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.

God Bless Hostels! Mine was lovely- own room good staff.

Same here, I still give money to the Salvation Army when I can, pretty sure I’d have died without them!

We are lucky that we won’t have to choose between to the two completely but will certainly be limiting the heating significantly, meal planning, avoiding eating out ever and cutting back significantly on things like clubs for the DC and socialising for us. It could be a lot worse and we are grateful but it does make for a rather boring and slightly depressing life.

We’d feed the children and miss meals ourselves (probably be good for us). Heat their bedrooms only and wear lots of layers ourselves.

Our house is already cold, so we already dress warmly and sit under blankets on the sofa of an evening. DC wear vests and layers, but we do heat their rooms well at night. DD1 has a hot water bottle, but DD2 is too young yet.

[quote AutomaticMoon]@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.[/quote]
@AutomaticMoon I’m in Scandinavia, and do this a couple of times every day no matter how cold. Also sleep with window open even if it’s -30. 😬

Eat obviously. Gas and electric companies will not cut you off unless they really have to. Especially if you have kids or are elderly. They will offer payment plans.
My house is constantly freezing anyway as most of the windows dont shut properly so we are used to wearing jumpers, dressing gowns etc. as soon as we get home.
I do expect the use of food banks to rocket again this year.

Gas and electric will cut you off if it’s a metre if I don’t pay mine it doesn’t go on so yes people can be without

@AutomaticMoon because this is MN and some of these posters have no idea what it's like for people living in poverty.

Almost half of the people claiming universal credit are in paid work.

Nearly a quarter of the population of the U.K. are living in poverty - 8 million adults, 4 million children, and nearly 2 million elderly people.

But no, let's pretend everyone's a middle class 2 income family eh.

@AutomaticMoon in many nurseries here (and at home) children sleep outside, even when it’s proper cold. They are never cold though.

We don't have central heating (no gas supply anyway), so we just use a halogen heater when it gets really cold (v inefficient storage heaters otherwise so don't use them) and we have plenty of blankets and wear layers. Def can't do without food - it helps you to keep warm too.

@Chichimcgee

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.

Sounds marginally nicer than the atmosphere we had in Eastern Bloc. Endless queuing, hungry all the time, people in rural areas were better off cause they were more self sufficient. Men would shove and push and fight with mothers queuing for oranges or some other exotic fruit, I still remember crying cause this man have the orange to his child to ear in front of everyone else who didn’t get any. I used to eat a whole box of vit c white pills as a treat in an hour, I thought they were lovely sweeties. Some cities were worse than others, with everyone hating everyone and walls had ears. God helps us if that’s what the miss-named great reset has planned for us.

@oakleaffy

Baked potatoes cost ££ to heat!

Prick and oil them, wrap in foil and then put in slow cooker . Turn half way if you can. Cost p not £

Gas and electric companies will not cut you off unless they really have to. Especially if you have kids or are elderly

Well for starters they'll cut you off if your child is over 2. Elderly have to fit a certain criteria to not be cut off.

And if you're on a pre-payment meter like me and many others, if you don't top it up you don't get gas or electric. If you can't afford to top it up, you don't get any gas and electric.

The only heating in my house is an old woodburner which i light in the evenings, and i have no roof insulation.. my hot water bottle is constantly clutched to me and i look like a Michelin man with my layers.

So i dont have to choose, but of course it would be eating!!

Is everyone familiar with social credit score? Cause that’s what Klaus Schwab really admires about the CCP. I hope everyone here is familiar with the WEF. Sorry to derail but as far as I can see, this is by design.

The people who are possibly going to be hardest hit are those like me who are on a pre-payment meter for their utilities.

Granted it is my fault for getting in to debt, although there were reasons for that.

Each week I HAVE to pay AT LEAST £16 on the electric meter and AT LEAST £24 on the gas meter.

Of that £8 is automatically deducted from the electric, and £12 from the gas, to pay towards the debt.

