50p a day til Christmas - healthily?! Weezl's next challenge...

Sian_the_Green

Well, signing off for a couple of weeks for my exciting trip to Lincolnshire (Sutton on Sea, the town that time forgot). We get all our food and accomodation for £50 a week but there is quite a lot of work to be doing imbetween.

Hope you all have a very frugal 2 weeks

(Weezl, I actually am looking for somewhere to live, though it would be a bit of a commute, from Cardiff to Sheffield, you're very brave having lodgers!)

In_Search_Of_Me

oo Sian have a lovely hol...sounds a bargain although not sure about w*** in between...thought point of hol is is that you dont w***?!!
Weezl hope youre both ok but boy you must be pooped by now...hope there isnt too much grumpyness is the weezl household...I'd be more than miserable by now tbh!! Hugs for you!

weezl74

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

oo Sian have a lovely hol...sounds a bargain although not sure about w*** in between...thought point of hol is is that you dont w***?!!
Weezl hope youre both ok but boy you must be pooped by now...hope there isnt too much grumpyness is the weezl household...I'd be more than miserable by now tbh!! Hugs for you!

Thanks! We are becoming quite grumpy and irrational now!;)

Sian have a good holiday

food-wise today is good as we have a wedding evening reception to go to :T:T:T so no cooking required!

CW18, well done on the reductions of those evening meals:T. I remember you feeling despondent at the strat of your journey that you might not be able to do it due to no garden etc... So I'm really proud of you. (I don't at all mean that in a patronising way!:o)

The boys all needing a big chunk of meat is a real conundrum! Are there any meat based meals involving mince that they like, where you can eek out the mince with other stuff? Meatballs on spaghetti? Lasagne? Cottage pie?

Love to all, and hope to be back in earnest soon!

Weezl x

cw18

Thanks Weezl


And thanks to whoever it was mentioned that Lidl had the Savoury Rice on BOGOF. I called in there yesterday for milk, but the Savoury Rice shelf was empty Called in for more milk today, and they'd restocked

So I now have another 4 packs of the Beef version in the cupboard along with the 5 I already had!!! Best offer I normally find is 3 for £1.20 which Mr T have been running, so Lidl is a much better deal at 49p for 2 and it's something we use pretty regularly...... must remember to try "diluting" a pack with plain rice to save even more money, although I have to admit we do like the standard 'strong' flavour.



Feeling a little depressed today though -- and all about finances Hope no-one minds me having a moan here, 'cos I've no-one at home I can really rant at (for reasons I think will come out below)

I finally managed to get to speak to someone at the benefits offices yesterday who could talk me through what we'd be entitled to when I get made redundant if we didn't have any capital behind us (and what the rules are on how they treat pay in lieu of notice). This in itself was quite a relief, as I've been trying to get answers for the last couple of months. (It's looking more and more likely that compulsory redundancies are going to be announced in the next few weeks, as it's now clear the voluntary process left a significant shortfall in the number they want to lose -- so it seemed sensible to me to do the financial homework now).

As I've had a very well paid job for 10 years, get good redundancy terms (3 weeks a year), will get three months pay in lieu (treated as capital since they changed the rules last September), already have some 'savings' (mostly tied up in things), and a savings plan that's due to pay out in October, we can't actually claim for anything that's income based until at least Christmas 2016 :mad: It's almost certainly going to be several years after that though, as the endowments for the interest only portion of our mortgage pay out between July 2011 and March 2012, meaning we have even less to pay out each month that they class as "allowable expenses".


Now don't get me wrong -- I don't expect something for nothing........ but it's a real slap in the face for having worked hard (since late 1984 - even when I was a single parent for 6 years and didn't "have" to work), for investing in some shares when British Gas were privatised (which was a struggle, as I was buying my first house at the same time), scrimping to hold onto my first house when interst rates rocketed the year after I bought it (and for not getting stuck with negative equity which my brother did), for taking shares as a long term investment instead of cash when N&P were taken over by Abbey National, and for managing to keep up my 15 year savings plan!!! I'm one who always spends as soon as I get, so all of these have been a real effort for me -- and that savings plan was meant to pay for my younger son's 18th next July and/or help with Uni costs for him!!

I have mentioned on here before that my hubby has health problems that mean I have to watch what I feed him and which means he can't work -- but what I haven't mentioned on this thread before is that he has cancer. It was first diagnosed in January of last year, at which time it looked unlikely he'd be around by the summer. But he rallied well, and things looked promising from August -- until it started to spread again just before Christmas. We were told a month ago that all they can do now is "buy time" for him, so in some respects me being laid off isn't a bad thing -- and I can claim Carer's Allowance (not income based!) to stay home with him rather than Job Seekers Allowance (which it isn't clear if I qualify for anyway, as I can't get the income based version and may not have enough of the right kind of "stamp" from last year due to having had 16 months off work sick in the last 2 years myself!!)

