Gas Prices, Gardens for Food & much more

[Mrs. Tweedie]

I read a post on another forum from a woman who heard this on World News. The Gentleman came on & said, "NOW IS THE TIME TO BE PLANNING A GARDEN SO THAT YOU WILL HAVE FOOD TO EAT THAT YOU CAN AFFORD". This woman lived through the Great Depression & WWII & thought that she would never hear about "victory" gardens again. The implication was with the way the price of gas is going up & up, that it will effect everything else. Is this something that you folks are concerned about also? Just wanted to get the feel as to what is going on in the rest of the world. Just how much does the price of gas affect you personally? How do you heat your homes? Do you travel much by car? I know you folks have a much better transportation system than we do here in Canada. We are so far apart from one town to another. I knew a woman who travelled 100 miles each way just to have a cup of coffee with her nearest neighbour (in Alberta). What does electricity cost you each month? We pay about $140.00 per month for our electricity. Gas here is about $1.00-$1.20/litre. The problem is where we live we have to use a car to get anywhere. We live right out in the boonies.

[Millymollymandy]

Hi Mrs Tweedie. We have to use a car too to get to any shops as we are in France in a little hamlet. As we have to travel to get anywhere the petrol (gas) prices are very expensive each month.

Our electricity costs a lot in France, for us probably about 100€ a month even though we are as thrifty with it as possible. Only the oven is electric so I don't use that unnecessarily. The hob is bottled gas which is cheap and lasts for ages. I've been cooking 6 months on the same bottle which cost about 20€.

As for heating, we have given up on central heating as the price of propane gas is astronomical. We filled our tank three times last winter at a cost of 3000€ and we said, no more. We weren't even warm as the house has very little insulation so we might as well have thrown Euro notes out the window.

We have had a wood burning stove installed and we will heat part of the house from that and wear even more layers of clothes and have bottled gas heaters where the stove warmth doesn't reach. Even wood isn't cheap here as we paid 175€ for a corde of oak, that's after haggling the price down!

[Lyds]

Hi Mrs Tweedie! I have been watching the price of petrol rocket this summer and wonder where it is all going to end. I am lucky to be within walking distance of town and can catch a bus if i have too much to carry, though the bus fares will go up again soon. In this part of the country prices are going up because we are quite rural and there is cost involved delivering goods.

What i find hard to understand are the people just "going for a drive" around here. They are like lemmings rushing forward with no thought for tomorrow. Yes we have a car, well its a pickup which is my husbands work van, he is a self employed painter and decorator and jack of all trades, but we dont make unnecessary journeys. My motto is "if God had meant us to drive everywhere He would have given us wheels" so the kids are told to walk.

I think the return to war time thinking, digging for victory, is your journey necessary, and pulling together would do us all good. I dont think that people dont care I guess they just dont think. perhaps we need this wake up call.

[2steps]

I agree most people just don't think about these things. They have always had them and they take them for granted. When we moved here the electricity and gas were on token meters. We have been short of money since moving here and on several occassions have run out of one or the other and had to go without. Nothing serious mind, just a day at most but still it make me think about how we have water, electric etc sent to our houses and never think about it. People take for granted the fact that food will be in supermarkets for them to buy, but what if it wasn't? Most people would have no idea what to do. I've been growing veg for a few years now and its been great but this year our garden has actually fed us when we had no money to buy things so I'm extra grateful for it.
We havent had hot running water for about a month now due our very old boiler breaking and various problems with getting bits etc but we're fine. Haven't had a decent bath in that time (just wash) makes me wish for one of the old tin baths so we could put it in front of the fire to heat and when I had no washing machine I was on the look out for a mangle my mum thinks I'm crazy I think but you have to manage with what you have, right?

I don't drive, just have my bike but I know people who never consider not driving, even when they only need to go a short distance. I enjoy walking and see so many great things walking along that would be missed in a car.

