misscousinitt's MF Diary

misscousinitt

21 more tomatoes potted up. Probably another 50 to go, but need some more pots and some more room!! (Which I will have when I've sorted the greenhouse out at the allotment - tomorrow's job)!

Cakes made, iced and chocolate R2D2's, Stormtrooper Heads and X-Wing Fighter toppers placed carefully on top! Got into a bit of a sticky mess with chocolate when extracting toppers from the moulds (I could go into design faults with the moulds that make it difficult for them to be knocked out - but that's just my sad empathy with anything 'cast' due to my job - though chocolate is a different kettle of fish to metal!)

That was a bit garbled! Sorry!

Pension statement has come and its doing quite well. But I have worked it out and my contributions are only 9.3% of my basic salary (don't want to include bonus' and dividend as they are not guaranteed).

My employer is putting in 3ish% which used to be 5% when I was on 3k less. To top it up to 12% I need to add about £500 a year to the pot - at the moment I am not sure I can do this on a monthly basis, but may add a lump sum to the pot later in the year when I have got past some expensive times. The chances are that I won't be able to do this every year - so is it worth doing it for one year? I could afford a small increase on my monthly payment (as we are so graciously getting a little rise off the tax-man).

I suppose in essence, if I increase my personal contribution by £10 per month, adding the tax relief onto this gives me £144 per annum - meaning I would only need to top up by roughly £285 + tax relief to reach the target.

I need to double check my employers' contribution and my contract for the % he is supposed to contribute. If its not right, I want it changing and back dated to at least when we switched pension providers (2 years) - I would be very lucky to get any more out of him - though I would try!

MCI

edinburgher

Do you know what your pension costs are MCI?

My work pension charges me 1% a year, so I only pay in enough to get the matching contribution.

A SIPP might work out better value for any extra if you use a good value provider and invest in low cost index tracking funds? For example, including all costs, I think I could invest in the Vanguard Lifestrategy funds for under 0.6% in a SIPP.

It all adds up!

misscousinitt

Hi Ed

Thanks for dropping by.

I think its 0.75%??? - before we swapped providers most of the guys were paying a fortune - mine wasn't too bad (1% I think) with L&G.

The pension we have is a very flexible one - we can take it with us if we leave the company, there is an option to pay in lump sums etc...option to just pay in £20 a month to keep it going if I don't have a job for a time!

I had to Google SIPP (doh). Not sure...but will check out all options.

First thing is to check to see if Mr Boss is paying me the right percentage of my salary - that will really help!

Thanks for the advice - I knew I could count on you.

MCI

edinburgher

I probably have the L&G one that you have left

I think that most of the features you mentioned are common to a variety of pension schemes these days (i.e. transfers out, lump sums, small payments etc.)

A SIPP should hopefully offer all of those and more (for example, no need to make extra payments if you were unemployed etc.)

Do check re. salary and make sure you question anything you don't understand. I *still* haven't fully resolved my work pension issues, I could throw things at HR sometimes :rotfl:

misscousinitt

Still not very well, but still trying to keep up with everything.

DH was in Wales Thurs/Fri/Sun this week, so been doing my own thing.

- Potted up another 30 tomato plants, and 4 more courgettes.
- Planted 120 runner bean seeds, 10 lots of spring onions and 10 more courgette plants.
- Done 2 x 1 hour stints up the allotment - met my new allotment neighbour who I recognised as a friend of my elderly neighbour who passed away last year.
- Got my chores relatively up to date - at least we have clean clothes.
- Baked some muffins - blackberry and lemon flavour - new experiment!

Been thinking of some different ideas for healthy dairy free snacks for DH (that he will eat). Come up with hummous and carrot and cucumber sticks (bought some mini bread sticks too) might ring the changes with guacamole and I baked the muffins, which although have some milk in are dairy free enough for him. Steering clear of chocolate and yoghurts and see how we go.

Going to do Prawn Paella tonight - quick, easy and dairy free for DH.

Hope everyone is ok.

MCI

muddywhitechicken

Sorry to hear you're still not tip top MCI

:eek: that's an awful lot of tomatoes/runner beans/courgettes!

Pearla*Merle

MCI, I try and go as dairy free as possible and find using things like rice dream in the place of milk while baking usually works out fine (great for pancakes etc, just adjust the amount of flour you use to get the right consistency).

Provamel yoghurts are great too if he's really missing yoghurty treats. Some of them are quite desserty and they also, handily, last for ages in the fridge

Hope you feel better soon x

misscousinitt

muddywhitechicken wrote: »

Sorry to hear you're still not tip top MCI

:eek: that's an awful lot of tomatoes/runner beans/courgettes!

Some are for me and my friends and the rest are for us to sell for the charity - lets face it, you are never going to use a whole pack of seeds yourself are you?

Still not quite right...but getting there slowly.

Pearla*Merle wrote: »

MCI, I try and go as dairy free as possible and find using things like rice dream in the place of milk while baking usually works out fine (great for pancakes etc, just adjust the amount of flour you use to get the right consistency).

Provamel yoghurts are great too if he's really missing yoghurty treats. Some of them are quite desserty and they also, handily, last for ages in the fridge

Hope you feel better soon x

Thanks for the rice dream tip PM.

He seems to be ok with a bit of dairy, or if its in combination with something (like in a cake mix or a splash of milk in mash), it's mainly cheese etc that's causing the problem - but when I do meals like stroganoff he seems to be ok even though there is a load of sour cream! We are keeping a check for a couple of weeks and trying different things - but I was thinking that the combination of yoghurt and a cup of tea at lunchtime might be causing curdling.

MCI

misscousinitt

Its a year since Dad passed away today.

The time has gone quick and slow at the same time.

Really don't want to be at work today and its a pity I feel so down as the sun is shining so nicely today.

Not going to be very MSE tonight as DH is taking me out for something to eat (again!).

Can't think straight today...going to go and sit outside for a few minutes while its still lunchtime.

MCI

misscousinitt

Nice meal out last night with DH. Unfortunately he didn't feel the best as he had some tea cakes with BUTTER earlier in the day with a cup of coffee!!! It really seems to be combination of hot drink and dairy that upsets him!

I feel a bit more positive today. Don't feel great health-wise still, but clawing my way back up there.

Another 1/2 hour done up the allotment last night and intend to go up tonight for a bit too. Courgette plants are really coming on nicely, hope the tomato plants follow suit now they are up there.

Couple more 50ps put in the penguin this morning (courtesy of DH) - really must count this up again as we must be near...

Next job is car insurance which renews on the 25th. Didn't bother changing last year because of all the stuff going on; but this year I am determined to save myself some money!

Roast Chicken tonight, but might do it with warm potato, lemon and basil salad instead of the usual gravy dinner - will see how DH feel later and let him decide.

Happy hump day everyone - hope the sun is shining for you whereever you are.

MCI