If I don't top-up weekly it breaks the 'agreement' and I will be cut-off.

Each meter does allow £5 emergency credit and they don't cut you off over a weekend.

There have been times recently where I have had to go without hearing AND eating.

I am very lucky not to still have children at home but their will be families - many, many families in this situation.

It is already one of the most depressing times of my life, the absolute shame of having got in to debt is mortifying, and knowing that the essential £40/week spend will only actually give £20 of 'fuel' means "heating or eating" is barely a choice. The poverty trap is a very real thing.

I’m shocked that people are so accepting of this. In the days of no central heating the life expectancy was also lower and there is lots of evidence that living in sustained cold conditions has negative impacts on health, especially for those with breathing problems etc. Which doesn’t mean we all need houses at 22 degrees but there’s a limit to what jumpers and thermals can do. Why aren’t people angry that the government aren’t doing more? It’s certainly not only those on benefits that will be affected. People also need to accept that they might have to look out onto a wind/ solar farm or live near a nuclear power station.

We shouldn't have to choose but currently our heating is on low due to the hike in energy costs. We have really scaled down our weekly shop and no longer have as much, it's all a bit grim.

Dcs have complained its a bit cold but unfortunately we need to think about how much we are spending.

"People lived for centuries with no central heating"

And suffered Ill health, particularly lung complaints. Infant mortality was higher and life expectancy lower. Senior consultants are already saying that without proper funding for the most vulnerable, we will pick up the cost in healthcare. Poorer health = poorer educational and life outcomes. We will pick up the bill across health, social care, early years, the justice system. It's cheaper to guarantee a reasonable standard of living for everyone.

@Timeturnerplease

We’d feed the children and miss meals ourselves (probably be good for us). Heat their bedrooms only and wear lots of layers ourselves.

Our house is already cold, so we already dress warmly and sit under blankets on the sofa of an evening. DC wear vests and layers, but we do heat their rooms well at night. DD1 has a hot water bottle, but DD2 is too young yet.

If you turn your boiler on and only have 2 radiators turned on out of 5 for example does it not just cost the sample as having all radiators turned on?

My nan used to do that and I never understood

Definitely eating. Also I just bought little electric heaters from Amazon (£16 each) and one of them very quickly heats up a whole room so can be done with just a little electricity (combined with warm clothing and blankets, we wouldn’t go cold or the house mouldy).

@bitemyarsenic

For goodness sake, do you want to go back to the Middle-ages?

While fat cat energy bosses pay themselves and their shareholders millions in bonuses?

@Ponoka7

"People lived for centuries with no central heating"

And suffered Ill health, particularly lung complaints. Infant mortality was higher and life expectancy lower. Senior consultants are already saying that without proper funding for the most vulnerable, we will pick up the cost in healthcare. Poorer health = poorer educational and life outcomes. We will pick up the bill across health, social care, early years, the justice system. It's cheaper to guarantee a reasonable standard of living for everyone.

Yes but not eating will directly lead to death!

Food, always food.

Can wear layers, move about etc won’t be long before it’s cheaper to take the car out for a drive to warm up

If it came to it and it has done before I would not eat so the dc could!

I’m looking at ways to reduce our electricity, and a few things I’ve done so far are not ever going to cancel out the amount it’s gone up by…

@KurtWilde

Gas and electric companies will not cut you off unless they really have to. Especially if you have kids or are elderly

Well for starters they'll cut you off if your child is over 2. Elderly have to fit a certain criteria to not be cut off.

And if you're on a pre-payment meter like me and many others, if you don't top it up you don't get gas or electric. If you can't afford to top it up, you don't get any gas and electric.

It seems beyond some of the posters here, to consider the stark reality for many of their fellow humans.

We had no heating in this house when we bought it (unless we lit the coal fire) and we lived like that (very rarely lit the fire) for about 6 years.

One of my neighbours still doesn’t have heating - she’s in her seventies and just puts on more clothes!

I can live without heating but not without eating!