From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

rtandon27 said:

@Greying_Pilgrim - so funny that you mentioned no-egg puds - this link landed in my e-mail in-box - all eggless desserts as I understand there is an egg shortage across the pond!  I use many of her recipes & the wacky chocolate cake is quite good. Just a word of warning - she cooks for a clan and most of the recipes are HUGE north-american size ones!  Great for putting extras in the freezer though, cook once and eat not just twice but several times.

Ha ha - Ree Drummod definitely always cooks for a crowd! 😁  Isn't 'Wacky Cake' from the depression era, or am I making that up?  

Anyhoo, not only have a managed to put away the dried laundry - go me [🤣] - but also I have hit upon a dessert idea, which is actually an amalgam of 3 recipes (wot cud possibly go rong?), to make a sort of steamed apple pudding.  The initial inspiration was from an eggless apple cake.  But I also found a recipe - which I have never made - that was a steamed pudding using dried fruit (no apple) - but would be an "expensive" fail, if it didn't work.  So I decided to used the cake recipe, but cook it as a steamed pudding in my slow-cooker, using the Little Conkers recipe (less the egg).  I think I am right in saying that apple puree can be used as an egg substitute, and that is the basis of the apple cake, so in theory, the ingredients are right, it just depends if the cooking method will work with this set of ingredients.  If it doesn't - then I've no-one else but myself to blame.  Unless it really doesn't set, we should at least get "something" that can be covered in custard and called pudding, shouldn't we?  🫤  Soup will be a riff on Minestrone which will use up some ingredients, including some orzo that has been kicking about in the cupboard for a while.  

Greying X

badmemory

I am going to do a little bit of teaching grandmother to suck eggs here as I am sure you know all this

Have you checked that the amount of interest is actually correct.  Have you checked that they are allowing the £1000 tax free.  Is DH getting 10% of your personal allowance.  Good luck with translating HMRCs gobbledegook.

Greying_Pilgrim

Always happy to have questions posed badmemory - and I haven't got any eggs to suck in the house, so fire away! 😁 the only question I can't answer that you posed is the interest one - I didn't get to read the letter properly (although it is not straightforward or simply laid out - surprise, surprise).  The amount isn't much, so I am reasonably sure that the tax-free allowance has been correctly applied.  It's not something that will happen again/often as we no longer have the capital sum.  But I will double check - plus I need to know if they have reclaimed it from one pay packet, or whether they will reclaim over X months. 
Thank you.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Mmm, that's worrying.  I have just read on the HMRC website that if you are employed or get a pension, your tax code will be changed and they 'estimate' how much investment income you will receive this year, based on what you got last year...... but we will never get that interest again, as the capital (from the sale of our home) has been 'spent' purchasing our current home, so we are very, very unlikely to receive much interest ever again - never mind trouble any allowances. Sigh, anyone think I'm going to be on hold with HMRC for endless hours?

Greying X

badmemory

They cut you off without warning after 70mins.  They say it is best to start dialling just before 8 & keep trying until they open.  Banks have to notify HMRC when you get interest.  My list of question for you would be (after my aploogy) 

What year did you last get this interest in?  Have his previous years tax codes shown this interest?  Was the money in a joint account?  What year does the current tax code refer to, this one or next & if this does it have an X or M1?

I am not sure of my facts on this, so please bear this in mind.  I THINK that if it was in a joint account then half should belong to each of you, but I really am not sure.

themadvix

badmemory said:

I am not sure of my facts on this, so please bear this in mind.  I THINK that if it was in a joint account then half should belong to each of you, but I really am not sure.

 
I believe that that is the case @badmemory.

Greying_Pilgrim

badmemory - those are all pertinent questions, and I need to check actual dates.  The recently received paperwork I've dug out is 24/25 which talks about untaxed interest (in addition to basic level allowance).  X is referred to on this paperwork and  'M1' is on his current payslip. I have read up on both those codes and now sort of understand to what they refer.  

House balance was in a joint account - which was closed, with our house purchase in October 2023.  I will need to check that the amount HMRC are claiming back relates to half of any interest payment - off the top of my head, it seems to be in the right ball-park, although it was accrued over more than one tax year.  

So I can see why the 'charges' would have been presented in 24/25 tax year, and we're happy to pay any tax - but dislike HMRC's policy of always working in arrears, or basing this year on last year.  It doesn't work for things like benefits/tax credits and results in claw-backs further down the line - which isn't always easy to accommodate. And as this only occurred because we (finally) sold our house, without having something to buy immediately lined up, I don't suppose they'd accept a couple of house bricks or a fence panel in payment.......  

Thanks though - your help is GREATLY appreciated.  You've nudged me into actually looking at the paperwork, whereas DH didn't understand it and set it aside......  And I know for a fact that since we've purchase this house there is no way we've breached the savings interest allowance - and the way things are going, never will.  

Greying X

badmemory

HMRC are very very behind.  When they started simple assessment they made me go on that & stop doing self assessment.  Every year since it started I have received my bill in July, so my latest would normally have come in July 24 for payment end January 25.  This year I had to ring twice to actually get it sent in January 25 & because of the rules not payable until mid April.  I suspect in a normal year you (well DH) would probably have heard in June/July 24.  Also each year they freeze the personal allowance it will get worse.  It is no wonder they wanted to turn their phones off for months.

Greying_Pilgrim

OK, so the verdict on the eggless steamed pudding was.... 'good enough'.  I cooked it for 4 hrs on low in the SC, and it was certainly cooked through,  Consistency-wise, it was slightly more 'claggy' than a sponge made with egg, but it may have been that I used more apple puree than I should have.  I had grated my apples, and left the skin on (can't be doing with wasting the peel), so it was all through the batter.  It certainly rose as it steamed, and the dried fruit had plumped up nicely.  I used some apple pie spice (as I had it), which gave the sponge a nice flavour - it was reminiscent of Jamaica Ginger cake, crossed ever so slightly with christmas pudding.  Certainly my worries about it having less flavour without the egg were unfounded.  DH & LG approved, and we each had some with the last of the vanilla flavoured ice-cream, so the freezer was decluttered of that carton too.  The soup was cooked in the PC.  I used the last of mixed frozen veg, and the last 2 supermarket tatties (I have 3 of the 'dirty' wiljas left), as well as the last of the orzo pasta.  So tea was a success at 'using up' odds and ends - and the flavour and palatability wasn't affected, so I'll count that as a win.  LG was delighted and ate every scrap on their plates, so that was a win - and I still have the curries and dhal for another day, and we've potentially a bigger gap between the last time we had curry too 😉

Our near-neighbour reported back with the c0oP enquiry, and apparently, whilst our local group have done this in the past, they are not currently running the scheme - and it would appear that when they did run it, it was done slightly differently - limited to a specific day, not just in school holidays.  So therefore, it's a no-go at the moment.  But thank you for mentioning it on the thread, because I hadn't realised that it was even a 'strand' of the membership offering.  The breadth of knowledge and information sharing on this site never ceases to amaze me, so THANK YOU.

No money spent today, and we've used up some more of what we have.  We're very low on milk, but I didn't want to go shopping today, as I'm only buying some bits to last us until Friday.  

Ta for popping by and for all your support.  Appreciated, as always.  Greying X

Humdinger1

@Greying_Pilgrim just catching up on diaries and getting sucked in as usual! If you're happy to go into detail, it would be fascinating to know at what point you made the sterling decision to step back from the rat race.  Was there a big period of preparation or did events come together quite suddenly? Loving your diary as ever Humdinger xx