Struggling along as best I can

nannygladys

I haven't been out at all today, renewed my library books on line as they were due, and got on with laundry and cleaning, oh and the dreading cleaning! I managed half of it,  I'll do the rest tomorrow. 
I dehydrated some spinach and tomatoes, then put the tomatoes into olive oil.
I put half a butternut squash into the slow cooker to cook and had feta, spring onions, a bit of cheddar and a blob of onion relish with it. It was quite tasty!! I also made a banana loaf with some overripe bananas and it was a different recipe from my usual one and it didn't rise as much as usual, but I daresay it'll taste the same!
I've also gone through all my seeds and there's just a couple that I need to buy for this year. At the end of the year I'll get some for next year in the sales.
And that's about it really, so I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and take care.
Nannyg 

nannygladys

So it's a couple of days since I last posted and not much has been happening.ive been sitting my dgs and picking dgd up from school as per usual today, the traffic this morning was so busy, I do get home much quicker than going to their house.
Saturday, it rained so finished getting my house back to normal and cleaned the front room.
Sunday, sorted out a couple of drawers, finished a dotty picture off and made a pasta bake with what I had in and there was enough for Monday's tea as well.
Monday, I finished the cleaning off and did little else, it's not worth doing the laundry as it's been raining on and off for days now and it looks like it will carry on for a time yet.

I haven't been shopping at all which shows just how much food was leftover from Xmas and my guests, and I've given both my other dds goodies I can't eat as well! So no money at all has escaped my purse😀
And that's about it really, from what I gather I'm not entitled to any more help paying my council tax even though I get pension credit, apparently it's the wrong type🙁 so that's dental costs and council tax so far I dont get help with, I'm not sure if there is anything else!! The extra £7 a week will help, that's what pension credit I receive, but it's not really going to make much difference to my council tax is it!!! Anyway bgk's pulled up and I'll carry on as usual and hope I can accommodate the new rises as they come in. 
The 'not my cat' seems to be here most of the time at the moment, I have to encourage him to go home when they get home from work, I don't feed him just give him drinks of water and a place to sleep whilst they both work, poor old puss I'd hate him to be out in this wet weather. His owners do know he comes here and are ok with it as it means I take him in whilst they go on holiday🙂
Anyway I'll close now, I get paid tomorrow so I will be trying to rejig the budgets yet again - every penny is having to work for me!! Thank goodness I paid the house off and got out of debt whilst working! I still have quite a bit of food in so I'm hoping to last until the weekend before I have to get some milk etc

So I'm off to bed, the electric blanket has been on about half an hour so my bed should be cosy and I have a warm drink to finish off. Nite nite

Nannyg 

kayannie

nannygladys said:

So it's a couple of days since I last posted and not much has been happening.ive been sitting my dgs and picking dgd up from school as per usual today, the traffic this morning was so busy, I do get home much quicker than going to their house.
Saturday, it rained so finished getting my house back to normal and cleaned the front room.
Sunday, sorted out a couple of drawers, finished a dotty picture off and made a pasta bake with what I had in and there was enough for Monday's tea as well.
Monday, I finished the cleaning off and did little else, it's not worth doing the laundry as it's been raining on and off for days now and it looks like it will carry on for a time yet.

I haven't been shopping at all which shows just how much food was leftover from Xmas and my guests, and I've given both my other dds goodies I can't eat as well! So no money at all has escaped my purse😀
And that's about it really, from what I gather I'm not entitled to any more help paying my council tax even though I get pension credit, apparently it's the wrong type🙁 so that's dental costs and council tax so far I dont get help with, I'm not sure if there is anything else!! The extra £7 a week will help, that's what pension credit I receive, but it's not really going to make much difference to my council tax is it!!! Anyway bgk's pulled up and I'll carry on as usual and hope I can accommodate the new rises as they come in. 
The 'not my cat' seems to be here most of the time at the moment, I have to encourage him to go home when they get home from work, I don't feed him just give him drinks of water and a place to sleep whilst they both work, poor old puss I'd hate him to be out in this wet weather. His owners do know he comes here and are ok with it as it means I take him in whilst they go on holiday🙂
Anyway I'll close now, I get paid tomorrow so I will be trying to rejig the budgets yet again - every penny is having to work for me!! Thank goodness I paid the house off and got out of debt whilst working! I still have quite a bit of food in so I'm hoping to last until the weekend before I have to get some milk etc

So I'm off to bed, the electric blanket has been on about half an hour so my bed should be cosy and I have a warm drink to finish off. Nite nite

