new council tenants, need help to get funding for new carpets, furnishings etc

mich13x

You could also try browsing the freebies section of gumtree or posting an ad in the stuff wanted section listing the things you need as people local to you may be willing to donate things if you explain your situation.
You may be surprised at what people would be willing to give for free.

Good luck.

cavework

Op are you getting a dec allowance approx £30 a room? Also have a look at ex exibition carpets on the internet. We carpeted a 3 bed house for 120 quid.
You have a home, make the best of it.

Mr_Falling_Star

As a ex Social Fund Officer I can see where they are coming from. The lack of carperts may or may not be a risk to the Health and Safety of the family but the application falls down in the fact that it is not a unforseen crises. Thus no Crisis Loan would be payable

You could apply for a budgeting loan?

A lot of trades and trade unions run benevolent funds, in fact I think there is alist on this site? Why not apply to those

Either that or get a big rug from Ikea

dmg24

tsimehC wrote: »

...

Freecycle/Freegle? :dance:

You have a very idealistic view of Freecycle, one that is far from reality!

Minerva69

dmg24 wrote: »

You have a very idealistic view of Freecycle, one that is far from reality!

Agreed - I thought Freecycle was about helping your fellow person in need, my local group just became all about scammers so I stopped using it. I never asked for anything, just gave stuff away. I got nasty messages from the people I hadn't chosen. I also had people who were supposed to collect things then never turned up. The last thing I gave away was a really good condition pram, I could have sold it on Ebay but wanted it to go to someone who really needed it. The lady who collected it drove a brand new large 4x4 and was obviously really well off, I stopped using Freecycle after that and now just donate things to charity shops.

Hootie19

cavework wrote: »

Op are you getting a dec allowance approx £30 a room? Also have a look at ex exibition carpets on the internet. We carpeted a 3 bed house for 120 quid.
You have a home, make the best of it.

Wow - thank you for that tip. I had no idea this kind of thing was possible. I will definitely be looking into this. At that kind of price, you could change the carpeting every few years without much guilt!!

tsimehC

dmg24 wrote: »

You have a very idealistic view of Freecycle, one that is far from reality!

I was being a bit sarcastic, what with all the Freecycle-laden comments in this thread.

bestpud

Minerva69 wrote: »

Agreed - I thought Freecycle was about helping your fellow person in need, my local group just became all about scammers so I stopped using it. I never asked for anything, just gave stuff away. I got nasty messages from the people I hadn't chosen. I also had people who were supposed to collect things then never turned up. The last thing I gave away was a really good condition pram, I could have sold it on Ebay but wanted it to go to someone who really needed it. The lady who collected it drove a brand new large 4x4 and was obviously really well off, I stopped using Freecycle after that and now just donate things to charity shops.

For people who think the same, your local homestart may know a family who could benefit from baby items.

Freecycle is about preventing stuff entering a landfill - much of it will be sold on but I think good on them - it's better than the original owner chucking the stuff!

I have to say though, there is some awful people on there. When i offer things, I automatically delete any message asking me to call a mobile and any that are rude - that's about 90% of the replies gone!

I've given some good stuff away though and offered things on behalf of others so it's worth looking.

~~Diane~~

katiesmummy wrote: »

Oh they are big bullies- when I went into refuge I called them and explained the situation. I asked if I could give the tv back as I really couldn't afford to pay any longer- they wanted the address of the refuge (which I couldn't give, only the PO box), accused me of lying to try and get out of the contract, then said if I wanted to give it back to them I would have to pay to get out of the contract (can't recall the exact details of why but it was something to do with being less than halfway through the contract).

First thing I did after I got off the phone to them was get my friend to go to my flat and collect the telly to put in his house for safekeeping as I would have still been liable to pay even if the ex had smashed it to smithereens :eek:

Moral of the story? Never ever ever go to Bright House as I am still paying them over £65 a month now (almost finished!) and am stuck with a huge monstrosity of an lcd tv that I didn't want in the first place!

Maybe the moral should actually be not to let partners persuade you to get credit agreements for things they want!

I have to agree with you Brighthouse are monsters. I bought 2 leather sofa's from them almost 7 years ago (all paid for now), when I took the agreement out I told them what day I would be paying and stuck to it, which incidentally was a Saturday. From the minute the store opened I got calls every hour asking when I was going in to pay. I'd never missed a week, it got that way I turned my phone off and left it in my locker at work.

On a positive note the sofa's have been the best I've had, they still look like new, bet not many can say that where Brighthouse are concerned.

lidlest

I remember when we got our council flat, we had hardly any money and the whole place was bare (no lightbulbs even lol).

We managed to pick up a couple of chairs from the street and luckily my mum had a spare microwave, we slept in a single bed I'd had forever and watched our tiny TV that used to be in my partners childhood bedroom. Over the next few months we managed to buy some wallpaper from the pound shop, some really cheap carpet offcuts and we decorated best we could. If you happen to like bright blue wallpaper with lime green carpet it was all good LOL

My son was about 6 months old when we moved in... the whole place wasn't decorated till he was 2. I still remember those times as some of our happiest even though we didn't have a pot to p*ss in. Although we got housing benefit we survived on my husbands £600 a month wage no additional child tax credit or what have you then.

You'll be just fine, get on with it