Live on £4000 for a year - part 4 (Oct - Dec 2008)

sophiesmum_2

Hi mr DT
We will be waiting to hear what finally pushes you over the edge:p

sophiesmum_2

Fortunately for us our electricity is part of my wages so we are toasty warm at 22 degrees right through the flat except the bedroom which we don't like heated.
OH says i am a bit warped as I would love to turn the heating right down so I could join in with everyone else on the OS prepare for wiinter thread and get snuggled with fleecy pj's. fluffy socks, hot water bottles and fleece throws:rotfl: :rotfl:
Anyway have decided that as this years pay increase was practically non existent then I am taking my pay increase in extra electricity;) and the storage heaters are on.

redglass_2

Great basket, Sophiesmum, it looks really professional but with that personal touch. :T I want to do baskets this year and I got a huge heap of them from Freecycle - a lady was giving away all the baskets her MIL used to use for flower-arranging! They are small but will hold cute little gifts and I'm trying to decide whether to spray them or not. I just happened to see them on Freecycle but it might be worth people posting a 'wanted' there - you never know.

Spent 3-4 hours today trying to construct a wood store out of pallets and then stacking logs (delivery is a tad difficult at Castle Redglass - a man stands on the lorry and chucks the logs over the front wall, narrowly missing the windows, and then I ferry them round the back in a wheelbarrow ). You may remember I was going to post a photo of my wood store when I got it done. The log man was supposed to deliver next Saturday but he phoned to announce he was coming today :eek: on account of the weather. I had to do a rush job with the shabby chic wood store and I'm afraid it collapsed...twice. :rotfl:So now I have a boring, basic construction not worth a photo: two pallets with the logs stacked on top and a tarpaulin over them. Oh well, it'll never win any beauty contests but at least the wood is under cover. The best bit was coming back into the house - 12 degrees felt WARM! :rotfl: I'm impressed by you Hard Northerners :cool: with your icy rooms and visible breath. Respect! 12 is the lowest it's got in this house, though outdoors feels like snow on the way....brrr....

sophiesmum_2

:j great result with the baskets redglass. I don't think you would really need to spray the baskets, once you fill them and wrap you won't see much of the basket itself . If they are a bit grubby - I have sprayed them in the shower in the past and then let them dry out near a heater they usually come up okay, a nail brush will get any dust out too.

Frugaldom

Just a 'quickie' post as I have a tray of sponges in whilst dinner's cooking - I've been researching fuel, savings, costs etc and decided I needed better definitions, so here's what I've found, first of all, with regards to the term

FUEL POVERTY:

"The definition of fuel poverty is when a household needs to spend more than 10% of their household income on all domestic fuel use including appliances to heat their home to an adequate level of warmth."

Next question, what is 'adequate'?

Answer - "Adequate warmth is generally defined to be 21°C in the main living room and 18°C in other occupied rooms during daytime hours, with lower temperatures at night, following the recommendations of the World Health Organization." :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Pardon me whilst I pick myself up off the floor and subdue the giggles... 18C and 21C in the living room all year round!?

I have never been asked what the temperature of my house is so how the heck can the Government have figures on this stuff?

whitewing

Don't think I've ever been at 21 degrees in the living room. That would be far too hot under my duvet, lol.

I decided to stockpile mainly tins of veg. I pulled out an old Sl!mm!ng World booklet and canned veg were 'free' so for ease I did that. Bought the stuff in Tesco last night. But am too much of a wimp to measure out my 39 kg just yet. That may be a reality step too far...

I love the baskets too sophiesmum.

cw18

Our heating is rarely set to get above 18 degrees, and last winter I managed to keep it on 17 most of the time. Our main thermostat is in the hallway, but as the doors to the living room, kitchen, bathroom, and my room are always left open (unless someone is using the bathroom, or I'm doing something in the kitchen which means I need to keep the dogs out, or we need to shut the big dog away because of visitors) I guess the whole house heats to much the same

Looks like the thermostat will creep us this year though, as DH is really feeling the cold He wasn't undergoing any treatement last winter (chemo finished in the July/August, and didn't restart until late Feb -- which was tablets at home, so less side effects as well), but being so recently finished with his latest seems to be a problem.

I normally only run it for 5 hours or so a day (1-1.5hrs in the morning, and 4-4.5 in the evening), but it's been on almost constantly since 8am today :eek:

I did manage to turn it off for a couple of hours while DH was out though, so I think I'm going to have to put a note by the front door along the lines of 'last one out turns the heating off !' as I'm sometimes already out when he takes a fancy to go out with friends.


As for 10% of income -- if we were on basic benefits (ie. no DLA or disability/carer premiums added to IS), we'd be entitled to £720.81 a calendar month including CTC and CB (but excluding rent/mortgage interest and council tax). My DD for the g&e is currently £72.50 -- so that's just over 10% :eek: That said, we're well in credit and currently overpaying what they asked for....... but they wanted £55ish with us being £180 in credit, so in theory we'd still have been paying £70/month !!!

Frugaldom

If I base my electricity 'estimates' against last year's figures, I was using an average of 55 units (it rose to 81 units per day by the time the heaters were all switched on) last October to December. At that time, electricity was working out at 6.589 per cubic meter and the final quarter's bill almost £415. This year, however, electricity prices are 67% higher, so that would make it closer to £700 for the final quarter of this year, taking us to £1500 for the year for the cold house. I've never heated this place to 18C, never mind 21C in the livingrooom. I had budgeted £1,500 for 2008 for ALL utilities, including telephone & mobiles. It's looking impossible.

slowlyfading

:hello: everyone.
All this talk of heating! I'm sat in front of a roaring coal fire, and its heating the living room to a lovely temperature We don't have radiators in the main rooms as every room in our house has a fireplace, although not all of them are in use. But, I'm at a very nice temperature at the moment Am not impressed by how cold it is already - I need to invest in a good coat really, but haven't had the time to go and find one. I was freezing walking from the car to work today!
I've had a NSD today, and got 2 x £2 coins in my wages! :j so that was a nice surprise My challenge total is looking good at the moment, I'm impressed by how well I seem to be doing, although it'll change once I get all my christmas shopping done. I've done a bit, but have a fair bit more to do yet.
Hope everyone is okay. xx

lyndasharp

I'm really amazed by how cold people's houses sound! That's the one thing I won't economise on when I get my own place, it's got to be warm. I seem to feel the cold more than most people, and if it's too cold I just can't sleep. Think I ought to move somewhere more tropical

Anyway, I've just finished off the mystery shop survey so that's one thing on my 'to do' list out of the way. Now for the fun bit - writing my Christmas and Birthday present list I'm heading off to see family at the weekend and my Nan's requested the list. It's the first year where I don't have to put 'house with garage' on the list, as I've finally (almost) got one :j My present list tends to be quite optimistic...