FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE 2010, part 1. (Living on £4,000 a year)

viv0147

Hi why dont you read newspapers on line for free ?

chika

nykmedia wrote: »

I'm in awe of anyone who can live without any sort of heating on in the house when it's mid-winter. Doesn't it make you miserable when condensation's everywhere, when your clothes and belongings get damp and when it's almost impossible to dry washing? Don't your landlords stipulate that you need to adequately heat and ventilate the house, or aren't you scared that the long term damage from cold/damp will amount to much more than the few pounds you save by keeping a cold house? Or are these houses that can actually maintain a warmer climate indoors than outdoors anyway? If I had no heaters switched on here my water pipe would freeze and there would be ice inside the windows and doors. Some nights you can see your breath indoors but that's with the storage heaters switched on. I think I must be doing something wrong. I have heater on as high as it will go in here (livingroom) and the thermometer is reading 12 degrees! It's minus 4 outside and the recent snowfall is freezing solid.

THANK YOU so much for posting this Nyk. I've just printed it out and shown it to a housemate who is niping about the cost of keepking the heating on all noght. Our landlord does stress that we must keep the house heated and if I can see my breath inside the house then I do get very miserable very quickly.

Our house is badly designed and the lack of double glazing makes it practically the same temp as outside. We do cut back where possible, by not having the heating on in the hallway or kitchen but unfortunatly its just one of those things that need to be paid for imho.

flippin36

nykmedia wrote: »

I'm in awe of anyone who can live without any sort of heating on in the house when it's mid-winter. Doesn't it make you miserable when condensation's everywhere, when your clothes and belongings get damp and when it's almost impossible to dry washing? Don't your landlords stipulate that you need to adequately heat and ventilate the house, or aren't you scared that the long term damage from cold/damp will amount to much more than the few pounds you save by keeping a cold house? Or are these houses that can actually maintain a warmer climate indoors than outdoors anyway? If I had no heaters switched on here my water pipe would freeze and there would be ice inside the windows and doors. Some nights you can see your breath indoors but that's with the storage heaters switched on. I think I must be doing something wrong. I have heater on as high as it will go in here (livingroom) and the thermometer is reading 12 degrees! It's minus 4 outside and the recent snowfall is freezing solid.

The heating always goes on when the kids are home or when we are all in, but for just me I rarely put the heating on. I'm lucky in that my house is well insulated with thick double glazing. I can honestly say I have never seen my breath in the house. If I'm in I put on an extra jumper, I am now wearing long sleeved tshirt, fitted jumper and a chunky polo neck over the top. I keep busy most of the day and when I sit down for a break on the computer I make a hot drink. If it gets really cold I take the dog out for a walk.

We recently got a tv from freecycle which we put in our bedroom, it means in the evening we turn the heating off at 8pm, the kids have gone to bed and we are in bed watching tv . My only complaint is there is nothing worth watching on tv.

thriftylass

nykmedia wrote: »

I'm in awe of anyone who can live without any sort of heating on in the house when it's mid-winter. Doesn't it make you miserable when condensation's everywhere, when your clothes and belongings get damp and when it's almost impossible to dry washing? Don't your landlords stipulate that you need to adequately heat and ventilate the house, or aren't you scared that the long term damage from cold/damp will amount to much more than the few pounds you save by keeping a cold house? Or are these houses that can actually maintain a warmer climate indoors than outdoors anyway? If I had no heaters switched on here my water pipe would freeze and there would be ice inside the windows and doors. Some nights you can see your breath indoors but that's with the storage heaters switched on. I think I must be doing something wrong. I have heater on as high as it will go in here (livingroom) and the thermometer is reading 12 degrees! It's minus 4 outside and the recent snowfall is freezing solid.

I guess it depends on your house (we own) and circumstances. As we don't have any heating I can't have it on. We have the only fan heater fake fire place thingy on in the living room that brings it from 8 to 15 degrees by the time we go to bed. There's no point heating the bedroom or guest room (both between 3 and 6C) as we're never in there apart for sleeping. The kitchen has no door to the hall so that would be a waste too, cooking heat will have to do. Plus we don't have any heaters for those although I'm looking into getting some convection heaters now in case BF has to work on PC in bedroom. Luckily we don't have any problems with damp or condensation (only sometimes when cooking pasta or similar in the kitchen) . And the clothes dry within two/three days. I'm only 31 but that's not that much different from my early childhood or staying at granny's. I wish it were different but I've talked enough trying to get BF put CH in, hopefully we'll move soon.

P.S. We have and old flat with double glazing but not very well fitted and I can see my breath in the house

rozeepozee

homegrown_life wrote: »

Rozeepozeee - think you said you were in Sheffield? Approved foods are nearby in Worksop an apparantly you can pick up your order so might be an idea. I haven't managed to try it yet, but one day!

Ok need to do lots of washing up and find my phone charger... and then maybe build a snowman... hoping today might be a NSD as don't want to go out in this.

