To ask how people afford plumbers or new fridges?

[coldinside]

I need a plumber to look at a drain blockage in my bathroom (have already tried to clear it myself to no avail) and my fridge has broken so needs replaced. But I’m wondering how I can even afford these things. I earn £1979 per month and my bills are as follows:

Mortgage £620.48
Council tax £125
Income protection insurance £17.48
Car tax £16.62
Gas £20
Electricity £40
Broadband £23.99
Mobile phone £10.50
TV licence £29.08
Counselling £100
Petrol £150
Parking £80
Dentist £20
House management fee £20
Car insurance £45
Home insurance £43.25
Credit card £200

This leaves me with a total of £417 per month to feed myself and a dog, to buy clothes, shoes and toiletries. I can’t save any money each month and I have no idea how I will pay for a fridge (£530) and plumber. AIBU?

Make friends with a plumber.

For white goods, we buy everything either ex-display, refurbished, or secondhand.

AOL has an Outlet store on eBay that lets you pay in installments. That's usually my first stop if Marketplace doesn't have what I need.

https://www.ao-outlet.co.uk/

I've just re-read your OP. You don't need a professional to fit an integrated fridge; you need a screwdriver and a couple of mates to help with the heavy lifting. The local council will pick up and recycle the old fridge for about £15-£20.

It's probably the same with the blockage. You need a YouTube video and either a spanner or a drain snake, not a plumber.

It's nice to be able to call on professionals when you can afford to, but when you're skint, you need to get your hands dirty and learn. It won't always look perfect but it'll be a damnsight cheaper and more satisfying.

You're entitled to your opinion.

There are plenty more 'judgemental' comments if you want to search the thread, about lack of savings etc (and not from me!) and not being careful with money.

Thats fine if you can actually get an NHS dentist. More and more are turning there practice over to fully private. Where I live the nearest dentist still offering NHS is 45 miles away and has a 3 year waiting list.

Thats a bargain from your council. Ours charges £65 for a 10 minute pick up with additional time being charged at £3 per minute.

Perhaps you could help the OP with your shopping list and the name(s) of the shop(s) where you can get a week’s worth of food for 30 quid.

We bought a really large fridge freezer from a 2nd hand dealer for £100, complete with 3 months warranty and including delivery. Have a look on FB market place, house clearance firms often have fridges and other household appliances for sale relatively cheaply.

You don't think a single person can feed themselves on 30 quid a week? I spend a bit more than that - but I could cut it down if I really needed to

I'd be happy to. I eat very little meat. I shop mainly at Aldi. I cook everything from scratch and I never throw food away. I also don't buy cereals, biscuits, cakes, ready meals etc. My basket is mainly fruit and vegetables, cheese and Greek yogurt, eggs, flour and rice.

Ours is £15 per item, and I think you get a discount for subsequent items.

Some of your figures are a bit odd £29 for tv licence? What is on the cc? You can spend far less than £500 on a new fridge and pay for it over 12 months, a plumber would be less than £100 (or may be in your house management fee, whatever that is) ? Perhaps in future set aside even a small amount per month towards an expenses fund or add home emergency cover to your insurance(from £5 a month).

You’re going to have to go without clothes and expensive toiletries for a couple months. Just buy the basics. Put the fridge on pay monthly and get a home serve of plan to sort the plumbing.

I didn't say for one moment that my experience would be other people's. I'm not in London. I'm in Scotland like I said previously. Do you need to pick at things for no reason?

@LIZS The TV licence issue has been answered several times. She buys it monthly for 6 months and that's double the price.

She needs a fridge freezer that is built in to replace the one she has and doesn't have room for a free standing one.

Presumably she can't afford to pay monthly for the fridge freezer or she'd have thought of that.
No info that her toiletries are expensive.

@FreyjaOfTheNorth It's around £5 a day and quite do able.

Breakfast- eggs, yogurt, porridge, toast
Lunch- homemade soup, pasta, sandwich, salad with tuna cheese or eggs, fruit
Dinner- fish, meat, pasta, vegetables, fruit.

Have you looked up the website for the fridge manufacturer? My husband and I recently managed to get our freezer freezing again after following all the steps on the website for our model freezer- thankfully it was on wheels so there wasn't the awful manhandling that old style fridges and freezers required and which was more likely than not to rip the flooring. Have you checked all the possible things - like a tripped fuse? Turned it on and off?