£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 51: Day 6

Well who wants to hear about the exciting thing I have discovered this morning? All of you? Good. Well I think I have just discovered my council tax is payable over 10 months, not 12. No direct debit taken on the 1st (it is always taken on the 1st unless it's a weekend), and I've just logged onto the council website and it's showing my total remaining for the 17/18 year is zero!! I'll wait a few more days before getting completely excited, but it looks like that could be a cool £141 to split between debts/extension savings this month and next.

Today is my day with DC3, but it's going to be another one which isn't totally quiet and relaxing as I still have some prep to do for a talk I'm giving tomorrow. Going to make some time to play with her as well though, instead of her staring at the tv for half the day, as occasionally (erm, most weeks) happens on a Friday.

Savings/Spends:
- £2.60/£28 February 'rounding down' overpayment pot
- £764.80/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal
- £1 DH (from his kitty) on (I assume) a cheap coffee or chocolate bar at the station.
- £2.50 me (from my kitty) coffee with a friend
- £3.30 me (from my kitty) parking when I went for coffee.
- £9.60 DH train fare when I had the car.
- £10 for DC1's swimming monthly subs.

In the interests of low stress, I am keeping my list to only three non-routine things today, the rest are all 'rhythm of life' type things.

To do today
1. Finish making marmalade.
2. Prepare talk for tomorrow.
3. Manicure.
4. Ironing.
5. Bake sourdough.
6. Dinner out of freezer.

To do this week
1. More decluttering - particularly the lego!
2. Brainstorm ideas for architect - particularly in the light of the new extension information from the planners.
3. Finish planning any handmade gifts for birthdays/Christmas 2018 so I can ensure they are done well in advance.
4. Plan and book some campsites for summer hols.
5. Do birthday cards for the month and a thank you card for the weekend. done.

To do in February
1. Restart social media for my website, which has really been on the back burner so far this year.
2. Eat the contents of the freezer and defrost it.
3. Play around with designs to discuss with the architect in early March.
4. Have a laid back half term with the DC, doing activities at home, walks and crafts. Too many busy weeks recently.
5. SLOW DOWN. This started well at the beginning of the year, but has fallen by the wayside. I have a couple of fractionally less busy weeks coming up, must make a real effort not to fill them with All The Things.

Honeysucklelou2

A laid back half term sounds brilliant. I really enjoy the school holidays as it's time I can spend with my children without trying to juggle job and children. I find the simplest things often stick in the mind the most. A walk down the lanes so that the toddler can see the cows and sheep in the fields, a walk with the teenage sons, a walk across the beach with all of them, a fun swim session. All are low or no spend but are precious in their simplicity against the backdrop of frantic busyness in term time.

Fantastic news about the council tax!

PurpleFairy26

Between the £600 interest you’ve saved moving you partnership card and the £282 CT, that’s nearly£900 ‘made’ in the last couple of days. Imagine how many hours you would have had to work for that. Makes it all the more welcome in my eyes.

Liking the less is more in terms of list approach too :T

CamelLady

Our council tax is also payable over 10 months for feb/march we have £282 in total free...

We use this to pay for the car MOT and service and to put towards the winter utilities...our gas/electric and water all come in in feb... ( joy )

Keep up the good work... i have subscribed :-)

enthusiasticsaver

Our council tax free month paid for my car insurance and breakdown cover for a year. Great to have that extra money in your budget for 2 months TOPM

JoJoC

What a lovely surprise to have the council tax free this month and next! Ours is paid over 10 months too so this month and next we save £241 (£442 total) so it feels great to be adding that to our savings account.

I hope it makes a nice dent in your debt and savings account

Suffolk_lass

That is two bits of fantastic financial news for you. We also pay our Council Tax over ten months and it is great. Nearly £400 here.

I love the slow living ethos. We have been to a number of "agriculture turismo" (communes) in Italy over the years. We grow lots of our own fruit and veg and it is surprising how productive it can be. Also buying small amounts of slow-grown local meat, and making a smaller impact on our environment.

A few tips I have learned that you may want to consider.

