Flying solo

*Robin*

Good morning Diary and MSE Friends, :hello:

Sunshine has returned today, playing hide n' seek with ominous storm clouds that are racing overhead in the wind. Last night I was doubtful that my damaged patio roof would survive the squalls, but it has, oh happy day.

Dot I went over to the Tax Cutting board yesterday as part of my efforts with the paperwork; got thoroughly unsettled wondering whether I should make my calculations ten times more complicated by claiming various allowances that I've not bothered with before - percentage of utility bills for having an office at home, and mileage for deliveries/site visits for example.
Hmm, still thinking about that.. :think:

HeadAboveWater wrote: »

It's great that you can get your workers to do other jobs when they're there anyway. Make the most of it for both of you! Get working on that list for him lol

Thanks for popping in, HAW. Is it unreasonable to expect a labourer to tackle a variety of jobs? Must admit I ask them to do anything requiring strength that I no longer have, but they get rather more than minimum wage for their efforts (casual workers are in my eyes self-employed, so the wage reflects the fact that I expect 'em to sort out their own tax and medical cover).
Anything electrical is dealt with by a qualified professional of course, but a labourer can expect to be presented with simple plumbing and building tasks as well as painting, heavy garden work and moving around materials I can no longer manage without making myself ill.

HeadAboveWater wrote: »

Glad to hear your debt is reducing, be it slowly or otherwise!

So am I! ..Paying off that loan early has made a big difference to the funds available for everything else.

dorothy52

Hi Robin - well done on finally cracking on with the tax return. To make it simple, why not just claim £3 per week for working from home?, thats what £150 odd a year you can offset against tax. You should certainly claim for mileage, it's perfectly legitimate and again, if you're not sure you can always ask on the cutting tax forum. If your turnover is under a certain amount (I think it's £70k) you only need to complete the short return which is three lines, so your calculations are only for your own use, in that you don't need to present them to the tax office. Blimey, I hope I'm not patronising you, you probably know all this already, but better to mention it in the spirit of helpfulness than keep quiet and risk you missing out eh?

Snowing again here, but it has abated over the last few days therefore I have risked driving the short journey to work - so far so good however I suspect I may have to resort to walking again - sigh!

I agree that you should ask your 'labourers' to complete any and all jobs, they will probably be glad of the gainful employment and you most certainly want to get your moneys worth.

Keep up the good work

Dot
xx

NewLeaf_2

Dot is suggesting what I do, £3 a week for working from home , and starting this April it goes up to £4 a week. x

HeadAboveWater

*Robin* wrote: »

Thanks for popping in, HAW.

Welcome! I'm far travelled coming from Northern Ireland, huh!?

Is it unreasonable to expect a labourer to tackle a variety of jobs?

Absolutely not! If it was a window cleaner you would only ask him to do windows. If it was a slater you'd only ask for the roof to be fixed. A labourer is a jack-of-all trades (same as me being admin - I get to do a bit of everything!! )

So am I! ..Paying off that loan early has made a big difference to the funds available for everything else.

:j

dorothy52

There you go, Robin, another vote from HAW to ensure that your labourer undertakes all necessary tasks to ensure your continued comfort and safety. Ooooh, New Leaf, I didn't realise you are self employed. I looked in your diary at the beginning and really liked the sound of you, however RL got in the way of my continuing to follow your progress, however I remember reading that you had a high flying job - is that the s e one or have things changed I wonder? I discovered recently that the allowance for home working was to increase to £4 next year from the cutting tax forum, otherwise I wouldn't have known - I tell you this site is marvellous.

There you go, Robin, if you DO need a hand in filling out your SE your friends Dot and NL may well be able to answer some of your questions - whilst we would not presume to be your co pilot, just think of us as your air traffic controllers lol.

Just got in from work (drove again - am getting quite daring in my old age) and it is so cold out there that I thought I had inadvertantly left the central heating on when I got in the house! I hadn't. It's blimmin freezing in here as well, I'm sitting typing in me coat waiting for me tea to warm up (and the house) cos I have been fasting today so I am starving and I can't wait for Mr Dot to come home - we shall both dine in solitary splendour this evening, my friends, however his plate shall be consirably fuller than mine.

