2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Shortie

Kantankrus_Mare wrote: »

Well my sale of rental property went through without any problems except for the council saying we have missed a council tax payment in September when the completion of property sale was end of August. :eek: Just spent an hour waiting in the council offices to clear up the matter and despite me informing them by telephone before completion date with the new owners details etc....she said it hadn't gone through the system yet and no we don't owe a months council tax. They are useless!! Whats the betting I get another letter saying we owe money?

That's great news about the rental property KM And we had the exact same thing regarding the council tax on our old place and it took a good few times (and a final official complaint) to get it sorted. Fingers crossed they deal with it soon - it's just blooming annoying more than anything

Kantankrus_Mare

Yes it is shortie!! When all of our tenants have left or we had a new tenant, we gave them full information and it was messed up just about every time! Got sick of the site of the council offices. There is no wonder our council taxes are so high!! They need it to pay the staff to sort out the problems of their own making half the time!!

Frugalsod

I have a dry wipe board on which I add all my spending. I allow myself a certain amount each week and so if I use it I can see how much I have spent and during which week. It does help keep the spending down, as you can see how much you have spent each week. I reset the board every 1st of the month.

cw18

The mentions of Council Tax reminded me that I needed to contact 'my people'. I emailed them on 1st July asking if it were possible to change payment date from 15th to 1st, and received an automatic response advising me they aim to respond within 10 working days - and I've heard nothing !!!

They now have an on-line system for seeing account details (been in place since start of this CT year) and making some changes to your account, so I logged into that and spotted there's now a contact screen specifically for changing date - so I've applied through that. Whilst doing so I also noted that they now allow us to pay over 12 months instead of 10 - something I wasn't aware of, but which will make it easier to monitor on my spreadsheet So I've opted to leave it as 'over 10' for the rest of the current bill, and once the last payment's gone in January I'll apply to change to 'over 12' which should then come into force from April.


They're bad around here too. The last 3 bills I've had told me I owed 91p from previous bills, which I queried as I've always paid on D/Debit. The first time it appeared (after I'd been at this address for 10 years) I was told it was a rounding error and would be wiped- but still showed as owing the next year. When I then queried it I was told they'd investigate and get back to me, but it could take a few months- and I forgot about it. When it still showed this year I sent a snotty email, which resulted in my receiving a response confirming it was rounding errors due to a change in computer software - and claiming it has now been wiped from my account. I'm waiting on next years bill to check it has, but at least I now have an email saying it should have been that I can throw back at them if not

Kantankrus_Mare

The stupid thing is....I asked if we were to get another demand for the money should we ignore it? She said "No...you should never ignore it! "

If it happens...I have a good mind to ignore it and let them take me to court or whatever it is they do and I bet they wouldn't waste any time doing that. I have kept all receipts and proof of completion date just in case. And they get paid well for what they do!

Your situation is ridiculous cw. Just incompetence or lack of communication.

optimistic-mummy

hi everyone. have been lurking and following with interest, but i need to start posting more. i cant even remember if i officially joined this year.

I'm hoping to post more regularly to help me stay on track. starting officially Thursday. i will take out enough for the 2 weeks pay the bills and go from there.
i am going to start doing the envelope system after leaving enough in the bank for direct debits i will take out the rest of the fortnights budget and work from that and see how i go. if there is any left over each week in will go into a separate envelope and this will allow for any 'expensive' weeks to help us keep within budget.

I'm not sure if the above makes sense but i know what my plan is :rotfl:

one thing i hope to do after the cost of formula is feed the family for £1 each each day = £4 a day for all of us this works out to £56 a fortnight. (this wont include formula but will include all other food and drink) this should be pretty easy for the first month at least as the freezer is full so it will mainly just be topping up the fridge and some cupboard stuff

i have a plan .. now its putting it in to action. :eek:

Kantankrus_Mare

It makes perfect sense to me as that is exactly what I am doing, only mine is weekly.

The only thing I will miss by not using credit card is my extra tesco points which we have always had great use out of but then again, as more of my shopping is getting done at lidl, I probably save more money in the long run.

For the first time ever, my OH is looking at what we can make from what is in the freezer rather than nipping to tesco every few days and hiking the credit card.

Love it.:j

optimistic-mummy

We have big dreams most of which need funds . so I need to change our way of thinking with money once and for all .. Today was a nsd x

sparrer

Have let things slip a little this last week or so, nothing drastic but need sharpen up my ideas so from today it's back to frugality.
I started by clearing everything out all the kitchen drawers and cupboards, some put back, some binned, some put by for car booting.
Have made a list for tomorrow which I will work through and not stop until I've done all I can. The list keeps growing - I'll sleep well tomorrow night!

Frugalsod

Kantankrus_Mare wrote: »

It makes perfect sense to me as that is exactly what I am doing, only mine is weekly.

The only thing I will miss by not using credit card is my extra tesco points which we have always had great use out of but then again, as more of my shopping is getting done at lidl, I probably save more money in the long run.

For the first time ever, my OH is looking at what we can make from what is in the freezer rather than nipping to tesco every few days and hiking the credit card.

Love it.:j

If your credit card is not in debt and you have a direct debit set up to pay in full you could still use it. It does take more will power to not spend too much in store. Another option is to shop online so that you can see the running total each time. That helps you limit the spending. If necessary then get bulk items that way and do smaller top up shops with cash taking only just enough to get what you are missing.