Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally

taka

Happy (belated!) birthday! Sounds like your birthday celebrations were fun! :beer:

beanielou

Download app, use to pay cheque in & then delete

HairyHandofDartmoor

taka wrote: »

Happy (belated!) birthday! Sounds like your birthday celebrations were fun! :beer:

Thanks Taka .

beanielou wrote: »

Download app, use to pay cheque in & then delete

A cunning plan Beanie .

HairyHandofDartmoor

PPI UPDATE

We've escalated our packaged bank accounts to the ombudsman and we're about to escalate the RBS Adv@nta too :T. We had a very long and detailed refusal letter from RBS, so we've had to write and send a detailed reply to the ombudsman refuting all their reasons for refusing our claim. DH scanned all the CC statements we had from them showing all the PPI we paid over a five year period. But the file was too big so he's having to rescan them all :mad:.

We've been doing this PPI stuff since 3pm and it's now 7.40pm :eek: but it will be worth it if the ombudsman upholds any of our complaints.

UPDATE: DH has now sent off the RBS complaint to the ombudsman :T. So the clock is ticking now on all three cases .

HairyHandofDartmoor

Apart from the PPI stuff I haven't had time to do anything else this afternoon other than bring the washing in from the garden and give NP0wer some meter readings online.

However at work I gave them the correct bank account details so my wages should go into my personal account next month :T. I also told them I hadn't had a payslip, so they emailed me a link to log in and see it, which I've managed to do successfully now :T.

As a result I can see that my pension payment was £14.67 (which is fine by me) but I paid tax of £50.40 (which is not fine by me :mad:). The tax code I'm on is BR, whatever that means. Anyway I'll get our accountants to sort it out and hopefully I'll get the tax back eventually.

The weather was fantastic today, sunny and warm, so it was nice working outdoors . My colleague is going to be off sick all this week so someone is covering for her, so work felt more hectic than usual, but still enjoyable .

Tomorrow afternoon I want to start work on my assignment, email the accountants and make DH an opticians appointment. So still lots to be done. We're getting there however .

fraserbooks

Hi
BR tax is basic rate. It means none of your tax free personal allowance has been allocated to your new job. As it is the end of the financial year you should get a refund automatically once you submit your self assessment tax form if your income is low enough . Going forward you need to sign a form to say it is your main job and give them your tax code for next year.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Thanks for explaining what the tax code means Fraserbooks . The trouble is I'm still doing self employed work (although I have reduced my hours) so it's not my main job as it's only 7 hours a week. But last year I only earnt £4,000 from self employment so I doubt if this job will take me over my tax allowance.

Sun_Addict

The time spent on the PPI will be worth it if you get some cash out of it. Fingers crossed.

You are the last person to fritter money, don't worry about spending some on enjoying yourself. I think the mantra is if you get a windfall you split it 3 ways debt/save/spend - as you no longer have debt you could split it differently - but make sure you spend some, it's not frittering, you deserve it

HairyHandofDartmoor

Thank you SA . That sounds like a very good mantra and it was lovely to treat ourselves for a change .

My main worry is our lack of a reliable income so I suppose that's why I worry so much about spending money and feel as if we ought to save it all. If we can just raise our regular income then it will make such a difference to us.

Having some savings behind us is buying us some time though for me to get more hours in my job and for DH to find a better way of making money via self employment .

beanielou

Lack of a regular income is so draining