Single, six kids and going to be debt free!

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  • Spendless wrote: »
    Just caught up and read your signature. Wow :dance:

    Thanks Spendless.

    Well I have been plodding on slowly. I'm still doing Matched Betting and that is nicely upping my income each month which is good especially as my housing benefit has decreased due to my wages being higher since April. I have phoned them today and they suggested to send them a screenshot of my payslip each month and they will recalculate my housing benefit. Its hard because the busiest time of the year is April to August so myself and my colleague work extra hours, but then it tails off a bit and so we can work less hours. I can survive though on the lower amount of housing benefit so if it does increase its a bonus.

    Then the other bombshell was that my ex husband just out of the blue decided to propose to reduce my maintenance by £189 a month. When we split we drew up a clean break financial agreement which said he would pay maintenance as per the calculator. Well this proposal means he would be paying a lot less and he hasn't given a reason why he wants to pay less. So I phoned CMS and have opened a direct pay case. I don't see why he should pay less especially as I don't ask him for any extra money for the kids. I pay for everything for them, all their clothes, shoes, school uniform, school trips, any school expenses, clubs, everything! At least this way, they calculate what he should pay and if he doesn't pay the right amount, then they will chase him.

    Kids cost a lot of money. In the last week, for my eldest, I have had to pay out £54 for two maths books and a calculator and £37.55 to have her English Language paper remarked. I am also going to pay another £37.55 to have her Spanish writing paper remarked as it turns out she was only 4 marks off getting the top grade in her Spanish GCSE. So its a lot of money that I have paid out on extras that I wouldn't dream of asking my ex husband to contribute to. This all has to come out of my extras budget which is being stretched a lot at the moment!

    So update on the extra income totals so far this month.

    Extra income £312.25/£380 82.17%

    Its going well and I have an extra £16.65 due in matched betting profits to come in tomorrow. So that leaves me just over £50 to find. I am hoping I will find this in the next week and then any extra on top of this will go towards helping to recoup some of the costs that I have had to pay out recently!
  • beanielou
    beanielou Posts: 89,817
    Academoney Grad I'm a Volunteer Ambassador Mortgage-free Glee! Name Dropper
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    Blooming ex's :mad:
    I am a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on Mortgage Free Wannabe & Local Money Saving Scotland & Disability Money Matters. If you need any help on those boards, do let me know.Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any post you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button , or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own & not the official line of Money Saving Expert.

    Lou~ Debt free Wanabe No 55 DF 03/14.**Credit card debt free 30/06/10~** MFW. Finally mortgage free O2/ 2021****
    "A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of" Jane Austen in Mansfield Park.

    ***Fall down seven times,stand up eight*** ~~Japanese proverb.
    ***Keep plodding*** Out of debt, out of danger. ***Be the difference.***
    One debt remaining. Home improvement loan.
  • So this is becoming a weekly update diary. I am still plodding away on making extra income and my ex husband has received a letter from CMS. He actually text me to ask if it was a scam! I said no it wasn't and I haven't had a reply since. He gets paid tomorrow so I'll see if he pays me the maintenance or whether he is going to withhold it now I have got CMS involved.

    I think I only get to update once a week due to the kids being back at school and the rugby season has now started! Saturday was spent cleaning and tidying the downstairs of the house. Then off to a local university for my eldest's NCS graduation. Then Sunday was spent watching the eldest two play in a rugby tournament. Very busy weekend and not much time to get much else done.

    And in other news, my step mother (who I don't talk to, long story, but for some reason she seems to have a bit of a screw loose to me) has just text me tonight to say she is 'composing a letter to social services about my accusation of her neglecting my children back in January'. I am totally confused by this and really don't understand what she is on about. I never accused her of being neglectful and certainly did not report her to social services. So why on earth she thinks she needs to compose a letter to them after all this time. This just reaffirms to me that there is something not quite right about her and I should stay away. The only thing her writing a letter to social services could do is make my life more difficult. They will probably end up visiting me and investigating me as I am on the register due to my crazy ex neighbour reporting me falsely so I am already on the system. But when they visited before they found no concerns but said I would stay in the system now. This is the last thing I need right now, my step mother causing problems for me. Why can't she just leave me alone!!

    Anyway rant over, update on the monthly income totals as follows:

    Extra income £365.21/£380 88.49%

    I am hoping that this week should see me bring in the last £15 odd. Although last week I didn't save any money from the weekly budget as for some reason I seemed to have loads to pay for and used loads of petrol driving around at the weekend!
  • Chrystal
    Chrystal Posts: 1,840
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    Well that sounds like a whole load of hassle you can well do without! Is she with your father... can't he have a word with her? ((hugs))
    I Believe.....
    That it isn't always enough, to be forgiven by others.
    Sometimes, you have to learn to forgive yourself.

    Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery
    Today is a gift. That's why it is called the present.

    happiness isn't achieved by getting extra things,
    but by getting rid of the things that make you unhappy
  • I know. I have no idea what she thinks she is going to achieve. Yes she is married to my dad but as far as my dad says they are married only because she owes him money and he thinks he will get it back if he stays with her. But then he could be not telling me the whole truth. I have messaged him to ask him to ask her to leave me alone but I will ring him as well tomorrow to see if he has any further insight as to what she is up to.
  • f0xh0les
    f0xh0les Posts: 6,817
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    Just keep the text!! It is evidence of tit for tat.