Hope everyone has frugal days!

fANCY THAT! i DON'T KNOW HOW MANY MILES ROUND IT IS TO GET TO Whoops! Sorry about that shouting..... Worksop but it might be cheaper than the postage if I'm bulk buying flour.

Kiwisaver wrote: »

I use mine at least once a week, but vowed to try to use it more this year and bookmarked this site, which I am hoping to explore through the coming year.

A year of slow cooking, started as a challenge to use the slow cooker every day for a whole year - seems she did amazingly well and a lot of recipes I like the look of.



http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

Haven't got a slowcooker, but seriously thinking of buying one. Is it really much cheaper than a pan on the hob?

rozeepozee

nykmedia wrote: »

I'm in awe of anyone who can live without any sort of heating on in the house when it's mid-winter. Doesn't it make you miserable when condensation's everywhere, when your clothes and belongings get damp and when it's almost impossible to dry washing? Don't your landlords stipulate that you need to adequately heat and ventilate the house, or aren't you scared that the long term damage from cold/damp will amount to much more than the few pounds you save by keeping a cold house? Or are these houses that can actually maintain a warmer climate indoors than outdoors anyway? If I had no heaters switched on here my water pipe would freeze and there would be ice inside the windows and doors. Some nights you can see your breath indoors but that's with the storage heaters switched on. I think I must be doing something wrong. I have heater on as high as it will go in here (livingroom) and the thermometer is reading 12 degrees! It's minus 4 outside and the recent snowfall is freezing solid.

I second that! I am cold blooded, like a lizard and HATE being cold. I'm just not designed for this climate. We've just acquired a halogen heater off Freecycle and I carry it round the house with me boosting the heat in the room I'm in. Makes it just about bearable. I do worry how terribly environmentally inefficient our house is though (big rooms, stone walls and no cavity for insulation, beautiful huge single glazed windows and huge cold cellars below us). I wonder if there's any way to insulate the floors to stop the heat escaping thro the floors?

Frugaldom

Hi Thriftylass - could you get a few oil filled radiators with thermostats (possibly find some for free) and plug them in as heating? That's what I'm doing now, but already have the heaters from a couple of years ago. I'm expecting electricity consumption to hit £50 a week :eek: whilst the weather is cold but no signs of any deliveries coming along our road, it's looking like the easiest option rather than use up all the coal and what's left of the logs. I'll look on it as an extravagant luxury and plan on finding out if I can get the house up to 16 degrees by tonight, when the storage heaters will kick back in again.

Rozeepozee can you lift your carpets and see what sort of underlat and insulation is beneath them? Next door to me got all new carpets throughout with thinck underlay and say it has made a tremendous difference. Sadly, all new throughout isn't an option I'm prepared to pursue in a rented house but I've added an extra rug to the livingroom, which did make a bit of a difference. Newspapers underneath were something we always had but I'm beginning to think there's no inderlay of any description here. Now I want to find out! :rotfl:
Last house was easy, it had wooden floor in the livingroom and the wind just whistled through the floorboards! :rotfl:

rictus123

Finally found this thread again! Well out of a total spend of £6,000 for absolute everything, iv spent £20 so far! If i have spent less than £6,000 come December that will be an achievment in itself and might treat myself :O As if i have only spend £6k but earned about £15k + extra income(aimed at £10k, will just say £5k for purpose of this thread) well after debts have been paid off should have £10k in savings! Heres hoping. Suscribing to this thread, im very motivated at times, yet things can have a turn and il look here for support. Good luck everyone, happy new year, lets make it a good one.

shaz_mum_of__2

flippin36 wrote: »

The heating always goes on when the kids are home or when we are all in, but for just me I rarely put the heating on. I'm lucky in that my house is well insulated with thick double glazing. I can honestly say I have never seen my breath in the house. If I'm in I put on an extra jumper, I am now wearing long sleeved tshirt, fitted jumper and a chunky polo neck over the top. I keep busy most of the day and when I sit down for a break on the computer I make a hot drink. If it gets really cold I take the dog out for a walk.

We recently got a tv from freecycle which we put in our bedroom, it means in the evening we turn the heating off at 8pm, the kids have gone to bed and we are in bed watching tv . My only complaint is there is nothing worth watching on tv.

this is what we do too our tv has a dvd plyer built in so lots of dvds (documentary, historical stuff ) hubby bought me green valley and victorian farm for christmas and a doc on India that and the dvd subscription will keep us going for a while

thriftylass

nykmedia wrote: »

Hi Thriftylass - could you get a few oil filled radiators with thermostats (possibly find some for free) and plug them in as heating? That's what I'm doing now, but already have the heaters from a couple of years ago. I'm expecting electricity consumption to hit £50 a week :eek: whilst the weather is cold but no signs of any deliveries coming along our road, it's looking like the easiest option rather than use up all the coal and what's left of the logs. I'll look on it as an extravagant luxury and plan on finding out if I can get the house up to 16 degrees by tonight, when the storage heaters will kick back in again.

That would be two thirds of your budget? We're still only on about £60-70 a month for all leccy. I thought those oil radiators are quite inefficient just eating up loads of leccy without much return. I can borrow one from friends and try it out.