No Wonder That I Worry...
I have just come across the bill for what this house costs regarding the Community Charge for the year and the annual amount comes out £1,346.19 and when I come into Mum's small savings even with 25% discount that they say that I will be entitled to that will still mean that I will have to find approx £1,010 and then approx £100 a week rent so altogether that will be around £6,200 annually.
Now that means Mum's money isn't going to last very long...I still have to find the money to pay for food and utility bills. Once I spend £1,000 I am already at the threshold where they say that I should be helped. But I believe you only get £1 for every £250 you drop under the threshold. So if one year like this will really affect how much help I get and how much I have in the bank...The sooner I get to talk to the CAB the better as just when I think that I am not doing too bad I see something like this and start to worry again...
How does anyone survive? I do hope that I can jeep a roof over my head or that I don't have bailiffs coming in taking my very few possessions away.
Most of what I own is second hand and years old, they'll not get much for any of what I have...
Now that means Mum's money isn't going to last very long...I still have to find the money to pay for food and utility bills. Once I spend £1,000 I am already at the threshold where they say that I should be helped. But I believe you only get £1 for every £250 you drop under the threshold. So if one year like this will really affect how much help I get and how much I have in the bank...The sooner I get to talk to the CAB the better as just when I think that I am not doing too bad I see something like this and start to worry again...
How does anyone survive? I do hope that I can jeep a roof over my head or that I don't have bailiffs coming in taking my very few possessions away.
Most of what I own is second hand and years old, they'll not get much for any of what I have...
posted by The Great Gildersleeve | 7:23 pm
17 Comments:
Well, one thing's for sure, Gildy.
Worry never solved anything.
You WILL manage. Just take care of the pennies and you'll be fine. Stop stock-piling your cupboards. You probably already have enough to last you until the next millennium.
I was thinking about your accommodation. You've been worrying that you may have to leave. Well, that might be a good thing. Especially if you moved to somewhere nearer to the shops, bus stops, library etc. And you wouldn't have to be subsidising the taxi company. You must be their best customer.
Quite by chance, I have a bus stop almost outside my house. I just couldn't manage without it and, if I ever have to move, I'll jolly well make sure that I'm close to a bus stop again.
All you need is a one bedroomed flat. That would mean much less heating and no gardener to pay. There! I've just saved you hundreds of pounds!!
If only VQ ;-)
The gardener might cost around £60-£100 a year but I understand that the housing association will do basic grass cutting for free(I believe)but they don't rake the cut grass up after they've cut it!
I am two streets from the shops now, I don't think that there are any rentable properties any nearer to the shops...
A one bedroom flat...would there be room for my cd's, tv, computer, washer, microwaves etc...I suppose I'd need a tumble drier if I did not have a garden...
I wonder how small it would be? If there would be a kind of kitchen/living room area...
Now if the flat was further away from the shops etc...the taxis could cost me more...it's a difficult one...
I hope to have at least a year to decide what to do next...I don't want to be rushed...and no I am not dismissing your idea BTW :-)
A one bedroomed flat doesn't mean one room. Of course you'd have a kitchen and living room too.
And, if it was further away from the shops and transport then you mustn't accept it. You might be amazed what's available once you start looking. It's something else you could bring up with the CAB.
Anyway, as you say, you have a while to think about that but I just wanted you to realise that it could well be a move for the better.
I pay £135.00 per month council tax in Surrey Anthony. We have 2 bedrooms, but this is an expensive place to live.
I tend to agree with VQ in that moving may give you a fresh start and may even be better in the long run, probably not something you can contemplate right now.
Something I have noticed with men (during my cleaning career) and it is this, they seem to keep their houses exactly the same as when their partners were there (eg. lots of little trinkets, cuddly toys and the like, things their ladies collected). Women on the other hand seem to want to redecorate, get rid of things that remind them of sadder days, or reminders of bad relationships.
