“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

Cherryfudge

Morning Wannabe.

Might it be worth asking on Freecycle or similar for rugs and carpet? People often seem to discard offcuts which are actually big enough to do something with, and I agree if it helps health-wise, it's certainly a good aim, as well as making your home more comfortable.

WannabeFree

Thanks cherry I do keep looking and have made SA aware

I won't actually get a loan I wouldn't be able to even if it was life or death :rotfl:

I think the recent events and conversations. Lack of sleep just mean the smalls comments and requests hit a little deeper than brushing them off

Pharmacy delivered. Have cancelled my own appointments for this afternoon as its cold and miserable and being honest it just leaves me drained and I don't think there's anything left to drain

Something with mince for dinner. Maybe lasagne.

Have got some ironing to do but having a cuppa first.

x

greenbee

My first winter with bare concrete floors was freezing (and, as you say, dusty). Luckily friends who were moving/changing flooring and one who worked building trade show stands let me have all their off-cuts of vinyl, carpet and underlay, so I gradually built up a patchwork of floor coverings. I slowly got rid of them, but it was 3 years before they were out from upstairs (which is now painted floorboards and threadbare oriental rugs) and 4 before I had flooring downstairs. The carpet helped, but the underlay made an even bigger difference keeping things warm. It doesn't have to fit, you can cut odd pieces until you've covered everything and then deal with it properly when you have the time and energy to do it properly rather than reacting to being cold and tired and fed up with the dust...

teafor2

Hi WB Have you looked into what your council might be able to help you with. I think it might be called something like welfare provision. I know somebody who's just had vouchers awarded to them for a new washing machine, some paint and new carpets. Might be worth a quick look. xx

WannabeFree

Thank you

I have stopped feeling sorry for myself now think smalls know what to say

Tea we don't have that scheme however we do have one that's heavily discounted for the full house if you are receiving certain benefits etc for flooring/blinds/white goods. They don't do anything in terms of decoration but I plan to fix that with the cheapest white paint I can find and do the whole house

Anyway I've told myself off for moaning about it

X

teafor2

That's a shame about the voucher scheme but I suppose different councils do different things and have their own criteria. I was quite surprised at how much they were awarded, the cash value was about £1k and it was to replace worn out things not because they didn't have anything.

I don't know why you think you're moaning when you're just talking things through on here xx

WannabeFree

It's amazing how much it differs from council to council. Just like the food banks etc. You'd think they'd all have to have similar things in place.

They advised me to ask universal credit to do a loan but I don't pass the affordability for it :cool:

teafor2

I wonder if budgets for things like this are on a 'use it or lose it' type thing. Obviously they had money in the kitty to be able to help them quite a lot.

Does that mean they don't think you can afford to pay a loan back without leaving yourself short? Ironic really because they seem happy enough to loan people money when they're moved over to Universal Credit and then let them struggle while it's paid back

WannabeFree

teafor2 wrote: »

I wonder if budgets for things like this are on a 'use it or lose it' type thing. Obviously they had money in the kitty to be able to help them quite a lot.

Does that mean they don't think you can afford to pay a loan back without leaving yourself short? Ironic really because they seem happy enough to loan people money when they're moved over to Universal Credit and then let them struggle while it's paid back

They are already taking the maximum they can from my universal credit until September

Sorry we cross posted x

WannabeFree

So it's coming up to a new year which means...

Been doing the budgets

Currently it is this

Budget.

Outgoing
Rent £480.55
Council Tax £85.40
Water £49.40
Gas/Electric £120
Phone Credit £10
Bus Pass £54
Tv License £12.56

School 'other' £25
Travel £25

Food/everything else £100 -

This works when there's no hospital stays etc. Unfortunately that's not realistic anymore. So going forward it needs to change. Because it makes so anxious being on brink of it all failing at the slightest thing.

Budget after 4 months* explained further down

Outgoing
Rent £384.44
Council Tax £24
Water £49.40
Gas/Electric £120
Phone Credit £10
Bus Pass £54
Tv License £12.56

School 'other' £25
Travel £25

Food/everything else £257.51(rising to £353 in September)

To get to this budget I have to pay

£192.22 Rent (2 more months at the higher amount)
£245.60 council tax (4 more months of the higher amount)

This adds an 'extra' £157.51 into the monthly budget once these go down.

After that the deductions for overpayments that come out of my universal credit end in September. Which will add another £95 a month from September.