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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To have found increasing costs making a positive impact?

469 replies

Optimisiticcautiouslyso · 16/04/2022 10:50

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?

OP posts:
kittensinthekitchen · 16/04/2022 13:02

Yeah I'm disabled and reliant on my car to get around. Instead of being even more housebound than usual due to rising petrol costs, I've learned how to walk properly again.

Praise the Lord.

fairylightsandwaxmelts · 16/04/2022 13:03

I'm glad you've found some benefits in it.

Personally I'm self-employed and need my car to do my job - unfortunately the fuel hikes are going to mean I need to increase my prices later in the year as I just can't afford to work otherwise.

TerraNovaTwo · 16/04/2022 13:05

For those on low to no income it won't be having a positive impact.

However, wrt my current situation I have to agree, yanbu.

Worryworry887 · 16/04/2022 13:09

The thing I also worry about is, for example, we as a fairly comfortably off middle class family are economising firstly by stopping eating out and takeaways. I bet loads are also doing the same - so what affect will this have on the hospitality industry?

SmallPrawnEnergy · 16/04/2022 13:10

Why does every thread have to be full of disclaimers

No one is asking for “disclaimers”. You started a thread on a public forum, if you don’t like the responses then tough shit tbh, people are just as entitled to their opinions as you are. Or, start your own forum where you can ban people or daring to post an alternative opinion or anything that deviates away from your greatness.

EmbarrassingHadrosaurus · 16/04/2022 13:11

If OP can not express this, then other people who feel similarly might find it difficult to comment so there is a perspective missing from public discussion spaces.

Whether people agree with them or not, it's important to maintain a plurality of perspectives. Without that plurality, there is preference falsification and a very narrow Overton Window. OP has come to a realisation about her fuel consumption and energy use from a position of relative privilege rather than terror but that is plausibly common to substantial numbers of people.

Preference falsification, according to the economist Timur Kuran, is the act of misrepresenting one’s wants under perceived social pressures. It happens frequently in everyday life, such as when we tell the host of a dinner party that we are enjoying the food when we actually find it bland. In Private Truths, Public Lies , Kuran argues convincingly that the phenomenon not only is ubiquitous but has huge social and political consequences. Drawing on diverse intellectual traditions, including those rooted in economics, psychology, sociology, and political science, Kuran provides a unified theory of how preference falsification shapes collective decisions, orients structural change, sustains social stability, distorts human knowledge, and conceals political possibilities.

A common effect of preference falsification is the preservation of widely disliked structures. Another is the conferment of an aura of stability on structures vulnerable to sudden collapse. When the support of a policy, tradition, or regime is largely contrived, a minor event may activate a bandwagon that generates massive yet unanticipated change.

In distorting public opinion, preference falsification also corrupts public discourse and, hence, human knowledge. So structures held in place by preference falsification may, if the condition lasts long enough, achieve increasingly genuine acceptance. The book demonstrates how human knowledge and social structures co-evolve in complex and imperfectly predictable ways, without any guarantee of social efficiency.

www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674707580

Missey85 · 16/04/2022 13:12

Well isn't that lovely! I've been doing all that always nothing new but now I'm even more broke and about to have the gas cut off

fairylightsandwaxmelts · 16/04/2022 13:13

@Worryworry887

The thing I also worry about is, for example, we as a fairly comfortably off middle class family are economising firstly by stopping eating out and takeaways. I bet loads are also doing the same - so what affect will this have on the hospitality industry?
This is also a really good point.

The first things to "go" when people are struggling are things like meals out, takeaways, shopping for non-essentials - so it's not just families who will struggle, it's everyone working in those industries too.

feedyourheed · 16/04/2022 13:14

@Worryworry887

The thing I also worry about is, for example, we as a fairly comfortably off middle class family are economising firstly by stopping eating out and takeaways. I bet loads are also doing the same - so what affect will this have on the hospitality industry?
People haven't considered this aspect yet, but I work in the industry and we are seeing rising wholesale costs (50% increase in many cases) combined with lower customer spend. After Covid closures this will be the nail in the coffin for many pubs, restaurants and clubs. The survivors will be getting very expensive and only for those with decent disposable income.

All the great value deals these establishments used to put on because there were so many of them and food was so cheap will be gone too.

ToffeeKrisp · 16/04/2022 13:15

I’m with you here, it’s definitely making me think differently about usage and considering getting a bike.

DaisyStPatience · 16/04/2022 13:16

So much butthurt in this thread.

Toomanyradishes · 16/04/2022 13:17

Well yes people chosing between eating and heating is good for the environment, as we are overpopulated and people dying of starvation or hypothermia will relieve some pressure. Ffs op you sound like the people at the start of the pandemic saying the elderly and cEV people dying probably would have died anyway.

No thpusands of people dont have to go cold and hungry to teach your lights off an stop throwing food away. Be a responsible grown up

Shmithecat2 · 16/04/2022 13:20

@Missey85

Well isn't that lovely! I've been doing all that always nothing new but now I'm even more broke and about to have the gas cut off
Has the supplier been in touch with you to try and arrange some kind of payment plan?
YouHaveYourFathersBreasts · 16/04/2022 13:20

I think if you can see the rising costs as making a positive impact on your life in any way then you are very lucky.

Maybe it’s wrong of me but this kind of post leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Mainly because I know I won’t be able to afford to put the heating up in actual winter. I never put the heating on at this time of year anyway.