I have said before that going back to the way things were during the war, with rations and stuff would be very hard for most but I think overall, in the end it would be very good for people and for our society as people would have to help each other and share or go without

[Muddypause]

Personally, I think the cost of petrol should be several times what it is in the UK at the moment. It is an extremely nasty, toxic, polluting resource that people are prepared to kill each other for, and we have lost all sense of its value and cost. The right to do all the damage that comes with oil products (coastal pollution, global warming, destruction of the land, degredation of local environments, noise pollution, wars...) should not come cheap.

The fact that we have built an international infrastructure around this stuff, without having the sense to allow ourselves alternatives (that's market forces for you) is just a reflection of our own greed and shortsightedness. It's tragically hilarious to hear people from the wealthiest countries in the world grizzle about the cost of fuel, and, indeed, become flummoxed by the prospect of fuel being expensive.

£5 per litre would be a resonable start.

Actually, Lyds, I think it is the unnecessary journeys that we should be encouraging. The necessary ones we should find others ways for. Freight by rail, efficient public transport, walking, cycling, local shops selling local produce. Fuel should be seen as a luxury item, to be used for important things that enhance life, rather than mundane things like daily chores.

If we did that, we would undoubtedly be less 'prosperous', but I, for one, think we sure would be better off.

[Wombat]

G'Day Guys,

Yeah, we pay about Aud100 a month for electricity, even having the 12v system and being vary aware, but there are 5 of us and our bills are regularly 1/3 of our neigbours for electricity. Our range is gas and a big bottle lasts us 8 to 10 months and costs about AUD 100 as well. The solar oven helps but working long hours reduces my ability to use it. i am in the process of biolding a solar reflector that will enable me to fry, stir fry etc as well as bake.

We no longer own a car but I have a company car and we use that when we need to. Here in Aus there is a lot of space betwee the bits you want to get to (Like Canada I suppose!) . Although we do live 5 minutes walk from a local shopping centre, so we have converted an old pram to a shopping trolley and use that to collect the shopping when we can.

Back in the old days when the kids were small and we had a lot less money, it was common that towards the end of the month the garden would feed us. I don't have enough land to seriously feed 5 adults full time, but we grow what we can and the chooks help. Still hanging out for bees and a goat!

Nev

[ina]

The problem (even with the UK) is that if you want to live in a rural area, you can't get anywhere without a car... Yes, I could probably do more trips by bike, but even that's a bit difficult, in bad weather (some days every winter I can't even get away from here by car), or because of distance and hills. So I use the smallest car possible, rarely do more than 55mph, and try to combine trips - the local shop (4 miles away) knows that I pick up my Sunday paper when I happen to be passing, not necessarily on Sunday!

Public transport? What's that??? Mind you, if petrol were more expensive, maybe enough people would use the bus for a decent service to be viable, even here out in the sticks.

What annoys me are all those folks going round in huge 4x4s, totally unneccessarily. They say it's safer (for them, not for the others); and they obviously have more money than is good for them, to burn it on the road. So bloody thoughtless. I've got some of them living in my neighbourhood. Very nice people, apart from that. But, of course, absolutely no interest in using their gardens for anything other than parking their massive cars and caravans.

Unfortunately the heating in our houses is electric. Costs a bomb, if you really want to get the house warm. My livingroom rarely gets warmer than 16 degree in winter; the radiator in the kitchen is on lowest setting, mainly to get the washing dry (those two are storage heaters, so they are not too expensive); the bedroom never gets heated, and the bathroom has a heated towel rail, but that's it. That way I keep the cost at a reasonable level - I try to get away with £30/month on average. Visitors complain about the freezing temperatures in my house, but I offer them my spare woollies, and a drop of the local whisky! I have also bought a gas heater, mainly in case we get a prolonged power cut.

I'd love to have a windmill generator in the garden (solar is not reliable enough here - could do the bathwater in summer, maybe...). We could easily have a small generator for the entire farm and all associated houses, but I don't think the manager is interested! They are all too shortsighted, when they look at the cost. And as I only live here for as long as I have the job, it's really not a thing I could finance myself - who knows when reduncancy hits me?

Ina