*Robin*

Hello Diary and dear MSE friends, thanks for calling by, Dot, NL and HAW :hello:

Life was obviously running too smoothly in The Nest..

Yesterday's targets were achieved, more or less: The wood-man was very low on stock so brought a right ol' mix - about a quarter of which is in lumps far too large to fit in m'stove. So when I've burned all the logs that I can, he's promised to bring his chain-saw with the next order and chop up the rest. All right, except that my wood-shed is no-where near large enough to store that many logs.
The labourer was great; actually had to stop him running with a full wheel-barrow. :rotfl: He fixed the washer pipe and cleared up the materials store, and will be coming back to help with building the patio roof.

A chum of DS3 [and his Dad] brought the materials for said roof this morning; rather attractive large green* panels plus assorted poles and struts. (*PC would have approved - his favourite colour :A).

But when I got back inside, m'laptop had frozen. It won't fire up at all.

Could be worse. Am very lucky that I can use PC's laptop, although it feels oddly - different - to work on. :cool:
But will have to start again; find/download a spread-sheet prog and type in all my workings for THEM from scratch. <sigh>

Yes it serves me right for not keeping important files on a memory stick. This is not the first time either. DS2 can almost certainly retrieve the information, but not in time. Dammit; tempted to go back to paper and coloured biros - might be quicker.

Dot and NewLeaf, I'll go with your suggestion; £3 per week for running a home office, and not worry about travel expenses. Had to chuckle at the thought of a 70K turnover; am no-where near that (tempted to add thank goodness! after reading about the difficulties NL is facing with THEM :eek:).

dorothy52 wrote:

Just got in from work (drove again - am getting quite daring in my old age) and it is so cold out there that I thought I had inadvertantly left the central heating on when I got in the house! I hadn't.

Dot is it a good idea to switch off your CH completely when the weather is more or less freezing? :think:

It's not much above zero here either today, due to a cruelly bitter wind battering down at us from the north. The chaps had to weigh down my new roof panels with some hefty boulders, to ensure that they'll still be where they were put when Gaffer turns up to fit them next week.

Daft Dogs are driving me bonkers with demands to be let in/out - it's hard to concentrate on paperwork - but also far too cold to leave the door open for them today!

NewLeaf_2

Hi Robin I am glad that you will claim the work from home allowance even though it is a pitiful amount

*Robin*

Cross-posted NL, lol.

NewLeaf wrote: »

Hi Robin I am glad that you will claim the work from home allowance even though it is a pitiful amount

Hmm, it's worth having given that my income is measly compared to yours! :rotfl: Also true that my expenses are a mere fraction of yours, of course. (Just as well I've got low expectations, ).

dorothy52

Hi Robin - your labourer sounds like a real treasure, not afraid of hard work and proactive with it - we shall hang on to him I think. It's only when your computer crashes that we realise how dependant we are on them, thank goodness you had PC's to fall back on, eh? We would have been panicking by now if we hadn't heard from you.

You're right of course, I should leave the CH on low all the time to reduce the risk of burst pipes, but it's such a big old house and costs a fortune to heat, and I have never subscribed to the theory that it is cheaper to keep the boiler running constantly on low than to fire it up for a few hours in the evening, however I would be interested to hear anyone's views on this. It's madness, we're not in debt, in fact we are comfortably off, but I HATE the thought of the greedy energy companies having even more of my hard earned money than they already have.

I still can't for the life of me can't understand why you wouldn't want to claim for your travel expenses when it will save you money on your tax bill (tell me to !!!!!! off if I am being nosy lol) unless of course your earnings fall under the personal allowance in which case it doesn't matter whether you claim for them or not. There....that's my twopennorth....as your MSE friend I am duty bound to try to prevent you from giving THEM any more than they are entitled to by law.

Take care, keep warm and I will 'see' you tomorrow.

Dot
xx

dorothy52

OH NO - it's tomorrow and I haven't 'seen' you. I hope you're okay, you know how we worry! If you are indisposed, just send CD to give us a quick update lol. Oh well, I can procrastinate no longer, I will start to make tea, after I have finished this, purely medicinal you understand, glass of rather nice white wine, which whilst it has not been either in the fridge or nestling snugly in the 3 ft pile of shovelled snow in the back garden, is still suitably chilled courtesy of Frugal Dot's igloo house.

Take care


Dot
xx