NST July 2020: The Turtles go Jousting

mothernerd

f0xh0les said:

Mothernerd, when those muppets decided I owed them money they took the money out of the amount that they decided I should have been paid  all along.    So I went from £45 a week to £7.20 odd. until it was paid back.. They are not allowed to make a decision that will leave you so little that you cannot afford your day to day living expenses, there is a proper legal term for it, something along the lines of their decision 'not being allowed to cause severe economic hardship' or put you into debt.

https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Tax-Credits-Overpayments are a lovely user friendly guide to it. 

They say 'an overpayment will not be recovered if it was due to a mistake at the tax credit office and you met all of your responsibilities by reporting changes in circumstances promptly, by checking all award notices and notifying HMRC within one month of any mistakes or errors',  However they are not terribly good at admitting they have made the mistake

They cannot demand you pay them back a lump sum. Tell them to go whistle, and £5 a week is your offer.  That or tell them to  take you to court, but warn them you will advise your solicitor that  £2 a week is all you can afford now that you are too ill to carry on working. They are legally bound to accept any reasonable offer.  Fret not.  Don't let them live rent free in your head.

Today I went off volunteering, came home,made the kids do their homework, and am waiting for my lovely man to finish making tea for me.  Tonight will be watching football on the tv and chillin' out.  My aquafaba meringues were brilliant, crisp but also chewy.  Bliss.  Will make again as they keep well and the kids love them.

Thanks f0xh0les.  It is their mistake, they didn't act on information I told them but they can still recover the money. I'm not terribly worried - the relief of not having to deal with their nonsense any longer is so great. I did consider applying for the dreaded Universal Credit (just so they could repay themselves from that money) but the stress would be ten times worse.

I was reading an excerpt from MP Mhairi Black's speech "Benefit sanctions cost more to administer than they save. Benefit sanctions are not about 'saving the taxpayer money' - though that would be a sh!te excuse for having them anyway. Benefit sanctions are an ideologically driven punishment on poor people for being poor." Yesterday I read about the increase in the number of people in 'dire poverty' - that's people who have less than half the minimum they require to live on.

Today has been a good day. DS3 had lost track of where he is up to with paying me his 'rent' so went into my bank account and trawled back through the past year (good job I could isolate any payments from him) then adding them into the section of my account book used for keeping a paper trail on this. I didn't need to have gone quite that far back as there was another page with a few entries. He is actually in credit (in front with his payments) but then I needed to wait for him to wake up again to check if he had some money held in cash. I had told him to do this as I didn't know if they would struggle with getting food in, whether I would be sending back regular lists of things to buy for me and mum or if they would need money for any house jobs such as having a new front door lock (it jams sometimes). I've added that on and he also sent an amount to my bank account today so he's paid up until November 5th which again slightly improves my finances.

Spent some time outside, tidying, rounding up small empty pots (used some inside a large box to collect little bits of water), filling buckets with all the bits of water and filling a few mushroom boxes and trays with bits of soil whose inhabitants had died (or been dislodged by wind and rain) ready for starting the next round of seeding and potting on. Food delivery came about 7.30 pm. Had my trolley lined up at the gate and the driver asked could he borrow it and took it to his van and put all my bags in it (I came in and put my gloves on). All except the fridge and freezer stuff away in the shed, discarded the bags of the fridge stuff - all ready for cooking and filling the freezer tomorrow.

