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.

[quote HelloFrostyMorning]@5128gap

I'm assuming that you and your DH have never found yourselves completely penniless, perhaps due to an insolvent employer not paying wages due to you, or a delay in your benefits being paid, of having to flee your home with only what you stand up in, or having your only money stolen from you, and then found yourself with empty cupboards and a prepayment meter that's run out.

Don't ASSume anything You know fuck all about me or my life.[/quote]
I know about as much about you as you know about the lives of the people in the circumstances you are pontificating about. Which I consider makes us both fortunate.

I hate being cold, I’d prioritise heating over a lot of things. Nicer food, days out, any non essential purchase really. Obviously you need to eat but Id also reduce food budget apples and bananas for fruit. Peas and carrots for veg. Hit Aldi at the right time for 75% off meat. Basic carbs. Porridge for breakfast. I think I’m pretty tight generally and should be ok but one large bill or a month off work and I’m screwed.

@Nohypocrate

What you will find is the dramatic people on here are the same prolific posters on the covid boards in 2020. They feed off negativity and are determined to be as negative and downright miserable as possible. Don't let them suck you dry.

Nah… it is probably just us who have already calculated how this raise is unsustainable that are panicking about it. The more affluent will not feel it, the less affluent may have not even realise yet what is about to hit them.

Definitely eating as that is warming apart from the fact that I don't want to be malnourished

Posters saying France is not putting the price of electric up as much do you know how much electric is there at present?

We lived there between 1998 and 2003 and our electric bills were astronomical. Our French neighbour could not believe we had an electric oven because electric was so dear. Also she told us the cost of electric is the reason most French don't have an electric kettle

Why are people talking about drama llamas? The post literally says ‘IF it comes to it would you choose heating or eating’. The whole premise of the thread was a dramatic scenario. Obviously most people would try to balance the two where possible but that wasn’t the question posed.

Yes, central heating's a modern thing, but then so is longer life-expectancy, and again, this is not a necessary thing to be putting on the population. Please don't accept this as okay. We can expect better than this. Vote wisely.

Def eat. How you going to be as warm as poss if your body isn't fed?

DM had arthritis, she’s lucky not to have to worry about money. But if she had to choose, it would be heating- due to pain.
She is a fussy eater, always has been, drinks water, eats fish, bread, butter, potatoes, greens and to be honest that’s about it.

I'd choose food, albeit on a strict budget in the hope that I could have the heating on a low setting.

The hungrier you are, the colder you feel (and of course, not eating is not sustainable long term for health reasons).

Eating. I can wear a coat indoors if needs be, but can’t go without food for days on end.

We’ve barely had our heating on this winter and to preempt the coming rise in cost. It’s not been a party silly cold winter so it’s actually been fine.

Food, already lived that life to know.

I won’t choose, I’ll have a bit of both.

I’ve been poor many times so I’m not phased by what’s coming.

Porridge, egg on toast and jacket potatoes with beans are the cheapest filling things I’ve found to eat. Swap some of your meals for those.

We layer and wear dressing gowns over the layers if it’s bad. Get into bed after dinner to watch / read things. It’s all fine until you need the toilet - then you want to cry putting your bum on the freezing seat!

I’m just grateful we have so much free entertainment on the internet and personally, a roof over our heads.

@mydogisthebest

I grew up in a house with no central heating. I left home at 22 and that same year central heating was fitted (council house). We had a coal fire in the living room but no other heating.

There used to be ice on the inside of the windows in the winter. I can remember that the bed was freezing when I got into it.

Our house didn't get any mould so it's rubbish that an unheated house will go mouldy.

We have our heating on for 2 hours in the morning and 5 hours in the evening. Thermostat is set at 20. That is enough to keep our house comfortably warm.

The problem with houses today is they’re NOT ventilated enough. I have triple glazing. The landlord capped the chimney and fitted an electric fire and now I have a ton of problems with mould. Prior to the chimney being capped no issue at all.

I have a choice now between mouldy walls or leaving the window open when the chimney did and excellent job of sucking the air out without compromising the room temperature.

I guarantee your coal fire and chimney kept the house air relatively dry and circulated.

Something modern built, exclusively central heated homes just don’t have now.

Of course there’s other possibilities but ventilation is the main one.

Under green initiatives we’ve made our homes as insulted and air tight as possible which is great for keeping warm but not been so efficient as to get extractor fans in living rooms or methods of air circulation.

