Live on £4000 for a Year, 2009 Challenge, part 1

savingfortravel

Thanks Redglass-That was such a helpful post..Good luck with the BF-Cosy nights in with the logstove beckon..SFT

Frugaldom

Savingfortravel - I haven't lived in a house with central heating for years and the first thing you should keep in mind is that any other form of heating is expensive so it will depend on how warm you like your house. I'm currently in a 4 room semi with an electric convector heater in the kitchen, storage heaters in 2 bedrooms, wall mounted electric (Dimplex?) fan heater in bathroom and storage heater & open fireplace in livingroom. The house is doubleglazed, but sits in very exposed location. I am as frugal as possible, the storage heaters are controlled remotely by Scottish Power by way of their 'Comfort Plus' package, (which is cheapest electricity rate available, as far as I know) although we can control the temperature or switch them off completely. (You cannot switch storage heaters on if you feel cold) I'm currently spending around £35 per week on electricity. On top of this, a load of logs costs me £40 and coal is £11.50 a bag for the cheapest available. On average, the overall cost of lighting the fire every day is £2 (per day), so I would allow £50 per week for heating & hot water during colder weather. I got a timer fitted to my immersion heater switch, so the hot water goes on for 90mins during cheap rate each morning and we mostly use electric shower. (Sorry this is such a long ramble). The electric heater in kitchen is running on lowest setting 24/7 at the moment.

As has already been said, everything, everywhere is dusty (even when dusting every other day), you need dry kindling available, a regular supply of logs and save all your old newspapers. Plus there's chimney sweeping at least once, possibly twice per year. I've only ever lived in one house that had gas central heating, so the above is pretty much the 'norm'. I wasn't aware of how cheap electricity & gas were until I joined MSE and started comparing costs with others on here. An actual Rayburn system heating radiators & water & used for cooking could cost you more than the above all year round if you don't have an electric cooker & hot water immersion heater for using during summertime. I should really have asked if there will be someone in the house during the days, we work from home, so £50 per week covers all our energy requirements. If the house is going to be empty all day, every day, then it will be much less.

The above, during minus temperatures, lets us get the rooms to between 14C and 16C, less frosty night lets the livingroom get up as high as 21C as you have very little control over the temp of an open fire. Leave the doors open and let the heat circulate

findingmyfeet

hi savingfortravel,

just wanted to ad my two pennyworth too so to speak. I live in a rural area very exposed on all four sides (nearest property 500m way) , very windy etc. Just wanted to say i have a log burner in the living room and wouldnt part with it ever ...i love it. My cottage is approx 200 years old looks it and has only half the modern convieniences so far (getting done as we go along). We have no double glazing etc and two lofts only one of which is insulated so far, other in progress. We had gas central heating installed which in winter is kept on low and we use the log burner evenings and weekends to keep the gas bills down as low as possible. My wood burner only costs me in chimney sweep and matches. We get newspapers saved by the family to light it and my hubby picks up wood anywhere and everywher for free. he works all over so if say someone is having a new fence put up he will ask if he can take the old wood away etc. everyone happy to get shut of it. Recently a local park was having some trees removed and the council said locals could take what they like, so we have a new supply for next year ( new wood needs time to dry out etc). some local wood yards also are happy for you to take off cuts away because they have to pay loads to put into into skips.( Just make sure you ask politely everytime to make sure its still ok). I have evrything chopped and under old taupaulins at the end of the garden (out of sight) and fill 2 large baskets one is put at the fireside and the other in the entrance waiting as spare. Hope that helps

Brighton_belle

Morning all.

Today's frugal/simplifying to do list:

1. paint sealing coat on kitchen wall now plaster has dried.
2. Paint anti mould paint on north wall once sealing coat dry & normal white paint on rest.
3. saw wood for kitchen shelves (found in attic)and do 1st coat of varnish.
4. pay builder for work done
5. buy milk and nothing else
6. make some creative me time
7. do not promise again to take box of stuff to charity shop

SFT - can't help at all on heating question, as always had gch. Was brought up to run a mile form storage heaters though, but as I have never had them this may be an unfounded predudice and other's here have better experience to quote. But the walk in larder:smileyhea .
I do think if this whole country living is you and OH dream, that to make it happen sooner rather than later if at all possible is great. There are always going to be these questions and decisions to be made.

Whitewing - LOL at 'BF's like no clothes':rotfl:

savingfortravel

Thanks Nyk..Never realised these other forms cost so much more than central heating. Real food for thought. SFT

Thanks too BB X
Thanks findingmyfeet..Very interesting points.

andromache_2

:eek: These latest posts are definitely confirming me in my city-girl status... the pioneer-woman feel is for occasional weekends away only, I think :rotfl: Good luck with your decision, sft

bails

redglass wrote: »

I feel very cool, like a dauntless pioneer woman.

:rotfl:that to me is reason enough to have a wood burning stove :T with it also attracting new BFs from the adjoining woodshed and cosy clotheless nights in front of it, how could anyone not want one?

On a more serious note, I think the country house sounds VERY exciting SFT :j:T I appreciate you thinking about the practical side of things and have been given some wonderfully detailed advice about the heating systems involved (thanks peeps :T) to which I can add nothing, as I have CH myself. I do know these things need to be considered and I also know if it was me, the feel of the house and it's ability to be your dream home would be the deciding factor for me. Ultimately heating can be altered/adapted to suit your needs (at a cost of course) but I'd go for the home that speaks to your heart. But what do I know, I'm just a soppy old idealist me As for selling your house, can you start off with the asking price you want and then drop by the 15 grand if you don't get reasonable interest? You can make an offer on a place and then sell your property, it doesn't really matter as you're part of a chain. The thing I know about you SFT is that you are very committed to achieving your dreams so if one of these houses really is your dream home, you'll find a way to make it happen xx PM box cleared if you need it.

