What are you all up to
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We're less than half that at £22 pm, but it could well change this year as we've been home for about twice as long as in a normal year.
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Hi
I've had several reliant 3 wheelers in the past, lovely little motors! Tried to buy that one from the coddy last year but they were having none of it.
Proper fish & chips though. I've seen queues of 50+ people there on a Friday evening
JK
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Yes that’s right DK. Every house in our tiny street has been sold at least once since we moved in, we are the longest owning residents in street now. It’s something to consider when we move, likely to have to pay higher CT.
Water meters are another thing for us to mull over. We have resisted so far, mainly because we used to keep animals at home, chickens and ducks, couple of ponds, at one time we had four vehicles that were washed at home. Got plenty of butts now for watering, no livestock, and less vehicles. Might be worth the metering now, and we can change back after within two years if it doesn’t suit.🤔 Plus we are away a lot more.🤔🤔
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I would suggest that it might be a good idea to get some Inheritance tax planning in place Kj. Mind you, you may already have it.
I remember telling my brother to do something about mentioning it to Sister-in-Law to broach the subject with her mother not long after his Father-in-Law had died. They lived in the same house and were due to inherit the house so in his interest as well. He put it off as the subject was so raw but unfortunately his Mother-in-Law passed away suddenly only a few months after her husband died. They were left with having to sell the house to pay a very large six figure tax bill.
So apologies if I'm sticking my nose in but I can see the consequences of not making some contingencies.
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Been a very packed few days.
Both ladies were 'de-stressed so weren't distressed' and the locks made into double quilt stuffing.
. Happy bunnies.
MiL walked the 2 miles into town today with intention of catching a bus back. Buses not running to timetable and only half a service, if that, operating so a non profit making taxi service called on. The frequency of the local service has been decimated. A friendly driver saw her waiting at Bus station in town and explained he has to split his driving between 2 different routes now so only a service for each community and if he goes down with something no spare drivers.
Ongoing saga with energy company still ongoing. I will officially be able to write to Ombudsman on Friday so thought I might give them one last chance and tried to contact the person who rang me 2 weeks ago promising a resolution within a week. Can't get through to him but call handler has promised me a call, on the 2nd.April between 3-5 pm! Not kidding.
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More dental visits today. OH was due to have an extraction next week, but suffered toothache last night so phone our dental clinic before 9:00 this morning and was given an appointment for 11:40 today. While we were out on our morning walk the Dental clinic phone me to say that they'd had had a cancellation with the hygienist and would I like to take it up, so I was in for 11:30, and all sorted by just after noon. OH returned to the car about 12:15 minus a tooth but was very distressed as she'd suffered extreme pain with the first of her injections because of a deep infection in the root of the tooth that was to come out. Fortunately the tooth came out very cleanly, but lots of draining required to clean out the root. Thankfully, apart from a bruise jaw, the worst of the pain has subsided...thank goodness for paracetamol!!
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Started off a bit grey here this morning, but turned warm and sunny midday, so we decided to head off for a bike ride. Stuck bikes on back of car, and parked up a few miles away on Trans Pennine Trail. We did nearly 13 miles of the actual trail, through some of our interesting local locations, including close by Ivanhoe’s castle at Conisborough, trail alongside Denaby Ings NR, we rode under the old railway viaduct that dominates the valley, and had our lunch down by the South Yourkshire Navigation Canal at Sprotborough. This is village Douglas Bader grew up in, his stepfather was the local Rector. Next time we might ride over the viaduct, but it isn’t for those who don’t like heights 😱 Lots of folks out, but plenty of space, and so much nicer than fighting it out on the roads.
OH has ridden the whole length of the TPT, Southport to Hornsea. Interesting ride, some lovely moorlands.
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Fancy marking that poor dog of hours chase you all along the trail!!😁
Glad you had a good day out, ours was slightly different!!😡
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All I can say about water meters is that we are paying about the same for water now (metred) as we were on the old rateable value system. I can't remember how long we have had a meter but I imagine it must be 20 years. In the meantime we have saved a fortune. It is difficult to compare with others as you don't know each others water usage but originally we had two boys living at home so not only extra showers but more washing and of course the daily use of a dishwasher. I don't stint on watering the garden either and caravans/motorhomes take a lot of washing. I would have thought that your water company should be able to give you a fairly accurate comparison without any obligation on your part?
David
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Like, you RK, and B2 and Brue, I have no problems with porridge { porage or however it is spelled
} With a sprinkling of cinnamon, or a small sprinkling of fresh fruit, and semi-skimmed moo juice it can be an every other day food perfectly acceptable to me but I do like variety in my diet !
