Avoid using GAS and ELECTRIC !

full-time-mum

MIRRY wrote:

Because I was poorly last night, I left my husband to cook dinner for the kids whilst I went to bed.
This morning Ive woken up to find our dish washer left on all night....
I wonder how much this cost me in electricity ?

Can you put your dishwasher on a timer (in the socket)? You could then set the electricity to go off at, say 2am. At least then you'd know it wasn't on all night. I used to do that with my washing machine. The timer came on after E7 kicked in and then went off a couple of hours later to ensure enough time for the wash to finish.

full-time-mum

mad-mum wrote:

we cop for the cost of a hotel or can't go.

Still money, I know, but do you use travel lodges/inns etc. They do room rates relatively cheaply and don't include breakfast which you can buy at the accompanying pub. We just take a cool box, milk, cereal, bread and butter and DIY breakfast in our room.

123xyz

Dont' let the bathwater out until it has gone cold. You are literally throwing energy down the drain. Leave the bathroom door open for the warmth to circulate, you can rinse the bath out just as well when the water is cold as you can when it is hot.

tenuissent

<< The funniest winter tip I heard was from an old lady who used to read in bed with a plastic pipe going from her mouth to her feet. She breathed out into the pipe to keep her feet warm until the bed warmed up! >>

Amazing, and so practical and easy and cheap. I wish I had known that during the winters of 1986/7 when I left my husband and his central heating, taking 3 teenagers with me - absolutely desperately freezing cold in Kent and I was almost penniless. I sellotaped the windows, hung thick blankets over the doors and windows, kept a Rayburn going with logs and newspaper, worked from home in a shed dripping with icicles and shivering in spite of a smelly paraffin heater and blankets round me, and did most of the things suggested on this thread....but I never thought of the plastic piping!

It would work when camping. It is such a brilliant idea. Thank you.

tenuissent

<< Does anyone have any ideas what I can use a mountain of flat packed cardboard boxes for? >>

I am constantly scavenging cardboard boxes. You lay them out on your allotment over winter, and they kill weeds and encourage worms. Even better if you can scavenge newspapers,soak them, and lay them down first.

I am slowly making an allotment out of rough pastureland by this method.

Selling them is good: I stopped by a Removals Van and asked if I could have their boxes, but they said they sold them on for £2 each.

moggins

I do have a further patch of garden I want to reclaim for next year so that's brilliant, thank you.

The fire cement has been delivered so I am hoping I can sort out the missing mortar in the fireplace and have a test fire this weekend to see where the smoke goes. I'll put the carbon monoxide tester in the room too and check levels are okay.

sammy_kaye18

Hi All

am havign a theraputic evening,

my 2 year old literally just passed out on the sofa after a hard days terrorising the local play group, running round town like a loony and by untidying behind mummy.

Daddy on the other hand has gone out to fiddle with biek bits wiht his boys and try and get a little scooter he brought working so he'll be out till about 10 ish so that leaves me home and bored for the next 2 hours.

so ive decided out comes all my material adn im goign to get things sorted. Im plannign ot make a few sausage dogs adn i might borrow the old quilt idea to make them with - failing that wilkinsons have a 4.5 tog ones on sale for £5 at the mnute so ill always swing by and pick one of them up.

also im looking to make a little doggy stocking ready for christmas too. plus i think i might cut the linings for the curtains tonight too adn then sew them in tomorrow.

oh well off for a productive night

tenuissent

I have a huge kitchen table with about ten wooden chairs, a bit hard on the behind over a long evening wih friends. After looking in horror at the price of "squabs" (is that right? I mean little cushions tied on to the chairs) I bought a very cheap duvet, cut out double shapes to fit the chairs (single was not enough when I made the prototype), and covered them in cut price thick dark green fabric. OK, this is not about warnth, but the cheap duvet was less expensive than buying cushion padding.

tenuissent

Moggins: I maybe didn't mention that the cardboard eventually rots away. If it doesn't, you cut holes in it for your spring plants, wih good, wormy soft earth underneath. If you can find or make enough compost to dump on top of it, you can plant straight away. I got this allotment (rough pastureland, as I said) in June, and immediately did the newspaper/cardboard/compost/fertiliser thing, and now have more tomatoes, sweetcorn, cucumbers, courgettes and squashes than we can eat. Google "Lasagna gardens" if you are interested.

moggins

Thank you, that is even better as it might keep the weeds down