'supporting each other through really tough times'

mardatha

Seemingly it's because we're getting a rise of £3.65 in the pension from April. So add his and mine =£7.30 . The rent goes up £5, so I'm now £2.30 ahead... .. :T......... My god what can I buy with it? I won't be able to sleep for excitement!
Although we just paid £72 for coal for a fortnight LOL!

jpscloud

Easy Mar, you don't want to spend that all at once!!

I started paying into the pension scheme at work this year, so the difference in personal allowance should just about cover that I think. I am really grateful for it, but we're all just like Alice through the looking glass now... running as fast as we can just to keep up.

JellyBox

jpscloud wrote: »

It says the personal allowance goes up from April 2013 from £8,105 to £9,205 on the turn2us website :j

Good times! I am due a hefty tax rebate come April (not applied before incase they just stopped taxing me on my pay, I need it as a lump sum to clear my overdraft), when I moved jobs I just went full time to the charity I was already working for as a second job. As my old company are utterly incompetent, I got no P45 (not the first time they had lost one for me, also the fact I became eligible for a P45 DURING my employment with them is a further display of incompetence - but another story) so continued to be on my second job tax code. When I realised this I initially tried to bring it up with my current employer but they never really got around to sorting it out, so since then I've just treated the excess tax as a sort of savings account, and will see the correct tax in April more like a payrise!

Today's slowcooker experiment didn't fare so well. The pork ended up really dry for the most part, don't really understand why or how though - will have to ask the butcher. However it tastes amazing and I got some delicious apple sauce from it too. Question is - what can I do with the rest of the dried out pork, OH will only want so many chewy sandwiches!

Nargleblast

Being very OS today - two duvet covers on their last legs (had them over ten years, washed hundreds of times, patched and darned in places.) We bought two new duvet cover sets so I ripped up the plain sides of the old ones into rags for cleaning. I was about to do the same to the decorated sides when I thought "these are still in good shape!"
Then inspiration came - one cover is white with a spotted relief pattern, the other white with small embroidered flowers. If I trimmed them and hemmed them, I would have two new tablecloths!

So that is my OS project for later on this week.

jpscloud

Dried out pork sounds perfect for a bit of sweet and sour

Two more weeks to go till Easter hols - hope we get some decent weather. I'm getting ready to grow a few potatoes this year, and I fancy a go at purple sprouting broccoli as well, but will have to research that for success in pots.

silvasava

Mardatha The personal allowance for people between 66 & 75 is now £10500.00 for 2013/14 - don't know if you fall into that bracket. its a little more (emphasis on little!) this year - anything over that up to £32010.00 (I wish ) is subject to 20pct tax

GreyQueen

jpscloud wrote: »

Dried out pork sounds perfect for a bit of sweet and sour

Two more weeks to go till Easter hols - hope we get some decent weather. I'm getting ready to grow a few potatoes this year, and I fancy a go at purple sprouting broccoli as well, but will have to research that for success in pots.

Hi, purple sprouting broccoli grows about 5 + feet tall and has very long roots, I honestly wonder if it would be suitable for pot growing?

Plus, as it's season is now over, you'd be starting it off as seed now to eat early next spring. It's lush, though, if a space hog. I grew it once but between building a superstruture strong enough to keep the woodpigeons off it and fine enough to keep out the 2 species of cabbage white butterflies, I felt that it had more in common with civil engineering than gardening.

I mean, I like it, but not that much.

My potatoes are chitting and the current plan is to sow them on Good Friday then spend a nervous several weeks hoping they don't get frost-nipped in mid-May. Or blighted in high summer. Or hollowed out underground by the dadblasted slugs.

People who think that gardening is a restful hobby obviously don't have an allotment. But I did turn up several cutworms today (big fat green soil-dwelling caterpillars which sever your plant stems at ground level). They wreck havoc in the beanpatch. Well, the four that met their maker today won't be contributing to the problem............mwah ha ha!

Keep warm and keep well, lovely people.

mardatha

TY silvasaver - I don't get enough money to pay tax at all, this is the husband with his 2 pensions. He has a small works pension that he always thought would make us comfortable, but in actual fact has been a bloody nuisance because they give it with one hand and take it away with the other.

Mrs_Veg_Plot

Thanks for the info regarding the change in my tax code. I also claim for laundering my uniform and for professional subscriptions. Every little helps.

Mardatha I would spend it on sweeties

kezlou

hello all,
been a having a few crazy, scary heart attack making / breaking days.

I somehow agreed to do a story of our lives for a conference on Friday and my god was i scared. It involved speaking out about special needs, asd, dylexia, hyper mobility etc and how it affects our lives and how this group i am a part of has helped us. My nerves were so bad, i don't really remember everything i said as i was so nervous. Afterwards i had a lot of people coming up to me and saying how good my speech was. One woman who was at the table next to mine literally grabbed hold my hand as i was about to sit down and said you did really well you should be proud. She was really nice and we added each other on fb and she's part of TPS. I've never met this woman before so i was complete and utter shock about how supportive she was.


Regarding tax we still haven't received a letter off the inland revenue about our tax return. Going to have to call them tomorrow i think.

On the bright side, the children have been playing nicely today on a old console game, shock horror i know.
Been batch cooking today i'm shattered, need to make more bread but at least we have some buns, yoghurt's and jellies sorted for the lads pack lunches tomorrow. Oops just remembered need some fresh fruit. Knew i forgot something.

Hope your all well, its snowing here at the moment and looks so pretty