As for your Fruit and Fibre CY, I cannot find a 'Sainsbury' version, just Kellogg's and Tesco's -- without a box to hand they could be identical but only differing in the boxes.
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It’s the pooch. In the garden last year, he’s trying to lure down the local buzzards by pretending to be dead.
He’s a right comedian, this morning he investigated our newly dug over soon to be barked and shrubbed area. Lovely fresh loamy black stuff..........straight into the lounge, black footprints everywhere, then he’s sat begging for a carrot for being a “good boy” 🤷♀️1 -
Just checked out Sainsbury fruit and fibre
Typical Valuesper 100g (without milk) Per 40g serving (without milk) % based on RI for Average AdultEnergy1597kJ639kJ-379kcal152kcal8%Fat6.0g2.4g3%Saturates3.6g1.4g7%Mono-unsaturates1.1g0.4g-Polyunsaturates1.0g0.4g-Carbohydrate66.0g26.4g10%Sugars16.5g6.6g7%
I don't think you'll be enjoying a bowl 🙁
Edit that didn't post well, but hopefully you'll get the drift.
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Unfortunately, we are not that wealthy Wherenext!
I believe, with the £175k home allowance over and above the per person £325k (?) allowance, a couple will have a total IHT tax free allowance of £1 million. While our home may be worth what we would consider a good bit, houses up here are worth nothing like the same property would be worth in the south east, and we are otherwise fairly cash poor, so we are worth well under £1 million.Many years back, in 1993 and 2003, so now well beyond the 7 year period, we helped our children to buy properties, we also made the maximum gifts to them on marriage, and we have been using our annual IHT allowances since I retired in 2007.........which explains why we do not now have a huge amount of savings! If we ever fall on hard times then we do still have the option to move to a smaller property in a less upmarket area.
Meantime, I have a decent pension, though sadly not fully index linked, which enables us to stay here, pay the Council Tax, and even save a bit every year for when we next need a new car/CH boiler/etc. OH would inherit about 1/2 to 2/3 of that pension.
A couple of years back we made new wills, so now on the first death that person's savings plus half the house will pass directly to our 2 children, though the survivor will be able to stay in the house if they wish.
Having discussed this, we are agreed that neither of us would wish to stay here on our own, so the house would be sold and possibly a small flat near our daughter purchased instead.
We hope we have done enough for our children not to be hit with a large IHT bill!
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Poor Mrs nelliethehooker. I didn't think they removed teeth with infections 😱😱😱. Still it's gone now and hopefully the infection can drain out and shell be much more comfortable.
Nice walk in grey skies this morning. Finished it as the rain started, again!
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Oooo, poor Mrs Nellie😱 I had something like that a few years ago and the pain is off the scale. Hope things settle down quickly now it’s gone, I still carry paracetamol or ibuprofen everywhere with me to this day. Give her a big hug from us👍
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Sometimes it's the only way to sort it out B2. I remember having root canal treatment which went on for months and then one day whilst sat in the chair decided I'd had enough and asked her to take it out there and tgen. Mrs WN did suggest I use a dentist. Only kidding.
The female Dentist (Dentiste?
, Dentista?
) agreed it was probably best and gleefully extracted the blighter. Paracetemols only for the root so I have every sympathy for Mrs N. Mind you she has NTH to put with so a bit of root canal problem is minor stuff.
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As sad and hard as it seems planning for your demise must be done if you own property, even if you don't reach the thresholds. At the moment if your property passes to descendant(s) you can have a million free of IHT but of course that can change with any government. It can go down as well as up.
We drew up new wills, nothing actually changed in the end because we already owned as tenants in common and our half goes to offspring, but our new solicitor has done it without it needing to go into trust as children both over 18 now 🤣🤣. And our right to remain/have sufficient to finance another dwelling stayed. We also did power of Attorney. The day OH was taken to hospital 2 years ago we'd been at a solicitors, our original solicitors retired and handed over to new firm, it was to be just a review that we'd finally accepted the offer of. We didn't feel happy with the young lady we spoke to that day, no reason other than the vibes., and I understood why when I telephoned her to say we wouldn't be doing anything immediately as OH very ill and she pushed very hard - happy to come to his bedside almost immediately and could have it prepared and signed almost on the spot, and nothing was changing in effect 😱. Once things settled found another firm and were very content and comfortable with their advice and service.
Who'd have thought we would casually talk of such sums of money as working folk???
Edit please don't think we reach the limit, but we do live in the South East, and couldn't afford our house now! We too have been here for a long time, 36 years, and so no one knows what we paid, and I've only got a vague idea - but it was a struggle! Can't do a percentage, wheres corner's when you need him?, but house value is about 15 times what we paid 😱🙈. Poor folk of today trying to buy... but they do and then extend!
