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.

I chose food, my central heating went years ago so I know how to layer up.

Just never got round to getting an electrician in. To put the radiators on just trips the electrics and I'd rather not get ripped of by them, so the choice is made rather easy for me.

I've read the whole thread and feel so sad and angry. I will donate to my foodbank this month, is there anything else practical that can be done? Write to my MP (will make a change from the usual women's rights stuff!)

@Mirw

What's a cosy bundle?

I’d choose heating for sure. I’d rather be hungry than cold 🥶

Eating. I’m always amazed at people sitting around in t shirts and shorts with the heating on. Ours goes on nov and I’ll turn it off in March. There are many ways to keep warm more economically.

I fitted a log burner when we had our house built, the amount of people that told me I was stupid is probably now equal to the amount that have said 'at least you'll be warm' in the last 6 weeks. I don't have heating on, I use bare minimum gas for hot water to shower the kids and cook, and we have started to replace all bulbs with led. Which won't make a dint really as there are four adults and 3 children here.
As long as I can keep getting free wood to burn We'll be ok, but if it came to it the kids, all 5, and the dog would be fed first, because they rely on me. I've stock piled blankets, much to my husbands disdain, for a good 15 years so the kids can have extra on their beds, I'd totally downsize and drive away in my camper if I thought for one moment I could homeschool a Y10, Y7 and Y5 to any sort of half decent level.
I'm really worried about what happens the other side of this.

@LaPufalina

I've read the whole thread and feel so sad and angry. I will donate to my foodbank this month, is there anything else practical that can be done? Write to my MP (will make a change from the usual women's rights stuff!)

I’ve seen living cost/energy cost increase protests planned all over the country, if you feel inclined to attend any/are able to.

@Tmu100 It’s like a race to the bottom and who can be a bigger martyr, meanwhile the gov raid the public treasury to stuff their mates’ pockets and give them lifetime roles in house of lords 🤮 Tens of thousands already die from cold homes in the UK, this number will obviously explode now, it’s criminal.

[quote AutomaticMoon]@Tmu100 It’s like a race to the bottom and who can be a bigger martyr, meanwhile the gov raid the public treasury to stuff their mates’ pockets and give them lifetime roles in house of lords 🤮 Tens of thousands already die from cold homes in the UK, this number will obviously explode now, it’s criminal.[/quote]
I agree with you completely. Some of the views on here are shocking and this isn’t an instance where we should get on with it and suck it up. Being rightfully outraged and furious people are having to live like this, is the rightful response!

Just to put this isn't perspective. Standing charges on gas and electric meters are going up to 83p PER DAY. That's over DOUBLE what they are now. So even if you don't use any gas or electric at all, you'll still pay £11.62 p/w just for the pleasure of having a meter. £5.81 per meter per week.

For someone on a pre-payment meter for example who used to manage on topping up by say £10 p/w for each utility, because that's all they could afford, more than half of that tenner won't even go on actual heating or light from April, it'll go on the standing charge!

Sadly I think people will die next year. Vulnerable people and old people.

Why aren't the fucking government doing anything about this???

Sitting there starving but toastie warm makes no sense at all especially when you can layer up use blankets hot water bottles there are ways to warm you up the only way your not hungry and stay healthy is by eating.

I think that most people will choose eating, and it is a horrible choice to make if you can only have one (and there are lots of half and half on here ). I would probably choose being warm enough. When I was a student, I ended up with bronchitis and other health problems from sleeping in a completely unheated tiny damp room. In winter, the walls used to 'run' onto the bed and I could never could get the bedding dry. I used to sleep in my coat and most of my clothes. Whereas I was OK with living on a fiver a week for food (pasta and baked beans most nights) I swore when I got older I would never be cold again. This is a really long time ago, and things have changed for me, but I can remember how hard it was, and I feel so sorry for anyone who is having to make the choice or having to put up with this. It really should not be a thing in this day and age. xx

I don't have the heating on much. In the daytime I don't and the evening I have the central heating on low for an hour. My home is well insulated so stays fairly warm plus I don't feel the cold.
One way to eat and keep warm is to make a big pot of stew.
Some years ago our boiler packed up and we were without hot water and heating for three days. I made a big pot of stew and dumplings and for those three days we ate the stew and kept warm. It's surprising how eating a bowl of stew can warm you up.

There are things you can do if your on a prepayment meter keep topping up the same amount through summer as you do winter. I live in a cold house I put the foil insulation behind radiators now have a warm house. It's about looking at ways to keep heat so have heating on less

Drying everything during the winters going to be fun

Alternate days

ONE MILLION people went without food for at least one day last month. Working people, people on UC, disabled people. Food insecurity is very real, and it's not new. Figures are up already. This is in the 5th richest country in the world for fucks sake.

