Is there anyway to save this 'Lawn' on a budget... What's the best option?

[reoreborn]

We moved into a our new house in February and love itm while we've been focusing on the inside our attention is slowly turning to the outside as the weather changes
Sadly, as you can see, the grass is full of weeds and I don't really know where to start. After a few days of research I've come to three options but as I've never had a garden before I'd like to get some of you experts option.

1: Dig it up and reseed.
This is rather a big task from what I've seen and it's the wrong time of year. You also need to net the area which can cost quite a bit.

2: get a weed remover and remove every single weed by hand and reseed the holes. This may take a few months/year to remove everything but it's the cheapest option.

3: buy lawn feeder with weed killer included.
While this seems like the easiest option it's not very echo friendly and can halm the wildlifem as we plan on making the garden animal friendly it's not a route we'd like to take.

What would you guys do? Thanks for any advice you have.

Additional: ignore the state of the garden it's still got a lot of building materials laying around.

 

[Notch7]

Although being wildlife friendly is admirable, in this case I would recommend using lawn weedkiller to give you a chance

lawn weedkiller wont cause any lasting ecological damage to apply and will get rid of the huge number of weeds
you will need some iron sulphate to get rid of the moss as well

I would recommend scarifying the lawn -either buy or rent a machine or use a rake to pull out the old thatch and open up the lawn again.

what you will be left with is a rather bald lawn so you could buy some lawn seed and I suggest some fleece and clips -its not that much money.

the fleece will keep the lawn moist and it will stop birds eating all the seed -within 6 weeks you will have a green lawn.

 

[jj4091]

No weed killer is going to get rid of the dandelions. What are you hoping to achieve, if its just a general purpose lawn for kids to play on just feed it and add some moss killer and mow it ( not too short ) twice a week during the growing season. If you want a show lawn or a bowling green then dig it up and start again. But even that won't get rid of the tap rooted weeds. A perfect lawn takes years to develop.
Notch7's advice is sound if you want to go between the 2 options.

 

[reoreborn]

No weed killer is going to get rid of the dandelions. What are you hoping to achieve, if its just a general purpose lawn for kids to play on just feed it and add some moss killer and mow it ( not too short ) twice a week during the growing season. If you want a show lawn or a bowling green then dig it up and start again. But even that won't get rid of the tap rooted weeds. A perfect lawn takes years to develop.
Notch7's advice is sound if you want to go between the 2 options.

Must admit somewhere between the two. We don't have kids and I don't want a show lawn really. Just something that looks 'Okay' If that makes sense. I personally don't mind the odd weed, dandelion etc but I'd like them to be in the minority rather than the above photo.

 

[reoreborn]

Although being wildlife friendly is admirable, in this case I would recommend using lawn weedkiller to give you a chance

lawn weedkiller wont cause any lasting ecological damage to apply and will get rid of the huge number of weeds
you will need some iron sulphate to get rid of the moss as well

I would recommend scarifying the lawn -either buy or rent a machine or use a rake to pull out the old thatch and open up the lawn again.

what you will be left with is a rather bald lawn so you could buy some lawn seed and I suggest some fleece and clips -its not that much money.

the fleece will keep the lawn moist and it will stop birds eating all the seed -within 6 weeks you will have a green lawn.

Thank you! In that case I may go down that route then. As I say in the other comment I'm not after anything perfect just to improve it a little when I get paid I'll get some grass food with weed killer and follow your instructions

 

[aveatry]

Feed and weed liquid, and by the looks of it a moss killer as feed and weed kills broad leaf plants like dandelions and I do not think it kills moss.
Then after 1-2 weeks rake it or as suggested hire a scarifier or buy a cheap one. Then when the forecast is for loads of rain re-seed it.
Maybe before you start - carefully pluck all those dandelions before the seeds blow off onto your grass for next year.