Avoid using GAS and ELECTRIC !

cheerfulness4

I'm so glad that we found this thread as it moved us to go out and buy an energy monitor to try and find out where the leccie was going. What an eye opener! Its our new favourite toy.

Kids are getting nervous as I'm making my way closer to their rooms to calculate their usage. I don't mind when they are getting on and playing its when they leave the stuff on and disappear off downstairs/ in each others rooms for an hour at a time and leave it all burning away.

I'm shocked that my kettle use if costing almost as much as my once a day dishwasher use per quarter and my all day pc use. Crumbs! I can start to see where the savings can be made.

BigMummaF

My lot think it's hilarious--in that post-teenage sarcastic sort of way--that I'm always talking about saving money on summat or other, but I'm spending all the hours God gives, sitting at a poota, trying to find out how to save money :wall:
Spose they have a point dang-nabbit!

mardatha

Domino, the americans have great sites for old fashioned household things, but I cant find any here. they have the Amish and theres a huge site devoted to makign stoves/laundry stuff for them. If I can find it I will post it, I spent ages in there once , it was a real eye opener.

cw18

Just had an email from Lidl with the offers for next Monday (22nd). Amongst them is a pair of 'ladies' foot warmers' for £2.99, which look like quilted bedsocks.....

I'm seriously tempted to go and get a pair - but I'm aware that not all Lidl's have the same offers (there's one coming up this next Thursday that isn't to be had anywhere in the North West), so if you're interested it's best to check if your local store is getting them before going in.

sb44

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3400834/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CSports%2Band%2Bleisure%7C10199392/c_2/2%7Ccat_10199392%7CClearance%2Bsports%2Band%2Bleisure%7C10244388.htm

May be of use to some.

ceridwen

Come next winter (and end of my price fix agreement) 'twill be a different story again....

but - for this winter - I wont be using the hallway radiator anymore - only the room ones. Problem to this is that the house thermostat is in the hall/stairs area - so it will be busily "telling" the central heating system that the house is colder than the rooms actually are - and boosting the heating when it doesnt need to.

a. I presume I am correct in thinking I will reduce my central heating costs by one-sixth by not using that hallway radiator (ie I will have 5 radiators on instead of 6)?? Is that correct?

b. How much lower a temperature do I have to set the house thermostat to to allow for the cooler temperature in the hall/stairs area (compared to the temperature in the rooms). NB; It doesnt help that he put in the wrong thermostat in the first place - ie one of those dial ones, rather than the digital one I would have chosen if he had explained my options to me:mad: .

(I imagine that if I want the rooms at 18C then I have to set the house thermostat to 10C? as I would guesstimate that the hall/stairs area will be 8C cooler than those heated rooms - unfortunately 10C is the lowest setting on that house thermostat).

c. I'm wondering if I can get him to disconnect the house thermostat totally when he next comes in to service the system?

cw18

No idea at all about the impact of turning off the radiator that effectively controls the thermostat. We're in the same situation, but won't be turning off our hall and landing radiators for a couple of reasons. 1) If I did that we'd have to close all the doors in the house, and that would mean I couldn't hear if hubby was having problems without being in the same room all the time (which would drive both of us potty), and 2) the big dog lives in the (fairly large) hall way. But I have to admit that compared to local friends (with smaller houses on different estates, some of which are actually not much older than ours) our house seems pretty good at retaining the heat as our gas bill is a lot lower than theirs despite using gas for the same CH/water/hob combination.

[Deleted User]

I have stopped counting my gas and electricity units.

I learnt a lot during the last quarter and have changed the way I do certain things ie ecocamel shower now, no oven and mainly use remoska and pressure cooking, good stainless steel pans on a very low gas flame, use first run off from hot tap for kettle, solar water heating of a cheap solar shower pack on hot days (not now obviously), wind up radios are in daily use. Long standing for us: all standby`s were off and as many bulbs as poss were low energy. Thermostats were always as low as possible, Tumbler was never used.

It is all ingrained and I know it is upwards from this quarter but to heck with it now. I cannot nit pick any more

trying-very-trying

cw18 wrote: »

Just had an email from Lidl with the offers for next Monday (22nd). Amongst them is a pair of 'ladies' foot warmers' for £2.99, which look like quilted bedsocks.....

I'm seriously tempted to go and get a pair - but I'm aware that not all Lidl's have the same offers (there's one coming up this next Thursday that isn't to be had anywhere in the North West), so if you're interested it's best to check if your local store is getting them before going in.

These look very similar to the microwaveable slippers that I received last year. They are available in my local store, so I might get them for no3 dd, who has just moved out to go to uni.

But what I want to know, is........... what is the secret super duper special offer that you mention????

cw18

electric slicer !!!