Preparing for Winter

Charis

Ken68 wrote: »

Pensioners have never been so well orf. As I said in another post, something seriously wrong with lifestyle if pensioners are freezing to death.

Apparently you are still healthy enough to dig the garden, travel by public transport and spend hours shopping for bargains. You therefore don't seem to need to be at home all day caring for a spouse with health problems either. Not everyone is so fortunate.

Perhaps you would care to share the secret of how to pay the bills, pay for the upkeep and maintenance of a house and garden, eat, keep warm, keep clothed and set aside a little for emergencies on a basic pension of less than £400 a month? My fuel bills alone for a small, well insulated bungalow which I don't heat to excess, are £89 a month and rising. I have yet to reach retirement age so I need all the hints and tips I can get. Then again I do have the luxury of a small private pension, which a lot of folk don't have.

parsonswife8

Caterina wrote: »

It wasn't me really, it was my husband! That's why I felt really humbled when she thanked ME!

Caterina

__________________________________________

Well both of you then!

For having her around to dinner and for sorting out her heating and hot water!

Ken68

Charis wrote: »

Apparently you are still healthy enough to dig the garden, travel by public transport and spend hours shopping for bargains. You therefore don't seem to need to be at home all day caring for a spouse with health problems either. Not everyone is so fortunate.

Perhaps you would care to share the secret of how to pay the bills, pay for the upkeep and maintenance of a house and garden, eat, keep warm, keep clothed and set aside a little for emergencies on a basic pension of less than £400 a month? My fuel bills alone for a small, well insulated bungalow which I don't heat to excess, are £89 a month and rising. I have yet to reach retirement age so I need all the hints and tips I can get. Then again I do have the luxury of a small private pension, which a lot of folk don't have.

If you are caring for someone, sorry but not qualified to answer.

Can only vouch for the way I live. Down to being able to change your ways. For example, bread has got very expensive, so stopped buying it, then whilst hunting for value items found Tesco Penne pasta which lasts me a week, the same time as a large loaf, £1 difference, so £52 saved per year. Tesco malt loaf 18pence is another example. As for shopping at Tesco tis an hour between buses and it's warmer than at home. Same with the library, free internet, meet your friends, free heat.

mardatha

OH HAD TO SCRAPE THE CAR THIS MORNING!! It was pure white !!...shiver...It's getting closer !!

ceridwen

Ken68 wrote: »

Don't believe it Ceridwen.....as a pensioner I get £250 a year allowance towards heating, free medicine, free optician help, a third off rail fares, and now free buses.
Plus single person council tax allowance and if really poor would get help with that.
And TIME to grow food and TIME to research moneysaving, TIME to do slow shopping looking for bargains.
Pensioners have never been so well orf. As I said in another post, something seriously wrong with lifestyle if pensioners are freezing to death.

Which is all well and good that pensioners get these extra "bits and pieces" - but it does rather depend what level their basic income is as to whether they are struggling or no.

Once I am a pensioner - I will certainly take all the "bits and bobs" - but I will need them, as they will be on top of a darn poor pension - so though I am very good with money - I am still aware that my income then might well not be enough to live on (even at the modest standard I do).

I dread to think how pensioners on just Pension Credit level pensions are supposed to manage their fuel bills - and it is the case that not everyone lives in a reasonably fuel-efficient house. I worry - and I have had years of having deliberately bought a mid-terrace house in the first place and then whacked in loft insulation/doubleglazing/etc. I'd be going frantic if I were in some single-glazed, draughty, high-ceilinged place for instance.

So - congratulations that you managed to earn a salary during your working life that translated into a good pension later - but lots of us arent so fortunate.

rosieben

pointless to lump all pensioners together like that Ken68, that's like saying all women are dumb - a totally useless measure for any intelligent purpose - and I'm sure you would never make such a wide sweeping statement!!

For some, yes there are plenty of benefits and help and they are still mobile to do for themselves, garden, get to the library etc.

