22 Foxhole East

LadyWithAPlan

Well done on getting clarity on the sipp. I have a Van and a HL one and the VAN costs areso much cheaper on both platform fees and the mgt fees. So I would always go with Vang sipp as a starter/main one..

It is  is as you say worth adding  the £2880 and the 25% uplift will be added in 6 weeks..  Fo every £100 you put in they add £25..

That employer contrib for your OH is lush .. yes he needs to add in and  indeed  not run off with leggy blondes  

I am pretty fierce myself on maths, shares and investing etc but not sure I want to brave the pension board now   So many moving parts for everyone as we all have different circumstances. I would advise getting the 24/25 £2880 in asap so it gets more time to grow.. Yes markets could come back a bit after we all stop adding in the UK on 5th april  and then first week of new tax year to maximise our tax benefits but the extra year in is helpful..

badmemory

I assume the £420 was a typo for £480.  If your employer pays anything into a pension for you then you are volunteering for a paycut if you don't take it unless of course they don't contribute for low earners, which I know some don't.  Just to get a bit political here, if they are going to try to reduce peoples dependence on the state pension they are going to have to make some stronger rules regarding employers contributions.

f0xh0les

Yes indeed, £480.  The employer does not contribute at the minute.   I think they are going to make it a hostile environment for non-earners.  Which is rather daft when you consider in my case, I stayed home with my kids, freeing up 4 places in childcare for people who actually need it, and saved The State a fortune by caring for my step-gran and not  putting her in a home,  With the price of childcare going up so high now,  retiree grandparents who are not working are going to be looking after their grandkids even more, if they can, so their kids can go back to work.  Those idle economically inactive blighters!

badmemory

My over 75 neighbours look after 2 of their under 5 grandchildren several days a week.  I am not sure for how much longer though as even he is now looking a little doddery.  I give myself the right to say this as I am older (just) than they are.  I could not do it, but then I had a live in nanny when mine was small so I am obviously not cut out for the job.

joedenise

I was like you @f0xh0les and stayed home and looked after my kids, although I did only have 2 and that was enough!

Like @badmemory I'm in my 70s and I certainly couldn't be looking after little ones now.  I didn't even look after my grandchildren as I was working when my DDs had their little ones.

f0xh0les

Drilling and banging continues on both sides.  It seems my other next door neighbour is going to do a full refurb, which seems to include removing every single bit of wood in the whole place, and drilling the plaster off the walls, very slowly......  they even worked Good Friday and Easter Monday.  

DH has fled to his office like the sensible man he is.

Carpetman came and measured the whole of the stairs and landing and stairs and other landing, and stairs and top landing and the other two top floor bedrooms.  He will take a deposit for the bits of landing and stairs not ready for fitting, and store those bits for me until I need them, so they are all the same batch and colour.    It makes sense. Will know tomorrow how much it will be, but I have cleared the credit card after buying the blinds for the top floor bedrooms, so will be able to pay for it on that, and clear over half of it with this month's allocated renovation budget.  - That extra £2880 to the pension has mucked my budgets up a bit, but I am still glad I did it.  Just need to find some more money from somewhere... I am getting impatient just doing a little bit here, and a little bit there.

Lovely council chaps rocked up and took my old carpets and tv aerial and armchair away as a free bulky waste collection. I can have another 5 items taken away in two months. Wonder how much I will have done by then?

In an effort to declutter, I am burning candles. It is merry and lovely, and reducing my stash, and the heating has stayed off the last couple of evenings because of it, and the mantlepiece is looking much tidier.

Deep cleaned the living room this morning. DH has taken over the kitchen with his crafty tat, the back room with his work and craft supply tat, half the living room with his tailoring carp - including an ironing board and his  male mannequin body, and my bedroom with a road bike under the window, and his camping equipment under my bed! I went to store a duvet in an underbed storage bag, nice and neat and tidy, under my bed, like  normal people do, and couldn't because his carp has suddenly arrived under there!  This is very not on.   His mum had a 6 man inflatable raft on top of her bedroom wardrobe when I first met her, so I know where this is heading. 

Two big plastic storage boxes of my stuff have been sorted and are ready to leave the house tomorrow to the charity shop..   Found a pair of size 5 trainers lurking in the hall, I am pretty sure the smallest feet in this house are a 6 now.  I will play Prince Charming to DS4s Cinderella this evening and hopefully be able to start off another charity shop bag.  There is just too much stuff in this house!

Found bags of gluten-free licorice blacks online for his mum for her birthday.  Will post them to her as a surprise.  She will have forgotten they exist. She really likes licorice, but can only get the hard salty stuff.  This will please her.

Got my Pcode Lottery Twinings Giftbox through the post today.  That was nice, but mostly because it was not a bill, or another bl00dy parcel for DH!  I am sure the neighbours  must think I am carrying on with the Amaz0n delivery man, the amount of time he spends at my house.  Not to mention the DPD driver at least twice a week as well, I had to listen to him all through his divorce.

Anyway, off to rescue DS3 & DS4 - DS3 is at another after school cramming session, Maths for Chemistry today, so I have to pick him up as they lock the gates at 3.10 and the bikeshed is on the wrong side of the gates to get his bike so he can ride home.  So until the GCSEs are over, Wednesdays I drive them to school, and DS4 gets to muck about with his mates until 4pm when I pick them up together.  See,  method!   Then I will watch the next episode of Shogun tonight, and sort some more stuff for charity, or possibly, a spot of light recreational laundry folding....

OpalGirl

I'm intrigued by DH's tailoring carp - does he make his own clothes? I don't think you have ever mentioned this before.

f0xh0les

He knocked up two Hawaiian shirts in William Morris print last weekend (pleats on the back and everything!) and has now decided to make himself trousers and a waistcoat and retailor an old suit jacket.   I taught him to use a sewing machine,  but he far surpasses me now.  I do curtains and cushions, and mending and hemming.   He buys patterns! and swears a lot at button loops.  Basically there is a Victorian lady in there somewhere, cooing over lace, buttons, and ribbons.  It is his latest obsession. 

mark55man

Well if that's his obsession and you can bear to wear the clothes he makes I would start dropping hints about your summer wardrobe

foxandflowers

This is very not on.   His mum had a 6 man inflatable raft on top of her bedroom wardrobe when I first met her, so I know where this is heading. 

This had me chortling into my tea this morning. I grew up in a rather similar house.