Food banks are getting less and less donations (as people who used to donate are now tightening their own belts), yet demand for them is higher than ever. Those who say 'go to a food bank' must think these places get magically restocked by the food fairy every day.

The benefits uplift that helped so many last year should never been ended. The government knew that unemployment was up, they knew energy bills would be going up, food bills, too, and yet they removed went ahead and removed the uplift from the poorest in the country.

When the fuel costs hit, my mum will end up in massive debt. She's 83. She can't 'work more hours' or 'take in ironing (as people on here are fond of saying), her pension is what it is. There's no savings to dip into. There's no magic money tree that will give her an extra £80 a month. She's already behind. She will fall further behind. As will many more elderly people like her. They will turn their heating off. She knows what cold is, she grew up in one of these homes people talk about with the one coal fire in one room and ice on the inside of the window. But she should NOT have to face that again at 83.

This is the U.K. in 2022 with a government that's one of the worst country has ever known.

I think those that would choose eating over heating I think have never lived for years in a freezing cold house.
I don’t mean a freezing cold house house wheee there was 1 coal fire, I mean a freezing cold house where there is no heating.

I can go without food, I was probably one of those million who went without food last month probably because I forgot to eat

But being cold is unbearable. My brain and body freezes up. Even if I wrapped myself in every thermal clothing known to man my face would still be cold, I would still be able to see my breath.
Having the heating on for one hour per day is £150 per month, 2 hours and it is £300 etc Because we have electric heating instead of gas each radiator we have on costs 58p per hour

If I am cold I can’t sleep, I can’t work, I can’t think. The cold is all I can think about.
I know I have a different body temperature to most other people. Even when every one is complaining of the heat in summer I just find it mildly pleasant. Even in Florida one year I bought a sweat shirt so I wouldn’t be cold when every one else was in t.shirts and shorts.
So imagine what it is like living in a cold house in the U.K. in the middle of winter. For me being cold is torture

@KurtWilde it might be worth checking if your Mum is entitled to pension credits or any other benefits. My Mum is late 70s and due to her health issues I was able to claim Attendance Allowance for her last year. She now gets an extra £60 a week. Sorry if it's something you've already looked into. I just feel so sad and angry at it all too. I'm a disabled single parent and hopefully I'll manage, but it's such a worry.

@GrandmasCat I posted this link on another thread, it's for finding local grants to fund energy saving home improvements.

www.simpleenergyadvice.org.uk/grants

@RainbowZebraWarrior yes we've looked into everything. When my dad died she went from having a decent double income and a car to barely anything overnight. The government even demanded half my dad's last pension payment back because it went in on the Tuesday and he died on the Friday so he wasn't eligible for it. She had to sell the car to get through the first few months without him, which took her freedom away with it.

I did a lot of shouting down the phone at people who didn't give a rats arse. What she gets is everything she's entitled to and despite working for years it's just not enough. When they say 'pensions are rising' the amount is an insult quite frankly when you compare it to the rise in the cost of living.

One of my siblings has moved back in to try and help with the outgoings but it's not sustainable and also meant her council tax went up, which he's trying to absorb but he's not exactly rolling in money either.

And she doesn't go to the hair dressers or have tv packages or a mobile phone contract or any of the other bullshit some posters suggest can be 'cut back on'.

I'm a single mum too, Rainbow, so it's one income to cover it all (no CMS from useless exh), and I've already cut down to basic outgoings. I'm frantically trying to get more clients in (self employed), but everyone is feeling the pinch and it has a knock on effect.

@KurtWilde The link above has information about cold winter payments and other benefits, I don't know if it will help.

We shouldn't need to have this conversation in 2022, in a rich country. It's bad enough already, you only have to look at the amount of food banks (and demand for them) to see how people are struggling. I'm horrified to think that it is going to get worse.

@HappyWinter thanks, she does already get those but because she already had some debt on her gas/electric account (from when she was trying to rejig her budget after losing the income my dad brought in), it just gets swallowed up. We've been down every avenue!

She had never been in debt in her entire life before now, she was a bookkeeper by trade and prided herself on how well the home finances were run too. I learned my budgeting and frugality from her.

I was checking my bulb for last year to this year. Pence per thing and daily tarif have gone up by 25%

Knew my bills had gone up but didn’t think was using more then usual and that’s why 😢😢