Wanderer returns

Spendless

Hi

Sorry I've not come across you before so forgive me if these questions have been answered elsewhere. I was under the impression if you were on IS that you were only allowed to keep about £10 a week of your maintanince. Is that incorrect? I would hate to think you were budgeting to your income and then found you had money to pay back.

Also do you own your home outright, or is rent paid in full for you as I don't see any rent/mortgage on your SOA.

Have you asked at the school about paying less/not paying. Our school letters are worded "a voluntary contribution, but if not enough the trip can't take place" so I always think there must be a cut-off point where enough people have paid and the child whose parents are struggling can go without paying full amount.

Penny2myName

Seriously going wrong somewhere, possibly the £220 i have on CC but not going to add that on to this particular sum as it wasn't part of the orginal. Think I am having a second wave of a LBM. 19th March £5,969.63 15th June £5,209.53 a difference of £760.10 yet over the last 3 months I have paid £1,049.61. I therefore have a difference of 289.51 missing somewhere. What I should be seeing is £4,920.02 + CC of £224.35 = £5,144.37, Yet I find my total with the CC included is Total £5433.88.

Penny2myName

Its really weird the Maintence bit. I claim IS for me. I dont get IS for the kids I get Tax Credits for the kids, the Maintence is for the kids not me child tax credit disregards maintence. When I used to claim IS for kids aswell we had the full maintence amount reduced from what I received so we never even got to keep the first £10. Everything is legal and above board and done though the respective govermental offices.
REnt wise this is paid by housing, but before i gave work up back at end of feb, I ran some rent arrears up, whilst having to stay off work whilst my kids played tag at being ill, mainly caused by exhaustion.

Penny2myName

The way I look at things is that at present I am unoffically borrowing 75% of maintence a month whilst we go through this tighter patch. Before I gave work up teh whole amount of the maintence was used on the children for various clubs (martial arts and swimming) and spends. I am hoping that by the end of year the clubs can be reinstated whilst the reminder goes into their higher savings account I have set up for them. What I will do when things have eased up for us again is a house/individual income sum, that we used before. This also allows them a set amount of free choice for what foods they want in instead of my choice only value stuff.

I have an entitlement of weekly
59.15 IS
10.43 Family element from tax credits.
69.58

Both children each have a weekly income of
35.70 CTC
12.50 Maintence
15.10 CB
63.30

What I will then do is divide the house hold bills by three, and deduct that amount from each of us, leaving us all a set amount for food and personal choice of hobbies. Worked great for us the other year. Unfortunately i got used to the amount I had incoming when working and the commitents I made at that time, have left things alot tighter now that I dont work.

Penny2myName

Sat thinking about my debt last night, mainly after reading through a few threads, the relapse stories. I have gotten out of debt twice before, infact i think I had all of £300 left to pay on my catalogue when I got my self back into the deep dodo. Now I noticed how many of you mention it was a certain habit and pattern you had, which needed to be broke, and new frame of mind that was required. So this set me to consider my own.
Deep debt scenario 1, was when I left children's father and took half the debts/bills with me. I left everything but the cot and our clothes. When I got my own place I had to totally furnish it, and pay my own bills aswell as the ones for his property I had taken with me. 2 years on I had managed to get it all clear, scenario 2, moved to another property had just finished decorating it when I had a house fire the next day (if i didn't have bad luck i would have no luck) so there I was back to stage one with no furniture/clothes or anything else. I maxed out my sister's, friend's and own catalogue to refurnish my home (admittedly took council 6 months to complete the repairs) I also spent what I could on decorating it whilst waiting for council to get their fingers out of their rears. It took me a good 4 almost 5 years to get out of that one. Latest scenario. The furniture I had gotten last time round had mainly consisted of flat packs, I was in a solid fuel property so all soft furnishings/carpets (you can guess how i had the fire) had pock holes from spitted coal flecks and roughly after 5 yrs of young children thinking they are monkeys around the furniture (especially their bedrooms)the furniture was shaky and unstable, so I decided kids are now older, I am fed up of always having to replace stuff that looks worn within a year, that I was going to finally buy solid, ready built furniture and since my heating has finally been changed to gas central heating I was going to replace the soft furnishings. So here I am, to the sum of £5kish again, I have very solid furniture in bedroom number 1 which DD is about to be moved into, a solid dining suite i have wanted for years, a very plush and (i cant believe how expensive yet i still bought it) sofa, which is gonna last till day I die even if it means making everyone sit on floor, the other furniture in room is also solid built (though that was actually bought cash and first solid stuff i got) two rooms re-carpetted, Kitchen appliances are mainly from the scenario 2 debt apart from washer that I had to replace last year. I still need to get solid bedroom storage furniture for two more rooms, all the beds are done. Everywhere I go in my home I do see my debt. I think the only thing that stops me from dispairing is knowing that the products are going to far outlast the debt. My catalogue has now started with the option to pay for items directly when ordered (which is what I plan to do to finish furnishing my home). As I pay my debt to catalogue off, my commission builds up, with the last lot of just over £100, i bough from the end of season sale section, a black metal bedstead for the small room at the reduced rate of £49 , a bath panel for £19 and some clothes/shoes. Commission is starting to build up again, and I am hoping that by the time everything is paid off there should be another end of season sale and hopefully there will be some solid bedroom furniture (drawers) that I can get for the small room with commision.
That is one of the areas where my mind set has changed, I am now patient enough to wait for the end of season sales to get the items at a reduced price (will only get if at least 30% is knocked off) and only want to buy with commission. Also As I actually want fitted carpets and properly laid laminate, I want to be able to pay for them in cash so these will not be done via catalogue.
At present I am awaiting new kitchen units under the decent home scheme, then I can get the kitchen/diner decorated decently/floor laminated/light shades and thats that done.
The lounge needs the ceiling doing (they all need doing I cant reach them) walls papered and some light shades then thats done.
bedroom 1 needs NOTHING its complete. bedroom 2 papering/ shade/ drawers. Bedroom 3 papering/shade/carpeting/ full bedroom suite *but not bed). Bathroom I would like fully tiled but this is also being replaced under the Decent homes scheme so thats a not till then job.
Hall stairs landing I want laminated, though think the stairs have to be carpeted as i dont think you can have them laminated.
So whilst I await the council to complete the kitchen and bathroom tasks( they have till 2010), i dig myself back out of debt, and I am learning to save, so I will be able to buy the stuff i want straight out.
So I am really homing my debt cycle is over, because writing my story down, I can see that my debts are always incurred via furniture and carpeting.

