How will you make savings to pay for energy bills.

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I was once given the advice When you are short of money dont find a way to cut back but find a way to make more. I followed this advice ever since by taking on part-time jobs as well as my main job and by buying and selling things. There is so much work around. Some people put no effort in to improve their situations. Also Freecyle offers lots of good stuff so you dont need to buy new. And if you cant afford to feed children dont have any.

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DickensSat 02-Apr-22 20:03:17

Franbern

Still, all these many decades later (and in a different economic condition), I still worry if I think I hear a noise of a machine starting to break down. Will stay with me for the rest of my life!!!

I know that feeling too well.

Oh, and me too.!

My biggest reaction is with cars. Over the years, they have been by far the most worrisome thing.

I only have to hear (or imagine I might have heard) an irregular sound from any part of the car and I quite literally start shaking like a leaf and feeling sick.

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snowberryZ

Chestnut

You are so easy to wind up, volver. The overreactions in some of these posts are just mind blowing. Apparently I am victim blaming, inciting hate, calling people scroungers, even inciting 'death to the enemy'. I never said any of those things! ?

Chestnut, Don't take any notice . I've noticed there are a few posters who regularly go on threads purely to argue the toss.
There are two on here at the moment that often work as a double act.
One will stir and the other will jump to agreement, like a loyal little lapdog ( (think Ann from Morherland)
I used to find it annoying, but now I've noticed it, it's mildly amusin and entertaining, tryng to guess at what point in the thread they will try to disrupt and derail the rhread.

Yes I've noticed this. It's annoying and stifles debate. I've learnt on this thread from reasoned debaters like MissAdventure and realised how much I don't know. But when you see the usual suspects piling on you just a assume they're looking for another excuse to be unpleasant and disagreeable and take no notice if what they say.

volver

GagaJo

It's also possible to make porridge more nutritious by grating in veg. I do it with carrots for my DGS.

As a good Scot the thought of porridge with carrots is making me feel ill...

I remember a friend telling me she put shredded cabbage in bolognese sauce. It was the only way she got her boys to eat vegetables.

Porridge is just oats (but I do make it with milk, sorry).
And salt.

Franbern

Still, all these many decades later (and in a different economic condition), I still worry if I think I hear a noise of a machine starting to break down. Will stay with me for the rest of my life!!!

I know that feeling too well. And it does stay with you. If my washing machine breaks down I am now in a position to purchase one the very next day, but I still feels those pangs of anxiety.

... and it's the same when it rains. Dreading the leaks from the roof when you cannot afford to deal with the cause - and the insurance you thought covered such things, doesn't because the insurance company has found a 'loophole'...

But we survive it - well, some of us do.

And here's another thing. I am now comfortably off, as the saying goes, and the energy price rise will not demand that I make savings elsewhere (though I will, out of principle) and I reached this stage through hard work BUT with a lot of luck into the bargain. I met the right people at the right time. I was blessed with an outgoing personality and with self-confidence, which gave me an 'edge' in the labour market at interviews. I am well aware though that not everyone has the same luck, nor the sociable personality - and neither of these things can I take credit for because I simply got lucky and my upbringing formed my character.

I'm aware there are people who 'game' / play the system - but to judge others by their behaviour is unfair and crass. And I wish the tabloids would lay off the 'scrounger' narrative and - for the sake of balance - also focus on the many ordinary families, working and struggling day in day out simply to survive, and being knocked back again and again by spending cuts and huge hikes in the cost of living.

But they won't. Right wing, small-state, libertarian governments rely on divide-and-rule for their survival. We fight among ourselves whilst they've got their hands in our back pockets...

GagaJo

It's also possible to make porridge more nutritious by grating in veg. I do it with carrots for my DGS.

As a good Scot the thought of porridge with carrots is making me feel ill...

Have you heard of the olio app?
You advertise food which will be wasted or needs using quickly, and interested people can come and pick it up, or you can leave it out.

Strictly no money must change hands, and the person who wants it has to come and collect it.

People come up with all sorts of lovely recipes to use their haul, and post pics of the cooked article.



I gave away 12 jars of beetroot (long story)

It's also possible to make porridge more nutritious by grating in veg. I do it with carrots for my DGS.

I've been using a mini oven ,( table top oven )for years and find it adequate for a main meal for three, together with the gas hob and the small microwave. It has elements top and bottom so it can toast, grill, and cook the underlayer of pizza too with choice of element.

When washing can't dry outdoors I spread it over radiators and clothes horses. Most of it dries overnight.

