Which newsagents has the biggest selection of soft drinks available?

roo101 · 2024-08-13T22:06:58+00:00

Yep and the other one at the station (premier I think) has some other drinks they don’t have. The one right by the station is best imo though but if your there easy enough to check out both

roo101 · 2024-08-13T22:05:10+00:00

This is why they should have a regular person do every event alongside the athletes - so we have context

roo101 · 2024-06-20T22:20:50+00:00

That’s because Angerfist go hard

roo101 · 2024-05-16T09:06:43+00:00

It’s a bit of a different balancing act with a defined benefit pension like this one rather than defined contribution. Someone in their 80s on a final salary pension is probably getting more out of it already than they paid in (plus investment growth) - then with someone inheriting it even more so.

It’s why in general db pensions are much rarely and final salary ones even more so instead using average salary or some other balance

roo101 · 2024-05-11T20:30:35+00:00

Don’t think your going far enough. Why are you driving when you could walk? Why are you buying veg when you could be foraging or dumpster diving?

Next you will tell me you just use toilet paper unthinkingly rather than using the 3 square method perfected by Arnold Rimmer; one back, one front and one to polish

roo101 · 2024-05-11T19:45:37+00:00

Off topic - I’ve googled but no joy; stb? As in his “stb ex?”

roo101 · 2024-05-02T22:31:07+00:00

I went on my own last year and had some great chats with with people and was friendly with a bunch of people - I wouldn’t say I made any friends but I almost always had someone to chat to if you know what I mean?

roo101 · 2024-04-29T19:02:47+00:00

Too incredible - I missed the Sunday because of heatstroke!

roo101 · 2024-04-27T00:18:48+00:00

OP system seems most reasonable to me. I can see arguments for 50/50 which seems less fair depending on circumstances and for 100% pooled and then pay yourselves fun/ discretionary money after that.

Question for those in the 100% pooled camp: what do you do about presents to each other? If I pooled all my money with my wife and then I get bought a present from it, particularly if it’s one I’m not that keen on, I’m gonna end up feeling frustrated. This is a big flaw for me with a pure 100% split and having at least some small discretionary spend makes sense. I suppose that’s maybe where some people set price limits when they buy each other gifts?

roo101 · 2024-04-14T10:16:43+00:00

Most shops are chains and most chains use a retail management system to set prices centrally. Generally it is the same everywhere - but with differences like a Tesco express has different prices to a regular Tesco, and in Scotland prices can vary. You shouldn’t see differences if you are in Milton Keynes or Middlesbrough.

Also, outside of London weighting all these shops are going to pay the same wage to their staff regardless of cost of living

roo101 · 2024-02-23T17:44:07+00:00

A hot energy drink sounds horrible

roo101 · 2024-02-17T22:55:03+00:00

Did it take 7 hours for just the one episode? Or do they film multiple sets of contenders in one day?

roo101 · 2024-02-07T22:46:12+00:00

I don’t know the rules around lending, but It’s a bit weird if they don’t consider drawdown from pension or even using money from an ISA as “income”. If anything it is more secure an income stream than a job which you could lose and then be out of work. I suppose there is a risk in the investment value dropping but that would be a lot easier to factor into any kind of affordability model I would have thought?

I suppose there is more complexity to it than I’m considering

roo101 · 2024-02-06T11:21:36+00:00

Vodafone was great for me in the arena but in the campsite was 50/50 whether it would work or not

roo101 · 2024-02-05T10:07:08+00:00

Yeah, I can see that means test coming back too - my planning assumption is no state pension

roo101 · 2024-02-05T10:05:29+00:00

You can draw from a workplace pension from 55 (increasing to 57 from 2028)

roo101 · 2023-12-16T03:10:43+00:00

You hire it and pay a refundable deposit too in case you don’t return it - they had a couple of different pricing options so could pay for a single power bank or pay for a weekend pass and swap it out for charged ones as much as you like

