At 59, Ghislaine (she did not wish to give her name, like the people mentioned by their first name alone), carer in a retirement home near Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), has taken up a new habit: she lives in cold water. Not to save the planet or tone up your body, but to spend less.
“Before, to relax when I got home from a day’s work, I loved spending a quarter of an hour under a hot shower to relax. Now I wash in three minutes, and poof, hot water is over. I do the dishes in cold water, even if it means heating a little water in the kettle if I need to scour a pot. »
Ghislaine is not the only one to monitor her electricity meter. ” It’s very simple, describes Pascale, a 60-year-old Bordelaise. I remove light bulbs from the chandeliers – from six, we go to four –, I no longer turn on all the lamps, I make sure that my appliances are off and not on standby, I do less laundry… And the evening, I lower the thermostat. »
Freddy, a northerner, has also found a solution to consume less gas: he has turned off most of the radiators in his house, half of which has become “a cold room”. “At my age, 76, I stay on the sofa with a blanket, he concludes. In the past, my parents had a coal stove, we were cold in the house. The circle is complete. »
“Inflation is felt strongly today, because it affects everyday products, such as electricity, emphasizes Sandra Hoibian, director of the society division at the Research Center for the Study and Observation of Living Conditions. But these are also expenses over which individuals have very little leeway today.. People won’t move because fuel is more expensive! »
Housing, a quarter of expenses
Prices at the pump, in fact, reached an all-time high in the week of January 9. Gas soared 24.1% in 2021, and electricity gained 3%. In total, energy prices increased by 10.5% last year.
This increase alone explains half of the inflation observed in 2021 (+ 1.6% on average over the year). And the phenomenon is accelerating. At the end of December 2021, the price increase reached 2.8% year-on-year. Despite the aid granted by the government, particularly in the form of an energy check of 100 euros for the most modest households, it remains hard to swallow, because budgets are corseted by the weight of constrained expenses (real estate, Internet subscriptions, energy…). In 1959, these accounted for 12.5% of the household budget, compared to regarding 30% today, a proportion that increases with changes in lifestyles and consumption standards.
You have 62.6% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
