Eating a Vegetarian Elephant

Cheery_Daff

Stepping away from work always give a bit of extra head room, doesn't it? Lots of plotting and scheming going on here too over the holidays. 

Is this the general WFH tax adjustment thingy? I confess I never got round to deciding whether I wanted to do it or not, and now I think it's too late! 

South_coast

It's not too late Cheery, and you can do this tax year as well now 😀

Cheery_Daff

Ha, thanks! I was put off by it saying you had to have extra expenses of working from home. We don't really, since Mr Cheery would be here anyway, so there's minimal extra heating/lighting, nothing extra for internet, and work have supplied equipment... Saved a fortune on commuting as well... However, looking for my government gateway ID to check did prompt me to check my state pension forecast while I was in there so all good!

Chiglepig

Morning.

It's the 'general wfh tax adjustment thingy' @Cheery_Daff and I don't think working from home cost us more in heat and light but it did in other things - although as you say offset by not commuting and curing DH's daily latte fix! Ultimately though it's available and was so quick to do it would seem silly not to.

Good point about this year, @South_coast

I'm back at work just for this morning - well actually, I'm still on leave but a training course came up that I REALLY wanted to do - I've just done the pre-course work sheet on self-care and guess what - doing work on leave isn't contributing to my workplace self-care! I will take the half day back next week.

I got a bit down last week about not having focussed on financial planning earlier, but I've given myself a shake, that wasn't where my life was in my 30s and most of my 40s hasn't been disasterous, just not very mindful. Anyway, I'm now focussing, rebalancing mortgage OPs with investing, and doing the actual maths on what we need rather than saving what I could and hoping for the best! I'll put in an appearance on Fireside Chat later.

Cheery_Daff

Better late than never I say! I'm still only just getting my head round what type of pension I have 🙄 All our MSE ways will have stood us in good steady though anyway I reckon 😁

Enjoy your course!

misslolu

Chiglepig said:

I got a bit down last week about not having focussed on financial planning earlier, but I've given myself a shake, that wasn't where my life was in my 30s and most of my 40s hasn't been disasterous, just not very mindful. Anyway, I'm now focussing, rebalancing mortgage OPs with investing, and doing the actual maths on what we need rather than saving what I could and hoping for the best! I'll put in an appearance on Fireside Chat later.

I don't think that feeling ever goes away to be honest, I'm in my 20s and I feel the same way about not investing or saving from when I was in my early 20s. But as long as you enjoyed your experiences along the way, there is no point regretting.

Porridgecat

Chiglepig said:

Morning.

It's the 'general wfh tax adjustment thingy' @Cheery_Daff and I don't think working from home cost us more in heat and light but it did in other things - although as you say offset by not commuting and curing DH's daily latte fix! Ultimately though it's available and was so quick to do it would seem silly not to.

Working from home definitely increased our cat food bill! Once the furry blighters realised we were at their beck and call all day we had constants demands.

Chiglepig

Argh!  I wrote a long comment yesterday, which I apparently didn't post. Summary is:

Cats are gits (but I love them).

Nothing much to report on the finance front!

Chiglepig

Going to try to remember to hit 'post comment' today!

DH has had his request for phased retirement accepted, so from the end of this month he will be going down to two days a weeks, but claiming the majority of his pension whilst still accruing a very small amount for when he retires completely. Seems like a very satisfactory arrangement . Not quite sure what that will mean in terms of actual pounds and pence yet though.

DD gets her first pay today, so her allowance has gone down - I'm continuing to pay a little because the job is a term time one, so I'm helping smooth the gaps and she will be going to college in Sept, so this is a contribution to that. if as she would like, she gets another job around this one, I'll stop the allowance altogether. What this means is that I gain £30/w to go into my ISA.

Other savings will be stopping paying into the healthcare club for the cat - £11.50/m, I'll stop the dog membership (£13.50, once his year is up in May).

Chiglepig

No, scratch that, I've just checked my maths, it's still cheaper to pay monthly for the dog - but not the cat.