Financial Matters

With David Frederick FCCA | Marcus Bishop Associates | marcus-bishop.com

Three Stay –At-Home Financial Activities

The current state of uncertainty has been challenging for some homestayers, whilst others are battling with what to do - a residual group have already checked out, according to the conversations over the past month. Whatever your position, there will be periods when windows of time opportunities arise and the risk of boredom begins to float in the mind. To help reduce this risk of boredom and from discussion with homestayers, three stay-at-home activities are provided below: 1) Short-term planning 2) Personal financial review 3) Self-assessment 2019-20 preparation These activities are set within the backdrop of uncertainty and a look forward to beyond business as usual, post stay-at-home policy. The uncertainty and the arrival of the word, ‘furlough’ in our lexicon, continues to place unplanned pressure on household finances, irrespective of our starting point. The past month has seen businesses engaged in plans for their short term (the next three months). This short term planning can also be extended to individuals and serves as the first of our three stay-at-home activities.

Short Term Planning

The end date of this stay-at-home policy may be unknown but what is known for certain is that the policy has led to varying degrees of financial cost, pain and agony. Many households, have experienced notable changes in their cash inflows and outflows. Hence now is the time to understand and seize control of your financial position. The recommended method is the preparation of a cash flow forecast for the next three months. Some individuals already do this, so they can advance to the second activity. However, if your personal finances are still in limbo, it is not too late to start. Preparation of a personal cash flow forecast only requires two tasks. Firstly, for each of the following three months identify your expected monthly cash inflow and their sources. Then repeat the same task for your expected monthly cash outflows. Combining your monthly cash inflows and cash outflows will produce your monthly net cash balance. In other words how much cash you have in your pocket! When planning for cash out flows, it is imperative to resist the temptation to plan as though life is the pre stay-at-home period.

Personal financial review

Stay-at-home is an unusual period and your financial review calls for unusual behaviour. The unusual behaviour required is to challenge every item of expected cash outflow. At this point copies of bank and credit card statements for the past three months may prove helpful. Every item of cash outflow should be subject to the ‘is it essential test?’ This period is not the time for procrastination or sentimentality. Procrastination can seriously damage your financial health. The application of such a stringent financial review should result in your awareness of every planned item of cash outflow. Now is the time to lockdown on your personal finances and retain control. Once control has been taken and focus has been on identifying the essentials, it may be possible to consider some non-essential (treats) expenditure, subject to sufficient net cash flow.

Self-Assessment

The fiscal year 2019-20 ended on 5th April and that signals the birth of self-assessment 2019- 20 season. In recent weeks, the self-employed have learnt the importance of filing their selfassessment tax returns. These open windows of time opportunities during stay-at-home presents golden opportunities for taxpayers to fully assemble all their records to complete their 2019-20 self-assessment. Such an early start, is even more important for all taxpayers taking advantage of the option to defer their 31st July first payment for 2019-20. One week into the new financial year and our first tax return had already been completed, despite stay-at-home. During the uncertainty of our stay-at-home policy, be mindful that once time has been spent it cannot be refunded like cash.

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Many local businesses have had to adapt to life under the Covid-19 lockdown. So many businesses got in touch to tell us how they have adapted their business to cope. Look out for more stories on our website www.arounddulwich.co.uk and on our social media channels @AroundDulwich.

markets, as well as gaining a great new local following! Whilst we are in a pandemic the only thing we can do is stay safe and take all the recommended government guidelines seriously, which is why we operate a contactfree curb-side delivery system with all payments made online. Other than that, why not be positive and look towards the future of great healthy honest food ..and of course our up and coming lunch party! We have a few surprises to come this year, we’re looking forward to celebrating with you all in person.” All orders are through jerkoffbbq.com. Orders in by midday Friday and delivery on Saturday between 10am-5pm, meals to heat at home. All deliveries are to south East London postcodes.

