Freezing and poor - advice invited

nadnad

rosered1963 wrote: »

My husband earns £16,080 per year (£1075 take home). Our rent is £550 per month and council tax is band C - £22 per week. Oil £150 pm electricity £90 pm. Essential monthly bills before food and transport exceed our income.

£150 pm month on oil is a lot. £90 on electric is huge too. I'm not having a go. What size is the house? I know that you love it, and the land lord, but is it worth having pneumonia and going bankrupt just because you love the house? I don't think so. I know you don't want to - but if you speak to your land lord and tell him whats happening, he may OFFER to let you reduce the rent for a while til you get back on your feet. Other than that I really think you have no choice but to find somewhere else.

Just thought - are you paying your oil by direct debit? Has the price been that much for a while? because it has dropped greatly from 6 months ago, maybe you've been overpaying?

Another option of course is to close all the rooms up bar your living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom and heat only those. - Do you have a fire in the living room? If you're in the country can you gather up wood to burn? or buy it cheaply from someone? a fire heats an old house better than radiators do.

Is there no other work you can do? Just for a wee while?

If you've got pneumonia can you actually work? would the doctor not just sign you off sick? - can you get benefits that way?

Amber_Sunshine

Apologies in advance to the OP - I don't want to kick you while you are down - but it seems to be there are two general lessons to be learned from this. One, that none of us know what is around the corner and we should try to build financial reserves in case of job loss, two, that debt should be avoided for non-essentials (I hope you had a great wedding, but a debt of 9k for one day is not very MSE!)

Good luck with the job hunt.

roxalana

Sorry end of my lunch so can't read all responses so sorry if duplicating.

My tips are to go to the library during the day so you can job hunt and not pay for heating!

See if you can get a dehumidifer off freecycle to help with mould. Insulate your windows! We have used blankets/duvets from charity shops as we couldn't afford curtains and we have currently parcel taped bubble wrap (that was free from a local furniture shop) over the windows. It has made a massive difference to the temperature and the advantage of bubble wrap is that it allows light in to save on electric!

You do need to keep an eye on the mould growing underneath though and wipe it regularly. Hope this helps!

margaretclare

I'm intrigued by this, as I grew up in the countryside around York. Would love to know just where you are.

I would agree - contact Freecycle. You can get all sorts of useful stuff that people find no use for.

Have you friends, family members who might give presents? If so, ask for useful things to keep you warm. I've just bought a warm duvet for my GD who is freezing in Huddersfield.

Have also just made a pan of veg soup, very cheap, and makes a lovely warming filling meal. Keeping warm on the inside - hot soups, cheap stews, hot drinks - is as important as keeping the outside of yourself warm.

HTH

MaximumImpact

What are you paying for oil????

I have a newborn baby and my heating is on 24/7 in a farmhouse and we use about £150 worth in 4 months.....I am at a loss to understand how Oil can cost you that much unless you are paying through the nose per litre.....

nadnad

i've just worked out that at todays prices £150 will get you 375 litres of oil - if you're using that amount thats 4500 litres a year! I looked on your other thread and your house only has 3 bedrooms so surely its not that big. I know your house isn't insulated but surely you shouldnt be using this much. Get your landlord to have the boiler serviced (should be done yearly to keep it efficient).

MaximumImpact

Looking at the above comment, OP has the same sized house as me. As I said, I have the heating on 24/7 due to a new baby and I use a quarter of the OP's fuel...I just cannot see feasibly, how the OP can use this much fuel??? I would suggest that someone is either siphoning the OP's tank or the OP is paying £2.00 a litre???

OP can you clarify, 1 - why you get through so much fuel and 2 - how much you pay a litre.....

jellyhead

I hope the suggestions about bubble wrap etc. help - this is a horrible time of year to feel ill and cold.

If you choose one room to live in, would an upstairs room be warmer? just a thought as I think heat rises. Our bedrooms are much warmer than our downstairs rooms. A draught excluder would help - one of those sausage dog type things that my grandparents used to have in their big draughty house.

I'm another one to suggest moving, and I feel like a complete cow for saying this but your landlord is getting on a bit - what's going to happen when he dies? would you need to move out anyway? I'm sure your house is lovely in the summer but when you took it on you had 2 incomes, and it seems difficult to run on just one income. I second the suggestion about asking on freecycle for a bike for your husband.

One final thing - hope it's not classed as medical advice - I don't know anything about pneumonia, but is it possible that you're actually allergic to mould? I am, and am ill within minutes of entering a mouldy house or caravan.

lolababy

Hi I dont want to sound horrible but going by the rent your paying your landlord he should upgrade the house. Lots of older people tend to hoard money and id be hard pressed if that was not the case here. Maybe he is sweet but he knows you are having a hard time and are ill due to your living conditions.
Do look into the heating grant as landlords can be granted one.

rosered1963

grey_lady wrote: »

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 :-)

Thanks very much Grey-Lady - great advice which i will take on.