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Frugal Woman Freezes To Death!

3K views 27 replies 25 participants last post by  mmy2grls 
#1 ·
#3 ·
That is very sad. What I don't get is turning the heat completely off. Even if she'd kept it at 50 or some other really low number it would have been enough to keep her alive, although uncomfortable. Turning it right off was unfortunately the worst thing to do.
 
#5 ·
Very sad, I understand being frugal but she could have atleast kept the thermostat at a lower temp just to keep herself and things in the home from freezing... soooo sad.
 
#6 ·
she could have intended on turning it up "in a minute, just after a snooze" and had a heart attack and then froze her poor self. I feel bad for her family. They said n the article she had the means to pay. Such a sad story.
 
#7 ·
I don't get it ~ I've turned the heat down and awoken in the night because I was cold - so I don't think one could just simply freeze to death - she would've been awake at some point - soooo.... this leads me to wonder, was she unable to turn the heat on?

and dang - she must have had no insulation in her home for it to have been below 32 - good grief!

very sad indeed, but I still think there must be more to it than she simply wanted to conserve energy ??
 
#9 ·
Wow! That's the first I heard of this and this happened in the next county over. I don't get to listen to the news all of the time. We've had some bitter cold temps off and on this winter. I am thinking she might have all ready had the hypothermia when she went to sleep, since hypothermia induces sleep.
 
#11 ·
I am thinking that her house must have been poorly insulated. When we built our house thea is one thing we did not scimp on was insulation.

I believe in being frugal and I believe that I am radical at times but no way would I let it get that cold. I have turned the thermostat to around 63 at night.
 
#13 ·
she could have intended on turning it up "in a minute, just after a snooze" and had a heart attack and then froze her poor self. I feel bad for her family. They said n the article she had the means to pay. Such a sad story.
I was thinking it was health related.... maybe died in her sleep and then froze.... how long was the body frozen? That could explain why the standing water in the toilets was frozen.
 
#14 ·
"It says that the water in her toilet was frozen solid. I just can't believe how creepy this story is. I guess one can become so obsessed that it can destroy your mental health and good judgment."

Or mental health issues caused her to be obsessive about things and delusional/unrealistic. As always, the media only carries enough of the story to cause sensationalism...not enough to tell the whole story. I'm thinking there's more to this than frugality too.

Jean
 
#15 ·
I'm thinking malnutrition contributed to her death. I used to be a Boy Scout leader, and I've successfully camped in sub-zero temperatures many times. If she was malnourished, it might have hastened the hypothermia. A little bit of padding is a good thing...at least that's what I keep telling myself whenever I glance my thickening waist in the mirror!

Still, this story is really sad. What a shame.
 
#18 ·
sad, sad story
 
#20 ·
Frugal Woman Freezes to Death

I agree with many of you; there may have been some health and mental issues that might factor into this. Very Sad.

Makes me glad that I live so far South.
 
#21 ·
I too wonder if it was a health issue with this poor woman. It would be quite rare, I think, to die of hypothermia in a home today, even one with bad insulation. It sounds like she had adequate bedding and clothing. If a person is in out of the elements and adequately clothed, I would wonder how this would happen. I was reading about life in colonial times. Those people lived in uninsulated homes, and I read that many simply could not afford to heat their homes at night. I guess that's why the entire family often slept in one bed! But they seemed to survive. My father spent his entire childhood sleeping in an unheated, poorly insulated bedroom in Wisconsin, and he lived a good, long life. Does make me wonder about this woman.
 
#22 · (Edited)
Older people tend to have poorer circulation which make makes them more vulnerable than young people and adults to hypothermia and extremes of temperature in general. They need to be warm more than most in winter.

I think it's certainly possible that the woman had mental health issues. I think it's just as possible that it may have been an accident resulting from extreme frugality. Maybe she had lots of money but it's also possible that she had just enough to get by on and was trying to eke it out some more by turning off the heat. Some older people living on fixed incomes live in fear of debt and end up living in worse poverty than they need to in the long run.

Here in the UK every person, upon reaching pensionable age, gets a 100 pound heating allowance each winter. It's meant to help out with our very high (and rising) fuel costs and prevent deaths from hypothermia each year. Before that we just had 'cold weather payments' which were only given in extreme weather which had to last over a certain number of days and which were cumbersome to apply for and administrate and and therefore never ended up reaching the people who needed them most. The winter fuel allowance is non-means-tested and doesn't depend on some minimum temperature being reached and helps a lot more people stay safe and warm in winter. Even so, some recipients still prefer to try to exist without proper heat, prefering to hang onto the money 'just in case' or whatever. It's very sad.
 
#23 ·
This woman was only 61, that isn't very old. There had to be more to this than what's written in the story. I've known people that age who've camped in tents in the winter.

I just got an email from my Grandmother today, and she is terrified that they are going to freeze to death. They don't turn the heat off, but the weather back home has been awful this winter and they are afraid the power will go out and leave them with no heat. She is 90 and lives with her 92 year old sister. They are getting a propane stove put in in case of an emergency.
 
#25 ·
61 is not old, nor do I think she was a CHEEP SKATE. I think there is a lot more to the story such as, she would never accept a hand out no matter if she was INTITTLED to it or not. Maybe she felt she had no money to streach any farther and just succumbed to the temps ( more or less just gave up instead of trying to make the ends meet and thinking her life was just in vain). Meds, food and other day to day living costs just wouldn't let her to turn the heat on. Maybe she was helping a grandkid or kid or what ever, keep their houses at 68 degrees and thought she cold live though the cold ??? NOW I would like to know WHY the HECK no one cecked on her well being???? Too many now a days think they have way more to do ,than to care about anyone else!

Now here is the kicker, how bad is your life???
 
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