Travelling On

themadvix

Ramouth said:

Apart from the financial cost, the materials like lithium used for batteries are rare and environmentally costly to mine.  Add to that the fact that, unless you have solar panels yourself,  much of the electricity you are charging with is produced from fossil fuels and / or lost as it is transported across the grid and a small petrol engine starts too look like a good option.

The first point is only really valid if you’re buying new as you’re not contributing directly to their mining, but I take your point (and sodium batteries are coming - sodium is much more abundant, funnily enough! 😁).

 On the second, I think you’d be surprised at how much of our grid is now renewable. This shows the split at any given time: https://electricinsights.co.uk/#/homepage?&_k=8kwutp and the majority of people charge at home overnight when there is surplus wind, so it’s even better then.

Karmacat

Ramouth said:

I have been thinking about getting a small electric car too but am not sure it is actually better for the environment if you are doing low mileage and don’t live in a heavily built up area. Apart from the financial cost, the materials like lithium used for batteries are rare and environmentally costly to mine.
Ug, yes - and now I'm wondering if the build costs of a hybrid car are worst of all, because its got both engine systems   but this kind of thing is why I've gone for the long lead in time.

Add to that the fact that, unless you have solar panels yourself,  much of the electricity you are charging with is produced from fossil fuels and / or lost as it is transported across the grid and a small petrol engine starts too look like a good option.  I do like the idea of not having to worry about gears though!

Those things too!  Though its possible to not worry about gears by buying an automatic.

I wouldn't be going far, its true: I think the furthest I'd be going regularly is to the Knepp Rewilding Estate - I love the idea of popping over once a month or so to get to know the place through the seasons, I just checked the route finder on the AA and its only 14 miles!  Not nearly as far as our beach days out just west of Littlehampton, 31 miles.

Karmacat

themadvix said:

Ramouth said:

.....

The first point is only really valid if you’re buying new as you’re not contributing directly to their mining, but I take your point (and sodium batteries are coming - sodium is much more abundant, funnily enough! 😁).
I've seen videos of the sodium batteries!  Funny how there's a lot of sodium about 🤣

 On the second, I think you’d be surprised at how much of our grid is now renewable. This shows the split at any given time: https://electricinsights.co.uk/#/homepage?&_k=8kwutp and the majority of people charge at home overnight when there is surplus wind, so it’s even better then.

I love the layout of that table!  I've used the National Grid information before, and its so techy its unbearable.  And your link is interactive too.  Lurve it  

debtfreeoneday

Love that table link. So easy to read!

Karmacat

I wish I could focus on the car situation at the moment!  On anything at all, actually!  Running about like a mad thing for the cat 🤣  and I think I'm a little profligate in the use of cat litter, possibly?  IE, I've run out!  And I really don't want cat wee anywhere.  Fortunately, I've always kept a small bag, for impossible spills, so I've opened it, and put it right by the existing litter tray.  We'll see what he uses when he comes down again (he's condescended to stop chirping at me and retire upstairs 🤣  What he uses is wood-based, I think, and the stuff I've put down is clay-based.  There may yet be disasters 

themadvix

Is it clumping or non-clumping? If the former, you only need to scoop out the clumps/poos, but you’ll have to change the whole lot for non-clumping (which is a pain and seems like false economy to me, but get that’s what you’ve been given). I always use less it’s non-clumping otherwise you end up throwing tonnes off the stuff away. Sorry, probably teaching my grandmother to suck eggs…. 

Karmacat

Aha!  No sucking of eggs was involved, thank you so much for this!  Turns out I've been chucking out a lot of perfectly good cat litter, then

Right, I'll rejig things  a bit: I've already laid out the cat litter of mine, in an identical plastic crate (it's my First Aid crate, normally under my bed - actual contents strewn all over my bed for now 🤣 ).  I'll distance it by a few feet from the non-clumping, so that it's available, but not first choice.  Thanks!

The thing I've actually been doing is reconciling outgoings and incomings between my ordinary bank and the Virgin accounts I closed down.  It's definitely that they received £3610 from me, but only returned £3010 (plus £8 interest).  I'm writing a letter/email, I'll investigate how best to contact them.  But it *does* mean that it has no bearing on my tax forms; I'll wait a bit longer, just in case the letter I requested from the state pension people arrives (ooh! 2 items of post arrived today, I'll check if that's one of them).  

TLDR: I didn't read the instructions about how to use non-clumping cat litter.  And I've lost £600 somewhere, between Virgin and my bank.  This is why you have to check things 😲😎

Karmacat

Right, pension letter wasn't one of the ones that arrived (piffle paffle from the PostCode Lottery, and the EHIC replacement I ordered, which was very fast).  Cleaned up the floor around the food bowls 😾🙄 and changed furniture around a little bit so I'm not actually encouraging Lovely Moggie to use the currently unused clumping cat litter  I need a really embarrassed smiley!  

Refined the letter about the Virgin accounts, and found addresses to send it to.  I *will* try by phone, very soon, because sending by letter is now dodgy too.

Tax submission is the next thing.  It's complete - but because of the state pension thing, income figure may be inaccurate by £10 or so.  It won't make any difference to the tax due (ie nothing) I'm just feeling weird about it.  Plus the interest earned is much lower than last year - but that's because I made sure I shuffled money away from easy access accounts into ISAs, not because I've forgotten a whole chunk, which is what's weirding me.  I'll look through it tomorrow morning, and if nothing jumps out, I'll submit it then - I'll make mistakes if I do it now.

badmemory

If you are worrying about the state pension amount being different - don't.  When I do my friends I just say the DWP has given you the incorrect figure it should be one week at old & 51 weeks at new.  They won't challenge it because they must know by now.  I ring them every year to tell them I disagree with the figure on the simple assessment & why.  I also do my friends self assessment for him & say just what I wrote above.  If they ever want proof he can provide it because he gets his weekly so its on his bank statement.  This has been going on over 11 years & they have never argued yet.

I hope you track down what has happened to your £600.  If it had got £3k I would have thought they had an account limit of £3k & put the rest in another account but as they have £3010 it looks to me like someone has misread a 6 for a zero.

Karmacat

You're a star, badmemory, thank you so much!  I get the heebie-jeebies every year because my understanding of all of it is so skimpy, but its good enough - and I'm certainly not avoiding paying, I'm just really bad at working things out.

Lovely Moggie has woken up, eaten, and chosen to use the non-clumping, though he knew what my clumping stuff was for 🤣 he's pretty much a star himself, to be honest.  I've tidied up the porch, at least, which had become an obstacle course, as my sister will be here to collect LM on Thursday lunchtime.  Might just watch flightradar 😁