Can I save any more money?!

garysletters

I've only just found this thread and read it all.
a few bits stick out to me.
Someone said you should get Martin to do a money makeover.......you should ask him. As a long time repected contributor, he may be happy to help....or maybe you could teach him one or two new things (LOL)

also, I was thinking exactly what Glad said.
If your ex is on the mortgage, he is STILL just as liable as you are for the mortgage payments. Just because he's not working(to avoid CSA payments) doesnt mean he's not rwesponsible for the mortgage. He will probably also be on other benefits, meaning HE may be able to claim help in making payments on what is also HIS mortgage too (unless they take your pension into consideration) (i dont know how this would work as you would need to make sure any savings are made directly on your mortgage payments. If he was paid an allowance, I'm guessing you wouldn't see any of it???).
I'd certainly try to get the "full interest in the property" looked into as suggested about 10 messages ago. see a lawyer, i'm not sure you'd get legal aid if you dont get the main benefits, but you could try couldn't you????

Sarahsaver

he wouldnt do that for me
he would rather me and his kids were out of this house so he can pay off his massive (personal) debts and we can live in a **** hole!
he left his job voluntarily so he wouldnt get any help anyway.
Money makeover... hmm... maybe, if Martin is also a magician!
I have managed to save on the internet/phone connection by telling ntl i want to leave them. They came back with an offer of 8.99 broadband and free phone line:):):)

garysletters

also thought, as your pension seems to prevent you from claiming a lot of benefits, and from getting lots of help, could you not take a cash lump sum, instead of or to reduce the pension?? Then you could qualify for extra benefits and help. (although i'm sure they take savings into account, maybe your kids could end up rich ......oops shouldn't say that)
I'm thinking it's probably not a good idea in your case as your so young that you would lose out long term, but I'm just trying to put more suggestions forward.

Savvy_Sue

one-non-blonde wrote:

I don't understand what's so unbelievable about making soup out of an old baked potato or eating something that grows wild?

Nor do I, I've made meals out of incredible leftovers, just hate to throw food away!

one-non-blonde wrote:

Constantly pees me off that social housing isn't means tested but that's another matter. The great thing about renting is the possibility of receiving housing and council tax benefit, if you qualify.

Social housing may not be formally means tested, but you do have to declare your savings and current property situation in your application. At least you do round here. If you have more than a prudent amount of savings, you stand a snowball's chance of getting social housing unless there are exceptional circumstances which relate as much to the housing association as to the applicant. Also if you currently own a property, you stand a snowball's chance.

Forcing people to move out of social housing if their financial situation improves - well it doesn't really bear thinking about, to me! Many will choose to do so, but let's not make it compulsory!

So I don't see renting as helping Sarah in anything other than the long term, and things would have to get an awful lot worse before this was an option worth considering.

Savvy_Sue

garysletters wrote:

also thought, as your pension seems to prevent you from claiming a lot of benefits, and from getting lots of help, could you not take a cash lump sum, instead of or to reduce the pension?? Then you could qualify for extra benefits and help.

You know I KNEW I'd had a thought late the other night, but it went, and here someone else has had it.

As you're still young, is it possible to renounce your pension entirely for now? I don't know anything about taking your pension because you've taken early retirement on health grounds but as gary says it might be something worth investigating with a pensions AND benefits expert. If it is possible, there's no point doing it if it doesn't help - and of course you'll need to check with a benefits expert that revoking your pension won't be seen in the same light as spending all your savings on a plasma TV just before you make a benefits claim so you're not over the savings limit!

Does that make sense?

Spendless

Perhaps you could post on pension board to see if you could do anything about pension?

Other things i've thought of. Are you just putting on oven once a day and doing your baking and evening meal all at same time?

In better weather - do you have a barbecue? I noticed my gas bill dropped a lot summer before last when we used the barbecue for tea most nights (we are big meat eaters though).

Re: your jams,chutneys and soaps. Do you have some of these you could sell now or would they take long to do? Valentines day is coming up so is Mothers Day (March 6th). What about a card advertising these for sale in newsagents window/word of mouth in playground.

Congratulations on winning post of the month BTW. Keep letting us know how you are getting on.

Spendless

Also do you have any baby equipment left- no longer used. eg pram/cot/highchair. What about putting these in local paper. There did used to be a paper where it was free to advertise, you just paid if you wished to buy paper.Don't know if it's still going.

Our Tescos also lets you put cards up for you to sell things, not sure how much they charge.

Lillibet_2

Spendless wrote:

Also do you have any baby equipment left- no longer used. eg pram/cot/highchair. What about putting these in local paper. There did used to be a paper where it was free to advertise, you just paid if you wished to buy paper.Don't know if it's still going.

Our Tescos also lets you put cards up for you to sell things, not sure how much they charge.

Loot is free to advertise & regional. The London edition has a HUGE readership base. You can register your advertisment with them online.

one-non-blonde

Savvy_Sue wrote:

Social housing may not be formally means tested, but you do have to declare your savings and current property situation in your application. At least you do round here. If you have more than a prudent amount of savings, you stand a snowball's chance of getting social housing unless there are exceptional circumstances which relate as much to the housing association as to the applicant. Also if you currently own a property, you stand a snowball's chance.

Forcing people to move out of social housing if their financial situation improves - well it doesn't really bear thinking about, to me! Many will choose to do so, but let's not make it compulsory!

Sorry, I meant council housing rather than housing associations who I know are usually very stringent, but I don't think this is a bad thing (though I'm aware of a few people who've somehow managed to lie there way into houses that other people had more entitlement to). Council housing doesn't have anywhere near the limits and restrictions, eg. size of house, local connection, etc. though you do get extra points for some things. I agree nobody should be evicted just because their situation improves but when applying for a house in the first place I think income should be a major determining factor so that affordable housing is available to those who really need it. We had to move elsewhere last summer when my lease expired as I couldn't afford to buy anything in the village where we'd lived for 8 years and the waiting list for a council house was approximately 30!

Selling up and renting would surely be anybody's last resort but I only intended to point out that you can get your rent paid for you, but not a mortgage.

Squidgy

most local papers do free ads. Theres usually no guarantee of insertion date, but I've used them a bit recently and always seem to sell stuff.

What about a boot sale (or has that already been mentioned?)