But I'm still trying to find a way to break it to him "gently" that we're going to have to account for every penny if we get through what we have considerably sooner than the benefits agenies say we should -- and that means I may have to force him to cut back on what he spends on booze and fags. This is already an issue between us, but the attitude from our GP is that I should let him enjoy himself while he can -- and whilst I'd love to, I just don't see how I can continue to "lose" the best part of £50 a week which is what he currently has (and regularly complains isn't enough!)


Ah well! Life sucks sometimes, but moan over!! I guess things can only get better -- right?


Off to check on my second punnet of mushrooms that are now freezing on a flat tray. Only half a dozen onions and a bag of peppers to do later today :rolleyes:

cw18

weezl74 wrote: »

The boys all needing a big chunk of meat is a real conundrum! Are there any meat based meals involving mince that they like, where you can eek out the mince with other stuff? Meatballs on spaghetti? Lasagne? Cottage pie?

Missed seeing this :rolleyes:

Hubby's struggling with spaghetti..... though if I coat with enough 'meat sauce' he manages fussilli and also copes with stuffed pasta in a tomato & cheese sauce!!! (doesn't make sense to me, but it's what he says!). Have to say I've never had much success in making meatballs, but we do have 'bolognese' fairly regulary -- and mince and mash, or chille, or a macaroni casserole (which is basically mince with baked beans and fussilli all mixed up - from a Rosemary Conely book, but our version doesn't worry about the fat content/calorie count!) We probably have mince based meals at least twice a week -- and sometime three -- which means the blokes are getting fed up of it

minibudgetgal

You have a lot going on at the moment, and I am totally in awe of your organisation. Just one quick question, has your husband claimed for all the benefits he is entitled to? I had seven months of cancer treatment in my early 20s, and only found out after that I was entitled to DWA which would have covered my travel to and fro Kings in SE London by taxi, rather than bus! Just a thought. I really dont understand what we pay tax and NI for if you dont get any help just cos you get enhanced redundancy at work. Did you really mean that you dont get any help til 2016????
Minixx

Lesley_Gaye

not much I can say to help, just that I am thinking of you and OH and your difficult times. You have a great deal to cope with at the moment and may be worth saying to remember to look after you too. Take some time out now and again and just chill - big hugs to you both

cw18

minibudgetgal wrote: »

You have a lot going on at the moment, and I am totally in awe of your organisation. Just one quick question, has your husband claimed for all the benefits he is entitled to? I had seven months of cancer treatment in my early 20s, and only found out after that I was entitled to DWA which would have covered my travel to and fro Kings in SE London by taxi, rather than bus! Just a thought.

he gets Incapacity Benefit and both elements of DLA -- all at highest rates. I can only get Carer's Allowance because he gets the care component of DLA at a higher rate. He qualifies for patient transport to appointments/treatments, but I can't accompany him if he uses that so have no access to his consultant when seen during treatment (when check-up only they moved his appts to a more local hospital so I could afford to drive him). His treatment isn't that far from us though (but fuel costs soon mount up), so unless I can get hold of his consultant by phone over the next couple of weeks I'm going to run him in for his shorter treatment (day patient) as they seemed to have changed the plans -- we were told a month ago it would be a 28 day cycle, but his next appt ties in to the 21 day they told him when he was there!!

minibudgetgal wrote: »

I really dont understand what we pay tax and NI for if you dont get any help just cos you get enhanced redundancy at work. Did you really mean that you dont get any help til 2016????
Minixx

Yep! That's what I really mean!! Benefits are reduced if you have over £6k in capital, and you get nothing if you have over £16k (rates for a couple). On paper we have over twice that figure (though we'd have to pay to sell shares, so they're not really worth as much as the benefits agency says!), and can only spend what's above £6k at the same rate as we'd get on benefits without it being treated as if it's still in the bank (and have to allow for the fact we'd actually have some money coming from them as IB, DLA and CA, so can only "top up") -- so it's 8 years before they're likely to accept we're even below the £16 mark!!!

cw18

Some of my colleagues at work are surprised I'm "still standing" with all I have going on.....

there's my job situation, hubby's cancer, my elder grand-daughter had an operation on one of her kidneys 8 days ago, and my elder son is going to Iraq on active duty at the end of this month!!!!!! (but my son is only doing 4 months in Iraq, and until the end of June we though it was going to be 6 months in Afghanistan -- so at least that's one things that's changed for the better )

my attitude is I have no control over any of them, so just have to make the best of things. hubby and grand-daughter are/were both in the hands of medical teams, my son is in the hands of the Army, and my job is in the hands of management/resourcing. If I give in to one then I reckon it'll all come tumbling in, and the last thing the family needs now is for me to collapse and end up on medication (especially if it means I can't drive, as I'm the only driver in the family for over 30 miles!)

so all I can do is take control of things I do have an influence on -- and our outgoings is about the only thing I can

ceridwen

Hi cw18

Sorry to hear of the troubles you are experiencing. Can I make a leetle suggestion - the folks over on the Benefits Board on this website have a lot more knowledge than us yur peeps on Old Style (as our forte is all things cookery/running a housewise). So - maybe it would be a good idea to put your queries over there - where I am sure lotsa knowledgeable people will be along soon to give helpful advice.