It's STILL tough and not getting better - so how are we coping?

lambanana

bluebag thanks, we hope it is all going to be fine but who knows, they have been told that for now it's only a review, nothing more and there is no threat as yet. Still can't help worrying what if...at least he has had some good training at that job and it has really boosted his CV but what jobs are there to go for at the moment anyway? I work for the council (and no, my pension isn't "gold plated" and my pay is one of the lowest bands there!) so I'm hardly feeling secure in my own job

ginnyknit I saw about the trees, nice to know they're making sacrifices as well right?!

ceridwen

In fairness - I imagine those Christmas trees he will be buying will come to less than £100. But - also in fairness - I will make one of my RL comments about him not knowing what "her indoors" is doing with the child allowance - ie open mouth, stick tongue out and go "Pthh....." in a very dismissive way. I DID read the comment in todays newspapers about people having to fill in a form and actually ASK for child allowance - rather than it being the default setting that everyone automatically gets it and I personally would have had to write a letter in telling them NOT to pay it to me. Hmmm....:cool:...well he could have told her not to fill in that form then.......:cool:

£3,000 - well...if I wasnt doing any of my "investment spending" I've been doing a bit of recently - then I figure that £3,000 would last me to live on for about 6 months actually:D...bar any unexpected expenses coming up of course (as I DO throw money VERY quickly at dealing with any health problems that arise....so subject to none of them cropping up to be fair....). I reckon £500 per month for bills and living on is pr...ett...y good personally...and if someone is living on less than that...then get the kettle on...I'm coming round for coffee and to pick up tips...

katholicos

DD is having a tough time commuting to uni...it's all been a bit of a nightmare really...the first day the 1.5 hour journey took 4.5 hours. That evening we borrowed the money from my parents, so we could buy her a sat nav....the next day the journey was very much improved. Every day there has been accidents on the M6 though it seems and roadworks also so it's not an easy run. I am so proud of her though, 18 years old and communting to uni day after day to study. We are a low income family so she is entitled to grants and loans but she hasn't had a penny yet from Student Finance and has been putting £50 in petrol in the car this week and last (with borrowed money that has to be repaid). She needs to purchase books from her compulsory reading lists but can;t buy the books because she has no money and sadly, i am not in a position to help her.

It really annoys me that things are so hard for so many poor/working class families who wish their children to have a better education and hence, standard of living, by supporting them in their quest to attain the necessary qualifications to attain a place at university. DD has worked hard all through school and sixth form, she has sooooo earned her 11 GCSE's and her 3 A levels and struggle though it darned well is, our family will do everything possible to ensure that she can stick it out at uni and fulfill her potential educationally.

I can seriously believe the horror stories of students having to drop out because they are from underprivilidged backgrounds and the finances are just not enough to support them ...even with students getting part time jobs. My DD has sent of dozens and dozens of applications and has only ever had 1 reply, which was a 'no thank you'.

Penelope_Penguin

Good evening everybody :beer:

Annie56 wrote: »

Im too :mad::mad::mad: at the exOH, he has gone on a cruise with blonde floozie and not paid the workers last week at the garage he owns. ........... he informs me that hes going Bankrupt when he comes back.

Have had various folk confirm the rumours re his gambling debts, and my dads on the warpath that he has supposedly paid of blonde floozies parents mortgage and given them 2 of the newer cars of the forecourt sales....

If that is the case then's he's "given away, or sold for less than true value" some assets, and he needs to declare that on the BR form. The trustees or Official Receiver will then want the money or goods back to distribute to his creditors. He may have/be about to commit a criminal offence.

ceridwen wrote: »

I DID read the comment in todays newspapers about people having to fill in a form and actually ASK for child allowance - rather than it being the default setting that everyone automatically gets it .

Child Benefit is a universal benefit just now, but you DO have to apply, and then reconfirm your entitlement in the summer after your child reaches 16

flowertotmum

*Chattie* wrote: »

£26k is the total that benefits are capped at not necessarily what some are claiming. In your £10k are you including CTC for your five children and housing and council tax benefits as the figure seems very low for the number of children you have.

have a read of Martin's article http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/benefits-check

Hi thanks...i do have 6 children but only 3 live at home..the older children have all moved out to places of their own...which is why i was so shocked at finding out i was pregnant again twice...my children are 24,22,20,16,4,2...
take care

Penelope_Penguin

ceridwen wrote: »

No hard feelings for misinterpretation.....