Nannyg 

We also get the 'wrong' type of pension credit. This type (pension savings credit) pays a bit extra to top up the state pension, but doesn't let you get help with dental charges, council tax & some other things too. It does seem that we are being penalised for living frugally & putting a bit away for our old age. If we had little or no savings, we'd be better off now in some ways.
It'll be interesting to see how much pension credit we get in April. When we get the increased pension, the pension credit will probably be reduced! 
KA 

WinterWarrior

The way they decide who should get help is very strange. You are clearly in need of it 😕 @kayannie it does seem like the sensible ones get penalised sometimes 😢

nannygladys

I'm not even sure how they worked the pension credit out, couldn't understand their workings out, but grateful for anything. I haven't got much savings as such and the money in my 'pots' attached to my current account are for annual bills, savings for house repairs - well the new canopy and my emergency fund and other bits like Xmas etc It's the council tax that I'm most worried about as besides the g&e is my biggest bill, I do get 25 percent off but it's still a large amount, they certainly don't encourage trying to save up towards things!!!!  but hey ho I'll manage somehow, on the plus side I haven't spent any money this year on anything! I'm still eating my way through the Xmas stock that dd2 bought🙂 but I will need some milk next week as I only have a couple of uht cartons left and I've found some bread flour and yeast and as they are still in date I'll get the bread maker out, I'm hopeless at making my own bread I have tried so many times and I think I've only produced one/2 decent loaves 🤣
Today I started making a leek and potato soup but it turned out to be veggie soup as I added all the little bits from the bottom of the fridge! It's quite good and should last me another 2/3 days. For tea I'm having a mushroom and red wine risotto to use the last of the fresh mushrooms and some of the half bottle of red wine that's on the side, I've found a recipe that calls for red wine vinegar so might try that in the next couple of days and use just red wine in that 🙂
Well it's pay day today so budgets all done until I get paid again. The car insurance is due at the beginning of February and it's gone down and includes car breakdown and still very comparable with others so I will keep with them this year as I used the breakdown twice this last year when with them 😀
The water bill is due at the end of February and I know that's gone up as we informed months ago so that'll be interesting. I have a sinking fund for 'annual bills' so they are all paid for already, I always keep tabs on the bills and each year add them up divide by 12 to get a monthly amount and then the last few years I been adding on 10 percent to cover increases, and so far it's worked, it may an adjustment in a couple of months if things keep rising anymore.
The cat is asleep on a comfy chair but last night as I was going to bed he was crying to be let in, I didn't open the door to him but I do wish his owners would let him in instead of him coming here. If it was snowing really cold or torrential rain then I would have to, I think he's too old to be left out but he's not my cat!!
Anyway that's about it for today, I did some laundry today when it sunny outside and as I was putting the last out the heavens opened and it's been raining on and off since 🙁 so that's hanging around the house now.
Nannyg 

nannygladys

kayannie - I hadn't thought about the pension increases in April affecting pension credit, just my luck to lose it!! I applied last September and it took months to come through, I did it mainly because Martin said pensioners on pension credit would be getting the cost of living payment but as I haven't had any I suppose we're not entitled to that either!! Have you had yours?
Nannyg 

KxMx

It's all a bit complex really what with the various criteria, but I believe there will be adjustments to PC thresholds and entitlements in line with the general pension increases.  

Moneywhizz

Been lurking on your diary, it's a great read. Just on the Pension Credit, I helped a friend apply for it, because Martin recommended it. She was awarded 59p per week savings credit, but apparently will now be entitled to the cost of living payments which are £900 this year. Depending on when you applied you should also get the cost of living payments from last year. My friend hasn't received hers yet either so I am guessing they are just behind with these payments due to the large number of applicants. Fingers crossed you all get a backdated amount for last year soon. You are doing great managing on the limited income you do have. 

WinterWarrior

Poor not my cat. We have two not our cats that pop in for big feeds at random intervals. They can’t come in because of our house cats, but I have a cosy bed and a big roll of fleece set up in a dry bit of the shed (actually an old garage, which is very baffling as it’s a second garage and there’s no way to drive to it) and one of them will spend a few hours sleeping off his feast before he goes home. 

Sun_Addict

I would hate it if my cats sloped off to a neighbour. Not my cat must feel safe with you. A colleague at work ended up with 10 cats, none of them were hers. She believed that cats gravitate towards somewhere they feel safe. 

Isn’t that just typical you don’t qualify for the extra PC help, that would be my luck too 🙄