JollyWilloughby · 16/04/2022 13:20

I already did all those things. It is not positive for us as a family it just means going extra cold, or hungry.

You are cutting back that's all. Some of us have done that for years.

Ariela · 16/04/2022 13:20

If nothing else, and I agree OP post was tactless but I've no doubt she meant well, may certain people read this and think : 'she has a point, I've been out with the car 5 times already today, I could have done all the things I did in one trip and likely saved a gallon of petrol'

This post was aimed at the lady with the grey car at the end of our road, who has already been out 5 times and back only locally today (she's not gone for long) and she doesn't drive appropriately speed-wise for a narrow country road busy with walkers and cyclists. One day Something will get squashed by her car.

Optimisiticcautiouslyso · 16/04/2022 13:22

[quote Westchesterarms]@Optimisiticcautiouslyso. I'm usually good at turning the heating off from April to October with occasional use during a cold snap. I think in the past I would have put it on but instead we've been using electric blankets. Which use very little electricity. For reasons from my past, I've always liked to have lamps on in rooms but we've been switching these off now.
As we know so much food gets thrown away nationally every year but I am trying to think about what I can use with what but to be honest I've been trying for a while and it's not been because of the recent surge in prices.
I'm trying to amalgamate all my small errands into one day to save petrol. Which is a shame because it stops me going out so much.
Oh, and I've cancelled Sky. At last. Such a waste of money although I loved it.[/quote]
Yes the kids don’t know but for the last 10 days I’ve jotted down whe they’ve actually used sky TV.

2x!

Going to keep it up until a fortnight (so only 4 days away), and then pretty sure it going to be a fait accompli…. “The sky TV is being cancelled and you can’t try to convince me that you actually watch loads of it and would be gutted to see to go! “

OP posts:
MarriedThreeChildren · 16/04/2022 13:22

@EmbarrassingHadrosaurus I agree with your analysis. The OP is finding she has to be careful for the first time ever and is discovering that actually 1- it’s not that bad and 2- it makes a difference on all sorts if levels.

I still think that ‘thinking about the environment and how great it is’ is away for the OP to make her feel good about her efforts. She isn’t doing that because if financial hardship but because she has now realised how great it is for the environnement (which ut is btw!).
It’s also rooted in privilege (not having to ever had to make that sort of effort before).

Mainly I think it’s a sad society we live in where making an effort not throw away perfectly easier food or to not alway use the car is seen notas normal but as an effort that has to be branded as ‘’great for ’ for it to be acceptable.

emmylousings · 16/04/2022 13:24

I'm on low to average income, average house. Always been frugal, yellow sticker meat etc in supermarket, 2nd hand clothes, heating on low, jumpers on etc; think it's because I was raised poor. Thus, I'm not skint / no debt...fairly well placed to cope with this crisis. I've always felt people were generally quite wasteful with food, energy and expect luxuries (meals out, new stuff not really required) as a right. (To be fair though, we are encouraged to be like that by a capitalist, consumerist culture.) If this crisis brings about behaviour change, that could be a good thing. I knew you were going to get slated here though OP. I only express my view to a select few, for this reason. People are understandably angry, as they were sold a lie - that they could expect their living standards to increase over time. The truth is going to hurt.

BluntWithAC · 16/04/2022 13:25

The plague was positive too. Killed off lots of people leaving more for others 😊

I do understand what you mean OP. In the height of my covid fear I stopped eating takeaways (didn't trust that the chef hadn't sneezed in it 😂) my fear quickly went but I still don't eat much takeaway, realised how much I was spending.

That's a luxury though, same as holidays. We're talking about food and bills. I struggle to see the positives.

Koigarden · 16/04/2022 13:25

I agree for me it’s been positive. I’m now using less electricity and gas and if we continue our direct debit will be less than it was before the increase. The same with food. I’m meal planning and never have before and there’s been zero food waste except for a tub of mushrooms this week !

skybluee · 16/04/2022 13:26

Anyone who is sitting in the dark/not putting lights on, consider getting a solar bulb or solar inflatable light. You have the one off cost but once you've bought that that's it. Mine is surprisingly powerful and will light one small room. You then put it in daylight/the sun by a window and it recharges. The light is really good, and once you have it, it costs nothing.

Agrudge · 16/04/2022 13:27

@YouHaveYourFathersBreasts

I think if you can see the rising costs as making a positive impact on your life in any way then you are very lucky.

Maybe it’s wrong of me but this kind of post leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Mainly because I know I won’t be able to afford to put the heating up in actual winter. I never put the heating on at this time of year anyway.

If you know you are not going to be able to afford heating this winter what are you going to do to try a help with the cost?

Genuine question.

You've got 6months before you will need to start thinking about heating. What are YOU going to do

Optimisiticcautiouslyso · 16/04/2022 13:29

@Koigarden

I agree for me it’s been positive. I’m now using less electricity and gas and if we continue our direct debit will be less than it was before the increase. The same with food. I’m meal planning and never have before and there’s been zero food waste except for a tub of mushrooms this week !
The less food waste is brilliant

As for the mushrooms, I also had some ones that were… looking very peaky.

Dash of oil, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. Salt and pepper. In the oven 180.

I had with rice for lunch and was bloody delicious

OP posts:
5128gap · 16/04/2022 13:30

@EmbarrassingHadrosaurus
But people's struggles with the cost of living crisis are not due to a societally prescribed false preferences for food and warmth. So no service has been done in this particular instance by the OP offering another perspective. Unless I've misunderstood your point?