To think it’s not going to be a case of heating or eating for many families

[LadyCatStark]

We can forget heating altogether! I know it’s a nice little rhyme but for many, many families it’s going to be a case of eating or putting just enough petrol in the car to get you to work to pay all these increased costs. Eating yourself, or feeding your kids (hopefully most people will choose their kids). Eating healthily or eating cheap rubbish.

I’ve just nipped to Aldi as I had a work appointment cancel in the area and spent £40 just on the few bits I needed, not even a proper shop. I could have cried that I’d driven even just the 15 minutes to my appointment and it was cancelled and every drop of fuel counts.

As I said in my original post when people say it's cheaper to cook from scratch it's not really true. This one gives you 5 portions across all meals for the day. Every day has a whole piece of fruit per person with lunch & a little bit each with breakfast plus the pear/kiwi & 1 banana to make a fruit salad for one or possibly 2 days. The rest of your 5 a day come from beans/corn/spinach/courgette/onion/sweet potato/cabbage/pepper. It's more than double the cost of eating lots of cheese/egg/meat paste sandwiches or beans on toast supplemented with biscuits & some cornflakes and milk for breakfast and it's not as many calories (you can get v cheap biscuits with lots of calories).

Dw makes 3 meals out of a large chicken.
Roast dinner, soup, and homemade chicken nuggets or southern fried burgers.
She also makes Balandeliai, Borscht, Schnitzel and other Slavic delights.
They don't cost much and they taste better than English food.
We also eat rice regularly with our fish, so we'll have fish and rice rather than fish and chips.
She makes big portions so there are always leftovers that have to eaten. No takeaways and no biscuits, kids have a few biccies.

@BrieAndChilli

It’s a dangerous spiral.

Those who are already on the breadline will have to make some very very tough choices which will result in some horrible consequences

Those who are very well off will notice higher bills but will be able to ride the storm but will probably see thier assets reduce eg stocks/investments etc

Those of us that are in the middle will have to cut back on luxuries in order to pay for the increase in fuel/food/utilities. That means no takeaways, no meals out, no trips to the cinema, buying less clothes and not getting haircuts as often.
This will then mean redundancies in those a sectors as the demand drops pushing more people into benefits and the breadline.
The less disposable money people have the less likely they are to be buying property or investing money or saving money - that then means less work for solicitors and bankers etc meaning more redundancies.
No one will really be safe and it’s going to be a tough time for all.

This totally

If the rich stop say their nails and hair

Then the salons and hairdressers who just survived last time via lockdown may not this time

Nails & hair are a luxury unfortunately & most can do at home for a fraction of the price of going to the salon... It's not even the cost of the salon visit itself, I used to have to drive 6 miles to get to my local one & pay for parking as well.. It was just away too expensive... Now it costs me 8 quid to colour my hair & I can't see or feel any difference..

Yes a luxury for them

. But to the person who is doing it if they stop then they lose £20 +

If 3 clients cancel that’s £60 a week etc

Unfortunately this is what happens, people have to look out for themselves & their families first & foremost...
My dc missed out on so much during the last lockdown & really struggled without their activities which really enrich their little lives..
I'm happy to cut out the hairdresser etc so my dc don't have to miss out again... Anyways I'm not cutting out my hair colour I'm just doing it myself at a fraction of the cost..

It’s both. It is also an environmental consideration as well as saving money. It’s the area where I it hurts me the least. I’d find no heating during the night much worse while having my boobs out to bf.

N1no
You have the heating on through the night, that's just wrong, unless you live somewhere freezing, then I take it back.

The party's over guys! We have consumed so much with our selfish appetites something had to give. Unfortunately and as always the poor will pay for the excesses. The Tories will rather like getting rid of a few of us anyway - we are going to be very smelly and dirty. Oh by the by do you know that something like £6bn of benefits goes unpaid because people don't know about them? Nasty mean little country we live in.

@Ddot

N1no You have the heating on through the night, that's just wrong, unless you live somewhere freezing, then I take it back.

