If it comes to it would you choose heating or eating?

[Tuliprain]

We were having this discussion the other night. I would choose eating and husband would choose heating - so we are already stuck. Im thinking we could warm up with blankets and hot water bottles etc but nothing you can do about hunger. He says the house will go mouldy and he’s rather be hungry than cold. Such a depressing subject to be considering.

Eat.
Your body needs calories to burn.

Some of the people filmed in their homes moaning about heating costs have been in t-shirts.

Put a jumper on. Wear a fleece over a jumper. Wear tights under trousers. Put socks on. Have a hot water bottle when you boil the kettle for a hot drink.
There's a million ways to stay warm, but only one way of stopping hunger.

Do you mean choosing between slightly nicer food and no heating or not eating at all ans no heating? Because there is obviously a level below which you can’t go re not eating …. You can go out and about to free places like the library to get warm? But you can’t get free food as easily

Eat - but as basic as possible.

Eat

I've just popped on to MN to see what if anyone was discussing this. I have tried to ignore what is happening because I am in disbelief. We are set to experience the largest fall in living standards since comparable records began. I work FT as a single Mum after 5 years of HE and there is no way I can afford this.

So in answer to your question...I won't eat, my children will and the heating will be on low. I'd rather go without food.

Easy to say for a day, but you can live with cold long term. When your tummy is rumbling and you’ve exhausted all the cupboard/freezer options you’re going to have to buy food.

However it’s not really a choice you get to make as your electricity bill is likely paid by DD and standardised payments over the year so without cancelling the DD you don’t get to choose whether or not to pay it, or how much you want to spend on it. You will have to pay your bill, the question needs to be where else can that money be cut from - which subscriptions can we cancel, how do we use less petrol, what can we sell? etc as food shouldn’t be the first thing to go.

No doubt will be flamed but seriously do people think that central heating has always existed?
Ridiculous notion.
You eat or you starve.
Put a jumper and socks on, exclude drafts etc.
Stop washing towels after every use.

I hope Tesco repeat their offer of kids eating for free in their cafe during school holidays. As this is going to be desperately needed.

You can go out and about to free places like the library to get warm?

We both work from home and can't really work elsewhere, so we're already stuck in a house now that is colder than we'd like. Next winter is going to be horrendous. Layering up means I'll have almost constant thrush, just to add that misery to life.

And I'd pick eating.

Your husband is being foolish.

@Cyw2018

I hope Tesco repeat their offer of kids eating for free in their cafe during school holidays. As this is going to be desperately needed.

A few places have been offering free meals for kids with an adult meal but it’s only for one kid doesn’t help if you have more than one

Definitely eat.

I don't have the heating on much as it is, and could definitely survive with oodies, blankets, and hot water bottles.

Always choose food. I feel cold if I am hungry, your body needs fuel like a fire does. Plus you can put on more layers for warmth but little you can do to stave off hunger for long.

Half and half. We put off turning on the heating for as long as possible (I think we left it until early December) & now we only have it on for a couple of hours in the morning & again in the early evening, at about 18°c. It doesn't usually get up to 18°c though, unless the sun is shining in. We have blankets on the beds & downstairs, & draught excluders at the doors. And re food - we just reduce expenditure as much as possible. Tricky as DD & DH are fussy, & I'm intolerant to a lot of foods but we do our best. DH only eats once a day, I usually eat twice a day but only once daily at the weekend, & DD eats twice a day at weekends (but often forgets to eat breakfast anyway). You do get used to being hungry, or altered / stretched out mealtimes. Your body just adjusts to it over time.

I'm going to make a curtain for the front door this year. Our house is in a very exposed position & the front door opens directly into the living room.

Well inwould choose heating as I don't have much of a stomach anyway, but I will have to go for food as I can't let ds go without food!

@Notimeforaname

Your husband is being foolish.

I agree.

Chose food. If I'm home alone I have an electric throw or a hot water bottle to keep warm, always wearing a jumper and as many socks and slippers as needed.

Eating, obviously. You can't survive without food. You can just warm one room, or have the heating on every other day for an hour to stop damp etc.

Eating definitely. I’m old enough to remember living without central heating. Only a coal fire in the sitting room and frost on the inside of bedroom windows in the morning. I’m still alive. I rarely have the heating on in the daytime regardless of the temperature.

He,s just arguing for the sake of arguing.

He knows if it came down to it, he wouldn't let himself literally starve and waste away next to a scorching radiator 🤣

Food is the priority. And being dry. In an emergency, heat can be shared bodily warmth and some blankets.

@RoyKentsChestHair

Easy to say for a day, but you can live with cold long term. When your tummy is rumbling and you’ve exhausted all the cupboard/freezer options you’re going to have to buy food.

However it’s not really a choice you get to make as your electricity bill is likely paid by DD and standardised payments over the year so without cancelling the DD you don’t get to choose whether or not to pay it, or how much you want to spend on it. You will have to pay your bill, the question needs to be where else can that money be cut from - which subscriptions can we cancel, how do we use less petrol, what can we sell? etc as food shouldn’t be the first thing to go.

Now this is very true and quite depressing when you think there isn’t much choice here.

We have set our heating to 16°C, day and night. We are lucky enough to have warm dressing gowns and blankets, so heating is unfortunately turning into a luxury for us (absolutely ridiculous, but it is what it is). We are also eating cheaper and arguably less nutritious food. It's awful and not the childhood we planned for DS.

Eating. However we have been living in a house with only one coal fire for the last two years and its been awful. We had an electric heater that we would move around the house but its been difficult. During the early days of Covid we would stay a couple of nights on a Travelodge just to get warmed up and have a hot bath but later in Covid hotel stays were banned so just had to put up with it. Bet Boris et al weren't ever cold

Always eating, but you need to know how to cope with cold.

Dressing on layers, how to mimimise the risk of serious damp (very difficult in some properties), how to air and warm beds so you're not getting into cold, damp sheets, how to get your clothes properly dry in the winter.

Also, with these huge rises I worry that there won't be much wriggle room for those who are already struggling. It may well be no heating and no eating for some.