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?

You take out loans.
I'd look for a handy man , not a plumber, or buy a drain snake on amazon.
Fridge/freezer on hire purchase, weekly payment on the drip.
Hum.is interest free for 1 year, you can pay extra monthly.
It's tough.

Go to Currys and buy one on Credit, you can get one for under £200 also

Well many people don’t have credit card debt,counselling, parking or so much petrol to pay so on the same income they have more wiggle room. I suggest you can go a few months without new clothes and only replace show falling apart that are essential (I haven’t bought shoes for over 2 years, they really aren’t a frequent purchase and clothes can make do) buy toiletries from Lidl, much cheaper

Do you have home emergency cover on your house insurance? It’s worth checking as a lot of people don’t realise they have it and it covers for things like blocked drains/ leaks.
we pay an extra £4.50 a month on our policy but some it is included.

Why is parking so expensive? Can't you park further away and walk the rest?

It definitely is when your income is only just above NMW - OP if you lost your job and went on UC your income would be essentially the same. You don’t mention any dependents so no point having life insurance. Honestly I’d look at ditching the income protection. And the counselling and tv licence. And honestly reconsider the car, if you have any other way of getting to work (appreciate there may not be much choice depending on where you live).

If you live in west Bristol/n Somerset/s Gloucestershire I have a small fridge in my garage not being used, will fit in a car. Not got a proper freezer just an icebox but it’s a stop gap for a few months

What absolute bullshit. IP pays 65% of your salary until retirement if for some reason you cannot work. DH has just had to have 8months off following surgery and the IP insurance was an absolute godsend. We would have been totally in the shit without it. Making stupid comments like this is dangerous. OP appears to be single as well so if she gets long term sick that will be her only income

Have you tried offering your fridge freezer on FreeCycle or similar?

It seems dreadfully wasteful to send good working items to the tip (or get the council to do so) - whilst there will be plenty of people local to you who desperately need one and can't afford to buy a new (or maybe even a second-hand) one.

IMHO, the tip should be for broken/useless items that are no longer any use to anybody - not for good useful things that the current owner just happens to no longer need or want.

Don't buy a second hand FF. You'll pay twice over. Beko is a lower budget range, they work well.

Income Protection doesn't cover losing your job, its for when you are unable to work due to illness or injury. You don't get UC in those circumstances. Please don't give advice when you don't know what you're talking about.

You don’t need to spend £500 on a fridge - get a second hand one off Facebook instead.

And the reality is the way people afford things is they either earn more than you or have less debt and fewer outgoings, or they live with a partner.

God No, they’re awful.

What have you tried to unblock the drain??kitchen or bathroom?

OP. What Id do for bigger ticket items is buy on 6 months interest free credit and just pay off monthly. Or 0% credit card for longer and be ruthless about the monthly payments and not putting extra on. Consider second hand. Re tradesmen I try to use people I know whenever possible and they give mates rates.

You’re in a low income and you have £200 credit card debt a month plus £100 counseling. This is where your spare money is going, you can trim other bits off those costs but they will small amounts, this is £300 a month which is huge and why you’re struggling to afford extras. Saying that, you’ve got £400 a month left over to feed one adult and a dog. How often do you need to buy clothes and shoes? You could go a year so the out needing to buy any. Could you try and budget £250 a month for your food and save £150? Get a fridge off freecycle or marketplace, there’s no need at all to buy a new £500 fridge. With just one of you, you don’t even need a big fridge, you could have a small one for now.

My Beko dishwasher, FF and hob is fab and six years old. Would recommend.

British heart Foundation furniture shops often have fridges and they are in good working order. Also you can congratulate yourself on reusing something rather than buying new. having a tight budget is awful because there isn't any wiggle room. Can you change bank accounts? Sometimes there's a switching bonus so free money basically. Is the cc on 0% and if not can you switch? Your house and car insurance look a bit high, you could try a comparison site. You could try looking at it from the other way round, how much money do you want to have surplus each month and how can you get that?

To answer your question of how do people afford these things, they earn more, live with others so costs are shared, or don’t have credit card debt to pay off.

Credit Hundred percent interest free ideally

Benefits adviser here. You can claim UC if injury or illness prevents you from working. Even if you are still employed in that job and receiving SSP which is then deducted from the UC amount. So with all due respect, your comment about not giving advice when not knowing what they're talking about was unfortunate.

Mortgage £620.48
Council tax £125
Income protection insurance £17.40 IS THIS CRITICAL ILLNESS COVER?
Car tax £16.62
Gas £20
Electricity £40
Broadband £23.99
Mobile phone £10.50
TV licence £29.08
Counselling £100 THIS IS OPTIONAL SO YOU ARE CHOOSING THIS. You must be having 2 sessions a month, Is that necessary?

Petrol £150 THIS SOUNDS HIGH- WORK MILEAGE OR LEISURE?

Parking £80 IS THIS ESSENTIAL?

Dentist £20 SOUNDS LIKE DENPLAN - A LUXURY. PAY AS YOU GO?

House management fee £20 WHAT'S THIS? LEASEHOLD FLAT?

Car insurance £45
Home insurance £43.25 HIGH

Credit card £200 PAY OFF YOUR DEBTS

You presumably have shopped around for cheaper insurances?
Your home insurance sounds high. I pay that for a top-end insurance all things covered for a 4-bed house.

Universal credit won’t pay the OPs mortgage though, so I’m not sure that cancelling income protection is a great plan. Her income on UC would be a lot lower as a single person with no rent to pay. And without knowing more info, which she absolutely doesn’t have to share, you can’t say that cancelling counselling is a good thing either; it might be what enables her to still work!

You could try to get cheaper insurances.

If you're using Denplan that is a luxury. We never had it. If you have a private dentists and need just one check up a year and a couple of hygienist appts, it will probably work out cheaper.

I'd suggest you shop around for a cheaper mobile payment.

You're using a heck of a lot of fuel for you car.
How many miles are you doing and is your car a fuel guzzler?
I get close to 50mpg to mine and it's a 2L engine.

Counselling is around £50 a session and most people go monthly.
What are your issues? Do you really need 2 sessions a month?

I am not sure where you got £500 plus for a fridge from. A quick google shows there are plenty of lower cost brands available for £200 or less. As others have said, if it is just you perhaps even a small counter top fridge would do for now whole yoi save for something bigger?

On the bathroom blockage, most bathroom drain iasues are hair and soap. Jabe you tried a "drain weasel", basically a long flexible wire with a stiff brush at the end, it is great for pulling out huge lumps of trapped hair. Yoi can alsp get biological drain cleaners from Ironmongers that eat away at organic matter like hair and soap.

Finally a proper old school a plunger often does the job if used vigorously a few times. (Nb do not plunge a drain that has drain cleaner in it)

I just bought a new under the counter fridge from curry’s for less than £200. Try AO, Curry’s and Argos, they’ve always got something in the sale. Do not spend £530 on a fridge you can’t afford.