Live on £4,000 for a year - 2009, Part 4

the_cat

Freezing didn't begin to cover it here today. Pump on heating packed in so no heat or hot water. Thankfully fixed now but cost £175... ouch:mad:

slowlyfading

It went well :j :j :j My mentor was really positive, with just a few negatives thrown in there for good measure. There's a few things I need to work on, regarding behaviour mainly, but he said that it was a good lesson with many good features, and that I am well on target for this stage of the course! :j :j so I'm really happy with that. However, this was only a class of 15, so next time he's going to come to a see my Year 7 set with 30 in it, so he may not be as nice next time :rotfl:

To join in the debate on here, it is FREEZING today. Walking to school this morning wasnt that great, as my face and hands and general being were really really cold by the time I got there. I did wonder that temperature it was at this morning, and during the day it didn't seem to get any warmer, and both music rooms were pretty cold all day. I'm now sat in my uni room with the heating on full, and it still doesn't feel that cold. I really need to invest in a hot water bottle i think.

Its my birthday on sunday, so I'm now just counting down the days until i can go home for the weekend I'm looking forward to the wind down running up to christmas - being able to do christmas songs and keyboard pieces with the kids in lessons, and just relaxing slightly, before the next lot after christmas.

Today is my first NSD of December, so that's off to a good start. I don't intend to spend anything until friday when I am going out with some friends for a christmas dinner that'll be nice, and a welcome treat at the end of this week!

I have read everything, but can't remember much, sorry

sf x x

Savvy_sewing

Welldone Slowlyfading.
I hope that you have something nice planned for your birthday at the weekend.
I think my BF has got tickets for a football match for us on Saturday, but as I have the DGD still I doubt I will be able to go. And if its as cold as it is now, brrrrrrrrrrrrrr I dont think I will want to go.(I dont like football that much, and he knows that!).

Still no joy from the social worker, and I asked her to put the reasons why in writing to me!.
She plans on doing a new Family Agreement with us. So that will be interesting.
My Asda delivery came to 124.01. So thats me wiped out now.

Still having trouble with the other twin.She seems to have spent ALL that money she had back from Halifax and not paid all her rent up! I am really a bit stressed as she wants me to give her £159 by Friday to clear her rent debt, or she cannot get put forward for the house they need. I have £14.67 left in the bank, until my ESA of £179.60 on the Thursday. So she will be taking all my money for the next two weeks.
She is saying she will pay me back. But I fear that that is not going to happen.
DS is going to have to give me some rent soon, and twin1 will have to give me her Child Tax Credits next tuesday, or we will not be able to go anywhre.
I am just glad that my electricity is not on a prepayment meter, or we would be up the creek without a paddle.
Part of me wants to ring twin2 back and say, NO. You had the money, you have wasted it. So its tough. But obviously we need to get them into a house before the new baby arrives.
Why cannot life just be a bit easier.?
DGD is gradually wrecking the place. Pencils and toys are all around and now she has decided that she wants my shoes!.

DdraigGoch

and it's flippin' cold in the Duchy of Frugonia too! We are now, thanks Mr Fox :mad:, down to 4 chooks from my original 10, and they are sooooo happy to be in their coop tonight that they went in early :eek:

It's been a week of surprises, the biggest one being the fact that, despite my best efforts, I am going to HAVE to work on £4K from now on. Hey ho. With chums like you and advice from MSE I'm sure we can do it with a great deal more grace and fun than it would be otherwise. Thanks, Martin and NYK, thanks to everyone.

DdraigGoch
Duchess of Frugonia
:rotfl:

taka

taka wrote: »

Right I'm off to brave the cold to put out my recycling rubbish... :eek: Its only at the corner of my street but I'm going out in warm coat, hat, scarf and gloves! :rotfl:

Harrrrummmph... it started hailing 2 secs after I left my front door... :mad: :rotfl:

the_cat wrote: »

Freezing didn't begin to cover it here today. Pump on heating packed in so no heat or hot water. Thankfully fixed now but cost £175... ouch:mad:

Ouch... indeed. :eek: Glad its fixed...

slowlyfading wrote: »

It went well :j :j :j My mentor was really positive, with just a few negatives thrown in there for good measure. There's a few things I need to work on, regarding behaviour mainly, but he said that it was a good lesson with many good features, and that I am well on target for this stage of the course! :j :j so I'm really happy with that. However, this was only a class of 15, so next time he's going to come to a see my Year 7 set with 30 in it, so he may not be as nice next time :rotfl:

:T :j Well done sf! :j :T Have a good birthday!

