Fridges are expensive. This winter I may have to finally turn mine off
The news is seldom positive, but it used to be that the bad stories we heard came from faraway lands. Now, every bulletin reminds us of the pain we’re in close to home and the suffering on the horizon.
The cost of living crisis, inflation and recession are apparent every time I visit the supermarket for groceries, every time I top up my electricity meter, every time a payslip comes through my letterbox.
Four pints of milk used to set me back a quid; now, it’s twice as much for twice as less. And now I learn that the energy price cap could rise as high as £6,000 by next year, and 45 million people are going to be plunged into fuel poverty as a consequence – that’s 60% of the population.
I’m currently on an old-fashioned pay-as-you-go meter. I wish I could switch to a direct debit; that way, I could enjoy more leverage over the energy companies, but I know my landlord won’t agree, and I don’t want to antagonise them for fear of a no-fault eviction.
I’ve not yet had to turn off appliances like my fridge and freezer to save energy, but I know people who have, and maybe it is something I’ll have to consider because this winter it will be even harder to keep warm.
Martin Lewis has said the country is on the brink of catastrophe and we are experiencing a “national crisis on the scale of the pandemic”. Of course he’s right but I think people like him are only waking up to the struggles many of us have faced for more than a decade because it’s starting to squeeze disposable incomes. That’s not a crisis in my book. Life’s luxuries are privileges I’ve never had the chance to take advantage of. I’ve subsisted on next to nothing for the past three years.
While parents like me face the difficult task of explaining to our children why we
Read more on theguardian.com