Penny2myName

All I want for christmas is a smaller family:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Well atleast buying for cousins finally stopped years ago as they have bred like rabbits, from 5 cousins i now have 17 second cousins and 14 third cousins.

my shopping list which will have to keep being editted as and when I get stuff

Mum £10 boots gift voucher (pigsback points) (hopefully will have by points by next week) Katherine kerr book £3 bookclub sale
Sis 4x HB wiccan encyclopaedias (pigback still waiting for my 1000points)£9.99
OBro 2x raymond E Feist HB books £10 bookclub 1 from sale for £3
YBro
YBroGF Almany lip pencil, Almany bright eyes cream shadow x2 wet and wild lip gloss (all freebies) and tones of browns.
N French manicure set £2.45
DD ScentSational may your own perfume kit £14.95
DS1
DS2

kids Dad
kids step mum smelly set £2 jan sales
bro1
bro2

Right, apart from more stuff for DD, all the females are sorted:T
I want to try for £25 a month towards Christmas , so that is another £150.

I could quite easily deal with Christmas each year, if i didn't have to deal with birthdays, school trips, school photos, easter, holidays i get roped into by sister, swear she paid for it straight away by credit card so none of use could back out. Ah well never knew I was gonna end up unemployed at time.
If I am lucky will have chance for atleast two more £10 vouchers from pigsback, when all my greasypalm payments get sorted that should total around £100, barclays insurance is just taking so long to verify as well as uswitch.

Finally almost finished using all the smellies I got for Christmas last year EVERYONE but my sister bough me them, she got me a nice black nightwear set, to wear after my super smelly baths.:rotfl: Think by end of July they should all be used apart from the lotions.

beemuzed

Spendless wrote: »

Hi

Sorry I've not come across you before so forgive me if these questions have been answered elsewhere. I was under the impression if you were on IS that you were only allowed to keep about £10 a week of your maintanince. Is that incorrect? I would hate to think you were budgeting to your income and then found you had money to pay back.

Also do you own your home outright, or is rent paid in full for you as I don't see any rent/mortgage on your SOA.

Have you asked at the school about paying less/not paying. Our school letters are worded "a voluntary contribution, but if not enough the trip can't take place" so I always think there must be a cut-off point where enough people have paid and the child whose parents are struggling can go without paying full amount.

Just to say that yes, schools do word requests for a voluntary contribution, but if someone can't pay then it's the school that bears the cost - we don't spread the money over all parents to cover any who can't pay. That's why if not enough can pay then the trip can't go ahead - school budgets are too tight these days to carry much surplus! having said that, if someone finds the full cost too much then most heads are willing to either get school to part or fully fund or to let the parent spread the payment over a longer period.
So, do go and discuss if it's a problem - schools don't like kids missing out, especially on trips within curriculum time, just through lack of funds.

Penny2myName

School trip is sorted, though I wouldn't have complained if dd's name had been one pulled out of the hat not to go (limitied places). I do know about the help, but since I can just stretch to cover it I will leave it there for someone needing it more.
I know cause once I was a reciepant of it as a child, though the school didn't inform my mum so she kept me off school that day so i wouldn't feel bad being the only one in class,:rolleyes: Also I know someone who works in a school that has mentioned it to me in the past. I also knew there might be extra costs for DD due to the school i put her down to attend.

Penny2myName

The weather is playing havoc with my finances, I have become so use to budgeting £2.50 a week train fare for daughter's travel to school, but whilst it keeps raining the way it is, I cant expect her to do 9miles worth of biking each day, so need to budget back up to £8.00 bus fare. This will teach me to send my kids to a half decent high school.
On the upside, the household bill account is going to be £33.87 in credit for end of month, which means as long as both maintence and Child benefit are being paid into it, I dont have to worry about either the house bills or that account again (unless my bills take a sudden leap, but cross that bridge if i ever come to it).
Now I just need to keep an eye on the ball when it comes to the debt/shopping/travel account. Really need to get back to my weekly budgets with this account too. Actually I think I could do with a third account:o One for bills, one for debts and one for weekly costs. Might go in to local halifax and see if I can set a normal cashcard account up, which I can transfer a weekly budget into, then I know the debts are always covered and I haven't accidently dipped into them when doing the shopping.

Penny2myName

Well I thought about what I said early and have decided it is a very good and practical step for me. So I have applied for a very basic easycash account with my bank, which I can then transfer an allotted amount to each week, this covers everything apart from household bills and debts. I have decided £40 is going to be the allotted amount, so time to become exceedingly frugal? (tight):p .
Also toying with the idea of starting myself an isa since I can start one from £1, and if i can come in at under £30 a week with my allowance account, then I can have £40 a month going into the Isa, and I will be starting to have good saving habits then.

I think that is one of my main problems, I have never been good at saving, so when I do have money it gets frittered away. If I can learn to save when I dont have money, then I should be in a very good habit by the time I finally do have money again.:T