To have found increasing costs making a positive impact?

[Optimisiticcautiouslyso]

Increasing petrol costs - so I’m actively cutting driving and walking so much more than ever

Increasing energy costs - so I don’t think I’ve ever been more aware of lights off, putting on an extra jumper rather than spinning the heating upwards

Increasing food costs - much more mindful with what I’m buying and much more thoughtful with my cooking and eating

Anyone else?

There are those that are heavy users and wasteful and these price hikes might modify their behaviour.

There are those that are already struggling and are already mindful and these price hikes are going to lead to pain, discomfort, danger and I'll health.

There are those that will probably die as a result of these price hikes. The disabled, the elderly and the sick will suffer immeasurably.

Overall it just seems people are being a lot more mindful and aware.

People with money, for those without it isn't a choice these increases will flatten low income families.

If this new awareness brings more food bank donations and charity shop donations it will be a good thing.

Pretending we're all more aware and enjoying the new money saving tactics isn't helpful.

I'm going to allocate €5 of my €80 shopping budget to the food bank trolley.

People are going to starve this year.

I take peoples point about the tone, but I do think there are some legitimate points made by this thread.

People who haven't had to watch pennies can get really careless about the earths finite resources. Like buying too much food. I think it's a good thing that people who have never had to think about it, now are, and they are realising ways to prevent waste which will hopefully become habits into the future regardless of if the cost of living improves or not.

It is a privileged position to not to have thought of it before, but many threads on Mumsnet are about privileged problems. I don't see why this one is so much more offensive.

@Optimisiticcautiouslyso

So is any thread on holidays also tone deaf?

No because a holiday is already a luxury. Eating, heating and travelling to work are necessities. The more you post the more dense you show yourself to be OP.

It's no different to the many threads berating people for not buying electric cars and loads of people are on them say how bad people are for using petrol and diesel and crowing about their new Tesla

There is definitely legitimate points in the OP.
We're a low income family yet I'm terrible for leaving lights on, forgetting about the immersion, wasting leftovers.
We're both working not on the breadline as such no holidays etc.
I am turning off lights, washing at a lower temperature, I set my phone to time the immersion, cooking with the leftovers in mind for a second meal.
I agree with the points you made.

I have been like this since the last war !! I am always very frugal, and don't waste anything at all.. It's not a joke either, it's how I tend to live.

Some points

I get the points people are making here, about the prevalence of hardship etc, but why should OP have been frugal before if she didn't have to be?

People can choose to be offended and slag OP off

But I get where there coming from covid lockdowns and prices rising have made me realise how wasteful I was.

I agree OP. I think it is helping many people make wise choices.
But of course this is MN and it’s a race to the bottom.

@PurpleDaisies

This is utterly tone deaf.

Agreed. Probably written by someone who is comfortably off and doesn’t have to worry about having enough money to buy food and school clothes for their children. Some people are completely blinkered. Not everyone lives in a big city where you can just hop on the nearest bus…

@Yorkshirelass04

I get the points people are making here, about the prevalence of hardship etc, but why should OP have been frugal before if she didn't have to be?

She is and always was free to do as she wished - people are mostly criticising the tone of the thread, not the previous behaviour.

You do not have to be poor in order to be frugal/save money/not wasteful.

Some of us already got the memo, some of us clearly didn’t until now or still haven’t.

Some of us have Teslas but don’t talk about it or judge others for not being able to afford Teslas or any other make of electric car. It’s really not necessary to boast. Boasting says more about the boaster than anything else. Most people are laughing at them and their obvious insecurities.

Like everything, it's fine if you have enough money.

Given that so many people in this country don't have enough money because of shit wages and a shit political system, it's not fine.

Yep, not sorry to the professionally offended, but I also think the OP has a reasonable point.

I have been very well off in the past, certainly not now, but that's a whole different thread, and was careless with money and resources.

Like most I am throwing on more jumpers now when it's not so cold to build up credit for next winter, turning off lights, stripping non-essentials from my shopping. Like many, I am seeing a benefit in my purse from even small changes.

An electric car wouldn’t work for me. I’m in a terrace there is no way for me to get a charger at the house and the nearest public charger is 8 or 9 miles away. And that’s a slow one

@AchillesPoirot

An electric car wouldn’t work for me. I’m in a terrace there is no way for me to get a charger at the house and the nearest public charger is 8 or 9 miles away. And that’s a slow one

My colleague has an electric car and on street parking. The council installed a trench for the cable which they then feed through the letterbox. It's an overnight job.

