Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

badmemory

I now budget in more than they are allowed, so any bill is a win, although sometimes the figures look a little OMGish.

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
Let's try & have a bit of a catch-up. Thanks as always for all your comments & contributions. Yes, I agree that water & council tax bills cut it fine. I don't do an annual budget as such, so it doesn't affect me in that sense, but I do like to get all the new payments onto my bills spreadsheet in good time so that I know what I am doing, so I too would welcome both bills arriving at the end of February. I think I have mentioned I have served as a councillor? I remember the meetings where we would be looking at setting the Town Council part of the overall Council Tax bill. I don't remember this being particularly late, but ours was only one small part of it. The District Council would need to discuss it at their meeting, there was the police service precept too, then the biggest part of it, the County Council part of the bill. I suspect that this is why it is a late one, as there are so many different elements. I have never stood for election on any of the bigger councils (not for want of people asking me) because I found my local experience here in Tory Town so frustrating. It was interesting seeing how things like Council Tax come together though. 
Thanks for your sympathies re my HMRC problem. @Cheery_Daff - it sounds like it could be a similar thing to your partner's problem maybe. I honestly thought that after 10 months & FINALLY getting a very apologetic letter from a caseworker after I raised an official complaint 7 months ago, but I found I ran straight into another variant of the same issue yesterday afternoon & I absolutely went off on one. Honestly, if we had a swear box, I would seriously have no Personal Spends until at least July. I rattled off a pithy letter escalating my complaint, but have not yet posted it. I was just about to stick a stamp on it & go straight down to the post box when I heard a key in the lock & Mr F had arrived home early. He calmed me down a bit & said that there were other things I could try & if I sent off the letter, it would quite likely be several more months before it got back to the top of the pile. I can't really explain without going into the whole saga - I may include the edited highlights once it is finally sorted out. For the next couple of days, I am prepared to listen to Mr F's suggestions. If they run into the same brick wall, I will be putting a stamp on that letter quicker than Soot's daily stampede into the kitchen for his elevenses. Anyway, enough of that.
Talking of Soot.... @Onebrokelady - Me too! Yes, he is a hugely vocal cat. As for Ash, I discovered on Wednesday where my pencils have been disappearing. Ash has been robbing them. I saw him climb up on the high kitchen stool, reach over to take my pencil off my notepad on the dresser & I rescued it just as he was about to jump down & run off with it in his mouth. Goodness knows where he has been putting them!
@PennysIntoPounds - Sorry for late reply on this. You kindly reminded me that the Co-op are getting rid of their dividend points scheme. I had heard this too, but I don't think it will apply to our Co-op. Ours is a regional one & kept its own independence in terms of its board, etc, so it runs its own dividend scheme. Customers earn points every time they shop & at the end of November, a Christmas bonus is added ready for festive shopping. We then just spend the points as though they were currency. Extra points on fairtrade & local produce so a good place for buying wine & beer. I do have a membership card for the national Co-op but as the vast majority of Co-op shops around our town are the independent regional ones, we hardly ever use it. Hope our scheme continues. I will be looking out for news of changes, just in case.
Anyway, better get today's post on.
F x

foxgloves

And here's today's post......
Oh my giddy trousers.......definitely NOT a no-spend day, but in some ways, a very welcome one because this morning, I had my final session at the dentist (the private one who has been doing my implants). I now have 3 lovely new porcelain teeth & a financial hit of over 6k. I did, of course, only commit to the work being done (there were very few options according to my regular NHS dentist, whom I trusted on this info as he doesn't do implant work so consequently had no 'chips in the game'). I had some money left from my inheritance after our big house refurb project was finished & we decided it should be split between sorting out this dental problem & starting off our new Car Fund, so that is what we did. I would have put the dental work on a credit card or loan back in the day & am so glad I didn't need to do so. I would have had the work finished earlier had it not been for my illness last Spring & all the time taken up with medical tests, which delayed all the dental appointments I also needed for implant work. Anyway, I am so glad it is finished & although our Dentist/Opticians Savings Pot looks a whole lot smaller, it is actually good to have that sum moved out to pay the bill, because it gives me a much better idea of the true state of that Pot & we can move onto booking much needed optician appointments. I think a pair of new varifocals each will about clean that pot out, so re-filling it will be a savings pots aim for this year, for sure.
On route home from the dentist, we stopped off at our favourite garden centre for lunch. Mr F seemed more reticent about this than usual, which I discovered was because he currently has -63p left in his Personal Spends!! Oh that did make me laugh! I said that I had thought to treat us to lunch out to celebrate the end of the dental work & all the city centre trips it has entailed & that I'd include it in Feb's budget (tomorrow is my Big Budget Day - our monthly budget cycle runs from 27th to the 26th)......so suffice to say that his view on having lunch out changed somewhat at that point & he tucked into panini & salad along with me, with a shared flower pot of chips & much needed cup of coffee!
We shared the house cleaning, using minimal products & washable cloths as usual & I've had an afternoon clearing emails, surveys, etc. I have cashed out of Ips*s for another £10, which I will pay into the Leisure & Entertainment Pot when it arrives. Just one PA survey done today, but am up to over £35 so might meet my target, I'll see,
Planned the rest of the weekend, which will mostly involve town & gardening. I am definitely planning to de-gunk the pond on Sunday, once we have done the Big Garden Bird Count. Am not intending any of this to be spendy, thank goodness, after today's bill.
Enjoy your Friday nights, everyone. Hopefully talk to you tomorrow if there's been any budget-helping activity.
F x 

