" 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.

I was actually thinking about TVs, game consoles and screens for babies and young children.

But its not either/or is it? Many people have shit diets regardless of income and quality of their food. But you’ll still get people buying (insert crap brand name here) pizzas for 29p alongside packs of Stella. Because they are adults and will spend their money according to their priorities.

@Bromptotoo People generally consume a lot more stuff than previous generations. We don’t need most of this stuff, but we like having it.

I used to be a member of a FB energy saving page during the last fuel crisis, when people would compete with each other about how 'petrified' they were at the sight of their smart meter moving. 'Sitting here with tears rolling down my face' was a popular phrase, as were selfies of themselves sitting covered in heated blankets, Oodies and other paraphernalia that probably cost more than having the heating on.
The high/low point was someone who reported that if you put a bowl of water in the car covered by a black bin bag, the water would be warm enough by evening to wash up in. It all got a bit Viz-like.

Edited to add: Just remembered the contributor who was so frightened of turning her oven on on Christmas Day that she had bought three additional airfryers and was cooking Christmas lunch using five airfryers and two slow cookers and saving 'a fortune' apparently 🤔

That were absolutely crazy times.
I still wonder how much some people endedd up in credit. Not the people who did initial outlay of £700 to save £200, the others.

On that particular page they were all encouraging each other to cancel their direct debits and 'pay for what they use'. There were many posts about only using £50 a month in June/July but being charged £150 by greedy energy companies, ignoring the fact that their bills would be much more than £150 in the winter. Critical thinking was not engaged on that page!

On a radio 4 call in about money saving tips a lady called to say she switches the kettle off as soon as she hears the water boil rather than wait the extra seconds until it turns itself off

Amother favourite was boiling a kettle im the morning and filling a flask to use all day
Those one-cup things were popular as well (£50) and i remember a post about a £99 'breakfast station' that cooked bacon, eggs, toast and had a kettle that the poster thoight might be a good buy.
They were obsessed with not using their cookers and buying all sorts of tut so they didn't have to. It was a mad but entertaining page

I remember watching a documentary years ago about old people in poverty. It has always stuck with me. There was an old woman on saying she was so poor couldn't afford to buy food. She could only afford to buy 6 eggs a week. Meanwhile, she was smoking 20 fags a day. It's all about priorities.

I was born in 1970s and we had a coal fire (living room).I use to run up to bed where Mum had put on my electric blanket to warm my bed!

Bath and hair wash on a Sunday night.

Ice on windows in the winter.

Prefer life now 😊

I think it's just a report about something that people are doing - it isn't presented as logical or worthwhile, just happening.

"I keep lots of clothes on, but don't tell my daughter,"

.....says 79 yr old Errol in a news article on the BBC .....

remember, everyone to keep it a secret now.

I always find it odd in these type of articles, that they comment on people putting warm clothes on, or wearing extra layers, like that is some sort of terrible shame of poverty, when surely it is just common sense ?

I am definitely not on the poverty line, but I instinctively put extra layers on when the temperature drops, because, well, I'm normal and like to feel warm.

Yes! If we expect to wear t shirts all year round it’s going to get very expensive!

I have a fleece I put on top of my other layers and I’m currently under a blanket with two dogs cuddled up to me so no heating needed for a while! Although I do accept the dogs are a luxury

It’s ridiculous! I grew up without central heating and double glazing in the 1980s. I wore a vest and layers in the winter and went to bed with a hot water bottle.

" How rising bills are shaping daily life" from the headline, it isn't rising bills that are shaping his daily life, it's his own ignorance.

From the article "he is far from alone in trying to cut household costs.".

I would expect a journalist to have the intelligence to at least question his methods.

It reads to me like they’ve gone somewhere to interview lots of old people and picked out the stories from the two gents to try and make a point. But if those are the worst stories they could find and the journalist didn’t stop to consider if lights off was logical, then it’s not really going to achieve what they wanted

Oh boy! It's up there with the pensioner who loves Christmas so much he eats Xmas dinner every day. Filler. Pointless filler.

I think people are so used to centrally-heated homes that they have no idea how to cope without it.
1970s child here too and I still only have the heating on for a few hours day and wouldn't dream of having it on overnight in any circumstances. In fact, I didn't even know this was a thing until I read about it on MN in a post where a poster was asking how she could cut her gas bill as she couldn't see how it could be cut back any further. It turned out she had her heating on 24/7 because she 'refused to let her children freeze' in their beds, asleep, in PJs and thick duvets!
Posts like mine are always mocked on here but we really did have ice on the windows and I remember going to bed in a hat as my bedroom had no heating.
Wouldn't like to go back to those days, but equally, wearing a jumper indoors in the winter is not unimaginable hardship either.

You say that but my electric bill is massive because my electrics are ancient

German never disappoints when it comes to a noun for every conceivable phenomenon. In this case it’s rather outdated though: Pfennigfuchser. Someone who shows fox-like cunning with every pfennig (now it would be Centfuchser I suppose).

I know an older couple (mid-70’s) who go to bed as soon as it gets dark in Winter, rather than putting a lights on. They buy the cheapest food available. Christmas dinner last year was frozen veg and a couple of slices of turkey from Morrison’s deli counter.
However, they also bought a beautiful house last year with cash and then sold their first home a few months later. Money isn’t an issue at all, but they seem unable or unwilling to spend money to make their lives even remotely more comfortable.

I don't think the journalist lacks intelligence. They've just written an article you don't like.

You know what's funny? If I have understood economics, if we all used more energy, they would bring the cost down.

I reckon..