasurer's department so I know this is true, but I'm sitting here wondering why it is they can charge us for something in advance of receiving it? Even if someone misses a payment they still only owe a month's money. What if everyone (energy providers, tax office, landlord or building society, Mr T et al) suddenly had the right to charge us a full year in advance if they got a sniff of us being in financial difficulty? How is demanding the full amount at once going to help anyone get out of difficulty?

charlies-aunt

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Charlies-Aunt! You should have snapped those up! They will still be good to eat for months and months and could have been popped into the freezer in any case. 60 mini-baguettes for a quid!

I wish I had a local 'approved-food" type shop near me. *sobs*

I wish I could magic carpet some down to you! . . . . as you can imagine the shop has an appreciative fan base and its always good for a mooch round!
Thanks for the tip - I didn't think they were freezable but I guess at that price it would be daft not to try . . . its on the way to town so will call and invest a £1 tomorrow!
Its not some much a shop as a little warehouse - a bit basic, slightly tatty, everything just in boxes etc but its a treasure trove of bargains and the guy that runs it is really helpful and jolly.
Lots of well known brands in export packs with strange squiggly writing They sell a lot by the case - last week they were doing a case of boxes of Mr K"pling lemon slices for £1 - approx 20 boxes per case. . . . but you've got to really love the stuff and not have to worry about your waistline to buy such big quantities

EDIT: I know! I know! I bet they freeze too! Why didn't I think of that before !!! Silly Twonk!

bertiebots

Larumbelle wrote: »

Oh, and I only just realised it was April Fools Day! Anyone spot any good jokes?

My wage was a joke..but it wasnt funny:eek:
Babychick- she asks me to sign my time sheet at the begining of the week:o ,i trusted her to be honest about filling it in but she has asked me to increase my hours and my pay hasnt gone up! She talks about giving be an extra half hour ot per week for staying to help, I have been asked to work 12.5 hrs but in reality am working 15 anyway! (so that means if everything else is correct I am still working 2 hours a week for nothing) I need to wait for next weeks payslip ,as that will show the ot that has been claimed and if it doesnt match what I know I have done I have to sort it. The way our pay is calculated is very complicated so it might actually be ok and they are just behind paying me. The problem I face is that we are a small team and I really get on well with everyone, I used to know what she was putting me down for every week because I was signing on ,so I double checked it. Since I started my other cleaning job and stopped signing on the problems have started.
I am suspicious and have been told by my supervisors from main office ( I am actually flexi on a long term placement) I have to do my own time sheets..yet she asked me to sign one on tuesday again. Next week I am going to have to insist and it could get awkward but I want paying. She is in the wrong not me!:(

ceridwen

Bertiebots

This doesnt sound right to me....

For what its worth - in those circumstances - I would get a cheap A5 size diary of my own and take it to work with me every day and fill in the hours I had done that day and get her to sign MY record of what I had just done in that diary.

At the end of each month - I would be checking my records against their records to see if they tally.

(I've been in an job situation before now a couple of times where I DID keep my own records and found there was indeed a discrepancy - and the fact that I had kept those records for myself meant that I managed to get it put right both times. One of those times it was down to their inefficiency, the other time they were trying to underpay me.)

greenbee

bertiebots - what you are being asked to do is fraudulent. You should be filling in your own timesheets, and she should be countersigning them. You need to tell HER boss that you aren't being given timesheets, but are being asked to sign in advance, so don't know whether they are being submitted correctly. You may even be expected to submit the timesheet yourself with your supervisor's countersignature.

It might also be worth having a quiet word with your colleagues to find out whether any of them have similar problems. You are clearly being taken advantage of - either she pays you for the additional hours, or you don't work them.

mardatha

She might be pocketing the money she squirrels away from all the timesheets - we had a supervisor who did that.

grandma247

mardatha wrote: »

She might be pocketing the money she squirrels away from all the timesheets - we had a supervisor who did that.

She may possibly be having money problems herself but that still does not give her the right to steal other peoples pay. We see this kind of thing in the local paper now and again. They always come across as such nice people to those concerned .
Dh also says it is fraudulent not to see the completed form and sign it yourself after you have checked it.

Dh gets paid weekly so we pay the CT by standing order weekly. This has worked out well this year as we had overpaid over £100 by 25th Feb so they knocked that off the bill then because I did not get the new bill till the last week of march we have overpaid again which means April's payment (first of the year) is over. I went into the bank and reduced the payment by £4 a week so although we will overpay again this year by a bit it will not be so much and that £4 has now been switched to the mortgage standing order to overpay that a bit more. Not a lot but it adds up over the year.