@tillytown

I grew up in a council flat, the block didn't have central heating or hot water until I was 15. You get used to washing in the cold and wearing a hoodie and tracksuit bottoms to bed, but the times when there was no food were the worse. I'm so thankful there are food banks now so no other child has to deal with being properly hungry.

But food banks are for rare use, not everyday? At least this is what I’ve been informed...

Food. I’m in only in my 20s but I grew up in Spain during the financial crisis of 2007 and beyond. My family is extremely poor and often there was no money for either heating, or food. My parents were both laid off in 2011 and the struggle was real.

I’m used to wearing 3-4 layers during winter (Spain might be ‘warm’ but houses are not designed to keep any heat inside them, and it gets freezing after a week of constant sub-15 temperatures).

Walking around the house in leggings and a jumper during winter is a luxury. Thermal tights + leggings + a thick pair of joggers or jeans on top is how everybody there grew up, just 10-15 years ago. Vest, warm top and jumper or hoodie all worn together. Fluffy socks and good slippers. Blankets if that wasn’t enough.

My parents prioritised the younger children’s bedrooms to run a small electrical or gas heater in the evenings. Mobile children and adults can bundle up, but I would always prioritise some heat in a baby’s/young child’s room for sure.

You can always add an extra jumper, but there’s not much you can do about hunger - except eat food. Most people in Spain are now used to cook double portions of everything for dinner, and you reheat for lunch/dinner the day after. Saves electricity from running the cooker or oven twice, and you only buy a limited amount of ingredients which is both cheaper from the get go, and decreases waste. Filling, nutritionally varied and cheap is more important than flavour variety and keeping meals ‘interesting’. It was surprising for me to see a lot of people in the UK cooking fresh dinner every night, when I moved there as a teen!

Bit of both.
Buy food from aldi as cheap as possible.
Have heating on for 1 hour in morning
And 1 hour early evening.
Best of both worlds.

He says the house will go mouldy and he’s rather be hungry than cold.

I have enormous empathy with worries about mould and wood rot setting in and how expensive it would be to maintain or repair those.

I've spent too much of my life in damp housing and it affects everything including the smell of clothing. Book pages are never right. All letters and documents have to be kept in folders. You're constantly wiping things down.

People can eat very cheaply if they want to. Porridge oats or toast for breakfast, pasta, eggs. At our local supermarkets there are ridiculous reductions in the evening and the out of date food is fine for a couple of days. If it was just me I would just eat anything, jacket potatoes with beans etc. Admittedly it's harder with a family.

We have a log burner, rural area, so we can buy wood when it suits us best. I can also boil a kettle or cook a stew on my stove so even better.
On other threads there has been a lot of debate about fires and particulates but I am v. pleased to have an alternative heat supply.
And gas hobs give off particulates too.

Eating

@EmbarrassingHadrosaurus

He says the house will go mouldy and he’s rather be hungry than cold.

I have enormous empathy with worries about mould and wood rot setting in and how expensive it would be to maintain or repair those.

I've spent too much of my life in damp housing and it affects everything including the smell of clothing. Book pages are never right. All letters and documents have to be kept in folders. You're constantly wiping things down.

I used to give a friend a lift to work some years ago. He had no heating or hot water ( paid very little rent because of this), but yes he always smelt musty. As soon as he got in the car you could smell the damp and must.

With regards to mould, I would absolutely prioritise ventilation over a bit of extra warmth. My parents’ rule was bedroom windows open for 1h each morning as we were getting ready for school. You were in constant movement and had just come from under the blanket so you felt the cold less. Close when you left and it would be a bearable temperature when you got back in the afternoon.

Then one of the adults would shortly air the rest of the house during the day. Never once had an issue with mould, and yes the house was a little colder than it could’ve been had we constantly kept the windows closed, but it’s better to wrap up in an extra blanket, than face potential health issues due to mould and poor ventilation.

@Scianel

There’s also young people with chronic illness and disabilities

Absolutely and they don't get the fuel allowance either and are hardly likely to have much money

Not everyone is hale and hearty and can just wrap up in a few extra layers unfortunately.

Apparently we’re just being dramatic. Wow. Some people can be quite cruel and devoid of empathy.

For people who say this is an exaggeration- they live in a bubble. Not everyone lives in middle class suburbia, with good jobs and husbands / wife’s/ partners who earn high salaries.
This is a very real threat. Single parents/ pensioners can’t just magic up extra cash to pay higher bills.
Even working families on low incomes will struggle. People who work full time.
There are pensioners who live on the state pension and live alone. Many of them will be skint.
So good for you if you don’t have to endure the hardships of the cost of living.