Bringing down my gas and leccy bill challenge (start August 2008)

Scarlett.1974

craftingqueen wrote: »

Hi Barneysmom, we have a lovely Disney throw which we brought from a well known shopping channel years ago it's lovely the kids love it ,it's so snuggly and washes really well. We are on the lookout for another one which they seem to be pretty hard to get hold of.

CQ

Don't know which sort of Disney design you're looking for but there's loads on ebay at the moment Not sure if I'm allowed to post a link here, so if you type in 'disney throw' in the search box they all come up

ceridwen

lauren_1 wrote: »

I just hope when the kids and i spend most of the days in our dressing gowns (on top of clothes) i wont be accused of being lazy by my MIL

Well - put it this way - I read a comment by someone someplace else a bit back about other peoples comments about the level of housework they did (coulda been a Shirley Conran book). The reply they made was to the effect that "If you dont like how clean the house is - stop criticising, get stuck in doing some of the housework yourself then".

I think you could extrapolate from that and say to MIL "If you dont like my ways of saving money on fuel - then hand over some money towards the fuel bill".:cool:

Barneysmom

craftingqueen wrote: »

Hi Barneysmom, we have a lovely Disney throw which we brought from a well known shopping channel years ago it's lovely the kids love it ,it's so snuggly and washes really well. We are on the lookout for another one which they seem to be pretty hard to get hold of.

CQ

Thanks craftingqueen, I think I know the shopping channel you mean - I use it a lot, I've bought lots of Northern Nights from there and handcrafted quilts

studentgirl_2

Hi guys I love the idea of reducing the G and E, atm we pay £33 pcm for gas and have a meter for the elc put about £7 per week on it. So I feal that this is quite low. We have about £70 credit with the gas. I was thinking about getting 2 oil filled rads one for the living room and one for the kids room. This would stop us using the c/heating. We only live in a two up two down with double glasing and loft insulation thats why the costs are so low.
What are your other plans for reducing the costs I would love to know.

Studentgirl.

lauren_1

Just realised my mistake, such a muppet, mind you i sometimes have to think what year it is, i still feel like its 1998

Magentasue

I don't think it matters that this is starting now. Well, for me, it's about cutting waste rather than use. I'm constantly nagging about turning off lights and the TV, not boiling full kettles, running the tap unnecessarily etc. etc. all year round.

I know I'm going to use more units in the winter but reckon I could make savings all year round.

mardatha

Snap Lauren. I didnt notice at all and wondered what people were talking about !! I'm in on this too, I stopped using the big oven and the drier and started switching things off at night. We are on standard tarriff with scottish power, elect only, no gas here (we use coal for heating and you cant cut that down any more, the stove is on 24/7). Elect over the last 12mths was an average of 79 units a [EMAIL="week@14p"]week[/EMAIL] @ 14p per unit. I want to cut this by A LOT !

troo

lauren_1 wrote: »

i still feel like its 1998

*sigh* I wish it was, then I'd only be 27

I'm paying £115 per month for gas and elec at the mo. My average use for elec was 22 units per day, it's now down to 18 (I only started keeping track recently, it's probably less than that - I confused myself a couple of weeks ago when we had a new meter put in :rolleyes: ). I haven't worked out the gas yet. We have a combi boiler.

There's 4 adults in our house. I use the dishwasher every other day, the rest of the time I wash up in cold water - mugs, lunchboxes, anything that doesn't get greasy. The boiler is hardly used at the moment, and the only gas being used is for the hob. Work jeans, towels, duvet covers and sheets are washed in the washing machine - everything else is handwashed then bunged in the machine for a quick rinse and slow spin (slow spin = less creases = less ironing ). The hoover goes on once per week, the rest of the time I use one of THESE.

That all makes it sound like I spend half of my time cleaning :eek: I don't - honest

Magentasue

Can I repeat my request for an all singing and dancing spreadsheet to record meter readings for gas and elec and maybe water? What I'm looking for is something that will also work out costs. My excel skills are limited to something much more basic. I'm sure someone somewhere here is as sad as me to want one too!

troo

Magentasue, I'll make you one