Ever increasing fuel bills

glassback_2

:mad: Having worked within the prison service for twenty years, and had the pleasure of dealing with the 'worst of the worst', I would like to reassure everyone who is struggling to make ends meet, that murderers/rapists/child abusers etc, are never faced with the option of heating or eating. Have we, as a society, got our priorities wrong in allowing government to turn a blind eye to ever rising gas/electricity prices. 'Prudence' wouldn't have had his teeth 'fixed' if he was living on my pension!:mad:

computerwoman

why not start a pertition about it as i know what you mean its stupid having to pay this much...I remember the every house should have a gas fire and central heating which has only served to make us all poor and the every house should have a pc drive now they are going on about carbon footprints seems to me and I have had this assumption for alot of years that the mp's so called government haven't a clue what they are doing...:D

seven-day-weekend

I don't understand the relevance of the prison service and 'Prudence's teeth' to high fuel bills?

Ken68

The oap's winter fuel allowance is meant to cover this sort of thing. The £200 goes a long way to helping me keep warm.
Maybe the law needs changing but at present a mans sentence is that 'he be deprived of his liberty for the duration'. Nothing about starving them or freezing them to death.
If I had my way, anyone deserving a punishment of more than five years would be shot, thus a huge saving on the prison service costs..less prisons, less prison officers.

Poppycat

I cant afford to heat my home during the day, and only when kids get home from school/college. Fuel is getting a luxury item these days it is a must have thing we need to to heat our food, and our homes to keep us a alive.

I am angry too and it is just climbing up way above what any small modest rise in our incomes are and you can only go so far as to absorb these costs without you having to cut back on other things

TBH I find it unfair that the winter fuel allowance is just paid to oap. For example I have a daughter is who frail, and has poor circulation and we are fighting to even get disability living allowance, I would be happy with even a small amount just to help with fuel and travelling costs for her

We are just going out soon to pick of some pallets to burn on a stove because we are trying to keep home warm without increasing our gas bill too much. We only have the stove and central heating. I have already shelled out £160 on logs this year and have enough logs to last to about Feb maybe March at a stretched, getting wood hopefully will make it last that bit longer but not by much. I keep trying to find new sources of free wood just saw house is kept warm

Mind you we got to cut pallets up and the last 4 days its been freezing outside so we cant do it until its a warmish day

Ken68

Agree Poppycat...I had a small Rayburn for years, would burn anything, old furniture, pallet wood, logs. Wood everywhere, just for the sawing. There is an old tale about getting three "warms" from wood.Once when you chop it down, again when you saw and chop into logs and finally when burnt. So a good MoneysavingExpert trick.

margaretclare

Poppycat, where do you live? Any local woodlands within reach? That's where my grandparents found all their logs and other firewood. They never went into woodlands just for a walk, never returned empty-handed. After the recent gales there will be lots of fallen branches and dead wood.

HTH

Margaret

Poppycat

I live in Scarborough North Yorkshire we do have Dalby forest about 10 miles away from us. Although most is conifer no good for a stove and its also private land so must ask permission

I had my eye on 4 pallets the last few days and have permission to get them. Went today to get them (they were there last night) and they were gone someone else got them, damn.

Trouble is with using wood from broken branches Margaret is that it isn't seasoned so can cause tar build up in the chimney plus they dont burn to well either

I have lots of old wood in garage but its of no use yet as its too wet

Savvy_Sue

Poppycat wrote: »

I have lots of old wood in garage but its of no use yet as its too wet

Can you keep a box or pile of it near the stove to dry out, or no space?

Poppycat

I keep my logs in a old garage and we wheel them to the house in a barrow (2 days supply a barrow load, not overfilled) then out them in a large washing basket. We then load 2-3 buckets loads into house and fill at side of stove to dry out whilst its on so dont have anymore more space for branches etc

Pallets are good and tend to dry quick but burn to quickly and at once stage the floor near burner was so hot (laminate floor) is started to buckle slightly

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Can you keep a box or pile of it near the stove to dry out, or no space?

alanobrien

glassback wrote: »

:mad: Having worked within the prison service for twenty years, and had the pleasure of dealing with the 'worst of the worst', I would like to reassure everyone who is struggling to make ends meet, that murderers/rapists/child abusers etc, are never faced with the option of heating or eating. Have we, as a society, got our priorities wrong in allowing government to turn a blind eye to ever rising gas/electricity prices. 'Prudence' wouldn't have had his teeth 'fixed' if he was living on my pension!:mad:

The government loast the plot a long time ago. They care less about the hard working masses than they do their own comfortable index linked pensions. Take the recent about turn by Mr Brown on supporting the pensioners who lost everything before the safety net was put in place as an example of this caring government. Sadly i am not overly convinced that the alternatives will be much better but i look forward to the next election. Bottom line is expect them to take all they can get away with an rely on them for nothing.