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.

@Scianel In Scandinavia, can’t remember which country, they open windows every morning for an hour or two, IIRC. This would work for ventilation, if then you can have the heating on for a while too. UK houses are some of the worst I’ve seen and I’m comparing with a communist country. At least houses were dry and kept the cold out. In the UK it seems to be a point of pride, what kind of awful inhumane conditions will you accept and happily too.

Some really tone deaf comments on this thread from posters who clearly don't have a clue what it's like to have nothing.

@Scianel I don’t understand all the people saying that UK homes are well insulated. From my 2 decade experience, it’s the complete opposite. Is it opposite day?

@FabriqueBelgique

I won’t choose, I’ll have a bit of both.

I’ve been poor many times so I’m not phased by what’s coming.

Porridge, egg on toast and jacket potatoes with beans are the cheapest filling things I’ve found to eat. Swap some of your meals for those.

We layer and wear dressing gowns over the layers if it’s bad. Get into bed after dinner to watch / read things. It’s all fine until you need the toilet - then you want to cry putting your bum on the freezing seat!

I’m just grateful we have so much free entertainment on the internet and personally, a roof over our heads.

Same here. I won’t make that choice but I’ll work my arse off in other capacities so I’m not forced to.

I’ll go back to a bit more intensive foraging and eat my weeds some days a week if necessary. I already do almost daily walks as it is and pick wild food as part of that routine if I find any. We’re still eating the sweet chestnuts I gathered in October (frozen) and we grow vegetables too. Not an intense amount but I can ramp that up if necessary. It means I won’t have the sort of luxury free time I am used to and it’ll be constant work.

It’s not going to solve the problems for the majority but I’ll be able to keep warm and feed friends if and when they need it.

Actually me and a friend have already discussed alternating lunchtimes a couple of times a week to reduce our energy costs a little so I’ll walk to hers for lunch and she’ll walk over to mine. We both have kids with SEN needs so can’t work atm (carers allowance yay )

I’ve also got a prepper mentality from years of poverty and being homeless. I’m all about building buffers and redundancies. I asked for a ghillie kettle for Xmas and the fuel for that is twigs or paper. Anything dry really. If I can’t afford the gas to cook on I can at least boil water and have instant noodles and tea to warm up.

It’s true that the little things do help and add up but sadly not every one can do this and it’s not easy either.

@KurtWilde

Some really tone deaf comments on this thread from posters who clearly don't have a clue what it's like to have nothing.

It feels a bit sadistic 😕

When I was homeless as a teenager, I knew both cold and hunger
Hunger is relentless
A squat I stayed at untouched since the War, like a time capsule ( now £800k)
Had a pile of old mills and boon I read-
In one, there was food porn
A gird described making a farmer a sandwich with warm homemade bread and butter, with slices of crumbly chicken breast and pickle.
I read and read read that section.
True hunger means when you do eat, it gives a crazy high-
For me- food has to be the one.

@EveningOverRooftops Oh you’re reminding me of this solar ‘oven’ for homeless or camping, it’s brilliant. There’s a website 123homefree.org IIRC and Aaron is a shepherd and homeless and has lots of tips. This oven is bloody brilliant, but you need a bit of sun, dunno if it’s gonna work with winter sun 😞 Maybe I should just go and be homeless in a warm country, like Portugal.

Sorry to derail this slightly, but where is cheapest for shopping bills? I seriously need to reduce my food bills.
I shop at Tesco buy they apparently price match Aldi for lots of items.

@oakleaffy I’ve been in a similar situation. 9p noodles kept me alive. I used to spend my day looking around the arcades and streets for dropped pennies.
Maybe I should have cancelled the manicurist/sky tv/whatever other luxuries people think others could ‘cut down on’ 🙈

@Hearwego

Sorry to derail this slightly, but where is cheapest for shopping bills? I seriously need to reduce my food bills. I shop at Tesco buy they apparently price match Aldi for lots of items.

Lidl, hands down.

I got another job so I don't have to make this decision again. I'm a single parent so if I need more than 1 income in my household, it has to come from me, and from DD giving up her clubs. The upside is, working 3 jobs (one of which is a full time teacher so i needed the second with my pay freeze this year) does not give me much time at home to need heating, and I don't get much time to eat 😬

@Hearwego

For people who say this is an exaggeration- they live in a bubble. Not everyone lives in middle class suburbia, with good jobs and husbands / wife’s/ partners who earn high salaries. This is a very real threat. Single parents/ pensioners can’t just magic up extra cash to pay higher bills. Even working families on low incomes will struggle. People who work full time. There are pensioners who live on the state pension and live alone. Many of them will be skint. So good for you if you don’t have to endure the hardships of the cost of living.

