Earthmother 2010 - The Sequel - 'The Simple Things'

earthmother

If you love the life you live
Then you'll get a lot more done
Be more inclined to take the reins
Than turn away and run
....
So I'll cherish the simple things
The easy took for granted things


I don't think, looking back, that I even liked the life I was living last year, I definitely wanted to (metaphorically) run more than once - and I definitely didn't pay enough attention to the simple things - so I know it's a few weeks late - but here's my new start for 2010 - and hopefully it'll be one of those times when the sequel is better than the original


(I tried changing the title on my old thread, but couldn't get it to work)


So an update - All our creditors are now in the hands of the CAB, and things do seem to be flowing more easily with them.

I've just realised that once the March payments are made, we will have cleared over a quarter of the original debt - yay :j:D

The outstanding debt (as at tomorrow morning when the February payments have gone through the online banking) is now £10,632.92 - and at current repayment rates should take just under 2.5 years to pay off.

That's longer than we had originally hoped when I first started posting here - we were aiming to have them all cleared by the time youngest son started school this coming September - but considering that we've had income drops, a housemove, some increased bills with the new house (all of which resulted in nominal payments at times), and that some creditors only stopped adding interest in the last few months, it's not too bad.


This year is looking to be a good one (could do with one of them ) - not only are the creditors all now on the same page, but I appear to have the GC under control, we've actually got a holiday this summer courtesy of Mr T, and most importantly, DH has stayed out of hospital for almost a year (touch wood).

earthmother

An SOA - just in case I still have room to move that I hadn't noticed -

Incomings pcm
Housing Benefit £574.99
Incapacity benefit £693.12
DLA (Middle Rate Care) £204.10
Carers Allowance £230.10
Child Tax credit £606.23
Child Benefit £201.07

Other Benefits - no direct cash payment
D L A (Higher Rate Mobility) - direct to Motability for car
Council Tax Benefit - credited direct to Council Tax bill

Total Income £2,509.61

Outgoings pcm
Rent £650.00
Rent Deposit Scheme loan repayments £25.00
Tenancy renewal fee (pro-rata per contract) £7.19

Council tax (after CTB, paid over 12 months) - paid for 2009/2010
Electric £60.00
Gas £80.00
Water (Rated) £50.98

Contents Insurance £13.45
Life Insurance £10.04
Breakdown policies and insurances £15.31

Phone & Internet, inc geographic/0845/0870 calls £40.00
PAYG Mobile Top-Ups (2 phones) £5.00
TV Licence £11.92

Diesel £173.33
Car maintenance £10.00
Towards Next Motability Vehicle Changeover £16.67
Other travel (Bus, train and taxi) £15.00

Food & Groceries £368.33
Toiletries £20.00
Nappies etc £40.00
Over-the-counter/non-prescription medicines etc £10.00

Gardeners & window cleaners £70.58
Other periodic household maintenance (eg carpet cleaning, ironing service) £20.00
Hairdressers/Barbers (for 4) £15.33

Children's Leisure, School, Childcare costs etc £85.00
Spending Money (for 3) £23.83
Stamps, stationery and misc. £10.00
Christmas, Birthdays & Special Occassions £30.00

General Clothing (inc generic school uniform) £97.76
Footwear (inc. specialist footwear re: disabilities) £93.75
School uniform (logo'd - from school) £4.29

Optical expenses (for 2) £11.04
Disability related expenses not already accounted for £10.00

Repayments of loans from family or friends £30.00

Total Expenditure £2,123.80

Balance Available To Creditors £385.80

beanielou

Hi there
Happy new diary.
General clothing seems very high to me.
Just wondered if there was a reason for that?

earthmother

beanielou wrote: »

Hi there
Happy new diary.
General clothing seems very high to me.
Just wondered if there was a reason for that?

