HOUSEHOLD TIPS NOT FOUND IN WOMAN'S WEEKLY

[Big Kev]

My husband is 71, works seven days a week, for two days a week pay...

Why?

[Tizer]

To keep Maz in her tiaras, jewels and fashionable frocks!

[Big Kev]

But, 7 days work for 2 days pay? Why would you do that?

[PanBiker]

Time to jack it in and take up cooking lessons. Makes no sense to me either Kev.

[plaques]

Probably because its not seen as work. We all do things that don't make any sense to the outsider. That's our individual choice, nowt as funny as folk.
In a similar vein Tripps link to the chess games (Beth) chess I looked at again and found a slide bar that increases the degree of difficulty. Won a couple a games at a setting equivalent to 12 years. Now why would I do that? No physical end result, no profit, just 30 mins of my life wasted on a game?

[Marilyn]

Prior to Covid, he worked four days a week for four days pay.
Covid hit and his boss asked him to work four days a week at half wages. He was prepared to do that for a few months. Then he decided to stay on just working two days a week for now, with the intention of retiring at Christmas.
Around July, the government released a stimulus to the building industry, offering grants to people building homes. He was flooded with requests for house plans and worked every day to keep up with the workload, still intending to retire at Christmas, as the grants were to end in December.
The grants were extended to next March. His boss has asked him to stay on until the end of March ( which he has agreed to do).
So hence, we find he works long hours ( at a job he loves) for two days pay.
(They were due to meet and discuss the way forward, but the recent Covid “scare” meant that meeting was cancelled...)
(And in the meantime, we have sold our camper, to boost the coffers. We hadn’t been away in it for a year anyway.)

[Stanley]

My attitude to wills seems to be a bit different. I had a series of talks with my daughters and we decided between us what we would do with whatever estate I hadn't given away by the time I died. Then I did the End of Life Directive and the two lasting power of attorneys, one for terminal care and the other for finance. The whole idea was to get things sorted out while I was still here and could tell them where the bodies are buried. Up to now it seems to have worked out OK.

[Marilyn]

That’s good. Leaves you in peace to get on with living.
We have done the talks too...
I think things can get complicated when you become a combined family, even where there is a 30 year association....

[chinatyke]

.... The whole idea was to get things sorted out while I was still here and could tell them where the bodies are buried...

You went to the trouble of burying them when you used to keep pigs?

I've just completed transferring our apartments to my wife's sole name. It was all tax free, but if I died as joint owner she would have to pay tax on the transfer. Also my children, step-children and adopted children would all have an equal share claim under Chinese succession law. So now I'm homeless! I agree with you, it is best to get these things sorted whilst we can.

[Stanley]

China, yes, I am in the same position. The LPAs have been activated and Susan, my daughter, as trustee, has complete control over my life and finances. It says something about our relationship that this doesn't bother me in the slightest.
Today's tip is don't forget it's December and despite the fact that winters are generally less severe than they were, there is always a chance of snow getting far enough down the country to reach us so don't go into a decline if and when it does.... (Like this afternoon happen?)

[Stanley]

The next three months are the coldest of the winter. Economise if you must but if you can afford it, don't economise on heating. It's essential for you and the house!

[Marilyn]

At the cost of food, Stanley? Some folks are doing it tough.
We live for free at the moment...those lovely long sunny days that do not require heating or cooling. Long may these days last...

[Stanley]

I think the answer to that is obvious Maz. Of course not!
Today's tip. Exercise is essential but not if it means exposing yourself to very bad wether or even worse, dangers like slippery conditions underfoot. Yesterday I substituted 30 minutes of housework for a 15 minute walk. It would do me just as much good.

[Marilyn]

I respect your opinion. I also respect you have a regular pension and are comfortable enough in your old age
But there are fellow Brits really struggling, and if Landlords do not provide affordable heating, there are those that WILL have to make a choice, between heat and food.
Think yourself lucky.

[Stanley]

Maz, I find it quite breathtaking that you should be lecturing me on the fact there is poverty in the UK. Have you read nothing of what I have written over the years?

[Marilyn]

I think there is a new kind of poor in the UK, thanks to Covid and loss of employment...sorry if you can not appreciate that. Decent families who have always managed to feed their brood will be cutting down on heating that is inefficient and expensive to run. I am not at loggerheads with you, I just think the entire world needs to recognise the new wave of poor, and the worst of your Winter is yet to come.

[Marilyn]

We don’t suffer the extremes of cold ( I think we may have put our heater on about 5 times in the Winter, but only for about 3 hours each time. Same with the cooler last Summer. )
Yet, we are told, we pay the highest electricity prices in the world.
We tend to appreciate the many “free” days when we are neither too hot, or too cold.

[Marilyn]

Maz, I find it quite breathtaking that you should be lecturing me on the fact there is poverty in the UK. Have you read nothing of what I have written over the years?

I was not “lecturing”. Your response to my post is harsh, as usual.

[Tizer]

Maz, I don't understand your comment about `Landlords do not provide affordable heating'. I don't know the situation in Australia but in the UK rented houses usually have central heating from a gas boiler and the tenant pays his/her own bills directly to the energy company. There are regulations covering the energy efficiency of rented houses according to a set of grades. To let a house the landlord must ensure that it meets a certain grade and that garde has been raised recently. So, in effect, a tenant by law must have a house meeting a satisfactory energy grade. But an owner is not covered by such a regulation, so there will be owners potentially worse off in terms of house warmth than tenants. Of course there will be people, both owners and tenants, who can't afford to heat their house sufficiently but that's another story.

[plaques]

My friend who had about four low cost terraced house rental properties said that maintaining the outset gas fires that had been installed to replace coal fires wasn't worth the worry and hassle of maintaining them to the regulatory standards especially when many of the tenants never attempted to take care of them. Attending a seminar on the subject he asked how many people had suffered any sort of injuries etc; The answer was 'no known cases in this area'. Reluctantly he changed them over to electric fires which were far more expensive to run.

[Tizer]

Have they not yet got central heating `up north'?

[Big Kev]

Have they not yet got central heating `up north'?

I think most of us have

Not sure on anyone else but my gas central heating kicks in at 06:00 (20 degrees), drops down to 19 degrees at 08:00 and 18 degrees at midday. It's back on 20 degrees at 15:30 until 22:30. This is costing me around £3 a day now the maximum outside temperature is around 6 degrees. I don't think that's inefficient or expensive, I could be wrong but it's what I've been paying for a few years now.

[Marilyn]

Of course there will be people, both owners and tenants, who can't afford to heat their house sufficiently but that's another story.

That is the story I am referring to...
So glad to hear there are no slum landlords in England though. Banned by law. That is wonderful news...everyone has proper heating.

[Stanley]

Kev, we all run our heating the way it suits us. As I am not out to work but can be in at any time of the day I leave the boiler on demand 24X7 with the stat set at 18C. That is winter and summer. It seems to work and I'll bet our bills are very close to each other.
Today's tip. If you have a good boiler properly installed let it get on with its job. The less you alter it the better it will like it. Funnily enough, most machinery seems to act like that.....

[Big Kev]

Looking at your bills (Energy Matters) they do look similar. Mine isn't actually switched off at all, between 22:30 and 06:00 the thermostat is at 16 degrees. It's a wireless combined programmer/thermostat with 6 settings, I did try setting it for a single temperature but the house never got warm enough for us soft southerners