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Jerk Off BBQ At Jerk Off BBQ we love to host events and parties. We’ve been planning a launch for our new site but due to the Government lockdown we’ve been unable to celebrate when we’d wanted to, it a real shame not to see our supportive customers and community. However, we believe in positivity and great food, so as cooks we are always ready and willing to adapt and have done this by going fully online. We’re delivering locally to some lovely regulars from our pop ups and

Taking Maths Online Local maths tutor Joe Lyons visited students in Dulwich in their homes to teach them maths. Since the lockdown he is now teaching the lessons with the same students online. The students find the lessons fun and informative. They are able to work directly onto any electronic device such as a tablet or laptop and be guided through the questions. So after spending over ten years tutoring in students homes I am now available for on line lessons. Joe has taught in local Charter school and can be contacted at: 07736 01930 dulwichmaths@gmail.com. Dulwich Delivers Helping local restaurants, shops & essential services that deliver direct to your door. Inspired by his friend, Calypso, who set up dealdelivers.com for her community, Tom Szekeres has set up Dulwich Delivers. Using

the same code for his website, offered freely by Calypso, before long he had some brilliant local people helping to update the listings. In the first week, they had 4,000 people visit the site, and people can now order anything from sourdough starter to bread flour to Kimchi. All delivered contact-free to your door. https://dulwichdelivers.com 161 Food + Drink We are 161 Food + Drink, a neighbourhood wine shop and bar in Sydenham specialising in organic and low-intervention wine. We have opened our doors in summer 2014 with the vision of creating a cosy place for locals to come together. We offer delicious homecooked food, wines and handcrafted beers.

With the current government measures in place, we have made following adjustments to how we operate: • Our physical shop is closed until further notice, but we are currently operating a wine delivery service (Free to selected postcodes) and a meal take away service • We are constantly adding new exciting stock to our online shop. • We also offer online wine tastings, to keep customers busy and entertained! We are currently also: • Offering to pick up customers’ donations towards Lewisham Foodbank as we drop off their Milkround orders • Offering 15% off all proceeds of our Buy Them a Coffee Case (6 Bottles) towards @buythemacoffee_kch who help Kings College Hospital healthcare professionals by buying them supplies for their wellbeing centres during the COVID-19 outbreak. www.161foodanddrink.com

Local Fashion Designer Makes Happy® Face Covers Karen Arthur is a 58 year old women’s bespoke fashion designer and sewing tutor. She works primarily with ankara and African printed fabrics. With normal client meetings on hold until the lockdown is over and her airbnb guests cancelled overnight, Karen found income ceased suddenly. Luckily she transported her sewing machine and some fabric from her Catford studio to her home in Forest Hill just before lockdown was announced. The first thing Karen made was a face cover for herself out of leftover fabric she loves and posted a photo on twitter. Now she is making wear your happy® face covers daily for a client base that shows no signs of abating... especially since the Mayor of London endorsed wearing face coverings as an extra layer of protection recently. Karen says “Sewing face covers is saving my sanity and giving me an added purpose during lockdown. Not to mention giving me back some control over my finances and security for my family.” 07930 867826 Hot Yoga Stevie closed the studio doors on St Patrick’s Day, Tuesday 17th March after the 6.45am class and then taught his first ever online class that evening at 6.30pm! They now have 18 classes on the timetable with six different teachers offering Power Yoga, Yin Yoga, Meditation and Beginner Friendly classes.