    There are enough people who see your kids - nursery, school, their dads, sports coaches etc to be able to rubbish her claims. You don't need it!!, with any luck the only contact they will make with you is the letter telling you they have investigated and found the claim to be malicious.

    She might just be using you to get back at your dad, if the relationship is not all that.
    4/10/22One Year Mortgage Free Yay!
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  • Just catching up with your goings-on after an absence!

    I'm sorry to hear about your mad stepmother! Hopefully you'll have some more answers after you speak to your dad today.

    And well done for taking the hard line with your ex and getting the CMS involved. It's atrocious that he seems to think he can just decrease his payments without even discussing the matter with you first - especially after all the extras you pay for the children.

    But on the positive side - all is going great with the children, well done you for getting rid of the CC debt, the new car sounds lovely and I'm glad to read that you have some personal space with your new "boudoir!" You thoroughly deserve it!

    And I hope you come to a decision soon on where your career path will take you.

    SSG x
    Finally Debt Free! - July 2016 🌟
    Finished Emergency Fund- £10,000 April 2017
    🌟
    RETIRED: MAY 2021!!!!😀🎆
    My diary: “Seasidegal's Scrimpy Retirement Diary!”
  • 24ta
    24ta Posts: 217
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    Just read your diary!

    Well done what an amazing achievement to clear that debt so quickly.

    A great role model for your children

    Subscribed :)
  • Mumoffourkids
    Mumoffourkids Posts: 1,066
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    f0xh0les wrote: »
    Just keep the text!! It is evidence of tit for tat.

    There are enough people who see your kids - nursery, school, their dads, sports coaches etc to be able to rubbish her claims. You don't need it!!, with any luck the only contact they will make with you is the letter telling you they have investigated and found the claim to be malicious.

    She might just be using you to get back at your dad, if the relationship is not all that.

    Oh I will be keeping the messages as evidence. I spoke to my dad and he said just to ignore. He has told her not to mention me and to leave me alone, but it seems she really doesn't listen to him!
    Just catching up with your goings-on after an absence!

    I'm sorry to hear about your mad stepmother! Hopefully you'll have some more answers after you speak to your dad today.

    And well done for taking the hard line with your ex and getting the CMS involved. It's atrocious that he seems to think he can just decrease his payments without even discussing the matter with you first - especially after all the extras you pay for the children.

    But on the positive side - all is going great with the children, well done you for getting rid of the CC debt, the new car sounds lovely and I'm glad to read that you have some personal space with your new "boudoir!" You thoroughly deserve it!

    And I hope you come to a decision soon on where your career path will take you.

    SSG x

    Thank you very much. The new car is lovely but I do need to keep paying to get rid of the loan asap! My room is lovely if it still hasn't been decorated yet. I never seem to find the time these days. There is always something else to do especially now that rugby season has started again.
    24ta wrote: »
    Just read your diary!

    Well done what an amazing achievement to clear that debt so quickly.

    A great role model for your children

    Subscribed :)

    Thank you and thank you for subscribing.

    So I haven't updated for a while but I did manage to make my target for extra income in September so I am very happy with that. I have set my target for extra income for October as well and I have made a good start on that from matched betting and from extra in my wages than I had estimated.

    I am still having trouble with my ex husband though!:mad: He has decided that because of my impossible behaviour he cannot see the kids for the foreseeable future. He said I am abusive towards him at drop off and pick up and that I tried to financially screw him over. So he emailed my eldest and sent her this long email which she wasn't very impressed about and told him so. The thing is that I only ever had a go at him about seeing the kids more as he really doesn't seem to want to change his life about just to suit the kids. He very rarely sees them, doesn't help in taking them to any of their clubs and then says he has to drop off early on a Sunday so he can get home and have tea at a reasonable time. Everything else seems to take priority over his seeing his kids. So now he is not going to see them at all. I thought about it and thought actually he could ask my eldest to take the kids on the train to the local town and he could meet them there for the day without having to see me at all. But that would disrupt his life too much.

    Sorry for the long moan but he really does my head in. Oh and the CMS payments have been sorted. For some reason he decided he wanted to pay weekly even though he gets paid monthly and his payments have gone up by almost £20 a week on what he was paying me previously. His first payment is this Friday so hopefully it will go through.

    So anyway onto more pleasant things, my budgets have been updated and I should have about £600 spare between now and Christmas after paying for our holiday so I am going to put half of that towards the car loan and the other half will be put into emergency savings just in case.

    Anyway target for October extra income and progress so far is as follows:

    Extra income £88.24/£394.45 22.37%
  • beanielou
    beanielou Posts: 89,817
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    His loss. His loss.
    Hope he says up on Friday.
    I am a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on Mortgage Free Wannabe & Local Money Saving Scotland & Disability Money Matters. If you need any help on those boards, do let me know.Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any post you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button , or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own & not the official line of Money Saving Expert.

    Lou~ Debt free Wanabe No 55 DF 03/14.**Credit card debt free 30/06/10~** MFW. Finally mortgage free O2/ 2021****
    "A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of" Jane Austen in Mansfield Park.

    ***Fall down seven times,stand up eight*** ~~Japanese proverb.
    ***Keep plodding*** Out of debt, out of danger. ***Be the difference.***
    One debt remaining. Home improvement loan.
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