its time to leave ewan alone..... yes he is over confident, but his posts are positive, and he has a plan....good luck to him! ... i much prefer to read positive thoughts , rather than the "its raining or im too cheap, etc"
this theread is doing my nut in 
Wrong.
Its time to address some very disturbing advice that is being bandied about on a public forum that could be used by another window cleaner.
Lets just stand back and assess this 'advice' shall we.
1. Ewan states he can claim 'meals'
2. Ewan reckons its been passed by HMRC
3. Ewan then states he has never approached HMRC
4. Ewan states "its my first year of trading and nobody disagreed with it"
5. Ewan back-peddles furiously
6. Ewan resorts to personal slights to cover the overwhelming evidence from several posters (including the official HMRC website) that what he says is wrong.
If you feel this is sound advice and you are willing to take it on board and start claiming your 'allowance' then good luck to you and your "happy clappy" "feel good" world.
...meanwhile, back on planet earth the HMRC
WILL find you. And you
WILL pay the price.