Redglass, it was lovely to read about your new BF and treating yourself to nice clothes etc gets the thumbs up from me (def put it in your luxuries budget ), although Whitewing's observation is very true :rotfl:I hope you have many happy times together. And the interview too, how exciting! :T Would you want to share what your ambition is? I really hope it goes well for you.
Congratulations Skint_chick, life seems to be going very well for you too and I'm pleased you feel the GL plan is working. If you couldn't get hold of the book, I could PM you some recipes if you like.
Hope OH has a productive A/L SM :rotfl:
Good luck with the to do list BB - mine for half term has already got very long so I'll be employing the Frunchkin method of prioritising I'm having a reasonably low key day today, admin stuff rather than decluttering after a late night drive home from Brighton. Did have the best night's sleep I've had in weeks though so that was good. Not so good was a phonecall to Working Links (the people the gov. employ to help incapacity peeps back to work) where the woman was incredibly rude to me and told outright lies about me to cover her own (inadequate) back!! :mad::mad: I mean, why would someone who has volunteered to be part of the scheme and is desperate to return to a job they love then 'miss several appointments'? When I asked for dates so I could clarify what she was talking about the only one she offered me was an appointment that THEY had rearranged because SHE hadn't been trained yet!!:mad: She was outrageoues!! Perhaps she in fact never recieved the training judging by the service I've recieved from her over the last several months :rolleyes: It reminded me how important it is to keep a log of meetings/phonecalls/details of what's been said so you have some comeback when people try to do you a disservice :rolleyes: I had enough to make my point with the manager and from now on I will keep detailed records of all my dealings with them. My frustration is, I'm just trying to get back to work and these people are meant to be helping not hindering my progress with their inability to do their own jobs :mad: [apologies to anyone who works for WL, this is not a reflection on everyone only the specific people mentioned].
One quick last thing which might be useful to know - if you need to cancel your TV licence at any point be aware that they only refund the last quarter (you pay 6 months behind and 6 months in front). I cancelled my DD against the advice they gave so they didn't have my money for the next 6 months but when I phoned today to clarify I was still covered, my licence expires at end Aug so we'll lose that last month :rolleyes:
Anyhoo, onto better things this afternoon

savingfortravel

bails wrote: »

:rotfl:The thing I know about you SFT is that you are very committed to achieving your dreams so if one of these houses really is your dream home, you'll find a way to make it happen xx[/quote

I read this out to OH and he said that was so true and listed off examples (usually involving smaller projects than this I hasten to add).
I've always raved about us having our own accountant on the thread but psychologist?? I'm sure I'm not the first to have noticed this..
Envy your visit to BB. Still its nice to have so many MSE friends.
SFT

bails

Oh that's not me, that's another person on the thread

It is lovely to have so many MSE friends, I agree x And our door is always open to 4kers passing through...

I'd just like to celebrate with everyone that I've reached 2% of my Dream Pot total :j I know it seems a small amount but it's amazing how little bits trickling out of the account can soon add up :T I was reinspired about cob houses (which is what the pot is for) this weekend as a friend of OH's family has built one (featured on Grand Designs no less) so I have a great brain to pick nearer the time and I also discovered a building society which will lend on eco building projects, including land purchase :T So I will hopefully not need to find the whole cost of the project and can use the Dream Pot to put towards the piece of land or the building costs Dreams eh, aren't they amazing?! :j The only slightly scary thing is that I'm doing this as a surprise for OH, taking oddses out of our joint accounts at the end of each day...and he hasn't noticed yet :eek: That's £414.29 he hasn't missed! Either that or he trusts I'm doing something good with it but I think it's the first option

Frugaldom

Well done on reaching 2%, Bails! By the time that gets rounded up to a nice even number, it'll be even more! :j

Savingfortravel, when I said about the cost of heating by logs/coal, I meant that I didn't find it overly expensive because I didn't know there were poeple out there spending so little. :rotfl: If it was me in a town and knew I could sell up and afford my dream cottage in the country, I'd have the town house on the market in a flash and would be saving wood to take with me from there. :rotfl:Despite all the costs involved, I'd have a log burning Rayburn reinstalled in the kitchen and cook on it and, like Bails says, you can always invest in an oil or gas tank if you'd rather have proper central heating. Janey would be ideal person to chat about this as she uses logs but also has an oil tank.

I had to go into town for the polystyrene today and arrived to find out that it won't be available until tomorrow, so will need to go back. But whilst there, we had a wander about ... and I spent money. Went into H0me Hardwear and they had all their seed potaoes and fruit bushes half price! Have come home with 2 x blackcurrant bushes, 2 x Tayberry bushes and 2 x redcurrant bushes plus a bag of seed potatoes and onions. Oh yes, and a roll of roofing felt for the doghouse/duck house renovation projects, some corner shelves (£1 each) and loads of cup hooks etc for the kitchen project. Then I had to pop into S0merfield for milk and ended up buying 6 tubs of instant hot chocolate, as it was priced at 56p, and then found sugar in Sem!Ch€m at 79p per bag. Having to go back into town tomorrow for the polystyrene, so will be stocking up on as much sugar as I can carry.

Off out to plant more fruit bushes now