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.

@lightand

I never get the heating or eating argument. There are many many things I would cut out before any of those. Less clothes, less grooming, cheaper tv package. The list goes on.

Then you lead a privileged life compared to people who have gone through the list and are now facing the dilemma in this thread. You also lack empathy.

[quote ElectraBlue]@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?[/quote]
That’s what I don’t understand. Just because there was no heating (there really was!) way back when, people seem gleeful for a return to this? It makes no sense, no sense at all.

[quote KurtWilde]@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. [/quote]
And they as a group voted for Brexit, and repeatedly for the Tories, so I'm afraid it's a case of repent at your leisure. What the fuck did people think was going to happen with the Tories in power for decades?

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

I think ignorance is one thing, and to be expected. But trying to whip it into a narrative of stoic grit and mind over matter positivity, is calculated fuckwittery.

Food every time it helps keep you warm and with hot food and drink and layers and blanket/HWB you can keep warm inside. You can skip say one meal a day but then you feel miserable your body will feel colder and it’s just miserable. Your body is designed to look for food if your hungry in way being at 20c isn’t.

@Rosieposie101

I live abroad in a country that reaches the same temperature as England in winter but has much hotter summers. Housea don't have central heating. People wear many clothes at home - the same as outside. People still spend a lot of time outside in winter but just dress in many layers and keep these layers on at home. I was so surprised and slightly horrified when I first moved here, but now I don't mind at all. I use a heated blanket, and if anything I'm too hot at night! Getting up in the morning is horrible, so I shower the night before, and keep my clothes beside the bed to get dressed quickly! I'm currently wearing thick, fluffy, ugly but remarkably cosy pyjamas and slippers and sitting on the sofa perfectly warm. I don't think people SHOULD have to live like this, but living here has taught me that it's perfectly possible to healthily live without heating.

You have made me think that I should invest in some PJS that sound as warm as yours. I think your right a lot of the pj's here in UK are not that warm without having your heating turned on!

@Chichimcgee

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!

A great Service! And with the baked potatoes in bonfires- yrs we did that, too.

Skip wood
I can get good wood off cuts from skips now,
And that 19 th C softwood burns well.
Zero carbon can get stuffed.

@AutomaticMoon I have read about the social credit score the great reset CCP and WEF but I can’t see it I can’t see how governments will babd together to work together and for what purpose

@Piggyk2 I've always wondered that as well. Surely if the boiler is running its running, I don't understand what you'd save by turning some of the radiators off.

@lightand
‘I never get the heating or eating argument.
There are many many things I would cut out before any of those.
Less clothes, less grooming, cheaper tv package. The list goes on.’

The list doesn’t go on for a lot of people, are you unaware of this? Blissfully ignorant, I’d say

I was the typical 50s/60s kid who grew up in a large family with no heating except one coal fire and ice on the inside of the windows. I still don't feel the cold. I would choose eating any day.

You can put on as many layers, thermal hats and gloves and ski socks as you like. But it doesn’t warm your face.
I never take my coat off in the house. My feet are like 2 blocks of ice and I haven’t felt my fingertips since November. I am freezing and we only have 1 heater on but as it is 58p per hour and barely wafts warmish air out and we can’t afford to put any more on it is a case of freezing. There is no choice.
I have gone nights without sleep as I am so cold

I can do without food. I am struggling without heat.

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/06/as-energy-bills-rise-oil-giants-are-poised-to-make-unpopular-profits

[quote AutomaticMoon]@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.[/quote]
Oh I know about those solar ovens. They’re pretty amazing and honestly technology like that should be the norm where possible. I pondered a DIY one for dehydrating food in the summer so we’d have fruit leathers etc. I’ve a very handy skip diving friend who LOVESs projects like this.

For the U.K. you might want to look up a wonderbag. They’re fantastic, like a hay box slow cooker without the hay but can also double up as a cooler too as it’s very well insulated. They can cut down around 70% if your cooking fuel costs apparently. They’re probably a much better investment for the British winter

Death or feeling cold, difficult one.

@oakleaffy

Baked potatoes cost ££ to heat!

Microwave for 10-12 mins or bbq

@FourTeaFallOut

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

I think ignorance is one thing, and to be expected. But trying to whip it into a narrative of stoic grit and mind over matter positivity, is calculated fuckwittery.

Ah thank you, it’s not my paranoia, is it 😕 I even thought there’s energy shareholders posting here 😭 Now I am paranoid

@lightand

I never get the heating or eating argument. There are many many things I would cut out before any of those. Less clothes, less grooming, cheaper tv package. The list goes on.

Please see my post about pre-payment meters - to summarise:

If you're on a pre-payment meter you are legally bound to top-up EVERY WEEK by the amount dictated by the energy company.

Mine is £40 per week. £20 is immediately deducted to pay towards my debt. Therefore each week I have £20 split between the gas and electric at £12 gas, £8 electric.

Central heating and hob are gas, oven, appliances, lighting is electric.

£12 gas does not last all week if I have the heating on. If I run out and cannot afford to top up I will be disconnected and charged a fortune for reconnection.

@user1493494961

I was the typical 50s/60s kid who grew up in a large family with no heating except one coal fire and ice on the inside of the windows. I still don't feel the cold. I would choose eating any day.

Same era but my family would rather eat than heat. I always said the other way round.

My last house had gas central heating and the bills were, even at their highest half what we are paying now and I was never cold.
If it felt even the slightest chill the heating would go on, even if it was July.

My electric costs a fortune. I'm on benefits and get carers allowance for my youngest dc. No way can 8 just go out and buy electric blankets and plug in electric heaters, I'm already trying to cut electric down

Yeah yeah it used to be really cold with no central heating and ice on the inside of the windows. It's bloody unpleasant and children should not be having to deal with that in 2022

My heating has been broken for three days and I have no hot water. It will be fixed tomorrow, hopefully, but it's had an awful effect on my mood. Luckily I live by myself, I'm a widow and my children are adults, but long term I couldn't live without heat. I could eat soup and toast to save money, but at least I wouldn't be cold.

People will get more creative with their other soending too, so that they can eat and also have limited amounts of heating.

Hardship forces people to be creative. They will cut all their lesiure spending (some don't have much or any of this anyway) and anything like TV subscriptions. Anything like an occasional coffee out with be cut. Soending on food will be reduced to the bare minimum of basic items. People will cut down on cleaning products and toiletries.....not so they have zero, but far less. There won't be much if any spending on gifts.

It shouldn't have to be the case that people cut out pretty much everything else in their lives, but even those on very low incomes will usually have something else they can cut before heat or food. The things they will have to cut might be considered normal expenditure not luxuries these days...but those will have to go before food and heat. You'd cut out hair cuts before heat or food surely? Or you'd cut out Netflix.

Those most likely to be hit by this might struggle and take longer to see where little cost savings just might be made.

And of course, lots of people will reduce rather than cut out and go into debt over this. That is the other option, as it often is when peoole are faced with more outgoings than income.

@HeyBlaby

Death or feeling cold, difficult one.

Well for an elderly vulnerable person that's one and the same.

@oakleaffy Just remembered living in a warehouse and we made a hole in the ground with fire and potatoes in foil, mince patties in foil, into the smouldering hole for a while. It kept us going! But we had a sweet little community then, don’t really have that now anymore.

Yeah yeah it used to be really cold with no central heating and ice on the inside of the windows. It's bloody unpleasant and children should not be having to deal with that in 2022

Absolutely agree. I grew up like that and it was horrible. It's not something I want for my kids, and it's not something any family should have to be considering in the 21st century.