MeandO's money-shuffling

foxandflowers

If you have any Milton, you can chuck it in the wash load with the detergent and it makes your whites much whiter again. Just don't put anything else in the wash with them that you don't want whitening. 

RE: How the ex lives - I have a similar predicament. My ex always seems to have money to spend on Mini Fox, buying her all the sweets and toys she wants, whereas we currently barely have any food in the house. I hope she doesn't resent me for it. 

MeandO

Chrystal said:

On the subject of smart meters I had the same problem when we were moved from Bulb to  Octopus,  

The smart meters just stopped sending the  info although they were the 2nd generation and shouldn't have had a problem  I eventually got round to reporting it and it was a simple matter of something needing changing on the electric meter which sends the information from both gas and electric to the supplier.  Took about  2 minutes to do

Unfortunately the gas meter has never worked Chrystal! It's something to do with the position of the meter at the back of the house, the thick stone walls and very poor mobile signal apparently... They've sent two engineers out since installation but neither can get it to work! The electric one is inside the house and works fine though

MeandO

foxandflowers said:

If you have any Milton, you can chuck it in the wash load with the detergent and it makes your whites much whiter again. Just don't put anything else in the wash with them that you don't want whitening. 

RE: How the ex lives - I have a similar predicament. My ex always seems to have money to spend on Mini Fox, buying her all the sweets and toys she wants, whereas we currently barely have any food in the house. I hope she doesn't resent me for it. 

Thanks for the Milton tip, Fox. I've just left them all to soak with some stain remover and boiling hot water, then will run them through the wash. I'll pick up a bottle of milton next time I'm out, takes me back to baby sterilising days! x

Sorry to hear about your ex, I'm sure your daughter will remember the fun times and time you spent with her more than sweets and toys. My ex just won't buy DS anything unless he really has to and when he does, he expects grand thanks for it. He'd rather spend the money on himself!

MeandO

I've wrapped the ebay parcel and walked to the post office to post it and the wrapped the vinted parcel ready for dropping of at the courier point later.

Looking at the credit card balance and the amount I have saved towards it, I'm about £150 short. If I can't make any more £'s towards it before pay day next week then I'll take the money out of the gifts pot to pay it off. That pot will still be healthy afterwards and I still have 5 pay days left before Christmas and DS & OH's birthday a couple of months after so there'll be another £750 in it by Christmas too. 

£27.35 has been earned in interest and paid into my ISA this month. It's nice to see the balance going up. I think this is the most I've ever actually built up by saving regularly in my life, unless you count DS's junior ISA which I save to every month and have put ransom amounts in too over the years. The balance in that is greater, I just hope he spends it wisely when he can access it. 

Honeysucklelou2

Those conversations about money are hard but sometimes need to be said because that is the reality. My older children are aware that their father doesn’t contribute because they have either worked it out or it has come up within a financial conversation. Not easy but necessary so that they could understand why we can’t have x, y or z because the money I earn can only be spent once and has to stretch as much as possible!

MeandO

Thank you HSL2, I'm glad your children are growing up to see the reality of your situation. I can only hope DS does the same. 

MeandO

I only need to find around £85 now to pay the credit card off as the shoes/boots I bought arrived and I'm returning them. I wasn't overly enamoured with one pair and I can't justify spending on the other pair that did fit ok right now. I'll drop them back to the courier shop later today.

The vinted parcel that was returned has mistakenly gone to a neighbour's house instead of mine and they are refusing to answer the door to me despite me seeing and hearing them the other side of the door. They are odd people. I have a feeling they've opened the package, maybe mistakenly as they get A LOT of parcels delivered, but I wish they'd just return it to me. I've raised the wrong delivery address with Evri (as I was in the whole time), we'll see what happens.

Ziffit have sent funds from the books I sent off recently, only they've claimed one was water damaged or mouldy so won't pay for that. It wasn't when it was posted. I can't be bothered to argue over 70p though tbh. Just over £7 should arrive in my account soon and will go straight towards the credit card.
One of OH's items sold on ebay yesterday for around £50 profit and he's kindly said to put the money towards our break, so that means less paid in total for that.

I had to cancel my gym visit yesterday as I got messed around with the time DS was due to be home from the event with his father. He's come back telling me how amazing  his father and partner are again. I have had to bite my tongue and just sit and take it. We haven't had the best of reunions; he asked what plans we had for the weekend and I told him I can't afford to spend any money until I get paid so we can do anything as long as it's free. He was ok about it, but I'm absolutely dreading the next two days of possible confrontations and moodiness. I've had to have more words yesterday and today about the way he was speaking to me and it's making me feel so low in my own home. I guess because it reminds me of being with his father so much and being made to feel worthless. I'm struggling with everything to be honest. I'm feeling so low today, I'm not loving my life one bit, I'm not even liking it.

badmemory

Is your DS actually getting depressed when he visits his father?

Will he relate actual conversations he is having, not what he assumes is being said because we all do that, but the actual conversation.  Also a conversation (totally unrelated obviously) about how some people who feel bad about themselves need to make other people feel bad.  This unfortunately does not just relate to his & his father's relationship but also his & yours.  So he is feeling bad so feels the need to make you feel bad too.

Karma - I sort of got mine.  All down to their lifestyle choices nothing else.

enthusiasticsaver

Oh dear it appears as if your DS is replicating his fathers behaviour. That is appalling and I certainly would not be paying out for meals out etc for him when he is with his father. Hopefully in time he will grow up and see the behaviour for what it is. In the meantime protect your own mental health. Why did you have to cancel your gym visit? If your ex messed about with the time he should have kept your DS until you were home. How old is your DS? 

enthusiasticsaver

I also would not be putting money in a junior isa. You have no control over how it is spent. In normal family circumstances fine but where you have two differing parental styles you don’t know how he will be influenced should your ex find out he has access to it.