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Original poster

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

713 replies

Tuliprain · 06/02/2022 16:07

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.

OP posts:
Cromple · 07/02/2022 17:56

Years ago I had to make this decision and I think I'd make the same now. I kept the heater on in my bedroom and would skip meals and eat very very cheap yellow sticker meals when I did. My extremities get so cold and I find it so hard to concentrate/function when cold.

SuperBlondie28 · 07/02/2022 18:02

Food for sure... My migraines flare up if I'm hungry. Doesn't have to be a lot of food or expensive food. Or even healthy!! Microwave jacket pot, baked beans and cheese will do

ladyyl34 · 07/02/2022 18:05

I have storage heaters which are rubbish and expensive. When its really cold, i bring my mattress in living room and me and 2 kids sleep on that.
By the time iv finished work and got kids home, heating is cold. So its blankets, dressing gowns and water bottles for us This is every winter. So its defo food for us.

BooneyBeautiful · 07/02/2022 18:08

@FormerlySpeckledyHen

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.
Me too. I remember writing my name in the frost on the inside of my bedroom window. We had a coal fire in the kitchen with a back boiler to heat the water (immersion heater in the summer months) and a gas fire in the living room. Paraffin heater in the bathroom for a bath once a week. The toilet had been added onto the back of kitchen long after it was built in the Victorian era and we had to put a tiny paraffin heater in there during the bitterly cold weather because all the pipes had frozen. I had chilblains every year.

I had a wonderful childhood, but the only thing I really didn't like was the cold. My house is very warm anyway, so if necessary I would just reduce the time the heating is on and layer-up if I needed to.

UndertheCedartree · 07/02/2022 18:21

@BooneyBeautiful - that is the only reason I put the heating on occasionally (and it helps with drying washing) is because I don't want the pipes to freeze! I've got chillblains - hoping my DC don't get them but I'm sure many more people will get them now many of us can't afford to put the CH on Sad

SJFarter · 07/02/2022 18:31

Are electric blankets safer than they were years ago?

AuntyBumBum · 07/02/2022 18:32

@SJFarter

Are electric blankets safer than they were years ago?
Yes
HarrietsweetHarriet · 07/02/2022 18:36

I find hot water bottles a Godsend! As someone else mentioned, door curtains help keep the heat in and also draught excluders (not that hard to make or look in charity shops).
If you don't mind drinking 'old' tea / coffee then using a thermos flask means needing to boil the kettle less often.
We'll be living mostly on veggie soups as I really can't bear to be freezing cold all the time.

Mirw · 07/02/2022 18:36

Come to my house in the winter, you get a cosy bundle to wear. Why? I live on the west of Scotland and have no cereal heating, only a gas fore in the living room. It can be 5 degrees in the rest of the house including the bathroom so visitors need the cosy bundle. If they don't like it, don't come and visit... We have never had central heating so don't miss it. May more of hge UK population should try it!

Moody123 · 07/02/2022 18:38

Choose basic food from Aldi and low/no heating, jumpers/quilts ect

Mirrorball2022 · 07/02/2022 18:43

@KurtWilde

They sent kids down the mines too, shall we bring that back?

Seriously.. this thread is turning into a 'we only had one lump of coal to last a month but we were happy so stop complaining and stick a cardi on..' Hmm

It's 2022 folks, this shouldn't even need to be a discussion in what's supposed to be a wealthy country.

I was thinking exactly the same!! Why are people suggesting that that level of living is acceptable just because it happened 40+ years ago? I grew up pretty poor in the 80s we have single glass windows and wall heaters. Our house was freezing. I remember having to run downstairs from the bath to the fire in the living room. It was shit when the window had ice on it. Yeah we survived, but it wasn’t great and I constantly was ill as a kid.

Our quality of living has been much better in the last few decades, people now live longer thanks to that better way of life and healthcare, but we now have bigger bills and mortgages, the lovely council tax, different ways of working: often less physical work, work further away from home so need the ca. The internet is now almost a necessity of life from school homework to work and even food shopping. We have better expectations/understandings of our diets with foods from around the world.

Comparisons to a completely different time don’t take away from or justify the ways some people on this thread and many throughout the country are going to have to do to just survive. We shouldn’t just accept it and say oh we’ll generations did it before.

This is one thread the daily mail should actually pick up because no one should be living in such poverty while the rich and corporations carry on getting mega rich it’s disgusting.

skippink · 07/02/2022 18:51

I think it’s hard to say exactly until your in that situation of having to choose, but if I did have to I would choose to eat as food is essential. I would put extra layers on in the house. We’re fortunate that we can cover our gas and electricity costs at the moment but we’re very careful even now on how often we put the heating on and it gets turned off completely on a night before bed. I really feel for people who have to choose between 2 basic needs!

Gilld69 · 07/02/2022 18:52

definitely eating we can go back to the old days and all snuggle under blankets for a warm

JakeyRolling · 07/02/2022 18:53

Eat - loads of other ways you can keep warm but no other way to fuel your body.

5keletor · 07/02/2022 18:57

What?! We won't be in this position but I'm beyond angry that people are having to choose. It's frustrating that we can't do anything about it, or the insulting levels of "help" offered by the complete idiots in power.

Mandyjack · 07/02/2022 18:58

@GrolliffetheDragon

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.

Why does wearing layers give you thrush?
Eve76 · 07/02/2022 19:00

I’m going to try for both I’m going to eat a lot less so my DS doesn’t go hungry and will put the heating on for a couple of hours for When he gets home from school . I’m also stopping using public transport to work and walk the 3 miles there and back saving £100 a month . No more wine either 😢 no more treats just grimness

Flatwhitetostayin · 07/02/2022 19:11

I'm in my mid to late 40s and having a warm house is only really something that's occured in the last 20-30 years. Very few people had double glazing and it was really normal to just have the heating on for a couple of hours a day. Whilst I love having a warm house, we lived with cold houses and it was fine. Jumpers on, draught excluders, electric blankets at night time. It's just a different way of living.

I would always choose food 😋😋😋

Hmm1234 · 07/02/2022 19:13

Stop scaremongering it is never going to come to this! There will be plenty of schemes to help those that need it such as the Big Differnece

Beastieboys · 07/02/2022 19:18

Why would you spend 2x£30 on stopping in a travelodge????
Just put that money on to your fuel account and warm up your home for a week or more..... How bizarre!

Waxonwaxoff0 · 07/02/2022 19:19

@Hmm1234

Stop scaremongering it is never going to come to this! There will be plenty of schemes to help those that need it such as the Big Differnece
Haha. It's been happening for some people for years already. Open your eyes.
SomeOwlsCoo · 07/02/2022 19:20

@Hmm1234

Stop scaremongering it is never going to come to this! There will be plenty of schemes to help those that need it such as the Big Differnece
It's already come to this. I already cannot afford to put my heating on.
KurtWilde · 07/02/2022 19:21

@Hmm1234

Stop scaremongering it is never going to come to this! There will be plenty of schemes to help those that need it such as the Big Differnece
I hope you're kidding. If you're not, then get your head out of the sand. This has already been realist for some for YEARS.
KurtWilde · 07/02/2022 19:22

*reality

Lennybenny · 07/02/2022 19:27

@BobbleAlong

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.

This. I'm exactly the same. Funny thing though, I'm overweight. I'm overweight because my body is in permanent starvation mode. I eat sporadically because I make sure my dc eat properly. So now I have to make sure I feed them and heat my home whilst the eldest turns 18 and leaves school and I lose about £350 a month but have an increase in every bill... currently looking for another job.