Page 11 | If it comes to it would you choose heating or eating?

Tuliprain · 2022-02-06T16:07:31+00:00

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.

mummykel16 · 06/02/2022 19:10

@AlwaysLatte

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.

Woodburners are being/ have been banned

oakleaffy · 06/02/2022 19:11

[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]
I feel you!
I found £5 in Trafalgar Square-that was like £25 now
And even now I scan the ground out of habit.
A wonderful hostel saved me- I have own modest house now.
So grateful to the hostel …and my homeless time absolutely taught me to always be grateful of a warm soft bed that was my own.
I hope you are also in a better place now.

Chichimcgee · 06/02/2022 19:11

@Hearwego
I think it’s a case of shop around really.
If there’s any markets local to you they usually do big bowls of produce for £1, people with allotments sometimes give away or sell excess produce.
Foraging is good, flour and water pastry with blackberries on top isn’t amazing but it feels like it when you have nothing!

Approvedfoods website used to be good to get discontinued items and short date items cheap - once got 75 galaxy chocolate bars for 1p but I haven’t shopped there for years.

Bulk buy basics online like 10kg rice, flour, pasta etc

Look in reduced sections, some things are short date but you do get things like tins that are dented so reduced etc and make things from scratch if you can.

If all else fails, go to the food bank

Scianel · 06/02/2022 19:11

@AutomaticMoon I think it varies hugely. New builds I think have to have certain insulation standards (happy to be corrected if I've got that wrong though!) but I know that some hastily build 1960s housing is of atrocious quality. Some has now been demolished but I've read about Londoners for instance being housed in horrific substandard conditions, as you say worse than some sort of eastern bloc scenario.

I do concur with a previous poster about most Spanish homes having zero insulation though, after a recent stay. I don't understand that, it's really uncomfortable in winter even those it's warmer and drier than here.

Kezzie200 · 06/02/2022 19:12

Heating once I'm layer up with jumpers and blankets. House needs some heating to stay in good maintenance.

Food from food banks if necessary.

Indoctro · 06/02/2022 19:12

I grew up in a freezing cold house. Clothes at side of bed ready to take under covers to put on in morning so you get dressed warmly under your blanket

Straight up and dressing gown on over clothes which has been at your feet under covers to warm to put in

Sit with duvet over you watching tv

There is ways to keep warm, the UK doesn't get cold enough to freeze to death I don't think personally.

But you aren't going to get far if you don't eat.

ladygindiva · 06/02/2022 19:12

Eating definitely. We own socks, jumpers and blankets. I grew up in an house with no heating apart from an open fire for a few years until we could afford to install it. Used to scratch the ice off the inside of the windows.

oakleaffy · 06/02/2022 19:12

@Chichimcgee
Noodles are a godsend.
As were baked beans and tinned rice pudding!
Eaten cold as no heat.

AutomaticMoon · 06/02/2022 19:13

@AlwaysLatte

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.

How much does the fuel to cook the potato, though? A little potato in a huge oven? The cooking fuel can get v expensive too.

Georgyporky · 06/02/2022 19:14

How daft. Food of course.
If DH is worried about heating, stick him on the bonnie.

oakleaffy · 06/02/2022 19:14

Baked potatoes cost ££ to heat!

Chichimcgee · 06/02/2022 19:14

@oakleaffy I ended up in a hostel as well and have been lucky to not end up in that situation again.

BitcherOfBlakiven · 06/02/2022 19:14

I work from home, with a weighted blanket over my legs and multiple layers on.

Heating goes on for 2 hours at night to take the edge off for DCs.

All 3 have Teddy fleece bedding and sheets, fleece PJs/onesies and knock off Oodies.

Our house is an old 3 bed terrace with a cellar, next door is abandoned so no heat from that side and the other side is a house share. It’s always fucking freezing.

I know it will only get worse now that I can only afford 2 hours of heating a day.

As for food, again, cheap and as nutritious as possible and usually done in the slow cooker to avoid more gas being used.

FangsForTheMemory · 06/02/2022 19:15

You microwave it if you've got a microwave.

daisypond · 06/02/2022 19:15

Eat. We turned off the heating last week completely.

