" I live inThe dark" BBC article.FFS.

[Nolongera]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwz0vxl21m3jo

This bloke is wandering around in the dark to save money. No where in the article does it mention how much it actually cost to run a light.

A standard 6w modern bulb costs less than 2p for ten hours. I simply don't believe this is is anyway cost effective.

My mother in law had a fall trying to save money by not switching lights on, when I asked her how much she thought it cost, she reckoned about 50p

Articles like this are part of the problem.

People still think of filament bulbs running at 150 watts!!

It’s performative poverty. My MIl who is minted would sit in her living room freezing, refusing to put her heating on but when she came to our house would demand the heating on full blast.

Reading between the lines, I think Errol McGuiness has turned saving money into a kind of hobby - he collects rainwater and so on - he's taking satisfaction in shaving costs wherever he can. As far as leaving the lights off, it's not about the 5p he has saved, it's knowing he has saved it.

These articles are designed to make us feel our energy use is frivolous and it's our fault prices are so high.

All fun and games until he has a fall in the dark.
The article presents it as a logical worthwhile endeavour.

Well, I know from experience men like him simply won't listen to common sense. He's got this way of life into his head and he'll stick with it even if he breaks every bone in his body, and he'll proselytise to all and sundry about it too.

Not sure why the BBC is bothering to report it. 'Man develops obsession against all logic' isn't exactly headline news.

I hate the idea that this performative, virtuous meanness is something positive. It's an all-consuming hobby for some people, they do it by choice and boy do they want to tell you about it. That guy on the article looks so pleased. People who are really poor find no pleasure or virtue in it.

I wonder if there is a word for this type of behaviour? It really is second nature for some people. Maybe there's a word on German or Japanese for it

That’s kind of the BBC website anyway. It used to be the first place I went to for news, it was straightforward. Now it’s all “let’s burble on about something we think might be relevant to the people who never come to this site anyway”. I only look at it now because it’s free.

”How dare this site I am under no obligation to use, providing a service I refuse to pay for, serve up information not specifically aimed at me, which I could easily not look at”

How do you know the poster refuses to pay for it? I know I pay for it, I've got a TV licence.

Agree 100% but they could at least report how much it costs to run a light bulb.

When it all kicked off a few years ago my neighbours were going to switch off their tv and read books my battery torchlight.

I briefly dated a man who would sit in the dark to save money. He didn't seem to realise that because his rent included electricity, he wasn't actually saving any money. I also had a longer relationship with a man who sat in the dark out of choice because it's better for your circadian rhythm or something. And god that felt bleak in the winter - couldn't see my dinner while I was eating it, couldn't do any hobbies in the living room because I couldn't see them, it was like living in a cave. It's not worth it for the 2p that you'll save (and plenty of people sleep fine despite being able to see what they're eating!)

They should also probably mention how much fan heater costs to run....

“I only use it because it is free” i.e “ don’t want to pay another site for news”

Another one thinking it is performative poverty. Cos playing poverty seems to be in fashion these days.

The people of his generation should remember days when there was no expection of having every room in the house tropically heated. A coal fire in the living room was the heating. Single glazed windows with ice on the inside. No duvets. Layers of blankets with a quilt on top. Hot water bottles to warm the bed. This was my childhood in the 60s and I cant remember anyone in the locality ever dying from hypothermia!!

I think they are also designed to enforce the narrative that pensioner = poor so don’t dare come after our benefits.

My parents, previously of “put on a jumper” and “it’s like Blackpool illuminations” fame, have a house that is always absolutely roasting and lit up like a Christmas tree. They are not poor, can afford their bills but complain bitterly about how high they are and were aghast they were losing their winder fuel payment.

In other ways they are still in their boomer mindset of make do and mend, saving slivers of soap to make a new bar, re-using teabags etc but that has nothing to do with affordability. They think it’s a virtue.

It's bollocks. It's rubbish reporting. Why don't they analyse his incomings and outgoings? There is no way anyone NEEDS to live like this. He chooses to.

As someone else said Performative poverty.

Quite common in some groups, whilst bank accounts and investments are stuffed to the rafters.

If you're living on your own in a drafty 5 bedroom house and complain incessantly about how expensive it is - MOVE!

“It’s performative poverty.”

So true! Physical starvation, lack of any shoes, and rampant, uncontrolled infectious diseases do not exist in the UK anymore. We have a safety net (the NHS, the state pension, Universal Credit, and housing benefit.)

“According to PHE, cold weather increases the risk from heart attacks, strokes, lung diseases, flu and other diseases.1 Relatively few deaths are recorded with hypothermia as the underlying cause in the UK,5 but this may be misleading as it is often the related disease that is recorded on death certificates rather than hypothermia.”

https://practicenurse.co.uk/articles/older-patients/why-more-people-die-in-winter

You've got to die of something @BoredZelda

Heart attack, strokes, flu, respiratory illnesses is pretty much what most of us die from - summer or winter.

Some people are just remarkably tight, and others are performative. You hear of people who will take their phone to charge it free at the library, when it probably costs something like a penny to charge for an entire week. The wear and tear on your shoes to walk there will cost far more!!

I wonder if the people who say "I sit in the dark" intend you to believe that it's their everyday normal, when what they really mean is that they once tried it for 20 minutes, before thinking "Stuff that!"

On the other hand, there are some people who just feel so helpless in the face of ever-rising gas and electricity bills and will grasp at anything they can think of to try to feel like they're doing something to fight it, however rational or otherwise. We've been told for decades about how super energy-efficient new appliances will cost a fraction of the price of the older ones to run... and yet bills continue to rocket.

Our gas and electricity bill for a 3-bed semi is now considerably higher than our council tax, and I'm sure we're far from unusual in that. Before too long, it will exceed the monthly cost of our mortgage; which is something that many older folk look forward to being finally free of, once it's all paid off... but then, when you have finally got rid of this massive financial millstone, yet your everyday basic energy still costs you the same or more until the day you die, you can see why many older folk on fixed incomes feel so despondent and helpless.

I’m mortgage free but the council tax and gas/electricity are my biggest expenses, circa £450 a month for both combined. You feel quite helpless as there’s nothing you can do about paying them.