A Ditherer's Diary (again)

EssexHebridean

Now that’s exciting - well done!  And absolutely right about claiming your dining table back too! 

CL21

So great to be in the next bracket, that’s exciting. I love seeing the numbers go down. Recommend the snowball method as the (relatively) quick wins are motivating. Appreciate it doesn’t make much financial sense if you have very high interest rates but if you have low or  0% it’s fine

Naomim

Thanks @CL21 luckily they're all on 0% but unfortunately none are low enough to pay off for a quick win.

Completely agree with you about the snowballing. At the moment I'm paying just over the minimums on them and throwing the most at the one the 0% deal ends at first.

2Scratters

That's a great drop in 3 months and into another bracket - well done. 
There are some of us fortunate in this strange climate that are able to take advantage of it, especially fortunate when it comes to money. I count my blessings and am aiming to do even better at managing cash. I hadn't really done a lot of online banking before, yet now; I wish it had been about earlier (more like me paying attention to it) I am so in control and getting money together by still scratting bits of money together that builds up very well during the year. 
2 Scratters xx

Naomim

@2Scratters I do love online banking. Especially these days where you can get alerts and be able to do round ups at the touch of a button. It certainly helps keeping on track of things.

Naomim

My in-laws have received a letter from the council saying they have been rebanded for Council tax and now got to find an extra £77 a month, on top of rising gas & electricity prices their pension isn't going very far. I've posted on the Council tax board as I'm trying to ascertain if they can or should appeal. I think I will do it for them as I guess there's no harm in trying.  I looked at neughbours tax bands and they are all band D and in-laws now E. It seems like the VOA have picked an address at random and decided that one will do. 

EssexHebridean

That seems massively unfair - I wonder if one person in the area has tried to get down banded and in fact been increased instead, and the council have decided to try to find others they may be able to do the same with. I hope they can appeal successfully.

I agree about there being financial advantages for a lot of folk in the current situation - we saved a lot of money in 2020, and the early part of this year with no commuting at all, in fact almost no fuel use at all in the cars. I think MrEH’s went three months at one stage without needing diesel, and then only £20 worth to stop the tank being “too” empty. Mine was going two months at a time. Bearing in mind it’s far from unusual for us to need at least 5 fill-ups across the two cars in a month, this was really significant. Add in MrEH’s reduced commuting on the tube too, and it made a real difference - on that side of things we were definitely among the lucky ones. 

Naomim

Completely agree, we have been in the fortunate few. My cc debt and overdraft wouldn't have reduced so much if we hadn't been able to throw our commute costs at it over the past few months. 

WinterWarrior

I love online banking too. When I think back to having to get those little statements from the cash machine to see what payments had gone out and waiting for the cc statement through the post to see the damage 😳 things are so much easier now. 

The council tax rebanding can’t be right! Is their house bigger than the others that have stayed the same? They need to explain exactly what criteria they’ve used to leave some the same and upgrade a single house. 😖

Naomim

Apparently they can only re-band if the VOA think the original banding was incorrect or if its had work like an extension and then sold.  They bought it in 2000 and it already had a small extension. So I assume the VOA think it was originally banded incorrectly.  Trouble is can't find out the house value of 1991 when the original value for banding was done.