Freezing and poor - advice invited

flossy_splodge

rosered1963 wrote: »

Hi all.

Oil £150 pm electricity £90 pm.
How on earth do you manage to spend that much on oil??:eek:
Essential monthly bills before food and transport exceed our income.
Not surprised if your oil bill is anything to go by.

I am astounded.
You need to look seriously NOT at what you ARE paying out but what you actually NEED to be paying out.
I survive on less than half your annual income by being frugal and accepting necessity is different from want.:eek:

rosered1963

Gingernutmeg wrote: »

Maybe moving might be a good idea, although without work it will be hard to find rented accommodation. But, you're spending £240 alone a month on oil and electricity, and you're not able to stay warm enough to keep healthy - in my 'ordinary' house, the combined quarterly bills don't come anywhere near that so you could male a significant saving there by moving. Whilst it might be a great house, it's costing you a fortune and you can't afford to live there - and I mean live in the widest sense, not just surviving. But, you've got to consider the costs of moving etc, and be realistic about the fact that renting with no jobs is nigh on impossible (been there, done - or rather couldn't do - that). If you've got family willing to let you stay for a few months then it might be wise to take them up on their offer. It's not easy going back to living with family but it can be a great way to get yourself back on your feet. There's also the point that it's better to jump rather than be pushed. If you leave your current tenancy now, you'll still be able to get a decent reference. If you leave it to get to a point where you can't pay the rent, it's not going to be pleasant and at the moment, it doesn't sound like your health can take the extra stress.

The alternative is to see whether your landlord is willing to reduce the rent. Whilst he might find more tenants, it's going to cost him - he'll need an energy certificate (and presumably the house isn't going to get a great rating which might put potential tenants off ...) and, if there is a mould/damp problem, he's going to have to get that sorted before anyone moves in. It also sounds like a fairly unusual property (the heating bills alone would put me off) and there's a lot of rental property about at the moment. Like others have mentioned, it might be worth looking into whether you can get help with insulation etc, and see if mentioning that can sway him. Always worth a try.

Hi Gingernutmeg - thanks for all your points. Indeed, we could not and would not default on our rent as our old landlord is a total darling. But, you are right, we cannot live - we are existing, and I have never had health problems in my life until now - pneumonia! I though it was what old people died of. My gp frowns every time I go in, and says " Your life is at risk" - what? Why?

Our landlord has said to us (2 years ago) that he wants us here and its not the money, its because he likes and trusts us - its a farm and there are farm raiders around here and he knows we will take care of anyone, anytime , anywhere, threatening him or his livestock - and we have waded in and done it many, many times. Maybe its pride, but I feel choked at the thought of asking the landlord to cut the rent. I know he would, because we do so much for him, and he is very fussy about who he wants here. I love the old man and don't want to leave him. I will talk to him and tell him our position.

The property is indeed unique, and when we came to live here, I was earning an awful lot of money (and grafting like mad- 15 hrs a day) - it was our dream place, but the upkeep is immense. The black mould is down to us not being able to afford to heat the gaff properly since I had my last proper pay ( July 2008).

Thanks for all you suggestions - will put them all to my young husband.

Maybe going to my parents is the answer, although it breaks my heart, and my pride, at the age of 45, as you can imagine. RR XX

rosered1963

pink_numbers wrote: »

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but if you can buy cheap fleece blankets and put them between your curtain and windows, it make a HUGE difference. I bought some from IKEA, although there are probably even cheaper places. Fortunately, we have curtain rails that allow us to just throw the blankets over the rail. We thought it'd look horrible, but actually, it looks rather nice if you can get fringed ones. We've gone from having three storage heaters on in the house to just one.

There's a really good thread on the old style board about how to save on heating/electricity bills, full of ideas.

Thanks for this - the house is huge and we don't live in most of it - the windows in the bit we do live in are huge so fleece blankets would help a lot - we only have the landlord's curtains which are pretty but thin (sort of like a summer curtain) Thank you

rosered1963

flossy_splodge wrote: »

I am astounded.
You need to look seriously NOT at what you ARE paying out but what you actually NEED to be paying out.
I survive on less than half your annual income by being frugal and accepting necessity is different from want.:eek:

Thanks for posting

grey_lady

I think you can survive, anyone can with this sites knowledge :-)

It's worth double checking that you wont get any help with housing, i believe
that as long as you dont large amounts of savings then you may get around
£165 a month. (you dont have to tell your landlord if you're concerned, but there will probably be a very discreet visit to your home to check, they also may need a letter from him confirming you rent off him if you dont have an up to date tenancy agreement, you could tell him its for the council tax dept though)

It's also worth checking that your electric and oil bills are correct, they seem
huge to me but assuming that your other essential bills e.g water, tv licence, phone, food are all normal sized bills then i still think you can survive, but budgeting is going to be key.