((((Hugs)))) Mooloo... You can't hand over what you don't have... You need that to look after you, DS and now DGD... Is there anything saleable out of what it has been spent on?

cw18

nykmedia wrote: »

CW - Has your financial planning taken into account that you now have the job with salary and that you won't be looking after your grandchildren as per your original plan? Also, when your DS is working, he'll be paying 'digs' and the other one must surely ralise that you're in a very tight situation and be in a position to pay you whatever it costs to collect him from the airport. I remember before we all had our driving licenses, when parents were running 'kids' anywhere, we'd all to cover costs. Pets and vets, have you a pet insurance policy that will cover those costs? Sorry for all the questions and suggestions if they aren't in keeping with your budget.

With regard to my GDs, my orginal £8k assumed I'd have them until the start of the Summer holidays and no longer. When they went back to school in September and I still had them, I just juggled my budget around to allow for the few bits they'd eat here and the fuel for collecting them 5 mornings a week - but I never increased the bottom line. I still pick them up from DD's workplace and take them to school two mornings a week, but haven't made any allowances for the extra petrol for doing that either. Since September DD has been contributing towards the costs (petrol for collecting, food when I had them after school, and a bit towards additional heating, electricity and water), but I've not added that to my budget as 'disposable income' either.

As to salary (and WTC) that I now have coming in extra, my plan is NOT to include this as available funds. I want to save it all from now until next September, then (when I lose all the income related to a dependant child - which now includes WTC unless I can get hours increased to 30/wk) I can start pulling on it. This means that the salary I get then plus some of what I've saved will effectively make me back up to where I was before I started work (if that makes any sense).

Should DS decide to stay living here while at Uni (still unsure what he's doing IF he gets in where he wants), then I won't have to pull as much as I'll have some keep from him as well. If he persuades my parents to 'rent' him a room, then some of my bills will decrease (mainly water, electricity and groceries) - so I'll still not need to pull enough to cover everything I lose

I'm hoping that what I save before the end of August will last me until early 2012, as I have an endowment (no longer used as security) that matures then. The (latest forecast) proceeds from that should then top up the other income for around the best part of 4 years. So, as long as I can maintain a budget of no more than £8k/year (plus whatever pay rises/pension increases I get) I should be financially sound until 2016.......


Unfortunately no pet insurance on either dog.

When we got the larger one he had some health issues - all minor, but enough for companies to inflate premiums and place exclusions on what they'd cover (never could understand how they could get away with doing both), which made it an unaffordable luxury.

When we got the little one she was too old for us to take out insurance. The only way we might have been able to insure here would have been to take over a policy the previous owner had (which I'm told only a select few companies allow anyway). But as they didn't have insurance (as far as I could discover) this wasn't an option.

As to elder DS offering to pay the costs of collecting him - fat chance was my immediate reaction. I've had TWO calls from him in the last couple of weeks desperate for me to transfer money into his bank account He's been temporarily posted to Sweden, and somehow managed to leave loads of stuff he needed (wash kit and trainers included) in Germany, so needed to replace them. Then he broke an Army issue fibreglass ski pole (in his first week of using it!), but it's down to him to replace it. He was told - in no uncertain times - it's the last time I can afford to help him (at least until he fully repays me what he owes me from last Nov/Dec - which he has at least started to pay back now - but I didn't tell him that :rolleyes2 )

Merle

Would love to join you guys in 2010.
I have been following your posts and I salute all your efforts. I don't know how you do it but I would like to give it a try.:j

mama67

When we got up at 6.30am this morning there wasn't any frost by the the time DH and the boys went out the door at 8am there was a frost with black ice on the untreated back roads.

Slopalongplacidly

bay-tree-cottage wrote: »

I am all set now for next years challenge. Will adjust totals accordingly. I have just had my first coal delivery and my first tesc* delivery. I decided to stockpile all my usual value items as I had a voucher for delivery. I was a little red faced as the guy explained there was 7 items short and I would be refunded the 49p for the items. He then carried in 11 trays from the van bless him for the grand total of £57.40. The only problem now is I need a bigger bed to put it all under as I have no cupboard space left although i did consider using the dolls house for storage.

You mean you don't have a duck house for this purpose? Shame on you!

FrankieM

Evening,
Had lasagne, chips and garlic bread for dinner. No low carb diets for us!. Just having a glass of wine while I read my library book.
DH gone off to work. I'm looking forward to the space. Kinders in their rooms reading etc.

It's been really cold here today too. Frost on the ground and all cars iced up except my campervan that currently has an electric heater in it to dry it out. It just had frost on top of the tow bar!

Just a question in regards to children and money...I mean no offence....but does it actually teach them anything to bail them out financially? I tend to to think that you don't fix money problems with money. Just asking, I have all this to come!