Beware the December pay trap!

Floss

Rob5342 said:

Have you checked what value of cash is covered by your home insurance? 

stu12345_2 said:

I have never had home insurance in all my lifetime. except for a time for 3 years when I had building insurance when I had a mortgage on a flat I bought.

Personally I would never do without contents insurance, especially if I was keeping cash in my home (rather than in a bank / building society where it can earn interest).

stewartwilliams

I got paid yesterday and it was around £200 less than what I usually get paid.  
I suspect I've only been partially paid for the month.  Probably the same with everyone else at work.

Should be fine although I'll budget a little more than usual.  Going to be a lot of temptation though with holidays, flights, 1/2 price tack etc.

At least I'm working over Xmas so won't be spending anything tomorrow or Monday (shops being pretty much closed helps).  Should have enough food for Tuesday as well at home and at work.
Don't bother with Xmas or New Year's Eve (day / date changes everyday, so why is this such a big thing?), so no expenditure for either of those.

Rob5342

Floss said:

Rob5342 said:

Have you checked what value of cash is covered by your home insurance? 

stu12345_2 said:

I have never had home insurance in all my lifetime. except for a time for 3 years when I had building insurance when I had a mortgage on a flat I bought.

Personally I would never do without contents insurance, especially if I was keeping cash in my home (rather than in a bank / building society where it can earn interest).

Not would I, it's taking an incredible risk, especially if you are keeping cash at home. Any home can get burgled, no matter how safe you might think it is.

Floss

Rob5342 said:

Floss said:

Rob5342 said:

Have you checked what value of cash is covered by your home insurance? 

stu12345_2 said:

I have never had home insurance in all my lifetime. except for a time for 3 years when I had building insurance when I had a mortgage on a flat I bought.

Personally I would never do without contents insurance, especially if I was keeping cash in my home (rather than in a bank / building society where it can earn interest).

Not would I, it's taking an incredible risk, especially if you are keeping cash at home. Any home can get burgled, no matter hi ow safe you might think it is.

Not just burglary - any unforeseen event could wipe out ones home & contents. Being a tenant just means you don't need buildings insurance, the HA would not replace your clothes / furniture/ white goods / personal possessions etc.

EssexHebridean

While it’s time to get the thread back on track, I would just say 3 things. 

Your money is FAR safer and more secure in a bank than in ANY home.

Put any savings in an interest paying account in a bank with which you do not have any debt.

Not having home contents insurance is an entirely false economy - anyone who has ever experienced the devastation of a house fire would, I am sure, underline this. Being left with just the clothes you stand up in must be horrific - but at least knowing that the functional stuff can be replaced even if the sentimental side of things is lost would be at least on a practical level a reassurance. 

Anyway - we are now closing down towards people’s regular pay day for those who have been paid early. If you don’t already have a reminder to transfer your pay back from any savings account it may have been residing in, time to set one! 

enthusiasticsaver

I have reopened this thread. 

I am not sure why this was closed but to bring this back on topic we still have not touched our pensions which hit our account around 20th December. Our normal payday allowing for the bank holiday on Monday would be tomorrow for both of us but we have no spending plans for today or tomorrow anyway. 

MattMattMattUK

stu12345_2 said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

On the subject of cash I rarely use it these days but for some I know the feeling of cash and parting with it is harder than flashing a plastic card or phone so I do get why some deal only in cash.  Theft and fire would be a worry for me but I very much doubt anyone goes through our bank accounts to see what is in there unless you are a mega earner. I don't think they are allowed to go through bank accounts except if they have a police authority. I could be wrong on that though. 

have you not read in the news the DWP can access your bank account even if you are a pensioner claiming pension credit with housing  element, they want to know exactly what you have in savings, if you are claiming benefits  or help.

I really could not care less if the DWP had a look in my bank account.

stu12345_2 said:

there maybe a time when the banking system fails online and only cash is accepted. for a very short emergency period of time.

Not very likely nope, indeed it has happened so infrequently as to make it a non issue.

stu12345_2 said:

didn't that happen to nationwide customers this week.

Nope. Two years ago Nationwide customers (I am one) were unable to access online banking for a few hour long periods sporadically over a couple of days, but debit and credit cards continued working normally. The more recent issue was a delay processing Faster Payments, which meant that instead of going through instantly they took a few hours.

stu12345_2 said:

I went to a small shop the other day and owner said their card reader had failed, cash only.

That is an unusual situation and more likely he wanted payments in cash than card. I have seen that happen before and when I went to leave the shop owner said he would "try" the card machine, which was then miraculously fully functional.

stu12345_2 said:
I felt very smug as I paid owner with cash.

That is very odd.

stu12345_2 said:
one of my local  kebab shops only takes cash, but I think he is fiddling his takings to the inland revenue.

Indeed a lot of that does happen, people doing jobs "for cash". Most legitimate businesses want nothing to do with cash anymore, it is more expensive and time consuming to handle, card is far better.

booneruk

stu12345_2 said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

On the subject of cash I rarely use it these days but for some I know the feeling of cash and parting with it is harder than flashing a plastic card or phone so I do get why some deal only in cash.  Theft and fire would be a worry for me but I very much doubt anyone goes through our bank accounts to see what is in there unless you are a mega earner. I don't think they are allowed to go through bank accounts except if they have a police authority. I could be wrong on that though. 

have you not read in the news the DWP can access your bank account 

Yes, I have read the news. I've also read about this from other sources. It's only a proposal at the moment. There's plenty of opportunity for the bill to be amended or binned entirely yet.

EssexHebridean

Please people - can we take this discussion to a new thread if you want to continue it - it is not on topic for this thread. 

MrFrugalFever

I will be transferring part of my salary (to cover essential bills) back to my account on Sunday 31st from my instant access saver ready for 2nd January for when the DD/S/O's come out. It would have provided me with 10 days of additional savings and interest this month  
I will be having a couple of No Spend Months from January through til March now.