Homeless help

[Ilovecustardxx]

Myself, partner and daughter have been made homeless today - our landlords were selling our house - council advised us to stay until the last minute - which we did and we have now been placed in a b&b.
has anyone been in a similar situation? We currently have no cooking facilities and no money right now - as my partner is long term sick and I have taken some time off work due to my mental health with all this stress, so can’t get takeaways and things like that. we are in a pretty run down place with a shared bathroom and some very loud neighbours!
What can I do to cook meals?! How can I take the best of this for my 5 year old? At the moment it’s an adventure for her but I’m in pieces! I have no clue how long we will be here - no family very nearby either. We are also 2 bus rides away from
my daughters school, no car as had to scrap it due to broken gearbox, we’ve had it all thrown at us recently!

sending you lots of love.

As for food, how about couscous? You just have to pour hot water on in, basically. It comes in different flavours.

Or can you get a tiny microwave in your room?

I hope you get somewhere nice to live soon x

That's tough, will you get a hot breakfast in the mornings, do you have a kettle to make hot drinks and cup a soups. You can look at what meal are offered free from food banks, community larders, places of worship. Are you both claiming all the benefits you're entitled to, the school may be able to help with meals for your daughter. Do you have a social worker or housing officer to speak to tomorrow,

Are you receiving any benefits?

We are seeing housing officer on Friday, so hopefully something will happen then - we do have a kettle so I can utilise that for noodles etc.
i have spoken to my daughters school and we may now be eligible for pupil premium so will get help
in hols (shes key stage 1 so gets free school meals anyway) which is a help!
curently waiting for Universal Credit payment after migrating from tax credits

Food banks
Children and families centres/ sure start centres

Quick meals
Anything you can boil is good and cheap, bonus if you can just use kettle water such as couscous, noodles, hotdogs.

Sending love to you all OP. There will be loads of support around you but it's whether you know where to look. Investigate local church groups who often have food banks and do family meals at times too, please don't be afraid to approach people and ask for help it is what they are there for. Speak to the Home Link worker at your child's school they will have lots of support networks that they can signpost you to where you'll be able to get food and practical support. Your local Facebook page will also have lots of info for family support, do some searches and see what you can find. I hope you can get something sorted OP. Keep your chin up and let us know how you get on x

No breakfast provided where we have been placed :(

I think really it’s all a bit surreal I’ve never been in a situation like this - I realise how lucky I have been - and it just brings you down xx

Find out whether you can get a Hardship Payment in your area. You should be able to do this through your UC log or by phoning Jobcentre enquiries.

You need to speak to your council.

They will have lists of everywhere that can assist you...local churches for breakfasts and dinners, food pantries, food banks etc.

You could well be in the B and B for ages yet, so prepare for the long haul.

Good advice to search Facebook groups for your area, it will take some time as the charities all have different names! Your local church and school liaison should also be able to get some balls rolling.

We're so sorry that you're having a difficult time at the moment.

We've compiled some useful links posted by Mumsnetters into a financial issues webguide, so that people experiencing difficulties can find all the relevant information in one place - we hope that it's useful for you.

We wish you the very best.

I’d check for community hubs. Our local one does soup/ sandwiches/ tea and biscuits/ board games twice a week.

Breakfast- bread, butter, topping

• cereal
• fruit
• overnight oats with nuts and fruit

Lunch - sandwich, salad, fruit Evening- couscous, canned or smoked fish, noodles, salad, fruit ( tinned fruit as well )

If you have a microwave there’s so much more you could do
Or can you get an electric stove thing, are you allowed to have one. Like the pic on the right. ( I’ve inc the pic on the left as well as it’s quite good too but costly )

I’m not sure about the electric stove thingy - I might be able to sneak one in? :) thank you so much for your reply x

Porridge pots that you can make with hot water would be a warm, nutritious breakfast for your DD. Other breakfastd that don't need cooking are cereal, bread and honey, malt loaf etc.

Lunches - sandwiches, fruit, sausage rolls, pot noodles etc

Dinners really need the ability to cook in some way. If you can stretch to it, an air fryer is pretty versatile, and the unbranded ones can be picked up pretty cheap. A microwave would be handy too, but they will be pricier.

You need to apply for free school meals to qualify for pupil premium. Did the school get you to fill in the form? If not see if you can do it on the council website.

Could you go back to work even on a phased return? Appreciate it’s stressful but might be helpful to get out of the b&b and will also give you some much needed cash. And make it easier to find a new property.

Do you have the Olio app?

Not only can you get free food on there, there's also a wanted section - you could ask if anyone has a toaster/sandwich toaster/George Foreman grill/microwave/slow cooker that you could have.

Yeah a slow cooker is a good shout.

Google The Slow Cooker Project where you might get one for free.

Couscous is your friend, just add boiling water. Buy ready cooked chicken, salad bit of dressing (that's fine out of the fridge for a few days) canned tuna and mayo plus salad is another option, serve in a baguette. I really love pilchards in tomato sauce, I know that's quite an acquired taste though. Rice noodles can be prepared using a kettle too, ready cooked chicken, baby spinach sliced pepper, stock cube and soy sauce is a proper meal and far cheaper than take away.

Contact your local food bank if you need to, it what they are there for.

I’d be sneaking one in, how do they expect you all to eat.

Well this is true

Hi OP-

Look on a local fb group for free things to see if anyone can give you a microwave.
You can make perfectly good porridge in a microwave with water and a pinch of salt.
See if there's an Iceland/ food warehouse nearby- they still have a £1 ready meal freezer with cottage pie, lasagne, fish pie, pasta and sauce etc and they're really tasty.
Tinned fruit is good from Aldi or Lidl.
Get a multivitamin from the supermarket while you're on limited diets.
Has the B&B got WiFi? If so see if anyone in the FB group has an old tablet they can let you have.
Where are your things OP? 💐

Also if you're in a city there may be meal projects out there. If you happen to be in Bristol I know of a couple of places you can get a hot meal

We are very lucky that the council paid for storage unit for us - so all of our things there they have paid for 3 months - not sur what happens after that!
yes b&b has WiFi :) thank fully my daughter would be bereft if she couldn’t watch YouTube! 🥹