You'll see that I already realised I'd misinterpreted your post and have edited mine and given a reason

You do watch TV, though, as you often ask for links to watch TV programmes online

ceridwen

PENNY

I'd deleted my post - as I realised you had changed yours.

Shall we go back to Square 1 - and both delete this post and your last one?:

EDIT: if you define "often watching tv" as round about 3-5 tv programmes in total a MONTH....

Hippeechiq

ginnyknit wrote: »

Just to ensure you all know the Prime Minister is pulling his weight, he has cancelled the 3000 quids worth of xmas trees that usually go up in his house and No 11 and is buying his out of his own pocket. When asked what he does with his child benefit he said ' You will have to ask my wife as she is the one that receives it ' !

What an a r s e that man is, I can't help it - I just want to slap the man!!

And what an obscene amount of money normally spent on something that is used for a month at most and then discarded. What other frivolous "necessities" do him and his ilk spend vulgar amounts of money on or claim for without our knowledge, whilst telling us the common man can live on tuppence ha'penny a week? ........it makes my blood boil :mad:

jackieglasgow

I had written a long post about it then pressed backspace in error. But my take on it is that its not a "sacrifice" at all, and simply to PM and his advisors trying to make out that he has such a firm grip on the country's finances he is cutting the pennies everywhere. While in almost the same breath he leads us to believe he has no input or knowledge of his family's finances as he leaves it to his wife. Hmm. Ceridwen was right, you do need to ask for child benefit in the first place, and are also required every few years to reconfirm your details and your entitlement to same. So if they are claiming it (which they must be or he would have gleefully told us all about it) to tops up their estimated multimillion personal wealth, they have definitely asked for it. Of course, they are legally entitled to it, but I bet Mrs Cameron never checks the bank account every four weeks to make sure its gone in.

As for the trees. On one hand, I kind of think that as the place where foreign dignitaries are welcomed and wined and dined etc., then number 10 should have a decent tree, representing a great British tradition without it being over the top financially (are the decorations not kept from year to year, have they thought about buying a charity tree for example) and if the PM wants to pay for his private one, he flaming well should, too. I hope he's as careful with turning out the lights and his phone charger too!

BB1984

Evening all, hope everyone's ok.
Interesting reading all about child benefit etc but I don't want to get too het up about things before it's all been confirmed. I think it's right that child benefit be means tested, but wrong that you could have 2 x £43000 salaries in one household and still qualify. If I was in the position of one of us earning just more than £44,000 with the other a stay-at-home parent, I'd be tempted to try to both start working part time so that we would still get the benefit but the child(ren) would still have full time parental care.

As for uni, well in my opinion the last government was wrong to set a target for x% of people to go to university (60%?) By doing that, the value of a degree is lessened. Personally I think that apprenticeships etc should be encouraged far more, encouraging our skills and trades base in the UK. That would suit the slightly less "academic" (note - academic as opposed to intelligent!) people, and then university would be mostly for people who want to do a career that actually requires a degree, e.g. medicine, engineering (not in all cases I know), law etc. Sorry if I offend anyone here, but I really don't understand the point of some degrees. I know of people who have got themselves in £15,000 of debt to do a social sciences/textiles/journalism/drama degree, only to find themselves unemployed or virtually on minimum wage at the end of it. (and this isn't just in the last couple of years where it's difficult for ANYONE to get a job BTW)

If any teenager asked me for career advice these days, I'd be saying that unless there's something they specifically want to do that requires a degree, they should think seriously about going down a more vocational route. There's no shame in not going to university! It seems like society thinks that only stupid people don't go to uni - that's wrong.

On a lighter note, I was so impressed with DH last night. We had leftover roast chicken from sunday, and I expected him to use them all up in one meal...I was wrong! He made four little chicken, sausage and mushroom pies using one chicken breast and four sausages, so we had those for tea last night and tonight, yum yum. We've still got a good couple of meals' worth of meat left that I have put in the freezer to make a curry another day. DH used to be of those people that could quite happily eat half a chicken at lunchtime and eat all the leftovers for dinner, so I've obviously rubbed some of my OS ways off on him!

Right, this post has been far too long, so I'll sign off!

Nighty night

BB