It seems like it's your non-essential bills e,g credit card and loan repayments are going to be the crippler, for that you may need to take a trip over to the debt board or visit the citizens advice bureau. Maybe write to your creditors explaining the situation and offering them £1 a month token payments until your back on your feet. It will wreck your credit record but you cant pay them what you dont have, no matter what they tell you!

I think you mentioned your husband is walking 6 miles to work? try freecycle or the local paper for a second hand bike and see if you can afford to run a car when you're working the budget out.

Good luck :-)

CiciBaltimore

rachel_m1 wrote: »

when you get JSA you can apply for grants of up to 2,700 for insulation and cavity wall insulation. This helped us through our cold years in student digs, through the governments warm front scheme ran by eaga. Many of our landlords got us to have it in our names just to get new boilers/ and or insulate their properties for free.

You cant do this. that is agaisnt the law and is stealing because the landlord is not entitled to the grant.
to the op. you need to be a homeowner to get this grant and the assesser man will ask to see your mortgage statement.

PasturesNew

Tenants can apply for warm front
http://www.bradford.gov.uk/housing/rented_housing/tenant_advice/warm_front.htm

However, it's not as easy as it looks. It would take a long time, I think you have to have lived in the house already for X years and must continue to live in the house for a further X years. Then there's the contribution you have to make. Also, once the money's spent per year, that's it until the next year. So it's certainly not an instant/quick fix.

OP - get yourself some thick wooly socks, wear two pairs at all times. Always make sure you have some slippers/shoes on your feet too. And wear a hat indoors.... slip it on after hubby goes out.

Walking 6 miles to work is nuts, get on freecycle and see if there are any bicycles going.

If you do consider moving, what about moving closer to your OH's job, in a smaller/well-insulated home? That'd make more sense than hanging on where you are or moving to your parents'.

If it were me I'd get one room really tightly draughtproofed and I'd stay in that room, live/sleep in it. I say I would, I DID, for about 5 years until a year ago.

Wear 2-3 layers of loose clothing and wrap up warm - you won't even need heating most of the time probably. Most heat loss is through your head and I can go from being freezing to being sweaty hot in about half an hour by wearing some big furry socks, getting my feet off the ground (up on the sofa) and chucking a couple of cushions and a blanket over my legs.

Good luck!

JoJoB

Due to health reasons is there a chance you may be high on the list for a council or housing association place? A letter from your doctor re the pneumonia may go a long way with your local housing officer. It sounds like you are very attached to your lovely house, but if this emotional attachment is costing you your health it sounds like it's time to let go....

Would it be correct to assume that the money situation would be manageable if you did not have debt repayments to make? Again, if you are risking your health by paying credit cards/loans etc rather than heating costs then it is time for debt counselling and looking at options like IVAs or bankruptcy or just ringing up your creditors to organise token payments for a while.

I live in a very cold flat too and we do the heat one room thing - though did I see that yours is so cold it has ice on the inside? That's just nuts. Re curtains - take the measurements of your windows and have a trawl round the charity shops - there are usually lots of thick lined curtains available there, or post a wanted ad on freecycle. Maybe invest in an plug-in oil-filled radiator instead of your traditional heating. I've got one for my living room and it heats the place up very quickly and my bills have gone down from when I was relying on storage heaters.

But ultimately, if you are reduced to living/sleeping in one room is it really worth living in a big rambling old house?

I do feel for your situation. My Oh is likely to be made redundant soon and it follows that we will probably lose the flat soon after. So a period of upheaval and transition and uncertainty is imminent! But if you get your priorities right you can prevent the situation causing intolerable stress.

Your health and relationship are your top priorities. Ring your creditiors immediately and say you have been laid off and need to pay token payments for the next few months while you get on your feet, they should accept this. This will alleviate some of the financial pressure enough for you to think a bit more clearly about the housing situation.

ladybirdintheuk

No idea how practical this is for you, in terms of getting there, but could you go spend time in the library during the day? I remember my mum sending me and my brother to the library when we were young to keep us out of the cold!

Plus they will have copies of local papers etc, and computers, so you can do at least some of your job hunting from there

lisa*_5

Gingernutmeg wrote: »

But, you've got to consider the costs of moving etc, and be realistic about the fact that renting with no jobs is nigh on impossible (been there, done - or rather couldn't do - that).

I run a Rent Deposit Guarantee Scheme and I find landlords who are willing to rent to people who are unemployed on a regular basis. A large majority of the people who I have found private rented accomodation for have been unemployed.