WCMUT....what cheered me up today

I've often moaned about EDF charging me, what I believed to be well over the odds at £233 / month
Which was also well over the price cap. (It used to be £96 before the prices went crazy)

I swapped to Octopus a few months ago @£167 / month. And was always in credit.
WCMUT?
I had an email suggesting that to stay on target, I should reduce my payments by £20/month.
I'm not convinced we are done with the cold weather yet, so I'll wait a couple of months, and then decide.
 
Last edited:
What's one of them?
 
After the trials and tribulations of the morning, I am making a spicy cottage pie, topped with cheesy, mustard mash. All the cooked ingredients are done, so just reducing down the base meat layer (onions, carrots, redpepper, mushrooms and quite a bit of heat from Sambar Masala and hot chilli powder). The missus is away for another week, so she cannot complain that it is too hot :)
 
andya700 said:
After the trials and tribulations of the morning, I am making a spicy cottage pie, topped with cheesy, mustard mash. All the cooked ingredients are done, so just reducing down the base meat layer (onions, carrots, redpepper, mushrooms and quite a bit of heat from Sambar Masala and hot chilli powder). The missus is away for another week, so she cannot complain that it is too hot :)
Click to expand...
Glad to see the mushrooms, too often omitted in my view.
Enjoy.
 
WCMUT was staying dry on the course. Not even mizzle to dampen the round!
 
I'm not sure if this actually cheered my up or not.

I used to pay £7:50p to BT / month for my mobile.
That's text calls and 2 gb data.

Following on from a post on here, I switched to 1p mobile.
That's 1p / minute, 1p / texts and 1p Mb of data. ( premium numbers are 5p / minute)

The only condition is that you have to top-up with a minimum of £10 every 4 months, whether or not you have used the previous allowance or not.
When I first joined it was £10 / 120 days, but having just topped up, it looks like its now 90 days.

Being a light user I thought I'd give it a shot, 4 months later and I'd used less than 2 quid!
OK so I'll never use that other £8 but its carried over to use, if I want.

The way I look at this is its costing me just over £3 a month, that's still a lot cheaper than BT.
 
Last edited:
Cobra said:
I'm not sure if this actually cheered my up or not.

I used to pay £7:50p to BT / month for my mobile.
That's text calls and 2 gb data.

Following on from a post on here, I switched to 1p mobile.
That's 1p / minute, 1p / texts and 1p Mb of data. ( premium numbers are 5p / minute)

The only condition is that you have to top-up with a minimum of £10 every 4 months, whether or not you have used the previous allowance or not.
When I first joined it was £10 / 120 days, but having just topped up, it looks like its now 90 days.

Being a light user I thought I'd give it a shot, 4 months later and I'd used less than 2 quid!
OK so I'll never use that other £8 but its carried over to use, if I want.

The way I look at this is its costing me just over £3 a month, that's still a lot cheaper than BT.
Click to expand...
Hmmmm! I wondered about 1p mobile for lighter usage users.

At the end of 12 months you would have deposited £40 but used £8 of credit (based on your current figures and extrapolating) so you will have, if I understand correctly, accumulated £32 worth of credit that is non recoverable.

Granted that that overall is costing less than the £7.50 pm with BT......but if my understanding is correct I think it is irksome unless you can find a way, in your usage, to use up your credit. Perhaps by tethering but do 1p Mobile allow tethering?
 
Box Brownie said:
.but if my understanding is correct I think it is irksome unless you can find a way, in your usage, to use up your credit. Perhaps by tethering but do 1p Mobile allow tethering?
Click to expand...
The thing is I very rarely use data away from home and I've already paid for that, so I guess I'll just have to suck up the loss.
Having looked at other options before I switched, this was the cheapest form of PAYG type phone.

Yes, I can still use that "Credit" but have no means to.
 
Last edited:
Years ago when working in computers and staying in hotels my expenses sometimes exceeded my wages but as I paid by credit cards (I had several on the go as each maxed out) and claimed my expenses pretty much as soon as I had any it wasn't too much of a problem but to keep on top of things and make sure my current account didn't go into the red I kept a record of all my ins and outs in a little note book (this was before the internet) and I've done so ever since. It's often been difficult to get my little book to match my on line current account and credit card but recently I've managed to get everything right to the penny and I did so again today :D

It's only taken my 40 years to crack this :D
 
On phones,,,

I'm on a cheap contract now, just a few £ a month. I've stopped using the Virgin land line for outgoing calls now as a mobile is cheaper these days. I can't ditch the land line completely as it's in a package with something I want to keep so there'll always be the standing charge.
 
3 or 4 stacks of Buzzards over the course. 2 stacks of 3 and the other 2 were a 3 and a 4 that merged, parted, merged, parted etc..
 
Today on the walk home we fed the squirrels and we saw and heard them up in the trees on each side of he path calling to each other and they sounded a bit like ducks. I can't remember ever seeing and hearing this before.

Here's one.

DSC04952-C.jpg
 
Jannyfox said:
Grey squirrels can be very vocal. My local ones seem to impersonate either magpies or cats. Very confusing before you pick out what's causing all the noise
Click to expand...

We looked for the cause of the noise and saw the squirrels making it. I don't think I've seen or heard this before but googling tells me we're in the middle of their mating season or maybe they just didn't like each other? These explanations could explain the duck like barking but not why I've not heard it before. Just luck maybe.
 
