Dave Thorp's Blog

As many people will know the VAT rate is due to be cut from 17.5% to 15%. What many people might not know is that the monthly fee they pay for services like cable, telephone, sky, broadband, mobile phones and anything else but Gas and Electricty includes VAT and as such should be affected by this cut.

I will be sending the following letter off to my suppliers tomorrow

[ADDRESS]

[ACCOUNT/REFERENCE NUMBER]

[DATE]

Dear Sir/Madam,

I write regarding my service with you and my latest bill which includes a service charge for the period after 1st December 2008. As you will no doubt be aware my bills include VAT charged at 17.5% however the VAT rate is due to drop on this date to 15%.

I assume my current bill will be recalculated to include this reduction in the VAT rate and all future bills from your company will have VAT included at the new rate. Please confirm this to me in writing at your earliest opportunity

Yours Faithfully

[NAME]

Those with kids (or those in the know) will know the Government launched a new scheme a few years ago called the Child Trust Fund which gave a Government contribution and then allowed money to be saved into it

Both Stuart and Alex have these funds with the same provider with Stuart having £500 invested by the Government and Alex having £250 (so far… should get another £250 as well). The problem…..

The money is invested in a stakeholder fund. There are two types of fund stakeholder which is based on stocks and shares and a savings fund which is simply a savings account.

Due to the credit crunch and the various problems the economy is currently having unfortunately this means that both Stuart and Alex have lost money (Stuart has lost £90 so far and Alex in the four months of his life has lost £34).

So I guess what I’m asking is if anyone in the know could advise on whether to either

a) Keep the money where it is in hope the economy stabalises and the stakeholder funds actually start performing

b) Cut the losses and transfer the money into a savings based trust fund

Advise, or failing that stories on how other parents funds are performing appreciated

Most supermarkets now operate a basics/economy/rola/smart price food range. These are normally a cheaper version of their mainstream products.

Normally this comes down to a more basic recipe, cheaper ingredients or some other more basic produce. However there are some products that surely cannot be more basic.

We purchased a sainsburys basics pack of eggs today for £0.54. The normal eggs are £0.80-£1.00. Now here is where the cheaper range gets interesting. An egg comes from a hens behind and once that happens it is simply a potential baby chicken in a shell. So what is the difference between the basic eggs and the normal range.

The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the basic range of eggs come from hens that cannot afford to send their children to private school. Other than that there is no real difference.

Perhaps people should consider that more when shopping and choose the cheaper version of a product when there can be no real difference between that and the more expensive version