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I have seen that article before, and agree it would not be simple, but many other countries seem to manage to do it. We already have different rates of income tax in Scotland, and different starting points for the various bands, compared to England and Wales. Those up here who fall into higher rate tax pay significantly more tax than those in other parts of the UK.
The question of how to tax someone who lives here but has no income here will be tricky, though I would query how they can live here and maintain a mansion with apparently no income! Perhaps we could adopt the Lib Dems idea of a 'mansion tax" ?
At the moment, even if you agree with the idea of CT, the way it is done is not fair. There is a maximum band that can be applied, so someone living in a house worth say £250k pays the same as someone in a house worth £2.5 million.
And as you pointed out, a house can be extended and be worth much more than before, but the owner pays no extra tax, so the system falls down there too.
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That sounds very similar to what we have in our wills now.
I think, if I was a bit younger and still working, we could easily afford to buy our house now, but at the time when we bought it it was only affordable due to buying the plot and arranging the building of the house, including doing a lot of work ourselves. We made bathroom units, tiled the bathrooms, fitted the kitchens and utility, and again did all the tiling, laid all the flooring, block paved the driveway, fenced the plot, landscaped the garden.....terraced with lots of retaining walls.......it took us 3 years to finish the garden after we moved in!
A lot of that was paid for out of income as and when we could afford, our mortgage was never more than £45k, which felt massive at the time.
So....in 36 years your house has increased in value 15 times, while in 33 years we have a 4 times increase on what we actually spent, but had added value by doing a lot of stuff ourselves, so a 3 times increase on what it was valued at after we moved in.
The housing market is truly mad in the SE!!
Looking online at price per sq m of houses in different parts of the country, the space we have here would be worth over £3 million in a desirable London area these days.
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Note to RedKite you'd probably be a bit disappointed to see the state of the "edges" the NT is running on minimum people power at the moment. But they're managing to keep things going and some of it looks a bit better for neglect!
Nellie your poor OH, hope she feels better soon, what an ordeal.
Ref wills and poa s etc our eldest daughter has waited nearly a year after her aunty died for her very small estate to be sorted. All due to probate delays in Covid, a slow moving solicitor and and a missing date on the will. In the meantime we persuaded her to "get her own house in order" so she asked another solicitor to do this for herself and partner, wills and poa s. This was done promptly and easily and it's a relief for us!
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Brue I'm glad your daughter has tidied her affairs. Our son has and I'm sure our daughter has too. Even more important when couples aren't married/civil partners in law, both ours are now. Unexpected demise happens to all ages and our demise is the only certain thing in life. Oh hark at cheerful Annie this morning! But once it's done it can be forgotten, but I admit when we first did ours I had a fear I might be inviting it 😢🙁
Covid has been the stock excuse for so long, yes it must make a difference, but hopefully systems are in place by now. Probate, in my limited experience, has been a tad slower over the last year but still only weeks. Slow solicitors are another matter, they've existed since Noah was a lad, only use or word of mouth helps on choice here. Hopefully it will be resolved shortly. At least shes not losing huge amounts of interest, but buying power may be effected.
Wherenext thanks for the update on your power struggle 😉😉. I wondered but assumed you'd post news. I hate to tell you my friend spent years trying to sort hers with Scottish Power and the Ombudsman 😱😤. It's certainly not entertaining when you're involved 🤐
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No sun as yet, but ,love mornings like this, very few people and you can see for miles.
Decorators finished yesterday, feeling quite inadequate compared to all you DIY kings, used to do lots of decorating but it was mostly wall paper way back, now it is all emulsion paint, neutral colours so you dont have to worry about being colour coordinated, new blinds should arrive next week, at present it is like living in a gold fish bowl, hope you all have a great day
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We had a Wren in our kitchen last night! So tiny and agile it took a couple of hours to coax it out.
Nice morning here but chilly.
Our kitchen floor has been chosen but there are ordering delays, happy to wait for warmer weather.
Enjoy your new paintwork Rufs!
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As for your Fruit and Fibre CY, I cannot find a 'Sainsbury' version, just Kellogg's and Tesco's -- without a box to hand they could be identical but only differing in the boxes.
Brian
It's the fruit that that multiplies the sugar levels. I like Waitrose Sultana Bran but the amount of sugar is two thirds higher than ordinary Waitrose Bran Flakes. I saw something online about the ratio of Carbohydrates to Fibre, the theory being that if when you divide the carbohydrates by the fibre you should end up with a ratio one to five or less anything above that you should avoid especially if you want to lose weight. What I read wasn't diabetic related.
David
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