I myself am in a relationship with someone who had a very acrimonious divorce from his wife and yet his home is still filled with very odd things (to me) like collections of teddy bears etc, the kinds of things I might imagine a young girl having in her bedroom. He seems oblivious to it all!!!
I am sure that (if I lived with him) and we broke up, I would want all his darts trophies out of my house pronto!!
I can understand people wanting to keep special photos but honestly in some of these houses you can barely move.
Of course I am not averse to a little collecting myself!!!!!!!!!!!!! :oD
Cx
PPS. Hope I have not affected or offended any of the "isms" in my comments, just an observation. :)
I can't see anything to be offended over Carol, there's probably a lot of truth in what you say.
I'm looking around my home and there isn't that much that I could call personal keepsakes for either of us...
I agree with VQ. I've said the same about moving to a smaller place. You must live in a posh area to pay that much CT, or I live in a very poor area!
I've also commented on the amount of money you've squandered, yes squandered in the past month. It made it look as though you wanted to spend so you would get benefits, but I don't think it should work that way. You say people are called benefit scroungers, you are making yourself look like one.........because of the way you have shopped to spend what must be your own money. Just hold on, and stop impulse buying. You bought the combi microwave oven without considering why you were buying it.......it wasn't necessary was it.
I don't have half the things you have, and don't feel the need for them, neither am I on benefits. I am all for the benefits system, or was until this government changed things.........but I am against anything I regard as trying to pull a fast one, and the way you have been spending for the sake of it, doesn't rest easily on my mind.
The ovens hopefully will cook quickly and save power. I had a very small amount of money so what I have purchased will have to last me years and probably will never be replaced.
My computers are second hand. Do you think replacing a 30 year old tv extravagant?
Spending for the sake of it? Having a stock of essentials like household cleaners/washing powder/toilet rolls/first aid items/food is strange?
Buying jumpers from charity shops, dressing gown, slippers, pyjamas, thermal underwear to keep warm and avoid using the heating looks like pulling a fast one?
Trying to keep the phoneline and internet going so I'm not looking at four walls and just a radio for entertainment.
You really are hard Anon...there's no guarantee I can do what I am in the future. I haven't been spending for the sake of it, sorry if you think that way.
The few I have talked to don't see it your way.
If I buy a sofa and mattress which is my next idea I don't see it as a luxury they need replacing, I have springs coming through the mattress, had Mum still been here we'd have been replacing them...
Can you not see that we've made do with for many years, do you begrudge a little comfort in my few years that remain?
Oh come on Gildy, you must stop it !You'll have a nervous breakdown at this rate . Decide you're going to give yourself a year to move into a one bedroom housing association flat. It will have room for all your things & the council tax, heating etc will be much cheaper.
Insist it's somewhere you can get to local shops & amenities on a mobility scooter.
Your Mother would be very upset if she could see you going on like this! Take charge of your life, & make some sensible decisions , please !
Benefit sroungers are few and I am in poor heath which is different to the kind of people I hope you are trying to compare me with...and the way things are reported in the media doesn't help...
Generally, I think I am coping reasonably well...I may feel better when I know how I am financially and get some help from the CAB...
I thought you'd already been to the CAB once & they'd reassured you that you weren't going to be as badly off as you thought.
Also, who said you've only got a few years to live ? You WILL worry yourself into an early grave if you don't take a few deep breaths & try & look at things logically & calmly.
No one knows how long they have...the CAB need to know of more details regarding my finances and the last visit even they were having difficulty advising hence me going back in a approx a fortnight...
Most of the time I am calm but writing thoughts on a blog can sometimes give a different impression...
I get mixed up which anon I'm replying to but the one who thinks I'm pulling a fast one, if I was would I talk about it on here, I think I am quite open and honest on here.
Read what I said properly will you?
It was more a warning than an accusation. On one hand you're pleading poverty, and on the other spending money like water. Of course you need to buy essentials, but you look at the gimmicky things you've bought......as well as the booze as you call it just because it was on offer. As an almost non drinker, why buy that amount? That and the combi oven did it for me, completely unnecessary.....and then the store cupboard you've turned you dining room into. Why??