WCMUT?

I thought I'd try a few Lithops aka living stones / living rocks,
It cost me a tenner for 7 plants, some were a little smaller than advertised ( ebay so no surprise there)
But the guy sent me double the amount, and more than 100 seeds ( that's about another tenner)
Should I complain they were not as advertised? :D

God knows what I'm going to do with them, especially the seeds as they are very slow growing :thinking:
 
  • Like
Reactions: zx9
Al1944 said:
Notified that I will be getting an additional 25 pence a week pension in June :woot:
Click to expand...

I took early retirement in July 2022 and was lucky enough to be on a final salary scheme.... That year my employer awarded a 5% pay rise backdated to April 2022 but those that retired between the April and when the pay deal was settled were left out..... And that p***ed me off, especially as inflation was spiralling upwards and my pension was effectively worked out on my 2020 salary and hadn't had a pay rise in 2021!!!

Fast forward to today and I received a letter from the company.... Apparently they've reconsidered their decision in 2022 and they will be awarding the pay rise to those who missed out, and the pay rise will also be applied to my pension.....

What does that mean for me??? I should receive about £5000 for what I am owed on my pension + about £500 back pay....... and my pension should go up about £100 a month
 
TheFiend said:
I took early retirement in July 2022 and was lucky enough to be on a final salary scheme.... That year my employer awarded a 5% pay rise backdated to April 2022 but those that retired between the April and when the pay deal was settled were left out..... And that p***ed me off, especially as inflation was spiralling upwards and my pension was effectively worked out on my 2020 salary and hadn't had a pay rise in 2021!!!

Fast forward to today and I received a letter from the company.... Apparently they've reconsidered their decision in 2022 and they will be awarding the pay rise to those who missed out, and the pay rise will also be applied to my pension.....

What does that mean for me??? I should receive about £5000 for what I am owed on my pension + about £500 back pay....... and my pension should go up about £100 a month
Click to expand...
Fortunate on both fronts (Final salary pension & back dated correction) but (stating the obvious?) a £5500 combined lump being paid in one month could have tax code implications in the short/medium term?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nod
Finding the BBC "Soul Music" podcast series.

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 - Soul Music - Available now

Available episodes of Soul Music
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Pick a favourite of yours and be uplifted with some wonderful stories :)

David
 
Box Brownie said:
Fortunate on both fronts (Final salary pension & back dated correction) but (stating the obvious?) a £5500 combined lump being paid in one month could have tax code implications in the short/medium term?
Click to expand...

£4000 of that should be tax free because that is what should have been applied to my tax free lump sum..... the other I've calculated with 20% tax deducted....

As for tax-code implications.... That won't be a problem..... unlike when my pensions started paying out when my Tax code was well and truly screwed up and ended that year on 710LX and not 1257L

Since my first post about this I've checked my pension earnings and after some re-calculating I now reckon I should expect about £4000 tax free from my lump sums and a touch over £2000 (after tax) back pay and pension....

When I decided to take early retirement I used the proceeds from an AVC scheme to bridge the gap up to my state pension age..... At the time there was sufficient funds to cover that gap but those monthly payments aren't index linked and thanks to inflation that part of my income is now lower than what my State Pension will be...
 
andya700 said:
After the trials and tribulations of the morning, I am making a spicy cottage pie, topped with cheesy, mustard mash. All the cooked ingredients are done, so just reducing down the base meat layer (onions, carrots, redpepper, mushrooms and quite a bit of heat from Sambar Masala and hot chilli powder). The missus is away for another week, so she cannot complain that it is too hot :)
Click to expand...
I actively encourage my Mrs to added chilli flakes and chilli powder to my Shepherds Pie.
 
Watching the lions at the zoo
And my camera which I received back after canon fixed the locking up issue seems to be all good now
have taken quite a few shots and it hasn’t locked up once hopefully is all fixed now
 
This made me laugh but I also thought... What the...

Me and Mrs WW took someone for a doctors appointment and once they were inside and being seen we sat in the car for a few minutes looking at the old building and people watching. One of my pet hates is people and I have to say they're very often young women who are just glued to a smartphone screen and we did did see that. Top prize however went to a chavvy looking guy who paused just as he entered the building and threw something to the ground. I didn't see what it was but Mrs WW had a good view and said it was a cigarette. Anyway, a few minutes later out he came, picked up the ciggy and carried on smoking. At least he wasn't a litter bug :D Mrs WW mentioned the three second rule but it had been on the ground several minutes.
 
Last edited:
Cors its not flat its inside out. Its certrifugal force that keeps us on the inside face not gravity.
 
So, when we look up and see bright light, we're actually seeing Australia? Because it's always sunny there!!!
 
WCMUT is Mrs Nod's little blue car passing its MOT with flying colours.
 
Nod said:
So, when we look up and see bright light, we're actually seeing Australia?
Click to expand...
No, they are because some "Being" or other poked holes in the lid so we can breathe (y)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nod
Someone I worked with retired and moved to near Dungeness. He wrote that he had joined the flat earth society and his job was to make sure the Dungeness was flat enough. To do that he had to get any pebbles that were poking up too far and put them into beer cans.
Of course he had to empty the beer cans first :beer:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top