The Saga Continues...

[waya3k]

Here is the follow up exchange between my ex and myself.  Once again i am asking to make sure that I expressed myself clearly and in a non-threatening non-attacking manner.  Just follow up on some comments from before.  It would be a lot less cheaper to just pay her the $170 a month then consult a lawyer or get one involved espicially since good

Comments

[kishpa]

I think that her response was surprisingly well thought out and detailed. I don't think you're wrong to ask for additional information though - and you do make a good point that costs do ebb and wain. Maybe a compromise of a temporary increase for the summer - when costs are obviously higher - then settling back down to normal levels when she's back in school. You might be able to get her to agree to that.
If food costs for Kathryn are 400 a month tho - I wanna live there. I don't spend 400 a month on both Mike and I.
Fuel costs have gone up and down - mostly up - and at nearly 3 bucks a gallon, its rough driving anywhere - but in the grand scheme of things, if your car gets say, 25 mpg, and the increase of say, 70 cents per gallon since the winter, and an average of a 15 gallon tank, you're looking at 10.50 per tank more, which works out to about 375 miles per tank, Which works out to about 4.6 cents extra per mile (I know, we're getting technical here) - but if she's driving Kathryn 10 miles round trip each day, that's 46 cents per day extra in gas costs. Sure, it HURTS at the pump when I see the 50 or 60 dollar fillup. But when you divide it out to the per mile increase, while it still sucks and is unacceptable, its not a great increase. Now, if she's driving her 20 miles per day, every day for a month, that's about 30 dollars extra per month - that's a whole additional tank of gas. As for the food stuff - food costs have gone up as well - dairy products, since transported by truck have really gone up - I can't believe I paid 3.99 for a gallon of milk yesterday. Its really hard for me to understand all the costs associated with a kid - since I don't have one. I can't really compare Kathryn's necessities in care to my dog's yearly trip to the vet :P It really varies with insurance, copays, medication costs, etc. I guess maybe a viable solution would be for her to email you copies of receipts for extras - such as medical copays and prescriptions - for you to reimburse her for - and maybe even a gas stipend while you're gone. Just as if you were leaving her with a sitter for a long period of time, you would give a stipend for care, wouldn't ya? I'm guessing at that one. It just seems to make sense to me.

I can say though, she did respond quite pleasantly and appropriately. Its something of a positive thing. I really think Kathryn is the concern here. I don't think she's trying to horde money to pay for a cruise or something :)