Can ANYONE help us??

acheekymunky

Hello,

My fiance and I bought a house in August - the mortgage is in his name.

We have solid walls, an old immersion heater, no central heating, single glazed windows and one gas fire which is off centre of a living/dining room knock through and the stairs are in the living room too so the heat (if any!) travels up to the tiny landing upstairs.

My partner works full time and i work part time (im a mature student) and I have scoured the internet and phoned all kinds of numbers given to see if we can qualify for any kind of help or grant but have been told because we are not on any benefits or classed as a low income we cant have anything.

Apparently if my partner rented the house out and was a landlord then his tenants could apply for a grant? how is this fair??

Its -2 in the house today and has been 0 for the past couple of weeks...i cant cope! surely its not good for our health!

I know we work and its our house as we pay the mortgage but we dont have any money to spare after we get paid!

Can anyone give any knowledge or advice to us new homeowners as we are feeling quite frustrated and a sorry for ourselves at the moment.

Much appreciated x

dmg24

Surely you budgeted for this when buying the house?

sharronej

I wonder if it's a case then of keeping yourself warm the old fashioned way with layers and layers of clothes. If you have a look on the forum there are lots of ideas such as putting bubble wrap on windows, old fashioned draught excluders etc but unfortunately I wouldn't know where to advise to look for a grant. If you have a problem with damp then a dehumidifier will help. Halogen heaters are very inexpensive to buy and very very good perhaps that's an option?


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2714253

hermum

If you aren't on any kind of benefits then there won't be any grants or financial help available.
Can you put up curtains to shut off the stairs & make the room a smaller space to heat. Go over to the preparing for winter on the oldstyle board, where you can get some tips on keeping the heat in.
Is the kitchen big enough to put a couple of chairs in & get a heater in there?

grey_lady

In the short term a couple of oil filled radiators from b&q or screw fix these start at about 25 pounds and are far more effective than halogen, though may use more electric, and obviously draft excluders, thick curtains, try second hand shops for those.


Long term I guess you have to start saving for double glazing and heating, loft insulation might help and shouldn't cost to much.

macman

What are you currently spending per month on gas and electricity? Have you used a comp site to ensure you are on the cheapest tariffs?
As advised, a couple of convector heaters would be the cheapest way to get some immediate improvement-and insulate your loft properly if not already done.
You should be able to do all that for under a couple of hundred pounds.

rhiwfield

I'm not sure why you feel that you should get a grant if you dont qualify on age or income grounds and I agree that this should have been part of your house purchase decision.

Having said that and trying to be helpful you are fortunate as the government is about to launch a renewable heat incentive and green deal which should give you the finance necessary to insulate your house properly and put in a modern heating system that will even pay you an annual income. Details should be launched this month. I strongly suggest you take no major action until you have checked that out to see if it helps you. If you dont want to go down that route you are still fortunate as gas heating is the cheapest.

In the meantime there are some very low cost measures to make life more comfortable:

• adopt a positive mental attitude and start taking responsibility and action. Its your house after all.
• make sure you eat hot meals
• wrap up in thermals and fleeces, wear 2 pairs of socks, use a blanket/throw when you settle down
• invest in an electric blanket or hot water bottles
• designate one room as a warm room, put down thick floor coverings, use insulation film on windows (dirt cheap and very effective), put up thermal curtains.
• use draughtproofing on external doors/letter box.
• loft insulation is super cheap, put some up not forgetting to lag pipes and tanks. Best time to do it is right now before you put loads of stuff in the loft

samtheman1k

acheekymunky wrote: »

Its -2 in the house today and has been 0 for the past couple of weeks...i cant cope! surely its not good for our health!

I'd be more worried about your water pipes freezing & bursting than your health!!!

jizzler

dmg24 wrote: »

Surely you budgeted for this when buying the house?

A BIG THANK YOU COMING YOUR WAY ( YOU ALWAYS GET ONE REAL HELPFUL PERSON DON'T YOU ? ):exclamati

Frugal_Mouse

Hi acheekymunky.
Sorry that you too are in a cold house. I live in an old cottage which is currently between 6 - 8 degrees C, tropical compared to yours.

The way I manage is to try and heat one room (I use an oil-filled rad) to a comfortable 17/18 degrees. It might be difficult to achieve that with what sounds like an open-plan living area but maybe you could turn a bedroom into a winter living room?

People have posted lots of helpful tips already and I am sure that you will find loads more when you read the thread 'Preparing for Winter II' (link in sharronej's post above).

If you are short of money and need thick curtains for windows and doors try freecycle or charity shops. Ditto if you need carpet. Bubble wrap makes good window insulation, not pretty but often available for free.

Good luck

FM
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