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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To have little sympathy for the two people on GMTV this morning ..............................

94 replies

mosschops30 · 07/01/2009 10:28

One was about the heating, guy maybe in his 60's saying he couldnt afford to put his heating on and that he went to bed in the afternoon to keep warm.
All this whilst his enormous plasma tv was on in the background and he gave his interview in front of his PC again with flat screen monitor (something I dont have )

Then woman on with Martin Lewis moaning about not being able to re-mortgage because she had too much credit card debt. Then goes on to say how when she sees something she wants she just goes and buys at and thinks its acceptable to have no less than 6 holidays a year!!!! WTF

Im sorry but its a joke, I'd love 6 holidays a year, but the truth is that mastercard would have to pay for them and I wouldnt be able to pay them back. Thats why I have one!

In stark contrast they showed single parent freezing her ass off in a flat with no central heating sleeping in bed with her 2 kids to keep warm!

OP posts:
Moondancer · 07/01/2009 14:26

Yes and I bet she frittered away her winter fuel payment!

ComeWhineWithMe · 07/01/2009 14:26

Well my dc need ch because in this house its our only source of heat.

I am ATM sat with my dressing gown over my clothes and a scarf round my head it is warming up though because I have just discovered I have loads of electric and have the cooker and dryer on .

FAQtothefuture · 07/01/2009 14:28

well I've just googled and read about that woman......

She went and bought her Christmas Food (so had food to eat), she'd paid £30 on her electric, and had £5 left in her wallet.......so decided to spend it after doing her other shopping. She'd alreay BOUGHT the food!!!

wannaBe · 07/01/2009 14:28

400 fags and 20 lottery tickets. that must have set her back about 40 quid! I could feed my family on that for a week!

FAQ I think there's money to be made here! We could write a book on how to lose weight. We could call it the non central heating weight loss method

MillyR · 07/01/2009 14:29

poshwellies, Okay, maybe I'm in a parallel universe here, but it is freezing outside right now, and when my children come home, they will come home and exercise outside by sledging in the snow. No force; by their own choice.

And my central heating issue is up to me; I wouldn't force it on others! But when I go to houses of some people, it is really hot, and they are walking around in tshirts in January. So I do think, giving global warming, that people should really be turning their heating down a bit and wear jumpers indoors, but it is their choice.

FAQtothefuture · 07/01/2009 14:30

ooo definitely WannaBe - then I could buy the house that I'm about to go and rent (well it still has the For Sale sign outside so the owners obviously were going to try and sell it LOL).

Moondancer · 07/01/2009 14:32

Not sure if the woman was on benefits or not but is she was, and could afford to spend £5 on a scratchcard then she is obviously being paid more state benefit than she needs!

MillyR · 07/01/2009 14:32

CWWM, yes in modern houses, their is often no option other central heating. LOL at dressing gown.

Do think the government needs to think up some good solutions for building materials/insulation/economical types of heating for the future.

FAQtothefuture · 07/01/2009 14:33

I somehow don't think there are many people walking around in T-shirts at the moment, CH or not .

My brother doesn't feel the cold AT ALL. He stayed with us 2yrs ago, it was October, we hadn't yet got the heating on as it wasn't too cold - but he wore shorts and T-shirts (inside and out) for the entire month!!!

I'm led to believe he currently has his heating on as much as he can afford and is wearing his jumpers

Clarissimo · 07/01/2009 14:34

Ah wannabe a flaw- my dad 9rather gullibly) bought a silver shell suitb designe dto warm him whilst exercidsing to maximise sweating off the fat (er isn't that water? LOL)!

So maybe if you spend one day in the arctic temps then raise your heating massively.....?

LOL

FAQtothefuture · 07/01/2009 14:34

"Not sure if the woman was on benefits or not but is she was, and could afford to spend £5 on a scratchcard then she is obviously being paid more state benefit than she needs!"

What????? So people on benefits aren't allowed to make their money stretch, and perhaps spend just a little money on themselves???????

Flightattendant7 · 07/01/2009 14:35

MillyR, that's quite funny, it might be true, you never know!

I'm not allowed to use the two enormous inglenooks in our flat due to agency rules (we rent) so central heating is just our way of keeping warm.

