An introspective of life these days and my own attitude to the changes

[blockpavingismynightmare]

I hope you enjoy.

I am 67.

When I was ten I was taught by my grandmother how to iron on Sundays after church. It started with tea-towels and pillowslips and graduated to the more important items such as my grandfather's shirts.
She taught me how to make Yorkshire puddings and to bake bread but that's not what this is about.
I have always ironed. I looked upon it as a sort of craft and took pride in it. I got a sense of achievement when I emptied the ironing basket and admired the ironing airing on a rack.
When we got the news about the energy crisis, I stopped ironing. After all those years of burning electricity and standing for hours at the ironing board I simply stopped.
I wish I had done it forty years ago. When I think about the waste and the cost I feel slightly at odds with myself, but then again it probably stopped me from drinking wine with my feet up :)

Until recently my daughter and grandson lived with us. This was a busy house. Now they have moved to their new home and I can economise to my heart's delight --because I have little choice--
The dishwasher goes on every other day as opposed to twice a day
I am washing the weeks towels this morning. There is not enough in the basket for another was until tomorrow. I washed every day sometimes twice, occasionally more
The shower is used twice. Once for me and once for him My grandson was in and out of the shower and the bath all of the time - it seemed !
We do not have the heating on yet and will hold out until it becomes very cold. I had to put the heating on when they lived with us for my grandson (toddler)
I have not used the oven for about a month (as we now have an air fryer) apart from twice to do pizza
I do not use my tumble drier at all

I realise we are all in the same boat but I wish I had given my silly head a large shake long before this and economised earlier not for the bills but for the planet.

Myself ? I have two small pensions. One is the state pension and I do not get the full amount because I took time out to raise children and missed a few contributions (talking a couple of years not decades here) so I get just over £620 as a ballpark figure per month and a works pension which I was encouraged to move by my employer to a third party and should not have done so. I was conned. This pension - approx £212 per month does not even cover my community charge.
I will be fine. If things get hairy I can sell my house and downsize. It's people like my daughter I fear for. I keep telling her to watch what she does in the house as I fear the large winter based bills will come as a shock.
As for the rest of it, my partner will have to work for longer as pension ages will rise until people die first I expect; at least that's what I think they are hoping for.
I am sure there will be some form of light at the end of this tunnel we are in and am glad I am not a working mum of three children plus working full time just to make ends meet and keep a roof over our heads.
When I see programmes on TV showing people who are using food banks and have baliffs at the door every week wondering what life is all about and then I read what the cost of the Queen's funeral was to us the taxpayer plus a budget seemingly designed to help the rich become even richer it makes me wonder what life is all about as well

A lovely thoughtful post. Thank you. My teens are beginning to leave the nest. And I've started to put in restrictions for the planet. It's interesting to see the (enlightened) young fight against them. DH is delighted. I'm aiming to reduce our kWh all round.

I really enjoyed reading that post OP thank you. I want to know more thoughts though, for example all those skills you were taught did you pass them on? I too was taught to iron but hated every minute of it and stopped as soon as left home.

What a thought provoking post. Loved reading it and can absolutely relate to the ironing bit.

My mum wouldn't let me iron until I was eight or nine and was only ever allowed to iron hankies and towels. When I got to my last year of Middle School, we were taught how to iron shirts , skirts and dresses with pleats and lined garments ( a rarity these days.)
My mum initially allowed me todo more ironing then but she'd stand there, agitated , because I wasn't 'doing it properly' and would re-iron most of what I'd done.

She belonged to the school of thought that EVERYTHING had to be ironed.

When I left home, I always had my mum's voice in my ears when I ironed and took great delight in doing it my way.

As the years went by , I started to iron fewer things. I also started to think about clothing choices and easy care fabrics.
Crisp bed linen would be creased to following morning so I figured, 'don't iron it'
It looked normal the following morning.
When my husband retired , three years ago... no more shirts!!!

I'm 58 now and iron nothing ( unless it needs it for a special occasion.)
All that energy that I'd wasted. All those irons I'd got through!

Utter bliss now.

Shake it right
Hang it right
Shake it right again
Then put it away.

I'm glad you enjoyed it ! To answer one pp yes - I taught all my children how to cook and bake and iron - not just my daughter but my sons also.
Nobody in our family irons now. It's a dinosaur of a 'thing' !

My dad was a Naval officer and I can iron REALLY well - knife-edge creases in trousers, collars that would survive a nuclear strike etc - because he taught us the correct way to do it, but I mostly choose not to, because what's the point?

We are an 'as required' household when it comes to ironing (and if something needs ironed, you do it yourself, unless somebody else is feeling generous and if so, you owe them a favour).

You're very right, OP, life is too short.

I do like cleaning my shoes, though - old-school style, with newspaper spread out on the floor and proper polish and multiple brushes and cloths.

I only clean my own, though. I enjoy it and it prolongs the life of my shoes and boots.

I'm the other way - never ironed for years, but now I like the way it all looks, everything fits in a drawer and hangs neatly when ironed. Steam generator iron, so it's relatively easy - maybe I'll give up when this iron packs up. I also cook and bake a lot - I guess once we're a two person household, that won't be economical.

My dad used to clean all the shoes on newspaper. They felt special when they were clean and the smell was lovely.

My grandmother always polished my school shoes when she came to stay. It always infuriated my Mum as she felt it was a criticism of her!

My Mum still irons most things, including bedsheets. Not as bad as my Aunt though who even irons pants...

I don't iron anything unless needed for a special occasion. I buy non-iron shirts for the DC and DH irons his own shirts.

I sometimes help my MIL with ironing. She irons everything. I sometimes iron the babies flat nappies because they are easier to fold afterwards but there are too many better things to do than iron.

OP I think you are right to say younger generations struggle with cutting back and living more frugally. People will find things hard.