cm club

think you could claim a % for the conservery
depending on how much you use it for the mindees i'd say to claim 70% capitol

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my next-door neighbour (who is a cm) got a grant of £1000 through a scheme called 'workplace refurbishment' towards her conservatory that she was using for minding!

however, when i enquired about help with the cost of installing a downstairs loo (same scheme) i was turned down (even though i sometimes provide care for the 5 yr old brother of a mindee and he has sight problems and struggles with stairs ).

claiming an amount for pc use is a good point, since becoming a cm my computer does at least twice as much work!!

Umm - I think the answer to that is if you want an answer you can trust , then you prob need to pay for it

Why not ask on MN - there is bound to be an accountant here........

We decided not to as it was very complicated

You could claim for the conservatory - but it will cause probelms if you sell your house - due to capitol gains tax (check with an accountant before you make a decision)

Mykidz - we just had to put up a fence in front of our greenhouse, my inspector was happy with it. All it was is a 3' panel fence. Took my husband a morning to put up and it made her happy.

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Tax lady said i cant claim for my children mine are at school so dont count towards toddler groups, but if i drove the children to school i cannot claim petrol as my boys are benifiting
WTF
was able to claim for building work when i first started as i changed the layout of the first floor for my mindees
also claimed for laying lamanate floor down in the mindees rooms
dishwasher is a good one
do claim for pc costs and running

PS - Shosa, thanks much for the form!

TP - LOL. You sound like my dream c/m! I always appreciate someone with humour.

Oh no, I definitely write "poo" comments. I know there was a thread a while ago which talked about having to refer to nappies as being "soiled" rather than using any "negative" words (Ofsted's idea, obviously).

However, as my mindees write their own diaries , they write that their nappies were power-blasters/stinkeroony/gross/whatever and, (if they did,) that they stank the house out.

Lol @ ThePrisoner - I have stopped adding descriptive poo comments too so as not to embarrass them when they grow up. There will always be a place won't there for a good old-fashioned discreet verbal handover - with hand signals if necessary.

I'm always aware that these diaries will probably be read by other relatives, and will be kept for years (to be brought out and read on child's wedding day??)

I therefore don't put anything negative in them - horrendous behaviour, biting etc. As yearoftheox said, it's better to talk those things through privately. Depending on the child and the parents, I might write something like, "was a bit of a pickle at music group" but the rest would concentrate on what nice things we did there!

I claim for entrance fees/bus fares etc for myself and mindies but not my own children unless we got a "family" or "group" ticket. The same with meals/ice-creams etc I only claim for mindies not my own children.

Ican walk to school but I would claim mileage for school runs if I took mindies in car as own children could potentially share lifts or a hubby/neighbour might be able to take on way to work and you would still have the school run to do if your own child was away on school camping trip etc.

I use 59p A5 books from Tesco for my daily diaries; only do them for under fives as school children can easily answer parents questions about their time with me. I include what they've eaten (or declined), bottles & times of sleeps nappy changes (s or w). Anywhere they've been, anything they enjoyed (or hated). Notes to parents (eg couldn't find any spare pants today). Anything funny they said or brief comments about their development.

If I go out on a trip and ds is with us and I pay for entrance fees or ice creams/drinks etc I claim for his costs too. After all we couldn't have the trip if he didn't come along, and he's taking up a space.

I didn't think you could claim expenses for your own children. I certainly include any entrance fees for me, plus any parking charges, my drinks/refreshments etc.

Someone recently told me that they didn't claim mileage for their school run as they were taking their own children to school anyway.

I just buy (nice-looking) notebooks for babies - apart from what they've eaten, how much milk they've had, and how many aromatic nappies they've produced, I include details about where we've been, what we did (singing, which song baby really liked, trying to roll over/crawl etc.) I write it as if the baby has written it (how sad am I) ... "ThePrisoner made me laugh when she blew raspberries on my tummy" type of thing.

The diaries go home each day and parents rarely forget to bring them the next day.

Toddlers get daily activity sheets with boxes I tick of various activities (painting, playdough, books/reading etc) with space to fill in a bit of detail. There's a larger area to write down the usual where we've been, friends they made, what they enjoyed, what they've eaten etc. The sheets are kept in a plastic wallet.

I do a printed monthly newsletter which includes photos of what we've done during the previous month, "happy birthday" messages, and my usual glib comments if I've done any training courses or Ofsted invent another Important Regulation.

I'm really lucky then as my parents never forget their diaries

Wow to your external hard drive, just what I need for all my pics of the littlies. I am doing the same putting on disc but poor parents have been waiting since christmas for me to find time to put on discs for them - oh well patience is a virtue as they say

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I have diaries for all my 'daytime' mindees - they are a bit posh or even maybe poncey - When I originally bought them (My Day Diary) got them for £5.99 an absolute bargain but cannot get them now for less than £10; I don't have diaries for my before & after schoolies but have just seen some beautiful scrap book start up kits, comes with big folder, for just £3.99 so will be purchasing those soon.

Interesting about the dishwasher Sosha, am thinking of purchasing one soon so maybe I can ofset that against my Tax.