We only have three working rads in the whole flat, thus the living roomis warm, one bedroom is Ok, we all share the bed in there.

The other bedroom, dining room and kitchen are all freezing, so nobody really wants to go in there.

It's more about the layout of your home probably - if we got any residual heat from the main rooms rising to heat the nedrooms or something perhaps it wouldn't be so awful. But it's a flat so nothing rises except to the ceilings which are 11ft high.

Clarissimo · 07/01/2009 14:36

No FAQ you should submit oyour recuipts to the benefits office probto

maybe she was on disability allowance? Or had earned the £15 or whatevr it is you're allowed before benefits stop? Or it was Christmas money she'd been given? or....

FGS

FAQtothefuture · 07/01/2009 14:36

Clarissimo

poshwellies · 07/01/2009 14:36

Thats fine milly,it's your choice not to have ch and if we were lucky to have snow-no doubt the streets around here would be littered with children playing until it got dark,day in and day out.

I can't see anyone being able to afford central heating day and night,not with the enormous bills these days anyway.

Flightattendant7 · 07/01/2009 14:37

I wear a jumper in bed as well as all day.

And socks and tights and usually pyjamas on top.

My children often sleep in their clothes.

It doesn't make it any warmer having central heating if you keep the thermostat down to survival level!

But i kwym about having it really hot and wearing a t shirt, that's just silly. Or just a thin nightie, brrr, how does anyone actually do that? I would freezze!

MillyR · 07/01/2009 14:37

FAQ..

I notice drunk people in city centres are also very keen on the tshirt/mini skirt look in January. But maybe it would be a bit MIL of me to say 'for goodness sake, over yourselves up!'

But I am becoming MIL! I can feel it happening;I'll start saying things like ' in my day we never had the luxury of pens' by the time I'm 50.

Clarissimo · 07/01/2009 14:39

We have it on all day and night but at a constant low temp and nevr boost it

Seems to save us less by doing that than setting high for a few hours morning and night

But we are jumpered / velour sleepsuited up atm for heat retention (it also stops the pipes freezing- we're not that far from where the mains pipes have frozen!)

Clarissimo · 07/01/2009 14:41

'I notice drunk people in city centres are also very keen on the tshirt/mini skirt look in January. But maybe it would be a bit MIL of me to say 'for goodness sake, over yourselves up!''

Didnt we al do that? Once upon a time?

Actually I ws in bare arms until Christmas as I am fat amnd don't feel it BUT I am an adult so don't count

Flightattendant7 · 07/01/2009 14:41

Clariss, we also have it on all day and night. Keep it at about 15 mostly and then up to 17/18 when it gets noticeably chillier.

I am dreading the bill, it's a 23 year old boiler, OMG.

About to have new system installed which I hope is worth it and will cost less to run.

MillyR · 07/01/2009 14:42

Flightattendant, it's so unsexy though. Perhaps I should start wearing a frilly negligee type thing. I mean, I feel very old and frumpy having to wear long socks during sex, but my feet cramp if I don't.

FAQtothefuture · 07/01/2009 14:42

I keep mine on most of the day and night too, on low, once this house gets cold it takes AGES to warm up and I have to put the heating on full blast for a couple of hours to warm it through again, makes sense to me (especially as it's an old boiler and I hear it working like crazy on high) to keep it on low all the time just chugging away gently and maintain the temp, just boosting it up if it gets very cold (like when it was -8 outside the other night )

Clarissimo · 07/01/2009 14:44

Ours is on a .2- its that old the biler that there are no temp markings, just a scale; would agree with about 15; baby has to be bathed straight after dinner as water gets too cold then.

One of the advantages of a rented house of course and a nice landlady is that we don't ahve to replace it if it breaks

FAQtothefuture · 07/01/2009 14:45

ahh sounds like ours Clarissimo - no temp, just a "high to low" scale LOL.

Clarissimo · 07/01/2009 14:50

That's it- but our house was lived in by an Old Person and is rented by his family until grandkids need it so no surprise. We have fireplaces (200 year old house) but bricked up and tenancy agreement prohibits; even then we wouldnt sue with the boys SN, they'd find a way to harm themseves.

Electricity cut at the weekend and Dh did use the old gas fire (has been annually checked) but ds3 had poste dpaper inside so it caught fire- place still reeks of smoke