Hi

We're two adults and three children, and DH and the kids all have varying issues with mobility which affects footwear (DH's costs anything from £70+, the boys between £50-£70 per pair), what clothes they can wear (and how long they last), and DS2 has sensory issues also. I do get things cheap/second hand where possible, but it's not always possible to match their needs to the cheaper ranges.

beanielou

Oh ok got you.
Nothing else I can see then.
2 years in June isent long

Fat_Debtor

earthmother wrote: »

An SOA - just in case I still have room to move that I hadn't noticed -

Incomings pcm
Housing Benefit £574.99
Incapacity benefit £693.12
DLA (Middle Rate Care) £204.10
Carers Allowance £230.10
Child Tax credit £606.23
Child Benefit £201.07

Other Benefits - no direct cash payment
D L A (Higher Rate Mobility) - direct to Motability for car
Council Tax Benefit - credited direct to Council Tax bill

Total Income £2,509.61

Outgoings pcm
Rent £650.00
Rent Deposit Scheme loan repayments £25.00
Tenancy renewal fee (pro-rata per contract) £7.19

Council tax (after CTB, paid over 12 months) - paid for 2009/2010
Electric £60.00
Gas £80.00
Water (Rated) £50.98

Contents Insurance £13.45
Life Insurance £10.04
Breakdown policies and insurances £15.31

Phone & Internet, inc geographic/0845/0870 calls £40.00
PAYG Mobile Top-Ups (2 phones) £5.00
TV Licence £11.92

Diesel £173.33
Car maintenance £10.00
Towards Next Motability Vehicle Changeover £16.67
Other travel (Bus, train and taxi) £15.00

Food & Groceries £368.33
Toiletries £20.00
Nappies etc £40.00
Over-the-counter/non-prescription medicines etc £10.00

Gardeners & window cleaners £70.58
Other periodic household maintenance (eg carpet cleaning, ironing service) £20.00
Hairdressers/Barbers (for 4) £15.33

Children's Leisure, School, Childcare costs etc £85.00
Spending Money (for 3) £23.83
Stamps, stationery and misc. £10.00
Christmas, Birthdays & Special Occassions £30.00

General Clothing (inc generic school uniform) £97.76
Footwear (inc. specialist footwear re: disabilities) £93.75
School uniform (logo'd - from school) £4.29

Optical expenses (for 2) £11.04
Disability related expenses not already accounted for £10.00

Repayments of loans from family or friends £30.00

Total Expenditure £2,123.80

Balance Available To Creditors £385.80

Sorry to pry - and just idle curiosity - but how do you get child tax credits of £606 a month? Isn't CTC a tax break on wages for those that have children? My neighbours are on low incomes (less than £20k combined) and say they aren't entitled to claim it - are they correct?

earthmother

As a family, they should be able to claim something - our award is the maximum award for a family with 3 children, CTC only.

You don't say whether they have children or not though - that may be the issue. The calculator is here - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/payments-entitlement/entitlement/question-how-much.htm - I did a quick run through for a childless couple each on £10000 pa, no other income, and it quoted a £0 award, but it might be worthwhile punching the proper figures in as I obviously don't know their exact situation.

Fat_Debtor

earthmother wrote: »

As a family, they should be able to claim something - our award is the maximum award for a family with 3 children, CTC only.

You don't say whether they have children or not though - that may be the issue. The calculator is here - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/payments-entitlement/entitlement/question-how-much.htm - I did a quick run through for a childless couple each on £10000 pa, no other income, and it quoted a £0 award, but it might be worthwhile punching the proper figures in as I obviously don't know their exact situation.

Thanks. They have a 6 year old and one at 18 months. They say they've been told they're entitled to nothing - they don't even get CT benefit! I'll look at the calculator and tell them the results.

earthmother

I've just been updating our SOA with the new benefit figures, new insurance policy rates and various other bits and pieces, ready for an April review.

I had really thought we'd be able to increase payments on this review - but as it turns out we're going to have to drop them by £70 That'll add another 7 months to our DMP - taking us into 2013

* The local housing rate has been reassessed downwards, so our LHA has dropped (the rent, of course, hasn't).
* Fuel is going up, and set to go up yet more at the budget, and because DH is disabled and reliant on the car, that is one cost we can't trim.
* Youngest son, who I had hoped to have out of nappies some time ago, appears to have some bowel issues that are affecting this, and so rather than disappearing, the nappy costs have actually gone up because of the size he now needs.
* Despite asking them several times to set them at x, our energy suppliers kept reducing the DDs over the summer, and so now there is a debt which is going to cost us another £45 a month to clear. I know that it will be said we should have been putting the difference away, and I did try, but it's easier said than done when other bills crop up.

These along with some smaller changes all add up to quite a big drop in available funds.

Bummer :wall:

ruby1968_2

sorry but could i ask how old your children are.

scrooge2008

Hi Earthmother,

All the best with your goals for 2010. I love the poem in your first post, who wrote it?

Thanks.