Ladies & Gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts ...

benbenandme

So I'm sat here trying to redo my budget and if I work on the principle that I will not be getting any maintenace from now on then once everything is paid for (mortgage, bills, food and petrol) then I have £101 left per month for any expenses such as haircuts, going out, clothes, treats etc, which is not a lot at all. It also means all my overpayments stop (other than £50 which goes into my isa each month). Anything extra I make each month from matched betting, mystery shopping etc would also go into my expenses pot with any excesses going into the mortgage fund, but I can't see that happening

My plan in the meantime is to save as much as possible of any maintenance money I may still get, clearly he hasn't officially lost his job yet so I *should* be getting maintenance money, but I'm not banking on getting anything, so any I do get now is a bonus basically.

Now that I have a basic accurate budget drawn up I want to figure out how much I need in each of my pots (car tax, birthday party fund etc) and see whats already in them and check they're on track, and then also check whether any cuts can be made from the budget anywhere. I don't think they can as I often check it anyway, but there is always room for a bit of tweaking

elantan

Have you ever thought of geo caching ben ? Great way to spend a day

benbenandme

Ooh yes Elantan, that is another of those things I wanted to add to my list for the summer hols, will definitely look into it more this week, thankyou! Have you done it?

elantan

I came across one by accident ... I think once I have whw out of the way I will be doing it very regularly though

stressedaah30

when u expecting maintenance from csa next ? hope u get it for few more months i found csa a useless bunch of bannanas

alibob30

Just caught up with your diary, sorry you've been having such a tough time. Karma is fantastic isn't it? I'm sure that there will be more coming your ex's way too!

Glad that your son had a great day, I think that you're doing an amazing job.

Alisonpennypincher

Hello again BBAM, (bet you'll regret telling me not to lurk anymore soon!)

Just a quick note to say we do Geocaching and it is fab. Get's you out to places you may not otherwise discover and gives you a purpose for walks/bike rides. My DS loves finding the "treasure" that is hidden, and above all it's free!

Hope you had a good day today and the weather has been kinder to you than it has here -damn showers!

Take Care
APP

dangers

millyscarlett - can you let us know what you think of them. When you posted, I googled it, but from here to Bath takes a bit of planning. If I come over, it is likely that I will have a minimum of 4 children with me - don't how how interesting they will find it all.
Thanks, Lucy
PS sorry for hijacking thread Benben

tigzem

Alisonpennypincher wrote: »

Hello again BBAM, (bet you'll regret telling me not to lurk anymore soon!)

Just a quick note to say we do Geocaching and it is fab. Get's you out to places you may not otherwise discover and gives you a purpose for walks/bike rides. My DS loves finding the "treasure" that is hidden, and above all it's free!

Hope you had a good day today and the weather has been kinder to you than it has here -damn showers!

Take Care
APP

What sort of treasure do you find? I'd like to give it a go, but need a GPS, they seem expensive

Alisonpennypincher

Tigz - Nothing special to be honest, normally pocket money toys really, we've had things like keyrings, badges, toy cars etc. You are supossed to swap items in and out so should take a stash along with you.

If you have a look on the geocaching website at any hidden caches in an area that you are familiar with, have a read of the clues and mesages from other cahcers, you can sometimes work out where they are without GPS. So you could have a go at a few before you decide whether you want to invest in a GPS or not. I got our Garmin off ebay but some smart phones have the facility too?

HTH
x

P.S So sorry BBAM for hijacking your thread!!