Its the ones who don't have mobility, don't understand what benefits they are entitled too, don't have spare cash to top up grants for ch, dg and insulation. Unfortunately these people are also likely to be the ones who have no one to help and probably scared witless by all the price rises. They're the ones who we need to look out for.

miserly_mum

Charis wrote: »

Apparently you are still healthy enough to dig the garden, travel by public transport and spend hours shopping for bargains. You therefore don't seem to need to be at home all day caring for a spouse with health problems either. Not everyone is so fortunate.

Perhaps you would care to share the secret of how to pay the bills, pay for the upkeep and maintenance of a house and garden, eat, keep warm, keep clothed and set aside a little for emergencies on a basic pension of less than £400 a month? My fuel bills alone for a small, well insulated bungalow which I don't heat to excess, are £89 a month and rising. I have yet to reach retirement age so I need all the hints and tips I can get. Then again I do have the luxury of a small private pension, which a lot of folk don't have.

Why was Ken's post met with such hostility?

Surely as a pensioner his point of view is very relevant? Yet it's almost as if he's annoyed you because he's not complaining about his finances/hardships?

Not every pensioner is a frail old dear living on a pittance in one heated room as is so often portrayed by the media.

Many including my Dad and step mum, MIL, FIL and a few other elderly relatives live very well on their basic state pension plus pension credits.

I think its great Ken has a positive outlook in his retirement and uses his time and money wisely. Surely thats to be admired?

In my experience its not lack of money that causes SOME elderly people to live in appalling conditions. Its usually to do with them being too ill or infirm to do a lot for themselves and not having friends or family to support them

Churchmouse

Good post miserly mum. Poor Ken!:D I don't recall him saying he was on a good occupational pension, but he did point out he gets £250 towards the heating bills, plus other bits and bobs that help. I don't think anyone is complacent about pensioner fuel poverty, but many that I know are like my Dad, who gets these payments, but doesn't want to spend them!!!! He's lucky, lives in a modern mid terrace that never seems to get very cold, but hardly has the heating on. He's turning into his mother who wanted "to leave money behind" for her children. Well his children don't need his money and would rather he spent it on himself, but he won't be told. He insists he can't afford this and that, while he has cash lying around the house in various hiding places:rolleyes: He is only on basic state pension too. In my experience he is not unique. maybe this attitude is what Ken was alluding to

housebug

pigpen wrote: »

Granted.. but some oldies are so frightened by the media screaming at us that the prices of fuel are rocketing and the food prices are increasing and they are genuinely believing they WILL be unable to pay.. We have only 2 grandparents left in our family now.. one is 80 the other is 88 and neither are very savvy when it comes to 'cutting back' .. yes htey both lived through rationing and remember it clearly but that is adding to their fear. They don't WANT to be hungry or cold or absolutely destitute again.. and now they are older and one is quite sick it is harder for them to keep warm and to manage their money.. they simply have lost touch time has moved on and they haven't. Many are not well enough or able enough to grow their own food and cannot use a computer to research online they have to rely on their own skills!

I have told my husband to sort his gran out.. she thought the thermostat for the heating was the on/off switch!!!!.. So when she was cold turned it up (it was at 32'C when he went round last!!) and when she is hot turns it to 0'C.. then opens a window! They are slightly better on food... one can get about and the other has an Aldi a couple of doors up an someone to shop for her.

A huge amount of this 'credit crunch' rubbish is scaremongering and the powers in the world are frightening intelligent people into believing we will all be bankrupt by next year simply because they do not understand how it works!... and while the fuel companies are permitted to increase the prices as they are doing and getting away with it the media is screaming about it and those who are not in a position to understand it are cutting back to the detriment of their own health. So yes, older people will be freezing to death regardless of the money they have coming in!

Good post!

hardpressed

annie123 wrote: »

cant see anyone on here paying someone to make a door curtain and then paying someone else to put it up not moneysaving but if you dont want to have a go buy something like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110293078592

then buy 2 cup hooks,a 3' piece of bamboo (garden section of diy store) and some shower curtain rings from diy store.
put cup hooks in wall above door...not difficult
put shower curtain rings on curtain.....same as sewing on a button
put pole through rings
put the whole lot on the cup hooks.....
job done

A more substantial way of making a curtain pole, if you can't pick up one in a charity shop, probably gets a curtain there as well, is to buy a broom handle, fit it in some really big cup hooks.