“We’ve decided to keep the introductory offer £25 for 30 days open indefinitely - I was considering introducing new prices/class packs but understand that It’s a really tough time for everyone and I want to keep access simple and affordable. So you can book a single class (£6) or a month’s worth of yoga (£25) by visiting: www.hotyogapeckham.co.uk/book-now. There are also FREE classes for NHS key workers, who just need to drop me an email stevie@hotyogapeckham.co.uk for a free pass. The support from members has been amazing and so heart-warming. Spreading the word would be a massive help though, we could do with a lot more yogis right now! I genuinely believe that our yoga practice is helping us all stay connected, healthy and grounded through this.” Crofton Books Jason Shelley from Crofton Books says: “We are trying our best to stay open *safely* through Covid, opening limited hours from Wednesday to Saturday each week with two people max in at a time. We offer an appointment service whereby individuals can enter during a fixed timeframe and I can close the doors (and discuss book choices, books etc, at a distance). Some locals have offered to home deliver, for people in isolation. We have delivered books for free helped by locals who are Kei (who fortunately has a motorcycle), a retired headmistress, Edwin an Australian teaching assistant, Annie, a writer in Honor Oak and James, an urban planner who lives in Crofton Park. Artists Kathryn Maple and Alison Boult, who are neighbours to the bookshop offer me tea in a flask and now we are collaborating on some work to exhibit.” @croftonbooks | 07572 869750

The SE22 Piano School The SE22 Piano School has adapted to lockdown by offering online piano lessons for all of our students that used to come to our business premises just off Lordship Lane. I trialled out online lessons with my students a week before the lockdown announcement which enabled my team of teachers to have a system in place that would work as soon as we had to close the doors on our shop. In addition to teaching piano, I also teach online fermentation workshops where I show people how to make kimchi, sauerkraut and kombucha. I have been doing these online via Zoom and all profits go to my chosen local charity which is Westminster House Youth Club in Nunhead. You can find out more about this on my Instagram page: @southlondonferments. Lorraine Liyanage | www.se22piano.co.uk

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VE Day - Stay at Home Victory Party Ideas

When VE Day dawns on 8th May 2020 it will be 75 years since the guns fell silent at the

end of the war in Europe. Years of carnage and destruction had come to an end and millions of people took to the streets and pubs to celebrate peace, mourn their loved-ones and to hope for the future, but not forgetting those still in conflict until 15th August when it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II.

The 75th anniversary will provide our nation, and our friends around the world, with an opportunity to reflect on the enormous sacrifice, courage and determination of people from all walks of life who saw us through this dark and terrifying period.

To commemorate this important time a three-day international celebration had been organised to take place from 8th May to 10th May 2020. Unfortunately, due to the terrible Coronavirus emergency and consequent Government guidance the majority of these celebrations have either had to be cancelled or postponed. It is hoped that events can be moved to the weekend of 15th – 16th August when we will be able to celebrate VE Day and VJ Day, both momentous points in our history, but this has yet to be confirmed.

However, in true British spirit, the current lockdown situation does not stop us from making our own victory party celebrations at home to mark this momentous occasion. The following pages will help you put together your own celebrations to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

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To help you prepare your day, we’ve collated a party pack and sourced resources to get you started while you #StayHomeSaveLives

Venue

Be sure to stay home this weekend and mark the occasion while complying with social distancing rules. Enjoy a picnic or BBQ in your garden.

Decoration

Decorate your house and garden in red, white and blue.

Party food

What’s a party without a buffet? We’ve sourced tasty 1940’s recipes to serve on the day.

Party playlist

A party isn’t complete without a playlist. The 1940’s was known for big band and jazz, so we have complied a playlist for you to sing along to.

Friday May 8th Timetable of Events

3pm Raise a glass (or a cuppa) with the rest of Britain to toast all those men and women who played a part in the conflict. 9pm Join the UK-wide singalong of Dame Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’

Resources

The following websites have downloadable packs to help you prepare your party at home, including recipes, tips for dancing, 1940’s playlists and VE Day posters and bunting to download make with the children to decorate your home.

English Heritage: www.english-heritage.org.uk/ve-day

Official Government VE Day website: www.ve-vjday75.gov.uk/plan-your-ve-day-party

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VE Day - Stay at Home Victory Party Ideas

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VE Day - Stay at Home Victory Party Ideas

Dancing