Baby Benefits

curly07

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

Now the more cynical side of me..

you say you and your "boyfriend"

Now I'm not for one moment insinuating you would even think of this nor am I justifying this but as you are not married. I'm sure there's all sorts of additional "single parent" benifits you could claim.. but I'd be the wrong person to ask about those.

please don't call me all the names under the sun.. I'm just going on what I've heard from a woman I worked with... she lived with her boyfriend and had a child.... she said when she got married last year she lost loads of her benefits.
now I believe she claimed she "wasn't" living with her boyfriend but she was.. so yes she was fiddling the system so to speak but then doesn't everyone!!

I'm not offended don't worry, i see were you are coming from!

But I will def not be claiming single parent benefits! I would think of that as an insult to my bf more than anything to be honest! I had been checking to see what benefits we would get as a couple, I would never lie to get extra benefits, thats just not me! But like you say there are plenty of people that would! Im too honest for that im afraid! lol :A

As for marriage we are def going to get married, just not sure when! Its so expensive and I would rather put the money into a bundle of joy for the time being then worry about that later on.

quintwins

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

Now the more cynical side of me..

you say you and your "boyfriend"

Now I'm not for one moment insinuating you would even think of this nor am I justifying this but as you are not married. I'm sure there's all sorts of additional "single parent" benifits you could claim.. but I'd be the wrong person to ask about those.

please don't call me all the names under the sun.. I'm just going on what I've heard from a woman I worked with... she lived with her boyfriend and had a child.... she said when she got married last year she lost loads of her benefits.
now I believe she claimed she "wasn't" living with her boyfriend but she was.. so yes she was fiddling the system so to speak but then doesn't everyone!!

ok if you live together ignore this post as imo it just isn't worth it, however we havent acually asked you yet if you live together

lol @ ur cooking, i have a hand blender for making soups but i've never used it for jack, if we have meat i cut it up tiny of a peice plate (as it's near on impossible in a bowl) then mix it threw but he chews stuff really well so don't really have any issues, saying that he did choke when my oh made dinner but thats cause he gave his a lump of mince bigger than his fist lol, he really is a man who can't cook lol

quintwins

curly07 wrote: »

As for marriage we are def going to get married, just not sure when! Its so expensive and I would rather put the money into a bundle of joy for the time being then worry about that later on.

another thing that doesn't have to be expensive, i had my big wedding, my big dress , my lovely cake, my professional photo's in a big country house, with a sit down meal for 80 people, and it only cost us £3000, and most of that was the meal

curly07

We do live together! lol. Sorry i thought I had said that.

My cooking skills will need to improve.. i managed to set the smoke alarm of last night and the night before!! and that was only trying to do bacon!!! o dear!! haha

I have heard from alot of people that baby food, as in jars, are [EMAIL="!!!!"]!!!![/EMAIL], and costly, so i would be avoiding this at all costs! every little helps!

I am pretty sure family and some friends will be able to give us hand me downs, and if they are wanting to buy presents, i will very nicely hint to things we need! lol.

Nice to have a dads point of view! so thanks for that!

quintwins

hip and plum jars are organic so no nasties in them(well not as many) however they are dear(you can pick them up in poundland tho)

it costs about £10 a week for baby food jars, if your just giving them, as you can normally get them on offer, however it costs about £2 to feed jack as all i do is add abit extra to our stuff, it cost abit more when he was on baby poridge

i know some people need jars but i'm in a position that i don't but i have nothing against parent who use them either each to there own after all

Valli

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

so yes she was fiddling the system so to speak but then doesn't everyone!!

er no actually...

OP

keep an eye out for NCT (National Childbirth Trust) nearly new sales.

people price and offer for sale their outgrown/unwanted stuff and if you join you can sell on. I had some marvellous clothes, they also sell equipment.

this was something I didn't know about until a while after DS was born:o

I made my own cot sheets by cutting down some unwanted not-quite-double- sheets

Both mine were BF - yes it hurts at first (well it did with DS particularly).

curly07

Valli I will check that out. Thanks very much for telling me about it!

I'm really starting to think... STOP WORRYIN WOMAN! IT WILL ALL WORK OUT!! lol

Just hope it does!! I can hardly contain my excitment! I think my parents may be more excited though!! lol which is a good thing. support is essential in my eyes!

Thanks to all who are posting! what a nice thread we have going bundles of joy all around! lol

caz2703

Weddings don't need to cost the earth. Ok so mine was an slightly more expensive way of doing it but for £10K I had my dress and accessories, married in New York, honeymoon in the US and an evening reception back home. That included flights and hotels and pretty much everything except our meal for our wedding which my father-in-law paid for. My decision to get married abroad was to save family arguements and save money as who wants to pay for a wedding for relatives that you barely see and who will only sit and complain about things that aren't to their taste????

Glad to see someone else using Hipp jars. We buy ours in bulk when there are offers on so if anyone cares Sainsburys have a baby event starting today so I'll be stocking up. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but the Hipp foods mean that my bubba has cottage pie, Lancashire hotpot, risotto, pasta, noodles etc that we wouldn't eat so to me he's getting a better variety than I could provide. If I was cooking for him myself he'd just be getting fairly plain mushed foods like potato, veg and fruit and with no teeth at 8 months it makes it harder for him to chew. Besides, if I gave him my risotto he'd be pished on the amount of white wine I put in it and I don't need social services calling at my door :rotfl:

dianeio

I live in sin with my boyfriend and when I go back to work he is going to be daddy day care:rotfl: which is why we have gone the back-to-basics approach.

Interesting comments about slings/wraps, but I was told the same thing about letting your baby sleep on in a carseat, is there any research about them being damaging to babies hips and spines - concerned as my baby has to go for a hip xray so if they are damaging would like to know for sure, as I use mine regularly.:eek:

One question on benefits - if you say your a single mum, surely the CSA will take child maintenance payments of the dad/boyfriend so would you really be much better? I'm not sure how much a single parent gets but I don't think its worth the hassle of getting caught, or keeping it secret.

On the reusable nappy thing - do not run out and buy a starter pack - do your research and buy a few preloved nappies before deciding which system suits your family/childcare etc. Check out Cloth Nappy Tree forum, https://www.usednappies.co.uk loads of information on the web.

SuperMum2010

I made batches of baby food in ice cube trays and froze them - meant I could put 3 or 4 cubes in a pot in the morning to go out and about and by lunchtime it had defrosted. Recommend Annabel Karmel's baby and toddler meal planner for recipes and ideas and lots of advice on what is right for a baby at what age..but dont buy her premade frozen baby stuff - saw a programme on it a while back about how much salt and sugar it contained!!! Seemed very hypocritcal so at least when you are mushing up your own butternut squash, you know that is all it is LOL!