2018 Benbenandme's Next Battle

Southern-Girl

benbenandme wrote: »

So the ex pays me £480 a month in maintenance, this is due to stop in August, so 8 more payments = 8 x £480 = £3840.

I thought maintenance had to paid until 18 now that the kids have to stay in education until they are 18?

benbenandme

I thought that too, but unfortunately they have to stay in some form of education, employment or training ... ds, due to his SEN, is not cut out for 6th form / college, so is hoping to do an apprenticeship. This, according to the Government, counts as employment (yes at £3.70 an hour :eek:, he already earns more than this in a part-time school job), so thereofre they will stop his child benefit and tax credits. Once they're stopped then the ex is no longer obliged to pay maintenance :mad: :mad: It's an insult, there's no way he could live independently on £3.70 an hour, so therefore will need subsidising by me ... It's purely the governments way to keep youngsters off the unemployment stats :mad: :mad:

So ds will earn £3.70 an hour, which equated to approx £110 a week, or £450 a month, and my income will drop by £850 a month. Go figure ...

benbenandme

Ahh so the holidays are finally here :j :j

Wide awake at silly o'clock this morning so I went to Tescos at 6.30 and did the shopping. It was getting busy by the time I left but I'm all done, time to shut the doors and start chilling out

Today will be spent wrapping (I did ds' stuff yesterday while he was at work), then walking the dog and then an afternoon of footie watching with maybe a little nap thrown in before that as it feels like lunchtime already to me

Some more pottering about, with a bit of housework chucked in, but that's basically the plan for today, ie. not much

benbenandme

And it wouldn't be the holidays without a list now would it?? This is basically a brain-dump for me, I don't intend to do much of it before Christmas but at least this way I might remember when the time comes ...

• Wrap all presents
• Deliver work colleagues present / card
• Clean out the car
• Top up windscreen wash
• Trip to the tip
• Organise all my Flamingo cards stock
• Clean fridge / freezer
• Deepclean kitchen
• Deepclean bathroom
• Deepclean conservatory
• Deepclean lounge
• Deepclean my bedroom
• Deepclean ds bedroom
• Put chain on bottom of lounge blinds
• Pack away Xmas decs
• End of year banking
• 2019 financial plans
• Contact local care homes re cards
• Facebook ad (with free credit) for my cards
• Buy a glass clipframe for a picture
• Find small bulbs for bedroom light
• Sort out tv / sky box
• Gut airing cupboard
• EBay
• Inventory of the freezer

benbenandme

So today has been spent with family, we rarely see my brother on Christmas Day as he isn't local, but he always comes down for a day, which was today. We took Mum to visit Dads burial plot then we all went for a lovely meal then back to my sisters afterwards.

For me it was probably better than Christmas Day, and Mum loves it when we're all together. My part of the meal was £43 but was well worth every penny, a lovely day

Now I'm in pj's, pottering around getting bits and pieces tidied up. I might get a couple of bits done from my list, but more likely I will get little odds and ends done that mean I can crack on with the list once Xmas is done.

I have started working on the end of year banking / 2019 plans and its not looking good. It all depends what ds does after year 11, but either way things are going to be getting tighter around here (holiday is accounted for though ). It is spurring me on to get back to my surveys / betting though which is a good thing as I have totally lost my mojo for surveys etc over the last few months.

beanielou

Glad you have had a lovely day with your family.
Worth it's weight in gold

benbenandme

Absolutely, lovely memories are priceless compared with some material tat in plastic packaging

Freezer inventory completed;

• Onions
• Mixed Veg
• 1/2 box waffles
• Bag of chips
• 5 x yorkshire puddings
• puff pastry
• 4 x chicken breasts
• spag bol x 6 portions
• 2 x salmon fillets
• 5 x cod fillets
• 4 x pork steaks
• 10 x chipolatas
• beef brisket
• portion of lasagne
• medium pack of mince
• large pack of mince
• diced beef
• 1/2 pack fish fingers
• pack chicken pieces
• pork joint

I've taken the pastry out to make mince pies tomorrow (must do the sausage rolls too). I've also taken out the salmon and some of the cod and will make a fish pie for tea tomorrow (family tradition, always have fish pie on Christmas Eve ).

I need to work on clearing some of that from the freezer before New Year - I will eat up some of the portions of spag bol / lasagne etc while ds is away. I also bought a beef joint and a lamb joint this week that are currently in the fridge, one of those will probably be squirreled away into the freezer for a Sunday roast in January

benbenandme

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!!
I've wrapped the final presents, washing machine is on, have made 100+ swagbucks, made a list of bits and pieces to get done today;

1. write final xmas cards
2. deliver cards
3. deliver work colleagues present
4. drop drinks round to my sisters for tomorrow
5. make mince pies
6. make sausage rolls
7. hoover (again!)
8. print off vouchers for ds

Other than that anything else that gets done today is a bonus I did clean the hall and downstairs toilet last night so those are done, and rehomed various bits and pieces that were laying around in the lounge. Nearly there folks

beanielou

Have a lovely time

benbenandme

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas yesterday, we had a good day in the end, ds did have a meltdown in the morning and refused to come to my sisters, but eventually he calmed down and everything went ahead as planned. It did upset me though and he has already said he wants to go to his Dads next Christmas as he always ends up ruining my day

This morning he has gone to his Dads as normal, he's back on Saturday so I have a few days to chill out and have some me time, I'm sooo excited about it

After I dropped him off this morning I popped into the supermarket and picked up a few bargains;

Turkey crown (reduced from £19 to £4 :money:)
Stuffing x 2 (75p each, squirrelled in the freezer)
Pigs in blankets (£1 squirrelled in the freezer)
Tube of smarties x 2 50p each
Large box of Bendicks mints (£2.50)
Large box of Lily O'Briens winter chocs (£2.50)
Box of choc biscuits (£2)
Parsnips (29p)
Carrots (29p)
Salad bowl (£1)
Goose fat (£3 to £1)
and a few other bits and pieces, in total it all came to under £25

I did have some turkey yesterday but my sister doesn't do big portions and there weren't really any leftovers for sandwiches, so I thought I'd cook the turkey crown now and then eat it cold over the next day or two I also didn't buy any chocs this Christmas, I deliberately resisted the tubs this year, so thought I'd treat myself to my favourite two boxes at those prices

So, the rest of today will be spent eating nice picky food, possibly some alcohol as I don't plan on driving anywhere, some footie this afternoon and generally chilling out