Choosing between heating and eating

[Hunger1987]

What a terrible government induced state we find ourselves in.

we have turned our heat off and hoping that until September we won’t need to turn it on again.

are you choosing right now between heating or eating? It’s a bloody disgrace

I do want one but keep dithering between different brands/sizes/features.😫

Aww look at all the turkeys defending Bernard Matthews.

Tories aren't in Australia, and we have a similar energy rise. It's world wise. Blaming one government isn't going to stop it. I am having to keep the heating off here, which would usually be on by now (badly made house, single brick, single glazed, no insulation) this isn't an unusual,older Aussie house- they don't build them for insulation. The Tories have nothing to do with it. Instead it's hot water bottles, blankets, and oldies, along with fluffy socks. Already paid more for heating than the same time last year, and used it a third less. It's going off now completely and there are some thermal clothing on the way. Lettuce has just hit £3.50- for a flipping iceberg lettuce! So trying to work out meal, because the cost of groceries here is significantly higher that the UK. It really is everywhere.

Kind of not the point but I don’t get why your heating is on in late May. We don’t have our heating on April-October.

That depends on where you are, surely.
It's only been the past couple of weeks here that it hasn't been absolutely fucking freezing!

Bloody hell my heating’s been off since March and is never put on before September (usually October or later). Don’t you have a cardy or something?

I love the defenders screeching that France is seeing a rise. We saw a slight increase in electricity but everything else is the same price. Food hasn’t increased.

I'm intrigued as to why food prices haven't gone up in France. Their fertiliser costs have rocketed. The Paris wheat market has gone nuts just like here. How is it
not going up?

Is this a lie then?

www.connexionfrance.com/article/French-news/224-more-per-person-for-food-shopping-in-France-this-year-says-study

If you're poor enough to be on Universal Credit, you have to have internet access to manage your claim. All communication between UC claimants and DWP is done online.

For many of my clients, they only have internet access via their phones, and the cheapest phone packages cost less than wifi.

We are in the North and the heating went off April 1st. Will go back on in October.

I'm in the SE, and one morning last week it was so cold that I put the heating on for an hour. And I had a fleece on.

And some people feel the cold more than others. I have an underactive thyroid, and feel the cold really badly.

Tefal EasyPrecision. It’s an air fryer and grill, not the cheapest at £93 on Amazon but I’ve probably used my oven a handful of times since we bought it in November. I couldn’t be without my air fryer now!

I can’t find an air fryer that will fit enough food in to feed my family without running it multiple times (which means I may as well turn the oven on and cook it all at once for the same money)

@SD1978 don't tell them that as its only happening in this country according ti mumsnet, its not global and no war affecting prices
After all someone went to spain for a week and wasn't as deer ( yet they have no idea of min wage/ welfare in spain)
Its shit but we are all going through it, i have stopped using my tumble dryer so much and we always have heating off at this time of year just use a lightweight blanket in evenings if chilly as it nots freezing
Shopping being more conscious of what we buy and using all of it, was guilty of throwing too much away
But whoever was in government couldn't do much about prices etc and they have just announced a large amount of help , yet that still isn't good enough
25 years ago my dad always rationed the heating and hot water and that was very much a norm,

It's not just heating. some of us have to do extra washing due to our disabilities. I've got Raynaurds so get cold easily and do need the heating on more than most people.

I couldn't afford put my heating on once last winter. And that was before the price hike!

If you are literally at a point where you are choosing between 'eating and heating', I'm intrigued to know how you are posting on mumsnet? Surely if you're so poor you can't afford food then you also can't afford wifi and a device through which to access it?

if I lose my job tomorrow, I will immediately struggle financially. But I will still have a car, a mobile phone and an iPad. My fridge and cupboards will be stocked with food. My kids will have clothes that fit them. Over time, if I do find additional work, things will shift and change - the first thing to go will be new school shoes on demand, I might struggle to pay the mortgage and my cupboards will empty. I might sell the car or iPad to raise funds. And then some time down the line, things will get harder, But like millions of others out there, I will still need some internet access to access benefits and to be able to look for work. Or are we now suggesting we’re not really struggling until we are forced out onto the streets with nothing?

When you consider how hard it’s hitting the UK a large part of our problem is the Tory government. Our inflation is the highest in the western world.

then you add in the extra delays caused by Brexit - at least they’ve kicked the next round of changes into the long grass.

the government is making this a lot harder than is should be.

Bloody hell my heating’s been off since March and is never put on before September (usually October or later). Don’t you have a cardy or something?
Not all houses are created equal and not everyone on this thread is living in the same place. We are blessed now to be in a really well insulated house but we have lived in houses that were draughty and in some cases damp. If there's kids involved you don't leave them to get head colds and chest infections!!

Same as i stated in Spain nothing like they rocketed here which surely breathes brexit?

I never put my heating on, cook over a candle, sleep in coats and visit the local library if we feel hypothermia setting in.

Do I win?

anyway, it's an environmentally damaging waste of energy. And speaking as someone in poverty it's never a choice between heating and eating but a compromise between the two.
Not if you can't afford to eg buy oil which is a huge payment for even the minimum amount! And come on about the environment, we can't turn back time on all progress, people need warmth

I agree. It is stealthy biasting racing to bottom. Even gutter press haven't managed to find any skeletons if starving people. Try Yemen, Heating or eating? They would be OK with a stale cream cracker.

It's not great but it is happening everywhere. We are about to go into the Australian winter and I will not be using my heating this year. I'm focusing on heating the person not the house - so it's thermals, fingerless gloves, jumpers, slippers, electric throw blankets etc

It's nearly June, nobody is freezing to death right now.