Feel like crying + UPDATE

ftbworried

There are loads of good ideas here- but the most obvious moneysaving thing for you right now is to get your bf to pay his own debts! In your mini- statement of affairs you don't give your bf's income- does he contribute to the household food/bills? Surely he should pay his own £95 debt- you can't/shouldn't risk the security and health of your own baby to pay off your bf's mates

craig777

If you like pasta, then you can get a 3kg bag of Penne from Sainsburys for £1... 3kg of pasta makes alot of meals, at least 20 servings if you use 150g per person. Cook up a large batch of tomato sauce and freeze it in seperate batches for later use.

csarina

Sammy - you can bulk up mince by adding sage and onion stuffing half a packet of value stuffing will double the amount of mince to use in shepherd pie or mince with dough balls, also if you can afford it get a tin of tomato puree and add a quarter of the tin to the mince. Bovril cubes are a lot cheaper than oxo and I think taste better (I think).

Keep at it girl you will manage and come out a stronger person on the other side.

craig777

ftbworried wrote:

you can't/shouldn't risk the security and health of your own baby to pay off your bf's mates

I'd have to agree with that.

sammy_kaye18

ftbworried wrote:

does he contribute to the household food/bills? Surely he should pay his own £95 debt- you can't/shouldn't risk the security and health of your own baby to pay off your bf's mates

Bf lost his sight in November and although he put a claim in for incapacity Benefit (he was a motorbike mechanic) and Income support - he had one payment off income support for £40 adn then they said he wouldnt get anymore as his weekly income was too high!! (he stopped work on the 5th November - 3 days after he lost his sight as he cant see) anyway we have been back and forth between the doctors,hopsital, opticians etc for the last 2/3 months and he has an appointment to see a specialist in February.

Anyway we have been nagging Income Support and they said it was becasue he recieved working tax credit which he did but this was amended the day he left his job and even tax credits have it on there records when the information was amended - so were still waiting for the award notice - its been a month now - so income support cant get sorted until tax credits get there bums in gear which doesnt seem to be very quickly and supposably he doesnt qualify for Incapacity Benefit because he still has some vision in his left eye (not alot and it is badly straining to compensate for his bad eye now) and hes really light sensitive and the most the doctors have done is give him painkillers and this saline (sp?) solution to put in that basically just clears the eye out - his eye is the size of a golf ball so he doesnt contribute towards the household running etc because he cant work and all our benefits are screwed up - rest assured they are being nagged to death though!!

jcr16

sammy sorry to hear times are tight finacally for u at the mo. u look like ur doing a really great job.

been looking ur tesco bill. squash seems very high. the bottles are 3 X 2 litre bottles for £2.90 so that is 48p a litre. tesco do value orange for 16p a litre lemon for 19p and blackcurret and apple for 19p a litre. we get through loads of sqaush and this is very nice.

also mince 800g for £2.96 is alot. i buy frozen bags of tesco ground steak mince and it is 500g for £1.69. it is free flow so can use as much or as little as needed. or they do a bag 1.75kg for £3.13.

i really hope this helps.

there are so many cheap meal idea recipes on here, were all help u through the month.

Mado

Sam,

You sound like you have your head on your shoulders. I hope the benefits crisis gets sorted for you. And I hope the doctors can help your BF.

Just a suggestion: do you really need the juice? Cordial works quite a bit cheaper when money is so tight.
Another excellent and healthy way to bulk up mince is red lentils. NOt expensive at all and tastes great.

mouseymousey99

Hi Hon, I was also going to suggest freecycle. Also the social fund for an emergency? ( 0800 032 8371) Then don't forget eFreeko.com which is another good site where you may hit lucky with the washing machine. Iv'e had a fortnight on £9 a week (2 of us) you can do it - no ***** fun though is it?? Hang on in there...
Bag of rice was great for us - use veggie stock cube in the water (19p value from Tesco).
Hugs!

ftbworried

sammy_kaye18 wrote:

Bf lost his sight in November and although he put a claim in for incapacity Benefit (he was a motorbike mechanic) and Income support - he had one payment off income support for £40 adn then they said he wouldnt get anymore as his weekly income was too high!! (he stopped work on the 5th November - 3 days after he lost his sight as he cant see) anyway we have been back and forth between the doctors,hopsital, opticians etc for the last 2/3 months and he has an appointment to see a specialist in February.

Anyway we have been nagging Income Support and they said it was becasue he recieved working tax credit which he did but this was amended the day he left his job and even tax credits have it on there records when the information was amended - so were still waiting for the award notice - its been a month now - so income support cant get sorted until tax credits get there bums in gear which doesnt seem to be very quickly and supposably he doesnt qualify for Incapacity Benefit because he still has some vision in his left eye (not alot and it is badly straining to compensate for his bad eye now) and hes really light sensitive and the most the doctors have done is give him painkillers and this saline (sp?) solution to put in that basically just clears the eye out - his eye is the size of a golf ball so he doesnt contribute towards the household running etc because he cant work and all our benefits are screwed up - rest assured they are being nagged to death though!!

Oh my gosh that sounds horrendous :eek:. I have to admit then when i first read your post i was thinking "she is working so hard to watch the pennies, why is she putting up with a non-contributing partner" but I take it back. It makes you mad that while you are genuinely in need of financial help from incapacity benefit and you cant get anywhere, yet there is no doubt that there are a good few thousand "Kieth Miller's" out there now having no trouble claiming the money. It makes you mad :mad:

Hang in there- Hopefully this will be sorted soon.

Paulie'sGirl

Awww Sammy (}) big hugs

I'm so sorry to hear that things are so bad.

Following on from someone's suggestion on soya mince, could you mix the soya and real mince to make things stretch a bit?

If you can get cheap bread and veg from work, I wonder if soup and rolls might be a cheapish meal? Add a few shreds of rubber chicken and / or red lentils for protein for Ben?

(someone more qualified on nutrition might be able to advise how good this is for him)

Might I also suggest that if you don't already have a social worker, you call your local council's 'first contact' department and get one. They'll be able to push CTC and welfare more for you. I used to work in local government, give me a PM if you need advice there



Will be thinking of you, and more practical ways to help.

Much love,

PG