Ossoduro · 06/02/2022 19:15

If food goes up in price by 5% then surely you can still buy and eat 95% of what you did before. Similar story with heating. You just reduce the amount you have it on by the percentage of the price rise. Then you just eat a little bit less and watch tv under the duvet in bed in the evening so you can switch the heating off. This is obviously an over simplification of many people’s situations but I just wanted to put it out there because there is a bit of scaremongering going on.

AutomaticMoon · 06/02/2022 19:16

Can I recommend a pressure cooker for cutting down cooking time? I realise this is a privilege though and many can’t afford the expenditure. I think the old school pots are cheaper than the plug in ones, I hope anyway. Perhaps the plug in is more efficient, I don’t know. Worth checking on YouTube. There are videos there from survivalists on keeping warm in alternative foods ways, like candle and clay pot heater.

oakleaffy · 06/02/2022 19:16

[quote Chichimcgee]@oakleaffy I ended up in a hostel as well and have been lucky to not end up in that situation again. [/quote]
God Bless Hostels!
Mine was lovely- own room good staff.
Night shelters not as good
Very rough

AutomaticMoon · 06/02/2022 19:16

@Ossoduro

If food goes up in price by 5% then surely you can still buy and eat 95% of what you did before. Similar story with heating. You just reduce the amount you have it on by the percentage of the price rise. Then you just eat a little bit less and watch tv under the duvet in bed in the evening so you can switch the heating off. This is obviously an over simplification of many people’s situations but I just wanted to put it out there because there is a bit of scaremongering going on.

Electric has more than doubled though, it’s not 5% at all.

TheCountessOfGrantham · 06/02/2022 19:16

Eating. You can stay warm under blankets. You can't eat the blankets

Cyw2018 · 06/02/2022 19:17

@shuffletime
I don't really get how this helps? I didn't get it first time round either. If your budget is that tight, how are you going to afford £3-£5 for an adult meal at a cafe to qualify for a free kids meal? £3 can cook a dinner for a whole family. £5 can feed a whole family for a day. Why would you waste that on 1 meal for 2 people?

Tesco were offering free kids meals in October half term without an adult needing to purchase anything. So if a family were really struggling at least the kids could get a hot meal.

Worth keeping an eye out to see if they do it again, as I only found out by chance when I was in the cafe anyway. In October you needed a club card to be eligible.

Chichimcgee · 06/02/2022 19:17

How much does the fuel to cook the potato, though?

My parents used to light a fire in a metal dustbin when I was a kid and throw in loads of potatoes. All the neighbours would come round and we’d eat burning jacket potatoes and warm up round the fire. As a kid I thought it was a fun party atmosphere, looking back it was poverty stricken, council estate atmosphere but everyone helped each other which it made it nicer and the kids had no idea how bad things were.

KurtWilde · 06/02/2022 19:18

Like many on this thread I'm a single parent (zero CMS from Exh), so it's just my income for us to live on.

My eldest DD and her partner both work and need Universal Credit top up. Their employer messed up the amount of wages they were paid in January when submitting it to UC, meaning this month they have been told they're not entitled to any UC - despite the amount being nowhere near right and them having wage slips to prove it. They've been told it'll take weeks to sort out the error and in the meantime to 'just go to a food bank if you've nothing to eat..' by the UC advisor. So they work, and they STILL need to go to a food bank to survive. And that's before considering utility bills, council tax and rent, plus formula and nappies for their 7 month old.

Just how long do they think food banks will be able to function if so many more families are needing to use them?

AutomaticMoon · 06/02/2022 19:18

@Ossoduro

If food goes up in price by 5% then surely you can still buy and eat 95% of what you did before. Similar story with heating. You just reduce the amount you have it on by the percentage of the price rise. Then you just eat a little bit less and watch tv under the duvet in bed in the evening so you can switch the heating off. This is obviously an over simplification of many people’s situations but I just wanted to put it out there because there is a bit of scaremongering going on.

It’s not scaremongering at all, this is reality for many. What is going on here? Why are people so resistant to the fact that thus IS reality for many people?

Nohypocrate · 06/02/2022 19:19

It's not a case of people saying stop banging on about it. I myself have added two positive spins on the situation to help.
But they are not responded to. The situation is not going to change. Telling people to live on weeds and trawl the streets for pennies is beyond ridiculous.
We All have to make changes. But we have had cheap electricity in this country and now it has come to an end.
Nothing in life stays the same... you adapt to survive. Or moan... Its your choice.