Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass

The employment period will give me a part year paid total but not sure how they tot it up.

If it works like a voluntary contribution it will take off the £780 total. I don't expect three months work to give me a whole year but if I work 20 hours a week for 13 weeks I will have enough income to trip the NI Conts (assumes £8.35 an hour which is the lowest rate they pay) so I am thinking I will need to pay £585 instead of £780 for a year (based on 75% shortfall).

On the other hand, if it is the actual total I have contributed, that would be £260.52 over 13 weeks (based on 20x£8.35x13x12%), which if taken off the annual voluntary total is £519.48 left to pay. Either way, it helps reduce the £780 and now DH is retired from teaching (today is officially Day1-no pay) we might do something self employed to allow us to pay voluntary class 2 (£3 per week) instead.

If I can save what I earn it will be there to pay the shortfall, and be small enough not to interfere with my tax rate (it will be taxable, of course) and I believe if it is one of two retail outlets I will get a temporary discount with them (10 or 20%) which might help over Christmas!
I don't have any grandchildren to look after.

Suffolk_lass

Finished!
It does feel a bit like I have just washed everything in the house!!

XSpender

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Finished!
It does feel a bit like I have just washed everything in the house!!

We have been back a week and I still have half a load left to do and the cases to put back in the loft

Paspatur

Hi Suffolk Lass
I retired 4 years ago although now working part time for a charity
I was short by 3 years due to COPE but registered as self employed
Been doing someones accounts and tax return for free for years so started charging them £200 per year, declaring this meant I paid basic rate tax on £200 but got a years voluntary Class 2 for £145.70
Cost to me slightly less than nil
Cost to the other party was £120 due to their higher rate tax
So if you have a self employable skill it takes little effort to make up the shortfall, certainly not 13 weeks of work!
Ironically I am now paying NI on my part time job, not sure if it is at a level to gain more years but I do not need them now anyway

Suffolk_lass

Paspatur wrote: »

Hi Suffolk Lass
I retired 4 years ago although now working part time for a charity
I was short by 3 years due to COPE but registered as self employed
Been doing someones accounts and tax return for free for years so started charging them £200 per year, declaring this meant I paid basic rate tax on £200 but got a years voluntary Class 2 for £145.70
Cost to me slightly less than nil
Cost to the other party was £120 due to their higher rate tax
So if you have a self employable skill it takes little effort to make up the shortfall, certainly not 13 weeks of work!
Ironically I am now paying NI on my part time job, not sure if it is at a level to gain more years but I do not need them now anyway

Thank you! the 13 weeks will include a 20% discount on their goods and to be honest, I am concerned I might be a bit bored once the garden goes a bit dormant. I generally fritter several hours a day at the moment, wibbling around on the internet or social media and it feels like I (personally) need a bit more structure. So my motivation isn't just the NI Conts. We have talked about doing a bit of self employed as both of us have been opted out of SERPS for several years.

XSpender with DS house sitting, it will take months to get back properly straight - annoyingly, one of my small fish slices has gone awol and we have looked in all the usual places (unwashed BBQ etc!) - you have all this to look forward to when your DS is a grown up...:)

Suffolk_lass

Woohoo! DH's lump sum arrived and I have paid a big lump off the mortgage. It won't show until probably tomorrow so will update then but over a third of the outstanding balance - gone! Hopefully this will take the interest down to less than £20 a month.

Karmacat

Congratulations! Here's some coffee and cake for you and OH



:coffee::coffee::bdaycake:

beanielou

Great news

Suffolk_lass

Well thank you both but no cake for us until November thanks - we are both re-kicking-in the weight-loss now we're back from our main hols. We had both over indulged and need to get a grip (to quote my diary title ) before we let things slide.

I have to say it was a bit of a thrill to log in this morning and see a balance under £18k. I also sent them a secure message asking them to reduce our regular payment to £100 a month instead of £500 which will free up £400 a month of income that we can redeploy to the running costs account (otherwise we won't make the minimum payment for the loyalty payment :money:) so that there is a little top up from my pension which covers the majority of bills and direct debits. We will also need to move a couple of payments to that account so that there are four regular ones each month.

In other news we have had a real glut of lovely courgettes this year and have not got bored with them (probably thanks to going away for nearly a month!) - anyway there are multiple bags of prepped courgettes in the freezers to let me make lots of courgette soup over the winter.

I have hung two strings of plaited onions in the larder and cooked half a 20L stock-pot of tomatoes. I need to use my stick blender on these (KC!) and then heat them and store the passata in jars for winter (I shall do what the Italian Nonna in the UTube video did and put herbs in the jars before adding the cooked tomatoes.

I confess I forgot they were on the hob when watching the Bake-Off and the Commons until I smelt them but as they were just tomatoes and salt they were fine. I seem to remember adding tomatoes to a burned on frying pan is a way of getting the burnt-on crispy bits to release (these are the other major food group, according to DH :rotfl:).

Karmacat

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Well thank you both but no cake for us until November thanks - we are both re-kicking-in the weight-loss now we're back from our main hols.

Oops, I should have remembered that

I have hung two strings of plaited onions in the larder and cooked half a 20L stock-pot of tomatoes. I need to use my stick blender on these (KC!) and then heat them and store the passata in jars for winter.

:j there it is! That sounds a really good way to process all your tomatoes quickly, and get HM passata, lovely.