Tales from The Shire

ruby_eskimo

Sorry to hear about the covid situation.  Agree with others that it's probably best for Uncle F to isolate to protect all of you.  We had a good 4 inches here yesterday - made everything so quiet and calm.  Not sure I have any suggestions for red cabbage recipes - think it was you who posted the link to the Waitrose sausage, apple and quick braised red cabbage recipe a while ago, which went down very well in this house, and we still have 3 portions of the apple/red cabbage mixture in the freezer to try and work through 😂

Bargainhunter30

I love pickled red cabbage and would eat it with most things - sausage and mash, cheese and crackers, egg and chips... yum

savingholmes

Hope your family are okay. Hope you find some peace and comfort and don't go on the kind of worry rollercoaster I probably would... 

Fortune_Smiles

Please cancel my drama subscription

Thank you everyone for your good wishes.  We have had more drama.  In a nutshell, family member has insisted they continue working throughout the pandemic against all advice and despite being able to work from home.  They inevitably caught Covid and infected their partner.  Both became very ill (they lead an unhealthy lifestyle) and  one was hospitalised.  The wider family is now caught up in providing care and DS1 has put himself particularly at risk in helping out.  We are both worried and angry.  If DS1 becomes ill we are likely to need to provide his care which we will gladly do but it puts us at risk too and we are in the priority risk groups.  The selfishness/stupidity of some people beggars belief.  One person ignoring the guidance and now at least 7 of us are potentially at risk and maybe more.  I can see how the virus is still spreading.

Anyhoo, rant over.

Uncle F is travelling back and forth to his home county for work so we are continuing to isolate from him.  We're catching up with him face to face outside and having video calls.  He is resigned to the ending of the relationship and the sale of his house now and is starting to look forward and make plans for the future.  He's still a bit emotional but starting to regain his resilience.

I'm continuing with our pension plans:

• DB Pension 1  - Mine. claim sent and acknowledgement received.  Payments will start from the end of March
• DB Pension 2 - Mine. I have all the information I need now for the claim so will put it all together and send it off next week
• DB Pension 3 - Mr F's and already in payment.
• DC Pensions 1, 2 & 3 - Mine. These are all relatively small amounts which we will keep as part of our emergency savings (it's not worth taking them as traditional pensions as they would be teeny tiny).  If need be I could take the tax free lump sum from each and leave the remainder invested.  I could also take a couple of thousand on top each year without going over the tax threshold.  If I did this, each pot would last for three to four years and provide an extra income of £200 per month.  We've decided not to touch them whilst Mr F is still working and Uncle F is letting us have some rent but it's nice to know we have a little safety net there if needed.
• DC Pension 4 - Mine. miniscule and not payable for another five years
• DC Pension 5 - Mr F's.  Not worth taking now as we'll get hammered with tax.  Nice to have it on stand by though.
• DC Pension 6 - Mr F's.  Again, not worth taking now because of the tax situation.  This one is active and we're paying in enough to benefit from the maximum amount the company will also pay in.
• State Pension 1 - Mr F's and payable when he gets to 67.  He'll get the full amount.
• State Pension 2 - Mine and payable when I get to 68.  I get a little less than the full amount.

What a lot of pensions!

So if Mr F is able to continue in his current job and all goes well, we should be able to pay off the mortgage in the next 3 years.  If all doesn't go well, we have enough to get by on and the mortgage will have to wait.  We have seven/eight years before we can claim our state pensions but DC pension amounts which would provide a little additional income for nine to twelve years.  Plus two of Mr F's pensions which aren't currently in payment but could be activated if need be.  Most of these pensions will provide small amounts of income but it all adds up and would give us enough to get by on.  We could easily earn enough between us to maintain our current lifestyle until the state pensions kick in when we won't need to find any extra.

So we're gonna be ok.  I'd like to think this was all thanks to my past self being wise but it's really because my employers were very keen for their employees to take up their pensions.  Thank you former employers.  There's not much more I need to do now until my DB pensions pay out in March and shuffling of money will be required.

In general MS news, I'd already increased our grocery budget as Mr F working from home has added to the shopping list, plus I think food costs have gone up a bit, and I'm managing to stay within the new budget.  The log burner repair kit arrived and Mr F has fixed it.  We've made a few charity donations.  And that's about it really... which is good news as it means I'm not spending much.

The weather here is foul today - sleet and wind with proper snow forecast later.  Mr F has taken himself and FDawg off to the barn so he can finish servicing his truck.  I'm settled in front of the log burner and don't intend to move much.  I'm hoping to get some writing done later and perhaps take a nanna nap 😆

Stay safe everyone.

Fortune x

the_cross_rabbit

Love a nana nap 😴 
CRX

savingholmes

Frustrating re covid spread. It is frustrating when others don't take precautions and then others in their circle pay for it. I do wonder whether the R rate is linked to people needing care at home if they are really ill pre-hospitalisation. Could you pay for care rather than putting yourselves at risk if the worst happened with DS? 

Fortune_Smiles

the_cross_rabbit said:

Love a nana nap 😴 
CRX

Especially when the fire's going and the weather outside is frightful 🌨

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

savingholmes said:

Frustrating re covid spread. It is frustrating when others don't take precautions and then others in their circle pay for it. I do wonder whether the R rate is linked to people needing care at home if they are really ill pre-hospitalisation. Could you pay for care rather than putting yourselves at risk if the worst happened with DS? 

Very SH.  It seems the NHS have set up Covid Recovery Teams to take care of people in their own homes once discharged from hospital.  That way they can free up the beds more quickly and I assume the team will have had the vaccine so will be protected.  We're just keeping our fingers crossed at the moment re DS.

Fortune x

ruby_eskimo

Oh no Fortune, it never rains but it pours sometimes.  I'm not going to start on my Covid rant because I'd be here all day but it's just so frustrating that some people don't realise that the more they flout the rules, the longer we're going to be in lockdowns etc.  

That is a lot of pensions but at least you have them unlike some.  Whenever I recruit anyone new, I always hammer home to them the importance of saving for the future rather than thinking of their take home pay right now.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but at least I've tried!

Fortune_Smiles

ruby_eskimo said:

Oh no Fortune, it never rains but it pours sometimes.  I'm not going to start on my Covid rant because I'd be here all day but it's just so frustrating that some people don't realise that the more they flout the rules, the longer we're going to be in lockdowns etc.  

That is a lot of pensions but at least you have them unlike some.  Whenever I recruit anyone new, I always hammer home to them the importance of saving for the future rather than thinking of their take home pay right now.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but at least I've tried!

Hi @r@ruby_eskimo.  Absolutely and lockdown is getting harder and harder for us all.  Thank goodness I did enrol in those pensions schemes as it's so important for our future security.  It's people like you hammering home the importance that convinced me to take them up so keep up the food work 😁

Fortune x