Life advice needed.

Azeluk

Hey every one I need some help, myself wife and 4 children moved in to a 3 bedroom council house a year ago.

The place was a disaster the previous tenant had truly neglected the place we have had to replace flooring, reskimmed walls/rebuild walls and redecorate all at our expense (this is due to it being a mutural exchange) and the housing association washed there hands at the whole deal.

Any who we have got the place to a liveable standard but there is still a lot to do our lounge needs new carpet and underlay so does our children's room this has been quoted at around £700 including fitting, we need a new cooker (ours has been bodge repaired so much now I'm surprised its still working). And the kitchen needs updating we also need new appliances and 3 of my children are sleeping on dilapidated beds so new ones are needed.

Thing is we can't afford it I was out of work for several months last year and any savings had to be used to survive then came Christmas and more debt, I'm really really pulling my hair out here.

Can anyone give me some advice on any where I can get help or support with this financial burden.

Many thanks

tesuhoha

Have you tried looking on Freecycle to see if there is anything going. Might not be new but some people give away good quality things. Personally I have given away a breadmaker and a food processor at different times. Both were in good working order.

tea_lover

How much of that stuff do you actually need, and how much do you just want? How can anyone truly need £700 worth of new carpets?

j.e.j.

You may be able to get a grant from the DWP? We got one a few years ago, - not sure if they're still available though. Might be worth asking over on the benefits board.


Your post reminds me of someone in our block of flats. The current tenant is moving out and apparently the place has got to be fumigated :eek: I don't envy the next lot of tenants, if the place is in such a state, but I would have thought the H.A. should have to get the place up to a reasonable standard before re-letting it.

j.e.j.

tea_lover wrote: »

How much of that stuff do you actually need, and how much do you just want? How can anyone truly need £700 worth of new carpets?

We just had to go to CarpetRight and get the cheapest (no underlay). Underlay is better, though, if you can stretch to it.

I think the OP needs to prioritise, in order of urgency. Cooker might be at the top of the list, and updating the kitchen decor somewhere near the bottom.

purpleshoes_2

Id second freecycle/freegle/freelywheely. Are there floorboards you could sand and varnish and put a rug down? I don't have carpets in any room in my flat. All the flooring I have has been sanded and varnished, I have a large rug in my living room and smaller ones in my hall, there's no way I could afford to pay £700 to get one room carpeted.

Id also say go back to the housing association, to be honest, the previous tenant should have been billed by the HA for the cost of repairs, Im not sure Id have taken on a flat that was in such poor condition.

Definitely have a look on the free sites and the small ads of newspapers.

trailingspouse

There are people on here who will be able to give you some good advice.

But hang on a minute - you got into debt for Christmas, yet you need all these things? Why didn't you buy yourselves a new cooker for Christmas?

WestonDave

As well as Freecycle its also worth watching the local paper ads as well - not least because not many others do these days.


I'd also say that you need to tailor your expectations to your budget as well - I earn a decent wage by anyone's standards however we are currently sleeping on the double bed left behind by the previous owner of our house (we have another one which was new when we got married 15 years ago but that room is being decorated at present) whilst one son is on a cabin bed we got cheap from the paper complete with a mattress we got from a factory outlet and the other is on the bed I used to sleep on as a kid (my parents gave it to me when I first moved out as I had nothing else!). The kitchen was a horrible green mottled creation when we moved in - £150 worth of new doors later and it looks almost new.


If you really need carpets in the kids rooms (and bearing in mind they'll get stuff spilt on them etc) have a scout around for carpet outlet places that will sell you cheap cord carpet off a roll - you can fold it up and take it home in the car. Its not that hard to fit and whilst its not nice carpet it will be enough to be underfoot. (Lay newspaper underneath if you can for warmth and makes it last longer).

sulkisu

purpleshoes wrote: »

Id second freecycle/freegle/freelywheely. Are there floorboards you could sand and varnish and put a rug down? I don't have carpets in any room in my flat. All the flooring I have has been sanded and varnished, I have a large rug in my living room and smaller ones in my hall, there's no way I could afford to pay £700 to get one room carpeted.

Id also say go back to the housing association, to be honest, the previous tenant should have been billed by the HA for the cost of repairs, Im not sure Id have taken on a flat that was in such poor condition.

Definitely have a look on the free sites and the small ads of newspapers.

This was a mutual exchange, so OP swapped homes with another tenant. OP would have viewed this house and was under no obligation to exchange - but with mutual exchanges, properties are exchanged as they are. OP's home could have been in a similar condition for all we know. Unlike a re-let, where one tenant moves out, the landlords sort out the property and then it is let to a new tenant - in which case previous tenants can be billed for damage etc.


OP- are you working now, does your wife work? A cooker is a priority but they can be bought relatively cheaply. You can purchase carpets for less than £700. Getting into debt for Christmas was silly, especially when you apparently needed to buy so many important things. Try Freecycle, or local charities which might have items to give away.

heuchera

azeluk wrote: »

Any who we have got the place to a liveable standard but there is still a lot to do our lounge needs new carpet and underlay so does our children's room this has been quoted at around £700 including fitting, we need a new cooker (ours has been bodge repaired so much now I'm surprised its still working). And the kitchen needs updating we also need new appliances and 3 of my children are sleeping on dilapidated beds so new ones are needed.

Are you in England? It looks like the old Community Care Grants have been replaced by loans now, which obviously is not ideal if you're in debt already. There's some details in this link
https://www.gov.uk/community-care-grant/overview

I can sympathise regarding needing loads of things doing to the flat/house, but I think you will need to prioritise. We also need loads of things, we have no hallway carpet, and the inner door-handles are broken and need replacing, etc, but we can't afford it, so it'll have to wait! It sounds like you have carpets already (?) - are they getting threadbare, or do they need cleaning. Can you make them last a bit longer?

You'll be completely lost without a cooker, so I would put that first on the list.

The Debt Free Wannabe board is brilliant for people who want to budget better and get out of debt. I can recommend a look over there

*max*

The priority is the cooker, everything else can wait, since you said you've made it "liveable" at least. You can get a cooker cheap from a charity shop, or even free from Freecycle with a bit of luck! Same goes for the children's beds.

You can't afford £700 worth of carpetting, so you'll have to make do with either the existing one for now (give it a good clean, or get a cheap large rug to cover it - again, try freecycle for that). The kitchen doesn't "need" updating, it would just be nicer, but you can't afford it right now, so don't even think about it. As for new applicances, as long as everything still works, even if it's old or not very shiny looking, it doesn't matter. You have to work with what you have and within your means, and prioritise.