I have been using leggings under jeans and trousers and keeping the lower body warm does make a difference to all over comfort.

I wear warm padded parka with the sleeves cut short for around the house. Is washable and cutting the sleeves shorter lets me do the dishes etc while warmly padded.

As for porridge, it is a supremely economical food and cooks in about five minutes which is a shorter cooking time than boiled spuds, also with porridge you are not boiling water that is not afterwards consumed with the food.

Casdon I believe some allotments have similar schemes and we have a few community gardens here too.

I don’t know yet, we had already cut down on spending on clothes and going out. We replaced the car a year ago, the new one is cheaper to run and shouldn’t need large costly repairs yet, the older one was starting to cost money to keep it on the road. I’ve upped the direct debits for fuel which xhould help to ease the pain. I’m sure prices will keep rising though.

I note how those on here who show the least understanding of people's financial worries and who are quick to give a long list of wastrel parents are the quickest to take offence when.they are challenged about their views. Very defensive. I am sorry but I am more likely to believe parents who have experienced poverty, posters like Gagajo, Missadventure and others, than I am to believe conversations overheard in a bank queue or judgemental posts based on someone's shopping trolley or manicure

I’m surprised there hasn’t been more discussion on this thread about mitigating the impact of the fuel cost increases for people who survive on only their pension - rather than speculation about families, I’d like to have seen more ideas about what people can practically do. I’ve been.thinking about crop sharing, which is a big thing in America, but much less so in the UK. People do put their unwanted apples and plum crops out in a box for people to help themselves, but there must be more we gardeners could do that would help others?

Not going to comment on here anymore. I was only saying how it was in my family. Goodbye to you all.

Dickens, you have made the point that is so often missed. Yes, it can be a sort of fun to manage on minimal amounts of money for a short time - a week, even a month. However, when it becomes your life (and that of your children's) on-going, for years, it grinds us down.

I had to manage like this for years - No, I was not a single parent family, indeed there were two adults in the house, but hubbie was disabled so could not work. I could not work as I had to look after him and the children.

Not even anything like a food bank back then - I could have well used them. Everything, every day was about trying to keep the mortgage interest paid, and food in bellies. Yes, I made clothes for the children (and myself), but as they got older they wanted some of the nice items like their friends. I cried buckets at night not being able to give them things. Towels stuffed into windows during the winter months to try to keep the cold from blowing into the house.

No money for repairs and that lovely house fell into greater and greater state of disrepair.

I would lie in bed at night listening for noises in the house - no worries about a burglar - just concern that something was breaking down - and how on earth would we get it fixed, let alone replaced.

Had an eye level oven that, for several years the only way we could use was to wedge a strong piece of wood against the door and against the skirting board opposite it - as the hinges were broken.

Still, all these many decades later (and in a different economic condition), I still worry if I think I hear a noise of a machine starting to break down. Will stay with me for the rest of my life!!!

No-one, and I really do mean that no-one who has not been through this sort of first world poverty over a prolonged period, can ever really understand how it grinds you down in every way.

My heart really goes out to those people, particularly young families in that condition these days. I really do not begrudge them the occasional breakdown in getting their hair cut properly or nails down - although often these are carried out by friends for minimal amounts of money or just for exchange of childcare, etc.

To me, it just seems so very dreadful that in this, the 21st century, in one of the richest countries in the world, so many people, old and young are being forced to live in this way.

Whilst I applaud those who run and those who give to foodbanks, I remain horrified that there is a need of these in 2022 in the UK.

Sigh.
Bad money management.
When will these well off people ever learn.

MissAdventure

There are those who think that poor means struggling to pay for private education for their children.

It would be nice to think that most of us fall somewhere in between.

Quite. When I was a teenager, I worked as a nanny for a titled couple who complained that they were poor, because they had to sell paintings to pay school fees. They had a Matisse on the drawing room wall. ? ? ?

There are those who think that poor means struggling to pay for private education for their children.

It would be nice to think that most of us fall somewhere in between.

Excellent post Gagajo about your early years as a single parent.

I won't be using the dishwasher at all, and I'll only use the hob for cooking, if at all possible.

snowberryZ

I think urmstogran is referring to the fact that to have acrylic nails done at a nail salon is expensice.
Its hardly the same as buying a 3 quid nail varnish from Syoerdruf, which is what I do.
£30 could buy some food

Exactly. Some people are so out of touch on here. I worked with a woman who would not pay for school trips for her children, claiming she couldn't afford it. She had her immaculate nails done every 2 weeks though. I am not saying everyone behaves like this but there are definitely those that do.

You can say that again.