When it's freezing and you can't put the heating on and breakfast is porridge made with water...

[UndertheCedartree]

AIBU to wish so hard the uplift was never taken away? We were doing so well with that extra amount! But now that has gone and utilities have gone up we are left with little for food and heat.

Sorry, this is just a vent! Nothing anyone can do but I'm just feeling a bit upset this morning.

Underthecedartree, sending you and your family sympathy and sharing the anger anyone in this country should be in this situation. I was in it over 20 years ago when I got too depressed to sign on or puruse a claim for Incapcity Benefit as it then was, went into hundreds of pounds debt and had to borrow to survive, had cereal with water and black tes but at least it was only me. Anyway my situation is better now but stories such as yours make me terrified of Universal Credit and nothing would convince me it is not deliberately intended as a punitive action for those who dare to be in need without 'family money and property' to fall back on.

Since Covid I have discovered that there are online discount grocery stores which sell quite a variety of basics cheaper (along with a load of junk food it has to be said.) Don't know if you have heard of them but a few are ; approvedfoods.com, cutpricebarry's.co.uk, lowcostfoods, clearancexl. They vary a lot in regard to what they have available and also with delivery costs and minimum spends. But if and when you get your back pay , you might find it useful to look as what you spend on P&P can be a saving in travelling costs depending on your circumstances. Oh and yes, wear socks at all times!

I never do entirely milk porridge. Way too milky. I'm not totally British though.

Suggest buying only whole milk.
Porridge with half milk, half water (eg oatmeal). Not missing out, tastes better. You'll acrually taste oat not just milk. It's how Americans take theirs.

Get a discount bag of apples and grate one in, cheapest you can find will do. Even apples that aren't great to eat are ok to grate in oatmeal.

Buy whole chicken. We get a few meals out of it. I keep a carcass bag in the freezer for stock. The tail end of the hard cheese grated to the rind and some warm stock plus whatever leftover bits and bobs in the fridge is nice. I freeze lemon juice so it is never wasted when I needed a bit of lemon, so might toss in a lemon ice cube or two to my soup.

Other ideas, if you live in a city, your various ethnic groccers are great. Asian ones for bulk rice. Fried rice with some frozen veg and an egg is filling and cheap. Turkish ones for dried chickpeas to make your own hummus or bags of lentils and other dry goods.

Frozen peas or corn added to lots of meals to pad them out. Make fritatta (or just a big scramble) of whatever meat and veg is leftover. My family used to call this mess "casualty"

Track what veg is seasonal and buy that, means a lot of root veg for a while now. Persimmons still are in season- a few ripe ones make a nice bread if you tend to already have all the flour and baking stuff anyway. Like banana bread but autumn version.

Lidl app does £2 back if you spend £100 in a calendar month, then they do £10 if you get to £200 (for a total of £12 back a calendar month). Not sure how big your family is but we usually get at least the £2. If it's a toss up between going one day or the next I'll see how far I've gotten and when the next month is starting to try to maximise this.

I have a few tips which got our family through a tight spot once upon a time. Wear tights under trousers for extra warmth, hot water bottles are great especially if there’s a nice soft material to warm up to. Use half milk half water if you can in porridge makes it not so runny. Use dried lentils or chopped small potatoes (tinned would work) to eek out meals such as stew or Mexican food. Use the olio app especially if you live near a city to get the most benefit from it. Keep bread in the freezer for toast, get out just the amount of slices you need. Insist on bed socks and warm pjs for bed as it makes a real difference. Use student cook books from the library as they are often very low budget, also make use of a girl called jack recipes. Hope that helps ❤️

Grandad used to go round all the doors and windows with a candle, looking for draughts. Once located said draught was plugged up with newspaper and/or tape.

I only ever have porridge with water, I much prefer it. However, that is not the point.
I'm sorry that you are finding times hard.

As for the heat, cook today's and tomorrow's dinner components at the same time (ex tonight chips and tomorrow you were going to roast some veg)

Door snakes:
You can get decorative ones or you can stuff tshirts into the leg of an old jeans. They stop cold coming under your door.

Window shrink wrap/ insulation kit:
Where I'm from, people get these kits with plastic wrap that sticks to the window frame, you use the hair dryer on it and it shrinks to the window so its fitted and stops the drafts. We'd do them every year about now and then pull them off to ring in spring.

Another thing I thought of, if you have a dog or cat let them sleep on the bed, guaranteed warmth

Window shrink wrap in Amazon

@GoGadgetGo

I only ever have porridge with water, I much prefer it. However, that is not the point. I'm sorry that you are finding times hard.

Me too. It’s definitely not the poor relation to me.