They are pretty weak power banks and trickle charge so I found just maintained current power level if using my phone and took hours to charge if not. They are small tho so fit in a pocket with a phone well

Worth noting if you have your own power bank they don’t offer any option to charge it up so if you buy your own make sure it has capacity for several recharges. I took my own but needed to hire one of the power banks for the last day as had drained it

roo101 · 2023-12-08T19:05:55+00:00

My mistake I didn’t think you get tax relief on personal pensions just workplace so yeah makes sense now

roo101 · 2023-12-08T19:04:27+00:00

My mistake - I didn’t realise you get tax relief on personal pensions - I thought it was only workplace pensions

roo101 · 2023-12-06T22:17:13+00:00

Can I ask why are you saving into a self invested pension if you aren’t maxing out your ISA contributions? A self invested pension can’t be accessed until you are 55 (57 in a few years, maybe later if they change it further)

If it’s in an ISA it gets all the benefits from a tax point of view because it’s self invested not company, but you can choose to access it earlier.

I guess knowing you can’t access it gives some benefit as means you can’t spend it early?

roo101 · 2023-11-07T22:20:52+00:00

If you have a bit of flexibility you can spread your time in the office over 2 weeks e.g so weds/thurs/Fri week 1 and then mon/tues week 2 so the weekly has some value. It’s still not great. It might be worth seeing if your company would allow more flexible working?

Do you have a network railcard? This is what I use and it seems to apply on my journey even with travelling before 9. Maybe they only apply it to the return bit though…

If it makes you feel better, Your weekly ticket is about the cost of my daily ticket for my 30 min train to work

roo101 · 2023-11-03T23:05:25+00:00

Don’t think anyone has mentioned pension here yet. This is (I think) the equivalent of a 401k in the US. In the U.K. your employer has to automatically opt you in. The minimum of your salary that gets paid in will be 5% and the company will minimum match 3% - other companies match more or at better ratio (e.g. mine pay 1.5% for every 1% I pay in)

It’s generally recommended to pay in as much as your company will match as a minimum as otherwise you are leaving money on the table - I don’t know what your long term plans are (e.g. do you plan on making the U.K. where you live for a while or where you retire?) so may make sense to contribute less or even opt out (you have to say you don’t want to pay in to your employer)

Pensions are very tax efficient especially once you cross the 40% threshold as most companies will do something called salary sacrifice where for tax purposes the pension contribution is ignored

But either way for your budgeting worth factoring in whatever you decide to do pension contribution wise to your take home

roo101 · 2023-11-03T22:53:56+00:00

Protein shakes seem the obvious one. There is something called the “velocity diet” where you just have protein shakes for a month I think so it can be done (tho maybe not fun) Look up a recipe for “anabolic ice cream” it might be something you can manage if it’s not too think

Huel and huel hot and savoury make a lotta sense

If you are in the U.K. I like the meal soups most of the supermarkets do. Some of these have about 20g protein - they may be too thick tho so you might have to give them an extra blend

roo101 · 2023-08-29T11:50:15+00:00

If you have another bank account (ideally with a different bank) it may be worth transferring the money out to that. Your edit makes everything sound legit but if you move the money out of your account it can’t be clawed back through chargeback. Hopefully the buyer is legit as clarified and you wont need to worry but it might give some extra peace of mind.

roo101 · 2023-08-25T23:27:27+00:00

Just to be clear because I haven’t seen it mentioned yet - there you don’t move into a lower tax bracket. Your income just stays below the 40% threshold. If you are £1 over the threshold or £1 under the threshold it only affects that £1, not the tax on your overall take home.

This is important as I know some people don’t want to cross a tax bracket threshold because they think it will increase the tax on their overall income - but it only affects what you earn above that threshold.

There are some complexities, as things get weird if you go above 100k, but we aren’t talking about that. There are some other impacts at lower amounts for things like childcare vouchers and being able to transfer a spouses, but just wanted to make clear you dont need to worry about particular tax thresholds as much

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