Sun_Addict

Sorry to hear you’re having so much trouble is it the NICs again. There seems to be something odd going off as I had an email reminder to submit a self assessment. Mr SA used to submit them when he was self employed and uses my email address. I wrote on his behalf reminding them he hadn’t been self employed for 11 years and it was agreed a few years ago he didn’t have to submit them. He received a letter a couple of weeks later confirming this was the case which I’ve filed away just in case. I wonder if some old information is coming up somewhere on systems and triggering letters/emails to be sent out automatically. 

Good news the dental work is done and dusted. 

badmemory

That is interesting about the self assessment.  I used to file for a friend, but he hasn't needed to do for a couple of years now.  He said something last summer about having a letter about filing & I assumed they were just after confirmation that he no longer needed to file.  I asked him to show me the letter but he never did so again I assumed it was nothing.  I can't even ask him because where he is most of the time in Wales has no signal.

PennysIntoPounds

 we have done the Big Garden Bird Count. Am not intending any of this to be spendy, thank goodness, after today's bill

Saving this for you in case you have a particularly exciting beaky Bird Count 😁

I am so very pleased for you that all the dental work is finally done, well done you for all your bravery and effort- and for having such a big spend covered! Eating a lovely lunch out sounds like a very fitting celebration

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict - Yes, it did start with the voluntary NICs. Despite lack of communication, that part of it did go through ok & my state pension will be very much the better for it - but the process opened up a can of worms because of an error on the records they hold for me. Despite following all their instructions to the letter in order to rectify the situation, I have come to the conclusion it would actually be easier to fly to Venus on a winged peanut while simultaneously knitting a spaghetti onesie & singing 'I will survive'. 
I really lost patience with it all yesterday. 
F

Blackcats

Glad your dental work is complete and the final payment has been made.  

A friend has been waiting for progress with HMRC for 9 months after being assured that they would have a response within 2 weeks over 4 months ago.  They have a weekly rant about it when we catch up for a coffee and so it came as a shock/pleasant surprise when they told me the matter had been resolved.  Mind you they had a payment into their bank 5 days before the confirmatory letter arrived.

it's so frustrating being unable to talk to the right person who can follow the issue through until completed and the inordinate amount of time that these things take.  Perhaps you and other MSE chums will have moved to the top of the queue now that my RL friend's issue has been rectified.

ladyholly

foxgloves said:

@Sun_Addict - Yes, it did start with the voluntary NICs. Despite lack of communication, that part of it did go through ok & my state pension will be very much the better for it - but the process opened up a can of worms because of an error on the records they hold for me. Despite following all their instructions to the letter in order to rectify the situation, I have come to the conclusion it would actually be easier to fly to Venus on a winged peanut while simultaneously knitting a spaghetti onesie & singing 'I will survive'. 
I really lost patience with it all yesterday. 
F

This did make me laugh. Foxgloves heading into space on said winged peanut etc.  Not to mention visualizing a knitted spaghetti onesie. you do however have my sympathy with the inefficiency by HMRC. All government departments seem to suffer with this. Something is wrong somewhere.

CRANKY40

Just a quick note to say that if you are corresponding with government departments it's probably worth the extra to send them registered post as someone the other end has to sign for them and then they are delivered to the correct department who also has to sign for them. It makes it a little harder for them to get "lost".