• We grow potatoes and carrots for their taste, not because they are cheaper. The potatoes "clean" the soil but you mustn't mix them with tomatoes (or replace one with the other the next year) as they are the same family and you usually get blight.
• We grow things that we know we will eat and are practical for the space. Especially things that are native to UK and expensive in the shops.
• Rhubarb is fantastic, especially if you have an old terracotta pot with no bottom to put over the first pink bubbles on your soil - it forces it and the first shoots are pink, tender and delicious (and hellishly expensive in the shops).
• Rhubarb and strawberry jam is a revelation, later in the year and excellent when it is late season rhubarb (July-ish) with YS Strawberries.
• Raspberries are our favourite but once you grow them you have got them (pretty much forever) and they will throw up new shoots where they please. We grow some summer and mostly autumn fruiting and have mixed them up.
• If you have room, a Victoria Plum tree is self-fertile and sublime - you can get a dwarf-root-stock with the Victoria grafted on to keep it manageably small.
• I like your snipping salads idea - we have an old butler sink and grow these and french radishes in it - bricks in the bottom, about 10-15cm of multi-compost on top and just change the compost each year.
• We also grow tomatoes and Sungold (F1 hybrid) are delicious little cherry orange "sweets" as someone else said - you cannot grow them from their own seed though. Thompson and Morgan are local to us so we always have them.

I hope that is helpful. Now is the time to start tomatoes and early potatoes (we like international kidney (Jersey Royals) and Charlotte - both excellent as new potatoes

Good luck with your February goals

Working_Mum

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

It's another motivation to pay them off, to be honest, as the idea of getting beyond 40 with basically no pension provision (I have a tiny pension from contributions during my few employed years before children!) is a bit alarming.
.

Hi there,
You may want to contact the pension provider and ask them for a "transfer out" valuation - I had 3 "little pensions" which were worthless when valued a few years ago for divorce reasons BUT the landscape has changed and Trustees of pension funds are looking to offload their long term responsibilities and transfer them out - you can self administer a pension online quite easily!! It costs nothing to get a valuation and they are normally valid for 3 months - you never know it may provide you with a little pot to start your retirement plans.

Keep your chin up!

Cherryfudge

Off to investigate whether our Council Tax was also over 10 months!

Your half term plans sound lovely - hopefully today will be largely 'quality relaxing' too.

Treadingonplaymobil

Just quickly rounding up yesterday's lists....

Savings/Spends:
- £2.60/£28 February 'rounding down' overpayment pot
- £764.80/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal

In the interests of low stress, I am keeping my list to only three non-routine things today, the rest are all 'rhythm of life' type things.

To do today
1. Finish making marmalade. Done!
2. Prepare talk for tomorrow. Mostly done, bit of final printing of handouts left to do this morning.
3. Manicure. Done, nice cheery bright orange-red. I love my LED lamp.
4. Ironing. ALL DONE.
5. Bake sourdough. Done, now have eight-ish loaves in the freezer, should last a few days!
6. Dinner out of freezer. Done. Mental note: orzo soup doesn't freeze well (pasta disintegrated slightly on defrosting and reheating). Would be better to batch cook the soup, add the orzo to only half and freeze the other half, adding orzo during reheating to cook.

To do this week
1. More decluttering - particularly the lego!
2. Brainstorm ideas for architect - particularly in the light of the new extension information from the planners. Ongoing.
3. Finish planning any handmade gifts for birthdays/Christmas 2018 so I can ensure they are done well in advance.
4. Plan and book some campsites for summer hols.
5. Do birthday cards for the month and a thank you card for the weekend. done.

To do in February
1. Restart social media for my website, which has really been on the back burner so far this year.
2. Eat the contents of the freezer and defrost it.
3. Play around with designs to discuss with the architect in early March.
4. Have a laid back half term with the DC, doing activities at home, walks and crafts. Too many busy weeks recently.
5. SLOW DOWN. This started well at the beginning of the year, but has fallen by the wayside. I have a couple of fractionally less busy weeks coming up, must make a real effort not to fill them with All The Things.