~*~ The finishing straight for OrangeFairy :-) ~*~

brizzledfw

Fab news OF!

OrangeFairy

Morning all.

Not much to report. Did little shop to the tune of £9 at our little shop this morning (still not using supermarkets) This inc butter, 2 lots of milk, ham, sweets for after swimming and some bread as we didn't have enough hm bread left. The only thing that cost a lot in comparison was the butter.

Hubby and I are looking at taking the kids camping over the bank hol weekend. Trying to find a good priced park maybe in Wales so we can have a day in Cardiff. The trouble is the things that go with it. The kids both need a new sleeping bag and I wanted to get them nice ones. So hoping not to spend too much the actual spending while away will be in hubby's new pay check.

Topcashback for Thorpe park tickets tracked! Whoohoo!

Not much on today. Work until 2.30 and then will go down to swimming baths for DD2s lesson and DD1 with have a swim for £2.15. Then hubby has promised the kids a film night.

Tomorrow I'm taking DDs swimming with my friends kids, Saturday we will go geocaching or have a board game day depending on the weather, and then wookey hole on Sunday. Trying to do some nice bits with them this weekend.

OF x

pixiechick99

Hi OF:)
Wookey Hole isn't far from me - enjoy! I haven't been for a while now, about 7 years I think, my girls were little then. Your 2 will love it!
You have some great plans...Thorpe park and camping sound great!

debtfreewannabe321

plans are all sounding good

OrangeFairy

Two steps forward and one step back..............

After going out for a meal to celebrate being £215 better off a month we got a letter from tax credits the next morning to say we owe them £1911 from the 2010-11 period :eek:
Now i know we were over paid in that period and then they stopped paying us in sept 11 and I assumed the money they were meant to pay us for the following years would sort it out. The issue has arisen as we now earn too much money to get the minimum £545 a year payment which they would have realised this year so they aren't able to claw the money back that way. I was hoping to offer them a small payment a month while I am paying other stuff off. But reading the details on the website it says they give you 12 months to pay unless your circumstances show you can't do that. Unfortunately ours will show we have £1200 a month disposable income

So looks like we will have a £160 a month payment if they let us pay over 12 months (fingers crossed!)

I am not getting too hung up on it however. It is money we were overpaid so we need to pay back. If it happened 18 months ago it would have been a nightmare. At least this week I have just saved £215 a month so I am still technically better off. (hopefully)

Other positive things.....

Finished at 1pm yesterday and took the girls swimming for a couple of hours. It was such a lot of fun for an £8.50 expense. They spent the morning with my friends children at the park so a great day in their eyes.

Today we packed up a picnic and went for a coastal walk with my Mum, sisters and brother and we found some geocaches. Gorgeous weather, beautiful views, exercise (the trail was steep!!) time with family and only £2.10 spent on parking and £3.00 on ice creams.

Tomorrow we will be off to Wookey Hole with a picnic and Mr T vouchers to get in. So just a fuel cost and perhaps a little treat while we are there.

Pixie - I haven't been for about 18 years- I am not sure what's there!

Will be picking a camp-site tonight.

My Thorpe park cash back tracked for £18 which nearly pays for one of the girls sleeping bags

So an MSE weekend but a lot of fun!

OF x

bella2121

Don't worry about tax credits Hun they'll be happy with anything I'm paying back 2 over payments at £25 a month for each they asked if I had the full amount I said no all I could afford was £25 they didn't ask for income details etc they only ask for income and expenditure if your proposed repayment is gonna take over 10 years to repay lol just pay the minimum they'll take for now after all its interest free as opposed to some of the other stuff your paying, hope this helps xx

MrsSmith2013

Hi OF, sorry to hear the tax credits are a muddle. I don't think they can ever get that right. We claimed it when I went on to statutory maternity pay with DS and we got a letter at the start of the year saying they had overpaid us £1300 - which I don't think they did.

I wrote back to them and said, I hadn't applied for it as a loan from them, and I needed the money to live and for childcare. I asked them to provide the date range they are questioning so that I could provide a detailed list of income and expenditure for the period. I think its really unfair they do it so far behind, and I'm not willing to just give it back without showing them it wasn't just taking it for the sake of taking money.

I guess it may be different for you if you knew they had definately overpaid you, but I wouldn't touch tax credits again with a barge pole unless I was desperate, their system doesn't seem to work very well!

Mrs S x

OrangeFairy

Morning all.

Currently on our way to Wookey Hole :-) The girls are pretty excited. We are armed with a lonely picnic and the determination not to spend too much. Then we will be back home to have dinner at MILs.

Had a lovely evening yesterday. Enjoyed the golf and then my sister came over to play some cards which was fun. We had a load if carrots and mushrooms to use so I defrosted some of the mince and made cottage pie. There was a lot of veg to pad it out so it ended up make two meals and a single portion of savoury mince for a lunch time. Better than I could have hoped.

Thanks for your comments regarding tax credits. I have also vowed never to touch them with a barge pole again. I will see if they will accept a £100 payment a month first. I'm not going to stress over it- just means a couple of extra months before we are df. Means it will now be after my 30th though!

Might have a little car nap now!

OF x

debtfreewannabe321

Have fun at wookey hole

brizzledfw

Enjoy the day out and yes, make them a lowish offer..their mistake not yours.

We once were overpaid, years ago, ( not a huge amount but its the principle of the thing as I had the letters proving I had told them of the change in circumstances) and I just stalled. Their mistake. They gave up in the end!