@UndertheCedartree
I feel your pain.
I struggled for years and buying an old woodburner - and using skipwood- was a game changer re comfort.
My mum -80’s makes porridge with water, which is how she likes it

I never forgot those struggling years paying a huge mortgage on my own

Breath- pluming indoors was the norm in winter.
Hot water bottles in beds

This govt are arseholes.

Never voted Tory and never will.
You’ll get through it .
Trouble is- these days everyone is burning skipwood.
Not as much to go round
Stockpile in summer. :)

I grew up poor. No-one has yet mentioned pearl barley - add it to stews to bulk them out and makes a change from lentils. When too tired to cook baked beans on toast is actually a nutritious meal. If you have a freezer cook when double when you can mange it and freeze for when you cant.

We used to put a spoon of jam in the porridge. Jam stores well and while maybe less nutritious than milk powder it's also cheaper and provides some vitamin C. Also used to get bread soaked in bacon fat with brown sauce on - the breadwinner got the bacon. We put coats on the bed at night but freecycle or local facebook page would probably produce free duvets these days. I'd happily give one away locally if anyone asked. You can also put old curtains on beds as an extra warm layer.

There are lots of grant available for insulation and boiler problems - ask the people helping with your finances to help you find them. Until then ask on freecycle or local facebook page for bubble wrap or plastic to stick over the windows.

Set up a hotmail account and do the rewards each day, then redeem as Tesco vouchers. It will only be a few pounds every few months but every £5 helps and even children could do it.

Tinned chick peas are cheap and can be mashed with any flavouring you have to make hummus.

Yankee bundles do free delivery. Probably not much there to interest you but may be something now and then.

@Twilight7777

Another thing I thought of, if you have a dog or cat let them sleep on the bed, guaranteed warmth

Haha! Yes! Have a Whippet on my shoulder as I type and she’s radiating heat. She needs fuel though. Animals are great bed warmers.

I’m really sorry you’re having a crappy time op. It isn’t right and it isn’t fair.

If you’re going to soak oats overnight, and you can afford to get some frozen fruit (Tesco does a bag of frozen raspberries for £2, and I’m sure I’ve had them from Aldi too), you can put two or three berries in too, then when you cook it the next day you get the flavour through the porridge. They keep in the freezer for ages. So if you have the space and budget for those, it might be worth getting some.

Tinned chick peas are cheap and can be mashed with any flavouring you have to make hummus.

Packets of dried chickpeas are even cheaper. Soak overnight and then cook with a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda - makes them soft and creamy.

A delicious twist on standard hummus is to add orange zest and turmeric if you have some.

Worth keeping all lemon and orange peel to use for flavouring. You can add chunks of orange or lemon peel to meat or bean casseroles for flavour, or add zest to couscous, rice, lentils beans, porridge etc.

@Upamountain43

It is so tough - even food banks are not the answer - ours you can only access 4 times a year so would tide you over a week but that's all. A cheap jar of jam can go a long way to make porridge more palatable as well as the powdered milk idea above - i have been there myself.

There is little that i can say to make your life better but i can promise

I never have and never will vote for this type of society.

This with bells on

I don't have any tips- except to second the tip about Asian grocers and groceries being v cheap- but your courage and cheer is so inspiring. ( I know you would prefer not to inspire anyone, mind).

I am so, so sorry that you're going through this - in a country that keeps banging on about being one of the richest in the world, apparently, this really shouldn't be happening. (I'm even more furious today after the rich morons in charge of the country closed ranks to protect that twonk Patterson, even if he has now resigned.)

I'm also one of those who's never voted Tory, and never will, and it infuriates me that their voters don't understand that situations like yours are what they're effectively voting for, or at the very least condoning.

I also grew up poor, and remember a childhood where my parents knew 100% recipes with potatoes - we ate a LOT of potatoes. And pastry. And starch in general. Plus cheap cuts of meat, mince etc. As I've got older I've learned how to bulk food out with rice, lentils, barley, and really understand what a great idea slow cookers are. We've recently invested in a small alternative called a Wonderbag, which uses the old haybox or Dutch oven principle (though of course you have to be able to buy it in the first place, though there are instructions on the Internet on how to make your own).

I don't have much to add otherwise, there are some brilliant tips on here. In terms of food with lots of calories, peanut butter (as long as there are no allergies, obviously) is one of the most calorie dense foods there is. I also see someone suggested cookbooks from the library, by far the best one I ever had (even though it's really old now) was the Cooking in a Bedsitter one, which had some brilliant suggestions.

I'd also recommend putting curtains (or fleece blankets, or anything you can get) up at windows, and doors, and rolling up towels to put against anywhere there's a draught. It's amazing what a difference it makes.