I never used to put the heating on when I was a lodger. I had a heating blanket on a timer, I was in the loft room and outside temperature was equal inside temperature. I put a hoody and scarf over the flannel pj and was fine. Now breastfeeding it’s really cold and I just caught a cold because I turned the heating off. I’m self employed and missing a days work costs me more than putting the heating on at night.

N1no
ahh I see, well hopefully the warm weather is on it's way. I'm the opposite, too hot by far menopause. heating set at14 and still I'm too hot.

@our landlords just had to buy a new boiler as our old one packed up last year. So I don't think they'll want to get a new one 2025. At the time, we looked at the grants but you had to own the house and live in it, plus be on certain benefits (we are on a low income UC, my dh is self employed) . Obviously you had to have proof of all this too. So I bet many don't qualify for that? Possibly they are changing the rules 2025 though.

@Harmonypuss it is a worry for disabled people, I don't think it's fair you didn't get the £20 uplift. I also don't think it's fair that if you are a carer and get carer's allowance, if you are claiming UC, they deduct it from that! So makes it pointless. I can see people getting so desperate they commit suicide too, it's very sad.

The non essentials will need to go, coffees, hairdressers, take aways, meals out etc are all non essential & all stuff that can be done at home... Food & heating & fuel to get to work really is essential so that will be the first priority for most...

Now breastfeeding it’s really cold and I just caught a cold because I turned the heating off. I’m self employed and missing a days work costs me more than putting the heating on at night.

I really feel the cold and need a warm house to get up in to in the morning however you really didn't catch a cold from turning the heating off. Colds are viruses, like covid, caught from breathing in droplets from other people infected.

Being cold effects your immune system and leaves you susceptible to colds and viruses. A hime may be cold and damp as well and this will effect respiratory tract infections.

Cold, crisp fresh air if different.

Perhaps over a long period of time but not just turning your heating off and catching a cold the next day.

Ds is a brittle asthmatic. Being cold is awful for his chest. We can’t dry clothes in the house (other than in tumble drier or the few that will fit in airing cupboard) because if the damp gets in and onto his chest we are stuffed.

We also have the extras like feeding pumps that’s need charging to work.

It’s shit for so many families and those with disabilities will be hit hard in a lot of cases as they are often on lower income and have less ability to cut back

I'm more worried about being made homeless shortly. My landlord is selling up and there is nothing out there in my price range and so many people are wanting flats so I don't stand a chance. My dd is autistic and just wants a safe and secure home as do I. It's really heartbreaking, I'm sick with worry on a daily basis.

I am very very concerned about how people on low and even middle incomes are going to cope with these financial increases. The government will not help the poor. I honestly think they'd like us to drop dead. But we are getting into a sick mental state. We are still in the throes of Covid and now we have a horrific war - the psychological repercussions of this are going to be monumental- people can only take so much. I have never felt so grim in my life. I fear there will be civil unrest when people go hungry. It's just too much to bear.

Exactly how I feel, I feel so so low and can't see any light and the end of the tunnel.

Central heating is a luxury imo.

I'm assuming that, like several such commenters on similar threads, you've neither read the thread, nor are you speaking from the position of being part of a household with people who are clinically frail or very elderly? Nor do you live in poor housing stock that was built on drained marshland, where damp and fungus are to be kept at bay not only for the sake of housing stock but for the health of the household members?

Need to reset the culture and share this information.

There are plenty of examples of such similarly scalable information being shared along with the use of a chicken to feed the 5000.

Unfortunately we need to cut back whether we like it or not. If your ill yes that's hard but we need to half our consumption. Their is help if your ill out there but its finding out about it thats hard and accessing it even harder

@Afan my aren't you smug !!

My DH grew up in a house without central heating, and it still wasn't in when we sold the house last year. Consequently her last night at home was spent lying on the bedroom floor following a fall in the cold. Lack of central heating is not something to aspire to.

One tip I have is to buy an electric blanket for under your sheets or the type you use on your sofa as a blanket. Some are very cheap to run and are exceedingly nice and warm. Whatever you do only buy from physical shops not Amazon as you need to make sure they are rigourosly fire tested. I get mine from Argos