Travelling On

badmemory

state pension is normally (52 weeks) made up of 1 week at the previous years rate & 51 at this years. One year in 5 or 6 it is all 52 weeks at the new rate.  The DWP do not tell HMRC the correct figure, they always tell them the 52 weeks, but if you read the guidance it is definitely the 2 different rates.  If you get it weekly then it is easy, just add up the amounts that have gone in the bank between 6th April & the next 5th April.

Karmacat

themadvix said:

I’m struggling to see the problem with half a kilo of cake?! 🤣🤣 Cake for breakfast sounds like a good idea.

It's a bulky version of these, I suppose 🥐 🤣

badmemory said:

state pension is normally (52 weeks) made up of 1 week at the previous years rate & 51 at this years. One year in 5 or 6 it is all 52 weeks at the new rate.  The DWP do not tell HMRC the correct figure, they always tell them the 52 weeks, but if you read the guidance it is definitely the 2 different rates.  If you get it weekly then it is easy, just add up the amounts that have gone in the bank between 6th April & the next 5th April.

I remember someone on here writing that, maybe it was you, badmemory, and it seems eminently sensible the way you put it.  Maybe I was just tired when I read it last night, it just seemed so repetitive and nonsensical.  Sadly, I get mine every 4 weeks.  I'll check again when I'm less tired.

badmemory

If you want to put the date you were paid in April I'll figure it out, but I am betting that it is 1 + 51.

Karmacat

Thank you!  Looking at the tax stuff has taken me down a side alley of decluttering, so I'll look at that tomorrow afternoon, see if it makes sense and if not, I'll post it on here.

I'm getting rid of tax papers from 2015/16, which I could have done at the end of January this year - I suppose I'd got bored to the back teeth of it by then 😬  It's not only my own financial security - account numbers etc - but ensuring that clients' names aren't mentioned - and back in 2015, lots of people still paid by cheque.  Such a short time ago, and so different!  But the ATMs were taking photos of the cheques, so lots of things will have to be shredded, not just disposed of.  

Food prices is interesting too - I kept supermarket receipts, because I claimed for some things (tissues, most notably!) and I saw one that said, 500g of gluten free pasta was £1.20 - the same item, earlier this year, cost 70p or so, and even now its only just gone up to £1.  Fascinating.

I've stopped now though, time to relax  

Karmacat

Mooching about in my side alley of tax-paper-decluttering: it will help with security (getting all those printed account numbers out of the house), with house tetris (fewer bags around, oh my word, there's quite a bit), and so storage is emptied too, a fair amount.  Apparently, I've let it go for years!  I'm checking what I've got, and if there's card, or plastic-with-glue, I'm cutting by hand, my little shredder has been wounded previously by jamming up with both of those.

Also a little bit of time in the garden - couch grass, nettle stems, and a couple of brambles.  I'm not read to clean the cupboard by the back door yet, but I'll get there.

badmemory

I'm going to sort of brag here although most of it is an admission of whoops I left it so long.  A few weeks ago I had to stop shredding because my full size wheelie bin was full.  To top that off the nine bin liners decorating the living room are now down to 3 which are heading for the local charity shop.  They are only open Wed to Sun & I keep forgetting then as mostly I have other stuff going on.  So some fail translated to wins but these last 3 have been there for weeks & I'm sick of the sight of them.  Just hoping the weather is nice either Wed or thurs.  I wouldn't mind so much but you can't tell anything has reduced.

Karmacat

That's a great brag, badmemory!  I know it takes a long time - I've done this once before, a dozen lever arch files of handwritten notes had to be shredded - but it *does* add up in the end, honestly good for you.

Karmacat

So, I've sorted through the recycling I'd "temporarily" stored in the basket of the shredding machine 🙄 and manually cut up the things that were on plastic, had sticky tape attached or on cardboard: learned through hard experience that my little shredder gums up on this stuff.  Case in point: I'm now ready to get going, but there's a wodge, a tiny teeny wodge, of balled up paper stuck between the teeth of the shredder - unplugged, slim screwdriver won't move it, so I've sprayed it with machine oil.  Came on here to write it so that I *make* myself give it time for the oil to soak in.  Off to try again now.... 

badmemory

I use eyebrow tweezers to unjam mine after I cut my finger trying to get it with my nails.

Karmacat

Thanks, badmemory - tweezers, nail file, screwdrivers of various sizes, I've used them all.  And I've been using WD40, which is seriously wrong.  It runs fine when I switch it on manually without any paper in it, though, so I'm going to keep trying.  For now!

Maybe this jam is part of why I haven't done the shredding in so long