£38,600

Poll Tax eh...

I'm just wondering about the State Pension for my wife. How much does she need to earn each week in order to qualify for the full amount after 10 years...

I mean 10/30yrs pro-rata being the full amount

Seems a bit odd :




So does that mean as long as she earns over £125/week she'll be ok or is there something else she needs to do ?

Poll Tax as I was to know it was something that was tried out in Scotland and it seemed to be then the the true meaning of this was; a tax per individual of each person in the home at least that is how it worked here at the time.

My one stop shop for just about everything is the Aldi stores we also have Lidl in my town which is also good but I do prefer the former, when I am at the checkouts I cannot help but notice the trolleys of some of the young Mums waiting in the line, so many of them still go for the big brands one example being Heinz Beans, they must be around 3 times the price of the Aldi brand Bramwell and yet this one usually tops the rest in taste tests? another would be Lurpak Butter Aldi own brand is Norpak doing a taste test the former may just have the edge over the latter, however at close to twice the price it is not worthwhile, then there is the big names in washing powders which are now mostly in Liquid forms the likes of Persil and Fairy are twice the price of supermarket own brands, it happens that I worked in the Textile industry for 7yrs, most people use twice as much washing soap than is required, especially in these times as Machines today only use half the water in each wash they they once did, fabric conditioners are just a complete waste of money, these were formulated way back in the 1950's designed to be a water soluble lubricant to be used on the raw cloth, this was to keep the needles on the now high speed sewing machine from overheating and causing fires, this greasy film does leave the clothes feeling softer but it attracts dirt even more, some cleaning cloths will say on the packaging not to wash them in conditioner, if you were to wipe you car windscreen with any cloth impregnated with this you will notice the greasy film it leaves especially when nigh time driving.

Working a little smart with your weekly shop massive savings are to be made here, another tip I can give would be; to be careful of the weights on many products, although to be fair most supermarkets will now say on the price label how much an item is per Kilo, but I suspect many do not care to read this?

I'm kind of thinking on my feet here? but I do wonder if a new form of house taxation can be introduced and that would be something similar to what they do with Motor Vehicles, This Tax would be based on the carbon footprint of the home obviously there would have to be variations per region according to the average ambient temperatures in any given region, of course many living in older traditional properties that are difficult to insulate would have a problem with this, there would have to be some form of subsidy in such cases, but think on the knock on effect of this? overall housing in UK would become much greener, the necessity to provide solutions to improve these older properties would likely be resolved. People living on their own on what was once a large family home that they cannot bring themselves to move from will like have a reduced CF and it would be more fair on them.

I would welcome any form of constructive criticism to this idea.

First thought would be people in the south, where it's warmer, would be better off...

Hadn't thought of that - might be worth investigating whether we could pay up a few years here ...

Ah the wisdom to spot a piss take! I remember them being called " the rates" back in the dahy

And the number of sheets per roll on toilet paper, kitchen roll etc

Well John I did mention that the regions would have to be varied according average ambient temperatures that exist there, so the south would pay that little more to subsidise as poor people in the far north, but can you imagine a system like this, how much this would cut down greenhouse gases that are emitted from the homes, I never did mention this but it almost goes without saying this would be based on the energy use of each individual house.

Having a solar system fitted to my house I would see a benefit with this system, although solar does not give the great saving that all the companies selling them lead you to believe? likely at best and working smart with it I will save around £250 in a year, however there is lots of new Tariffs on the market where if you have battery's added you can buy electric much cheaper in off peak hours around 7p a unit, but where I do score is I get a decent price for the electric which I export into the national grid this only being available in the early days and now no longer at this same high rate, so I get a payback of around £800 per year, this particular year it will be closer to 900. My Electric Bill is around £750 for the year which includes the standing charge.

Yes, with all the recent earthquakes etc. I was looking at solar myself but like you say without batteries it's only half the solution.

I suppose you could use off peak power to charge/top up one of these things:

Well I do not get quite so serious about the number of sheets, but I do go for quality and perhaps pay extra for this? I only use Asda Shades which will be above mid range in price, with the cheap one you need 3 sheets per wipe or you will poke your fingers through it, with the Shades two is enough, much the same applies to the same brand Kitchen roll. I only go for the cheaper supermarket brands provided the compromise on quality is barely noticeable, Aldi Bramwell Beans is a great example of this they are superior to most other brands and that includes Heinz, to enhance the flavour of any beans it is better to reduce the sauce, by either heating in a frying pan especially after having fried the bacon, or overcook in the micro, storing the your tins upside down and you do then have to scrape the bottoms of them.

These do not work all that well in the Philippines especially during Earthquakes during such times when the quakes hit and the CHB homes crumble they are then left with no support?

Not suggesting cheap is best, but always good to do a sheet comparison between the brands, we normally and have been doing for a few years buy Bramwell sauces ie Ketchup and their other sauces are as good as the perceived better brand names.
Turning tins upside down my granny taught me that way back in the 70s and I taught my kids it probably in the early 2000s

Oh I also do this sheet comparison, where you will find ones with 320 and others with 360 but the latter is more likely to have thinner sheets so you then use extra? Asda Shades are 320, however their rolls are extra large and have to be squeezed onto my holder when new, simply the best.

Btw there is so many products out there now where you may find a little smiley face on the packaging, this denotes that the product can be ingested causing no harm to you and you may even find this on Toilet rolls, the Shades have this.

you can double the value if you use both sides.

No. They have dual charging options and normally a fast charge mode too - so you can use your gas generator or normal electric supply to re-charge the battery quickly when the sun isn't shining

hmmm... were you bought up on a change of underpants every 4 days too ?

Well I was to do a bit more research into this bog roll and the matter it is required for, I was to weigh the Asda brand and it happens that one of my Tenants uses an Aldi one so that was also weighed.

Asda Shades weighs in at 220grms per roll and this has 320 sheets, the Aldi brand looks good and is quilted just like the former, this has 400 sheets per roll (this has got to be better according to some?) but this only weighs 120grms added to that it has no smiley face on the packaging, now as I do not know the price of either one this is not a proper comparison but as can be seen; the Asda one comes out top for quality with that low risk to poke through the fingers.

But I must admit I was rather disappointed to find the Shades Kitchen Roll only weighs in at 190grms, this has to be looked into further?

Now it happens that any bog roll that has passed through my fingers or my fingers have passed through? and there has been many, this has been subjected to quite vigorous arduous testing by myself, ably assisted by the copious amounts of home brew I drink, so mostly it is not a dump I partake in but more of a big whoosh and a splat followed by a huge sigh of relief, to wipe this somewhat corrosive deposit and leave the bristles sparkling clean requires a superior quality paper, well the Shades beats all for this in my opinion. Now on a Sunday morning after my rather indulgent drinking session on the Saturday night this is subjected to the ultimate test, for sure there will be more than one whoosh/splat there is liable to be several, but this does have an additional benefit as it gives a good test to the household Carbon Monoxide Alarm once I hear that I just know I must have had a good night?

I must admit when I get up in the morning I often feel a bit rough until I have this whoosh/splat, after that it only improves as the day goes on so each day I have always something to look forward to.

Non Drinkers never have this benefit when they get up that is as good as it gets for them and they have nothing to look forward to?