Today I am grateful for early rain and a dry afternoon, for making more 'puddles of order' (lots of books lined up, remaining 'brought from home' food in one place, more paper dealt with), getting the bedspread dry (last item from yesterday, only had room on the line when everything else came inside), for an easy food delivery (very little bending required).

crazy_cat_lady

Morning all  
It's a bit of a challenge for me to try and add a photo to a post...  but I am trying. I am a bit rubbish with technology and rely on my kids to help me a lot of the time

crazy_cat_lady

Wonder if this is working - don't worry I won't spam you any more with pictures of NT1 in her romper suit 

crazy_cat_lady

So I woke up quite early this morning and was all productive and got loads done before 8am - now I feel as though I need a nap. 
My holiday was cancelled yesterday afternoon so I requested a refund and am looking forward to seeing that decrease my cc balance some more. I'm a bit sad that we're not going away but as dd said herself - we're not as desperate for a break/holiday as we usually are by the end of the school year. None of us want to go away anyway while things are so far away from normal. We're pretty much still living by lockdown rules so going abroad seems too weird at the moment. Just a bit too early for all of us to want to head off to another country - and it won't be a holiday if we're quarantining/wearing masks/not allowed in pools etc.
Today's plans depend on dd - she wants to decorate but only if she's up early enough. Other than that I may have to tackle a supermarket, and we need to clean the house a little as well - especially my new bathroom. And ds will be doing a full day of school work before the wire that connects his exbox and tv will be found as it's currently 'missing' - I'm looking forward to him discovering that.

[Deleted User]

Oh CCL that's just adorable my photo of my kitten is his cone is not as cute as that

Three gratitudes for today:
- Final job offer following vetting for a new, more interesting and better paid job (HUGELY grateful for this considering what is going on for so many people)
- Two days off after today
- Cheap petrol at Costco

I know this is probably quite area-dependent but does anyone know anywhere that is still doing photo printing? I need one single photo printed to put in a frame for OH and I's anniversary on Monday so I have left it too late to order online I'm sure I've seen them working in an Asda recently but cannot remember which one  

f0xh0les

Oh look at that face! What a gorgeous girl. You can practically feel the shame.    Poor baby!  Massive congratulations on getting holiday refund.

Today I am doing nothing much really. I have made the menu plan. We cannot go anywhere or do anything, except be socially responsible and as they say, Stay at Home as much as possible.   So not planning on going anywhere til Monday morning.

I still have a few little housey jobs planned, and cleaning and hoovering the top two floors.

Mothernerd, can you schedule a  live chat  'house tour' with them to see what kind of state the house is in?

apple_muncher

Ditty - it is quite ludicrous that they are planning for 2 months from now in schools... Yes, we need direction and plenty of clarification ... but... 2 months ago we didn't know where we would be now ... No one has a clue what September might bring...! Hang in there and snuggle up.

Calling14

Oops didn't post yesterday.

Day 1 even though I had promised myself fish and chips for dinner, ended up using up yellow stickered leeks and potatos in my fridge and making soup. So glad I did as noticed on fb that the chippy was closed due to their chipping machine not working.

Result NSD no 1.  Exercise oops didn't happen and drank wine. -Naughty step time.

Day 2 - Did a much needed food shop in lidlee, so I can avoid shopping at weekend.

Exercise - good hilly walk done, if I hadn't scoffed a bag of Giant buttons I would be winning at life.

At least walk stopped me crying at everything, was having a wobble day yesterday. Must get out more does help my mental health.

Tea was a lazy affair chicken, peppers mushrooms, onions in oven throw on fajita mix, no wraps but went lovely with a baked sweet potato.

Foxholes our local rag is exactly the same as yours by the sound of it.

Day 3 today, no plans for spending.

Going to exercise after work, even if it is 40mph winds, hate being this overweight.

However as it is 11 years since freedom,  I started life on my own in my house will be having a drink to celebrate with a film night.

Grateful for

Having a job

Last nights football, we may not be Champions this season but what a brilliant game/result.

It's nearly the weekend.

abundant1972

Hello everyone!!!

I wanted to swing by and wish you all well for July! I am away on holiday for 2 weeks - no where exotic - and with parents... so will not have access to my PC... so I thought a good opportunity to take a break from everything online. All ok here despite dropping off the planet the last few weeks. Trying to build in some good little daily habits still and will be watching the pennies whilst away! I'll check in on you all when I get back, and jump back onboard in August!... 

Bye for now xxx

Calling14

Thanks abundant have a fun time. See you in August x