My journey to a debt free life

HairyHandofDartmoor

foxgloves said:

I expect that some of the many people already living chaotic & difficult lives have found their issues have significantly worsened during the pandemic. They probably won't have been able to access much of their support network such as maintaining any positive family ties, mental health groups, addiction services, etc, but still have full access to alcohol from supermarkets. Meanwhile, I'm sure the local drug dealing network has been only too happy to step in.
There is going to be a lot more than a damaged economy & a mountain of plastic waste to deal with once this is over.
F x

I completely agree Foxgloves and it shows the vital nature of these support services which are underfunded at the best of times and are probably not available at all (or only available online) during the pandemic 🙁 .

Onebrokelady

Omg I've just got my council tax bill and it's gone up by £20 a month 🙀🙀🙀 I've phoned the council and spoke to a lady who says it's correct. She said it's only gone up by 5% bit I was only paying £156 last year, she kept going on about me getting a discount for the first two months of last year because DD was a student until June,then my bill was altered from June when she finished uni, that's apparently why I paid an extra payment in February or my monthly payments last year would have been more. I don't understand what she was trying to explain 😟

Onebrokelady

so last year I paid £127 for April and May then from June to February I paid £156 which adds up to £1,814 which doesn't make sense 🤷‍♀️

Onebrokelady

I'm having a relaxing day today to make up for working Mother's Day 😀I was going to go into town but decided not to bother as I can go in on Thursday if I desperately need anything. The main thing I wanted to look at was vermin control products, I was woken up at 3 am this morning by the small elephant that is living in my loft,I don't know what it was doing but it kept dropping something on my ceiling 🙀it sounded like it could possibly have been a nut or something, I am now declaring war because I can't be having my sleep disturbed like this 😡 I am going to look online to see what I can find and I'm also taking one of the cats up with me next time I go up there, I might leave them both in the loft overnight to see what happens 😂
When I got home yesterday DD had done the washing and hoovered everywhere so I don't have to do that today,she also did the ironing 🎉🎉
 I had two books for Mother's Day and the biggest box of Lindor chocolates I have ever seen 😍😍 the books are the one I posted about previously called The Overstory  which I have started reading and the latest Rivers Of London book which I'm looking forward to reading when I've finished the current book.
Its a sunny day here so I've taken B out for our walk where she met her love interest again, he's a bit pushy though so I'm not sure if they would get on 😀 I know I am laughing about it but this dogs owner has no idea of dog walking etiquette ,I saw him coming so put B on her lead so she wouldn't attack his dog, then I stood with her on a short lead to wait for them to walk past, he didn't call his dog back despite the dog standing over B, she was subtly growling and would have bitten the dog if I had loosened her lead, she was actually choking but he just wandered past and muttered sorry as he called his dog away. I've decided next time this dog approaches her Im just going to let her do whatever she wants and he will get bitten, she is on a lead his dog isn't so it won't be my fault 🤷‍♀️I'm so done with people not calling their dogs away despite me warning them she will bite or standing there trying to put myself between their dog and her while their dog gaily runs around out of control, they can quite clearly see I am trying to keep her away from their dog but  just say it's ok he/ she is friendly and just wants to play.....well B doesn't want to play and she will attack your dog if you don't call it away, I even used to put a yellow bandana on her but they still took no notice, I might start using that again though as an extra warning just to cover myself 

milann

Would it be worth phone again about the council tax somebody else might explain it better. I don’t get why people let their dogs pester a dog on a lead. 😡
Well done to your dd for sorting the house so that you can chill today 👍

Sun_Addict

My dog is the same, she hates other dogs running up to her and snaps if they don’t go away. There used to be an old bloke on our park with a staffie who used to run up to other dogs growling and baring its teeth. The dog even knocked me off my feet once and he still refused to acknowledge he had no control over his dog and put it on a lead. Not seen him for some time thankfully. 

OMG to your uninvited lodgers. I hope you can find a solution. 

I don’t understand your council tax bill either. 

HairyHandofDartmoor

Your council tax bill sounds confusing. I've heard that council tax bills will be going up a lot this year due to pandemic costs. I'm in Band C too but we pay ours over twelve months to make it more affordable. I think ours is £146 a month now.

welshspendthrift

@Onebrokelady our council tax has gone up by £5 a month so £50 more! Not sure what we are getting for that except that the free green bin now has to be paid to be collected! So OH says he will make a compost bin 😀 as refuse to pay. 

enthusiasticsaver

Onebrokelady said:

Omg I've just got my council tax bill and it's gone up by £20 a month 🙀🙀🙀 I've phoned the council and spoke to a lady who says it's correct. She said it's only gone up by 5% bit I was only paying £156 last year, she kept going on about me getting a discount for the first two months of last year because DD was a student until June,then my bill was altered from June when she finished uni, that's apparently why I paid an extra payment in February or my monthly payments last year would have been more. I don't understand what she was trying to explain 😟

Actually I think you paid £1658 for 2020/2021? 9 months at £156 and 2 at £127 when presumably you got the single persons discount as your DD was away at Uni. Are you Band E? I am assuming your original council tax bill was worked out with a single person discount (25%) and then when your DD finished Uni they had to claim the discount back over the remainder of the year and they spread it over 9 months rather than 8 to keep the monthly payment lower.  Confusing way of doing it but I suppose the object was to stop the monthly payment going up considerably.  

Onebrokelady

enthusiasticsaver said:

Onebrokelady said:

Omg I've just got my council tax bill and it's gone up by £20 a month 🙀🙀🙀 I've phoned the council and spoke to a lady who says it's correct. She said it's only gone up by 5% bit I was only paying £156 last year, she kept going on about me getting a discount for the first two months of last year because DD was a student until June,then my bill was altered from June when she finished uni, that's apparently why I paid an extra payment in February or my monthly payments last year would have been more. I don't understand what she was trying to explain 😟

Actually I think you paid £1658 for 2020/2021? 9 months at £156 and 2 at £127 when presumably you got the single persons discount as your DD was away at Uni. Are you Band E? I am assuming your original council tax bill was worked out with a single person discount (25%) and then when your DD finished Uni they had to claim the discount back over the remainder of the year and they spread it over 9 months rather than 8 to keep the monthly payment lower.  Confusing way of doing it but I suppose the object was to stop the monthly payment going up considerably.  

I'm Band C and it gets even more confusing because my friend is also band C and get single person allowance but last year she only paid £ 106 a month whereas I paid £123  except for April May and June where I paid £127