Start thinking things through properly...........and add up what you've spent up to now. I wouldn't call that a "small" amount of money, for someone with nothing. It's you who keep mentioning about being over the limit for your benefits, so you are planting the seeds.
The gadgets I have purchased have cost me very little...the tv's were on offer but also replaced items decades old...one I mentioned is 30 years old so needed replacing. It should've been done whilst Mum was alive...
The Combi/Micro is an improvement on an ordinary Micro and again was on offer and its to save using big oven when cooking for one...the same with the halogen oven. So a lot of gadgets?
Spending money like water? Not really. I have eaten a lot of what is thwe fridge/freezer and tried to keep up a reasonably healthy diet of fruit, meat and vegetables.
My store cupboard in money terms has not cost much nor is it as big as you seem to believe, its very basic, milk, soups, baked beans, speggitti, rice, cereals, jam, tinned fruit, rice pudding, custard, sliced mushrooms etc...all with very long shelf life.
OL so the booze was on offer...again perhaps I don't buy it usually because it costs a lot and so when reduced I am able and its meant that I can have a drink and an odd drink makes me sleepy and relaxed.
Spirits and wine are going to still be a luxury. I mean I can get 30 bottles(not the largest size)quite small actually, of cider for two thirds of what I might pay for one bottle of Vodka.
It would cost me more if I was to frequent a pub. I don't know how big you think the dinning room is...especially with a fridge/freezer and tumble drier in it...and I've been moving things around and now most of my store cupboard is in the pantry. Out of sight!
I don't buy well known brands on most of what I eat or clean the house with...nothing that is advertised on the TV, even what I wash my clothes in costs approx £1. So I do try to get loads for my money...
I cannot see me buying many clothes, what I have will last me years and lagtely the shirts and jumpers have been from charity shop and each item has only cost 99p each, the trainers I bought recently were not a designer brand and were purchased because mine had worn out.
I often make do or mend items...so really I am quite frugal...The CAB don't see me pulling a fast one and the few remaining relatives don't either. Nor have I set out to use Mum's money for such purchases.
The gadgets I have purchased have cost me very little...the tv's were on offer but also replaced items decades old...one I mentioned is 30 years old so needed replacing. It should've been done whilst Mum was alive...
The Combi/Micro is an improvement on an ordinary Micro and again was on offer and its to save using big oven when cooking for one...the same with the halogen oven. So a lot of gadgets?
Spending money like water? Not really. I have eaten a lot of what is in the fridge/freezer and tried to keep up a reasonably healthy diet of fruit, meat and vegetables.
My store cupboard in money terms has not cost much nor is it as big as you seem to believe, its very basic, milk, soups, baked beans, speggitti, rice, cereals, jam, tinned fruit, rice pudding, custard, sliced mushrooms etc...all with very long shelf life.
OL so the booze was on offer...again perhaps I don't buy it usually because it costs a lot and so when reduced I am able and its meant that I can have a drink and an odd drink makes me sleepy and relaxed.
Spirits and wine are going to still be a luxury. I mean I can get 30 bottles(not the largest size)quite small actually, of cider for two thirds of what I might pay for one bottle of Vodka.
It would cost me more if I was to frequent a pub. I don't know how big you think the dinning room is...especially with a fridge/freezer and tumble drier in it...and I've been moving things around and now most of my store cupboard is in the pantry. Out of sight!
I don't buy well known brands on most of what I eat or clean the house with...nothing that is advertised on the TV, even what I wash my clothes in costs approx £1. So I do try to get loads for my money...
I cannot see me buying many clothes, what I have will last me years and lagtely the shirts and jumpers have been from charity shop and each item has only cost 99p each, the trainers I bought recently were not a designer brand and were purchased because mine had worn out.
I often make do or mend items...so really I am quite frugal...The CAB don't see me pulling a fast one and the few remaining relatives don't either. Nor have I set out to use Mum's money for such purchases.
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