Struggling along as best I can

WinterWarrior

Growing a melon is very impressive….just add sugar if it’s not sweeet enough 😁
The party sounded great, good move on choosing cake 😋

nannygladys

Poppy811 - thanks for the welcome back, it feels good to be back on the wagon.

nannygladys

Winterwarrior - I've had the melon and it was very sweet 🙂
Not sure if I will grow them again though!

nannygladys

Well since I last wrote I haven't spent any money on food etc but I have bought another warm jumper, a few bits for Xmas and treated my youngest to lunch the other day🙁 it doesn't take much to go off the rails!!
So I have to do a bit of food shopping today mainly everyday stuff, bread, eggs, milk etc I've written a menu plan for this week mainly using food from the freezer and revised the budget - well just making sure I have enough money for the shopping, thankfully I do and I get paid Wednesday, so all is well there.
From when I get paid I'll be back to frugalling as I added the receipts up for food etc and found I'd hit my annual food target plus more! 🙁 to be honest quite a bit has been put into stores for later times but even so I'm really surprised how much it was, at least I haven't gone into debt thank goodness. So not sure how to carry that forward but my thinking is to go back to the £10 a week but increase it to £15 and then start a fresh on Wednesday with it and putting it separately in my signature, sorry for waffling on but writing as I'm thinking 🙂 yes, that sounds like a good idea.
I have sorted a new deal on my phone and internet which will start when the other one finishes, so that will be less money for both, just have to sort out this pension credit claim, I still haven't heard off them and they were supposed to get back to me before September 29th!!! I might try phoning next week as I have quite a bit on this week and I need to sort some paperwork out. I'm still not sure if my g&e is correct so I'll email them as well, I've been online but can't seem to find the answer to my question. 
So today I'm looking after youngest dgs for a couple hours then calling in Lidals on the way back to do my shopping so I'd better have an early lunch and get going as I have to be there for 1pm and it takes 1/2 hour so I'd better moving!
Nannyg 

poppy811

You may already know about this but London 1 put me on to this,  if you are on a low income water companies

 can put you on a reduced tariff.  I have just applied so fingers crossed. Just wondered if this might help a bit

KxMx

As a single person household and low user, I did a financial assessment with my water company when I moved 4 months ago.
Standard Tariff came back as cheapest, but they recently emailed to say they'd changed the terms of a LITE tariff and I've now been moved onto that, which means a 25% discount off my bill.

So it's always worth checking periodically to see if anything has changed their end. 

I believe Pension Credit have massive backlogs currently so you may want to take their timescale with a large pinch of salt.

If you do get an award then that may well qualify you for a discount water wise, here's hoping. 

pollyanna_26

Not sure If I've ever poster or replied on your thread Nannyg but can agree with posters re companies reducing payments for many who fit the eligibility .

Unless it's already been mentioned a lot of utility companies have a prioriy list a customer can choose to be registerd on .Whether through age, disability or living alone or somewhere isolated many offer the help my internet provider does too.

it became known more a few years ago when there were outbreaks of forest fires and on moorland and other beauty spots some were triggered by extremely hot weather but many by careless daytrippers leaving behind those disposable BBQs still smouldoring and triggering what became huge fires threatening nearby homes many in villages, wildlife  farms  and rare flora and fauna.

Helicopters were having to draw consant supplies of water from nearby reservors holding domestic suppliesthen the water compny had to deliver water to all those affected.

Same with electricity outages , gas supply problems after an explosion when gas supply needs turning of and the company need to contact those on the priority list and offer heating solutions usually electric heat and something to cook on if they can;t use gas.

I don't know if you're  already in reciept of Pension Credit ,Or awaiting a decision on a first time claim. As others have said there are big backlogs with DWP.They became far worse with the start of the pandemic and the demand has grown even higher in the last few years.

I was in the last group of women to get their state pension at the original age. The goalposts were shifted after that and women had to worker longer to reach the new pension age, I'd never been in debt . My 25 year motgage was paid in full . I was told by letter to phone the nearby Pension dept. Someone picked up the phone and straight away a lovely woman  answered and said she'd run through the process quickly and did I have any questions.

I told here I was aware I'd have a reduced State Pension ND Was worried if I'd manage on that.I had been granted  Carers allowance because the early retirement was due to the fact my youngest daughter needed full time care and that left me short of my full pension

She asked if no one had advised me to pay the lower cost NI credits which meant I would pay the cheaper stamp and not lose my pension. No one had though I was already recieving a small amount of carers allowance.

asked if I knew about Pension Credit I hadn;t so she explained it and said it would raise the level of my pension.She said she could  add it to my pension  claim and it did make a big difference.

With rising costs I noticed Pension credit was a qualifying benefit for the 2 part COL payment, After making the claim the higher part went in to my current account and a few weeks ago I had to claim the 2nd lower amount from a post office.

Unlees there's another change the Winter fuel payment will be enhanced but things are changing so quickly that could change.

polly

 

nannygladys

poppy811 - i will definitely look into the water company I pay every 6 months but every penny is going to count a lot more now, so thanks for that I will have a look this weekend as I'm out every day somewhere, family visits etc 😀 thanks again

nannygladys

KxMx - it would be lovely if I was eligible,  when I put the claim in it intimated that I would be due a small amount, but I'm not getting excited about it as things are changing all the time. They need more staff I reckon to cope, I always feel sorry for them  I know they have a job but I bet they get quite a bit of verbal abuse doing it.🙁 Anyway I will wait until next month then and perhaps call then.
Well done getting money off your water bill, I will definitely look into it , 'if you dont try, you don't get' used to be my mantra 😀 but I seem to have forgotten it lately.

nannygladys

pollyanna_26 - i am an early 50's baby so was lucky I only worked a couple of extra years but I enjoyed my job so it wasn't too much of a hardship. Like you to I had no debt, paid my mortgage off but no private pension or or so I thought! Anyway I'm waiting to hear back from pension credit but according to them I should be allowed a small amount but I'm waiting upon a phone call them to discuss some shares I have, I actually had a dividend of 93p (I think it was) this year!!!!!!!! And it was the first one for many years!!!!!!!!! 
Anyway, I'll just have to be even more frugal until I hear 🙂 I'm pleased you qualify for some help, it takes some of the edge off it, just not enough but it's the same for many people now and not just us oldies.