Food or Heat? Why Some Seniors Have to Choose
With so many seniors on fixed or low incomes, the high heating dollar placed on fuel oil this year is causing them to choose between buying a loaf of bread or buying a gallon of kerosene.
Many seniors are pouring their retirement savings into their yearly heating bills, worst of all many are choosing to not heat their homes at all. No one should live like this. It hits home when it affects a loved one in your own family. Of all the people I know my own parents have been hit the hardest.
My parents who live in the mid thumb of Michigan, have been retired for about 5 years now. With the economy worsening, it has been harder for them to keep their Michigan home warm during the brutal winter months. They heat their home with fuel oil and a small kerosene heater. It costs them over ten dollars a day to heat with kerosene, but that doesn’t heat the whole house. When they do fire up their furnace and burn the fuel oil, it takes a long time for the whole house to even reach a warm temperature, thus resulting in burning a lot more oil.
Sometimes to my frightening disappointment, I hear they just don’t use the heat at all. They say they want to conserve their fuel oil. It scares me to think they do this, when I know how cold it gets on some of these blustery fall and winter nights.
When I went up for a visit this past weekend, I sat down and had a candid interview with the two of them, I asked them if they wouldn’t mind sharing some of their struggles so maybe in some way other Michigan Seniors would feel they are not alone during these hard times either.
“It has been a long time that you have heated this house with fuel oil hasn’t it?” “Yes it has been over thirty five years.”
“So, why have you not switched over to LP or natural gas?” “Well when we first built this house over thirty five years ago, fuel oil was the best way to go and most people that lived in rural areas like we do heated their homes with fuel oil. Natural Gas does not run out this way but we do have the option of Propane gas. It is expensive to switch everything over to Propane, and since the cost of fuel oil has gone up so, we haven’t been able to afford to make the switch. I hope in the next year or so we can.”
“I remember when I was living at home one night I woke up and the whole house was filled with black sooty smoke, there was a clog or backfire in one of the pipes, has this ever happened since then?” “It has happened a few times and lately we have been getting a thick black residue building up on our walls. This is a sure a sign we need to get our furnace cleaned and maintained again very soon.”
“You need to be careful of carbon monoxide poisoning with the furnace and the Kerosene heater, do you realize that?” “Yes we do. I know you tell us that all the time, we feel like you preach that to us. For right now we need to keep warm and know that things will get better.”
“Well Carbon monoxide is nothing to fool around with. Always make sure you keep the air flowing throughout the house!” “Yes, Julie! We know, we know!”
“I remember we used to heat with wood many years ago, why not go back to doing that?” “Well it is a lot of hard work, your dad is no spring chicken and I don’t want him out breaking his back to cut wood and bring it in every so many hours.”
“I see you are heating this whole house with kerosene, the price of kerosene is pushing four bucks a gallon right now, how can you guys afford that?” “Well we buy a little by little. We make a trip to the corner store every other day and pick a few gallons up at a time. I’m thinking about blocking off the back bedrooms and your dad and I living out here in the living room and kitchen for the winter.”(chuckles)
“Mom, you cant do that, now we are back to not having the fumes get proper ventilation, you may stay warm but to much carbon monoxide will kill you both!” “I know I know, but I’ve lived in this house for years and it hasn’t killed me yet.”
“Did you finally get your fuel oil tank filled for the winter?” “Yes, we got it filled but not all the way. We have a 200 gallon tank out back, but we only purchased 150 gallons worth, the total for that was 650.00. We cant afford any more than that.”
“Dad, how long is that going to last you?” “Well I will run the furnace when it gets really cold, to prevent the pipes from freezing, but Ill try to use the kerosene heater as much we can in between.”
“So now are you broke for the month being that you had to go and pay for fuel oil?” “Yes money is really tight, I don’t get my pension check until next month so until then, its only going to have to be the basics.”
“I see there isn’t much In your freezer or fridge, do you guys need some groceries?” ” We don’t need much to get by, usually it’s a sandwich for lunch and then we make something at night that will stretch a few days.”
“So you mean to tell me any extras are out of the question like a bag of chips or some fresh veggies?” “For now. But like I said we don’t need much to get by.”
“Right but it isn’t like what you are used to is it? You never used to hurt for money?” “You are right about that! We always had stocked cupboards and we were able to travel a bit, now those days are over until the governor does something to help us little guys out.”
“I know you both do ok financially with your retirement and pensions, how has the high fuel bills affected your budget and living expenses?” “We just don’t go to the grocery store on a weekly basis. We will pick up staples that we know will get us by for the month, like canned goods and some instant foods. We surely can’t starve, so we have to make ends meet the best we can. The dollar store sells a lot of canned foods and we love to go there and stock up for the month.”
“So choosing between heat and food is something you all have had to do?” Yes unfortunately we have to. This is the first year it has really hit us hard, it has never been this bad in Michigan, I’ve always loved this state, I love my home, I was born and raised here, now I’m ashamed at times to call Michigan my home.”
“There are assistance programs out there that may help you guys with your heat?” “No way, I’m 65 years old and I’ve been a taxpayer since I was 16 years old. I grew up on a farm and worked since I was old enough to walk. I refuse to take a handout! Ill go without a month’s meal before I would ever take help. Besides you would be surprised to know we wouldn’t qualify for assistance, we make too much money, we make more than a lot of people on paper. But if you subtract what we pay out though In fuel and gas, we are poor.”
“Well Dad what would you like to say if by chance Jennifer Granholm or the President ever reads or hears about your story or that of others struggling like you and mom have here in Michigan?” “I would like to say that I am a proud person, I am proud to live and proud to have served this country in Vietnam many years ago. I thought that working hard to make a life in this beautiful country was all there was to truly strive for. I made it through two years in Vietnam , served my time and then came home and easily found a good job and I lived the American dream and and made a decent life for my family. Now everything is going to pot including the economy. When is this country going to step up for a change, and make it easier for those that worked so hard for Uncle Sam over the years? Why do those that work hard have to struggle the most? Why is it only getting harder as we are getting older? It should be getting better not worse. This isn’t how citizens of this country are supposed to survive and lately that’s all it seems like we doing, we are merely surviving we are not really living.