I think it’s like with ill health. People cannot empathise with something that hasn’t happened to them? But they could sympathise.

I would hope that I would be able to get food from a food bank and so could choose heating.

This thread has been a good prompt to do another big foodbank shop. I feel really furious that this is the state we are in as a country. I’m sorry for all of those of you who were already living this way before this latest crisis. It’s shitty and you deserve better.

I’d choose food, because I find being hungry miserable. But actually a lot of the people who face this choice probably will struggle for the energy costs to cook the food, so will include some things which are quick to cook in my shop tomorrow.

@MooseBreath

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.

@MooseBreath

I'm sorry things are already so tight.

I'm sorry it's not how you planned DS's childhood, but as long as you are positive around him, he won't know. I grew up in the '70's, and things were tight but I only know that now-looking back & talking to my parents (my mum worked evenings after having us & my Dad took a lower paying job with a long commute to change career) we ate very basic food, had a mix of new & handed down clothes, & other cost cutting stuff. I know it was a different era, but I never knew how tight things were because that was just life & my parents didn't bang on about it (not saying you would!) so please don't worry about DS, just make life as much fun as you can by doing things with him & loving him. He won't know/care about the rest xx

[quote AutomaticMoon]@Scianel I don’t understand all the people saying that UK homes are well insulated. From my 2 decade experience, it’s the complete opposite. Is it opposite day?[/quote]
Exactly. I've got family members in homes that have the basics of insulation but any extra will never overcome the insane design of the housing. It's >30% glazing, front and back and there is a stupid amount of wood panelling rather than brick or solid/cavity wall.

You'd need to restyle the facades in order to achieve anything like an insulated home. It will never make economic sense to do that and I doubt there's a strong environmental argument when you trade off the
environmental cost of the building materials v. the plausible lifespan of the building.

[quote Chichimcgee]@oakleaffy I’ve been in a similar situation. 9p noodles kept me alive. I used to spend my day looking around the arcades and streets for dropped pennies.
Maybe I should have cancelled the manicurist/sky tv/whatever other luxuries people think others could ‘cut down on’ 🙈[/quote]
Well you needed the pampering after all that trawling for pennies 🙄

People lived for centuries with no central heating. You need to eat and there are ways to eat relatively cheaply. We are just used to living this way but we can survive on much less

The expectation seems to be to stop ‘banging’ on about it

Eat - you have choices over what you buy, eg a huge jacket potato with cheese and salad would cost pennies and you can add extra layers or light the fire if you have one.

@Hearwego

For people who say this is an exaggeration- they live in a bubble. Not everyone lives in middle class suburbia, with good jobs and husbands / wife’s/ partners who earn high salaries. This is a very real threat. Single parents/ pensioners can’t just magic up extra cash to pay higher bills. Even working families on low incomes will struggle. People who work full time. There are pensioners who live on the state pension and live alone. Many of them will be skint. So good for you if you don’t have to endure the hardships of the cost of living.

That mentality is nothing new

Where do the people live who say they rarely or never heat their house?

I'm in central Scotland and right now it is 1degree but feels like minus 4 according to Google.

I've got a crappy old heating system which will thankfully be replaced soon but I'm still cold with the heating on right now. There is no thermostat so no way to have it switched onto a lower temperature.

I'll definitely be looking at ways to save energy (I'm going to be buying a multicooker to cut down using the oven) and also have to cut back my food spend.

Oh give it a rest @AutomaticMoon People are entitled to different views to you you know.

You'd need to restyle the facades in order to achieve anything like an insulated home. It will never make economic sense to do that and I doubt there's a strong environmental argument when you trade off the environmental cost of the building materials v. the plausible lifespan of the building.

EmbarrassingHadrosaurus Renovating/retrofitting existing buildings is always less carbon-intensive than making new ones. Wood/timber can be as efficient or better than cavity/brick walls, it's all dependent on detailing, insulation and design.

@trunktoes

People lived for centuries with no central heating. You need to eat and there are ways to eat relatively cheaply. We are just used to living this way but we can survive on much less

Many people are barely scraping by on the absolute bare minimum already, for God’s sake. Have a heart, people! Not everyone is ‘affluent’ in this country, no matter what some fraudulent ‘scientists’ claim.