And yes, socks in bed! And I've even been known to wear a hat and a fleece zipped up to the neck if necessary. We don't have central heating in our flat, and I often wear a hood or a cowl or similar during the day. When I was a kid my parents used to put coats on the bed to help keep us warm - duvets were an unaffordable luxury when I was young. Also, we have a couple of old stone hot water bottles that we got at our local charity shop, like the ones we had when I was young - they come in various sizes, and they really do stay warm all night. Also, using flasks to store hot water, soup, etc, to keep your energy use to a minimum.

I really hope your social worker and the other organisations can help get you sorted. People who've never been through this kind of thing have no clue how exhausting it is, either.

Another thought OP, have you ever worked in hospitality at all?
I got help from a charity a few years ago because I'd worked in hospitality and I think there's a similar charity for care workers.
I don't think you have to currently be employed but there are some criteria to be eligible, so if you've worked in a certain sector before it may be worth googling the sector + charity to see if one exists for your sector and if they offer help.
I got help with a cooker and a bed and they sent me cinema tickets a couple of times that included a voucher for some sweets, all we needed was the bus fare and it was so long since we'd been able to do something like that, lifts the spirits and makes the shit easier to cope with. The charity I dealt with didn't give money, but paid for the items and had them delivered, and someone to fit the cooker and paid them, so something like that if you qualify might help with the repairs or the boiler.

[quote greta4563]@StopGo
I didn't factor in cooking costs, but if you are turning the oven on to cook dinner then leaving it on for another fifteen/twenty mins to cook bread won't cost that much more. Plus it adds some heat to the house.
How much does 20mins of cooking cost?
I think spending on cooking costs would be cheaper than buying processed foods.
I made potato cakes this week (potato/flour /butter) They worked out at about 80p for 20 large portions.[/quote]
@greta4563 as far as I can tell around 14p an hour. So making full use of the oven and allowing for it warming the kitchen you might well have a point.
It's so sad that people are suffering like this in 2021. Maybe we will all have to go back to war time ration cookery with hay boxes etc.

My uplift was taken in April - the same time tax credits decided they'd been over paying me despite having all my income info both from me and direct from HMRC and decided to cut that a further £80 pw so £100 down in total. I also got a small pay rise which was removed twice over from my small amount of housing benefit as a result. Now the increase in energy and food costs, fuel is sky rocketing and I now need to fill up once a week instead of once every 2.5 - 3 since the new e10 petrol came in as the only car I could afford is 13 years old and it doesn't agree with the old engine. I need to drive to be able to work. It's sickening and I don't know where to go from here, I'm losing sleep. I've also been declined for the winter fuel payment that I have got in previous years. I suffer from raynauds so a cold house is utterly miserable. Thankfully school meals are free in Scotland now for all primary kids but dd1 is now at secondary. OP I really understand where you're coming from and I know we are far from alone.

In terms of tips, if you have a bank account and can afford internet activate as many cash back offers as you can, they some times have them for supermarkets or internet providers. I saved about 40 so far doing this with just an ordinary Halifax current account.

Just read some of the 100k salary thread and now this.

Why is the system so shit?

‘We wonder where the next livery fees will come from’

Ffs.

We have a wood burner so that helps in the evening. Daytime more and more layers! And nose tucked into collar of jumper!

Sorry I don't know if it's been mentioned but do you know about the "too good to go" app - supermarkets sell off food that's got a short sell by date really cheap

@tomorrowalready

Underthecedartree, sending you and your family sympathy and sharing the anger anyone in this country should be in this situation. I was in it over 20 years ago when I got too depressed to sign on or puruse a claim for Incapcity Benefit as it then was, went into hundreds of pounds debt and had to borrow to survive, had cereal with water and black tes but at least it was only me. Anyway my situation is better now but stories such as yours make me terrified of Universal Credit and nothing would convince me it is not deliberately intended as a punitive action for those who dare to be in need without 'family money and property' to fall back on.

Since Covid I have discovered that there are online discount grocery stores which sell quite a variety of basics cheaper (along with a load of junk food it has to be said.) Don't know if you have heard of them but a few are ; approvedfoods.com, cutpricebarry's.co.uk, lowcostfoods, clearancexl. They vary a lot in regard to what they have available and also with delivery costs and minimum spends. But if and when you get your back pay , you might find it useful to look as what you spend on P&P can be a saving in travelling costs depending on your circumstances. Oh and yes, wear socks at all times!

Thank you for the well wishes and I will have a look.

@mangowithasqueezeoflime - I actually usually make our porridge with about 3/4 water but I like to put a bit of milk or cream on the top too if we have it. We like 'casualty' dinner too - will have to call it that now! Persimmons are my favourite fruit! We used to have them at my hospital and I used to eat loads!

Thank you @Twilight7777