@purplemunkey

I'm sure it's lovely for you to be able to treat this as a 'mindfulness' experience. I probably would have thought about the impact it has on other people who aren't quite so lucky before posting something so silly.

People are allowed to speak about their direct experiences and the impact on their lives without feeling bad because others are worse.

Pretty sick of seeing this kind of rhetoric on Mumsnet these days tbh!

I have to park in a car park or up on the kerb.

I asked about a charger for the car park as did my local councillor and it was refused.

@EmeraldShamrock1

Yes it is brilliant randomly waking up at night starring at the ceiling wondering wtf you're going to do.

When you're laid in bed at night Watching roaches climb the wall?

We never have the heating above 17/18 unless it's cold with a jumper. We have solar heating. DH drove a GWhizz u tul about 2013. I have always meal planned and we have little or no food waste . We grow apples, plums, rhubarb, raspberries, tomatoes, courgettes, potatoes, herbs, etc.

We are extremely fortunate, there is no denying it but we were only the other day worrying about the fact that even if cash strapped families stop heating their homes, they will still have to pay double the standing charge and it's heinously regressive to think people will be paying more whilst unable to use their heating.

It will be an unspeakable time for those who are already strapped for every penny and have no savings to make. Society will need more than food banks in the coming couple of years.

I have been both really struggling and comfortably off- within a few years too, as self employment can mean pretty unequal income. One thing I learnt when I was struggling was that when you are really struggling your mind closes off somewhat to ways to improve the situation because your head is now full of how to get by day to day— I’m an intelligent and resourceful person , but I totally admit my head became full of simply ‘survival’ . So whilst I do totally understand what you are saying OP it’s probably the kind of thing at the moment to just quietly acknowledge to yourself at the moment - I do hope that people in all situations do grasp though that this is not some kind of inevitable cost crisis and that it’s all covid related or all war in Ukraine related. The facts are that utilities are indeed partly related to Ukraine — even here in Denmark they have risen- although not as much as UK, same with fuel

Food though and household goods in the UK is a different story— the biggest part of this is Brexit related and customs and handling charges, also HGV drivers and logistics workers being paid more- as so many have left the UK to work back in the EU. As someone said to me well how does that affect something like coffee that’s not from the EU— well the EU had direct deals in place with all of these places from which we benefited. The EU even had a loose kind of deal with USA for goods under a certain amount. These deals No longer exist. It’s like starting from scratch , extremely pointless. If anyone has been to Australia you will know how expensive it is— it’s the same issue — they need to import, yet taxes and tariffs are hefty- here in Denmark there are now next to no British imports at all — meat, cheese, etc — all from Ireland— the butcher here at Meny (supermarket ) was saying they used to get virtually all lamb and most chicken from UK as it was better quality— — now comes from France. So British farmers are trying now to make more from UK customers, because their export markets are buggered. Fruit and veg, a fair bit still needs to be imported— gets stuck at ports, customs stuff again, increased costs. I’m afraid those who voted for this and thought it would mean lower costs and more money in the general pot have been totally hoodwinked by seriously rich people many who are now allowed to remain non Dom. — this kind of stuff was stopped in the EU under new legislation— hence why they were desparate to push it through— These are not nice people, they don’t give a shit if joe bloggs is struggling so long as they are not- i honestly thought Brits on the whole had more nouse to see through Johnson and the current Tory’s (with a few more moderate exceptions) but clearly not— ironically the Scots do !!!

This is exactly the same as “the pandemic was actually really positive for us”
Never mind the fact the thousands of people lost loved ones, people’s mental health had suffered massively.
People were already living from hand to mouth, give it 6 months and see how many people are queuing at the food banks and pensioners are dying from not being able to hear their homes.
But as long as you’re walking more and mindful of what you’re cooking OP then 👌🏻

@Optimisiticcautiouslyso

Of course But I don’t think every thread has to be full of disclaimers

I think there’s a large group of people, myself included, that previously spent and drove without much thought

But now ARE thinking and that’s a positive

Please don’t always seek out the negatives in a thread

So you didn't give a shit about the environment or about unnecessary use of finite resources, until everything got so expensive, and people are suffering.