Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Elisheba

What an utter faff with HMRC! All for want of a DOB🙄. Glad it has been sorted out now 😁.

I have 2 hopefully quick questions on unrelated topics that I thought you might have the answers to...

1) I have a cat who vomits about once a week, vet said not to worry about it, but my new house has a lot of light carpets. As I know you also prefer eco solutions, have you found anything that stops it marking the carpets once you've cleaned up the solid waste? I've tried a damp cloth and bicarb, then a hoover the next day, but it's not 100% successful.

2) I bought 80 odd summer bulbs on a deal on one of Martin's emails. They have just been delivered but there are no instructions. Do you know when I should plant them out by any chance? Would it be now, or should I wait l?

Thank you 😊.

PennysIntoPounds

What an absolute nonsense. I would also have gone ballistic. And I will if I don't get a satisfactory outcome to my complaint (waiting ten years now for my record to be updated)!

Glad you had a productive and pleasant weekend- hope you took selfies.. 'here's me with a goldfinch, here's me with a long tailed tit' 😁

Tescodealqueen

Sadly it is the low paid front line civil servants who bear the brunt from the poor public affected by the  decisions of those at the top of the chain , when neither side of those involved in the call have had any opportunity for input into the often daft ideas dreamed up by those who have had little or no experience of trying to either perform or conform to those daft ideas. 

I am glad you managed to finally get your issue resolved Foxgloves

badmemory

Have you ever tried registering for NHS online.  Don't even try if your computer doesn't have a camera or you are straight in the bin.

Sun_Addict

Thank goodness it’s sorted 🥳 I don’t find the Government Gateway easy to get on with when I’ve used it. As a civil servant myself I will say the words lack of funding from the government to update systems that are antiquated and don’t “talk to each other”. So frustrating for staff who are constantly banging on about it as well as the general public 😖

cbsexec

I have a major issue with identification.  Often the only choices are passport or driving licence or maybe household bill in your name   If you don’t or have never been abroad or learnt to drive it is impossible.   Had this problem trying to open bank account for teenager.  And of course no bank branches to pop into as all closed!  I’m sure it is mainly well off individuals working in London with fast broadband that insist on these rules without looking at all possible scenarios.   If you are low paid all these things including credit could be out.  I’ll get off my soapbox now.  

badmemory

I have passport, driving licence, bills in my name but NHS don't care because my computer doesn't have a camera.  It seems to me that it doesn't matter what ID you have they always want the one thing you don't have.

2Scratters

@cbsexec I've had that issue with Nationwide GD has a bank account but can't open a savings account  work that one out because I can't.

 I have a work colleague with similar problem with her work pension "they" have put the wrong DOB in as it transpires, 7 years down the line and she has not been able to see her projection. They are quick enough to take the money. It is still not resolved and she qualified for that pension last year and SP in 4 months. People dealing with these important things are atrocious in their attitudes towards errors. (I blame the schooling culture - no red pen marks highlighting where you got it wrong - that was implemented some years ago) gets off soap box quickly.

Have a good week all


2 Scratters xx

foxgloves

Hello Monday Money Savers,
Well it does sound very much as though several of us have encountered verification problems - so frustrating. It was very nice to wake up this morning & realise that my course of private dentistry is over & the 10-month old HMRC problem is finally resolved. I don't doubt that, like other key public services, HMRC has been underfunded & experienced cuts. Let's face it, when you hear a government minister say 'savings', you can replace that word with 'cuts'. Also, I don't expect those in high places made any staffing allowances for the stampede to buy back those NIC extra years. It was well publicised & a significant bulge in this element of HMRC's workload should have been anticipated. It was acknowledged after so many people complained that there was insufficient phone infrastructure in place to deal with all the calls, but of course once us VNIC-payers had got past the initial phone call stages, the greatly increased workload would have then fed into other departments. As there was apparently a 60-week backlog on the department which corrects people's digital records, I can only assume that many other people had basic errors on their personal records come to light once they tried to implement buying back their missing years. We laugh about the 'Computer says no' thing, but only because most of us have experienced it at some point & it is just utterly frustrating going round in circles. Hope everyone else who has mentioned an ongoing HMRC problem manages to get a resolution very soon.

Well, onto today. Monday is a very domesticated day at Foxgloves Manor. Much as when I was working, I like to use Mondays to set us up for the week ahead. Today's small budget-helping bits & pieces:
*2 loads of laundry done. No pegging out as raining, but had washed 2 big bath sheets & have arranged them over the top of the rest of the laundry on the heated airer as covering does seem to speed up drying time....& no way am I actually spending money on a purpose-made cover.
*Made a sourdough - currently in its basket on its 2nd proving. 
*Baked a batch of Cranks country biscuits - Yes, they are biscuits, but I don't think they could be described as UPF, as they are made from wholemeal flour & oats, butter, unrefined sugar & a little milk. 
*Use-it-ups - made soda bread to use up some elderly yoghurt. Had a piece for my lunch with cheese, some walnuts & an apple. Put a piece in Mr F's pack-up for tomorrow & have frozen the rest. It will make a meal with some chunky home made soup at some point. Prepped, blanched & froze half a cabbage which had been forgotten about.
*Booked piano tuner - have stretched to an extra month, as I have other February budget commitments, so have booked for early March.
*Car Tax paid for the year. I noticed that it is now possible to pay by credit card without incurring a fee. I was pleased about that, as £170 will chuck a few loyalty points towards my next vouchers when they next sent them.
*Very few surveys around today - or if they do appear, there is more techy faff required than I feel inclined to do. Just opted out of a £9 one because it sounded as though it required an actual old-style mouse, rather than a tracker pad. Shall do those which are available while I have my laptop on anyway.
*Easy meal tonight - Malaysian fish curry with basmati rice. I am using salmon fillets. Only requires half a can of coconut milk so will freeze the remaining half for next time I want to cook this recipe. It works nicely with prawns too. If I had a cold, I would defo want to cook this, as it is full of fresh ginger, garlic, spices, lemon, etc.
*Progress knitting my cardi. It is still not growing quickly enough as I need to spend more time on it & probably less time fannying around online. I would like at least to have the armhole shaping set up by tonight so I can knit & watch TV without finding I have actually sat & knat several rows of **!?*!%*!
Oh & I have just remembered I need to talk to @Elisheba about cat spew. 
Onwards,
F x

foxgloves

Hello @Elisheba,
I don't think I am going to be very much help to you. We do occasionally have to clean up cat puke, like any cat owner, but we have almost all hard floors downstairs, where such incidents usually occur, so it isn't such a problem. We do have carpet upstairs & when we had our previous carpet, which was a light natural shade, it was defo a problem. I think this was because we (well, Mr F really, as I am not very good at anything puke-related) would clean up any incidents with dilute cleaning solution & a few drops of disinfectant, but we probably needed to go back & attack it afterwards with a little dilute carpet cleaner, so as to get right down into the fibres. We now have a mid-grey carpet which doesn't show marks as badly, but would still approach clearing up cat puke in the same way. Thankfully, I can't recall the last time we had a carpet incident deal with.

Re summer bulbs......How unhelpful not to include instructions. I don't tend to grow summer bulbs as my borders are very cottage garden in style, full of perennials, crammed together, which tend to take over once the Spring bulbs have finished, so apart from some alliums, which flower late Spring, I never think to add Summer bulbs because I wouldn't have  room for them. I assume that the actual species you've received are labelled, so you know what they actually are? If so, you'd be best to look online & see what the planting advice is. There is usually a pretty good planting window for bulbs.
Sorry I can't be more helpful on either of your queries. Hope I can do better next time!
F x