Learning to walk before I run

rtandon27

Yikes Ed!  I had a similar shock this month when I realized that I will be paying higher level tax on my savings interest as I did not put enough of it into our fixed term ISAs!  I'd forgotten that having gone back to work fulltime, I'd be over the threshold.  Must do better this year.

edinburgher

Och - that's pants @rtandon27

I pre-emptively saved myself from that issue this afternoon after realising that I'd end up facing the same predicament next year if I used taxable savings. £18,000 moved into my ISA. Turns out it's a flexible ISA, so I can pay another £17,000 back in if I find it lying around

edinburgher

Looking at May energy usage today, a 44% overall drop from the month before, gas was 70% lower! We always use less as the weather improves, but that was something else.

For context, that's just over 1/2 of our monthly direct debit, 1/3 of our charge was the standing charge 🙄

Greying_Pilgrim

ed - good work with the energy bill! 

ref Gas usage - this past month, our standing charge for the month came out at over £1 more than actual cost of the gas we used 🫤 The energy companies don't make it easy to conserve use for money saving, do they? ☹️

Greying X

themadvix

Not an option for everyone, I realise, but we’re close to pulling the trigger on getting a heat pump installed - the saving on the standing charge for gas will rack up quite quickly. (Appreciate the expenditure will take a while to cover, but we’re not just doing it to save money.) 

Suffolk_lass

edinburgher said:

I think I'd have had to do that by the end of the tax year, no? This is all new to me, I will be avoiding it next year!

Yes, I did not say but I mean the current and future years, the deadline for returns on which is the January after the end of the TY

edinburgher

@themadvix - we'd 100% go for an ASHP if we had room for a tank and hadn't just bought a new combi boiler 

themadvix

By tank, do you mean the hot water tank? We currently only have a small one and are hoping it doesn’t need to be bigger for MCS rules (actually I should ask Mr MV about that as he’s found the Octopus install guide…) - we have an electric shower so rarely use much hot water from the tank and don’t want it taking up the whole airing cupboard (which I use for way more than linen - it’s a key part of my harvesting 😂). 

Frustrating when the boiler goes unexpectedly - totally get that you just needed to replace it!

edinburgher

Yes, hot water tank, we don't have one 

edinburgher

£2 cashback at TCB for £5 spend, I got a supermarket voucher