Considering Bankruptcy as advised by cccs HELP!

Steel_2

...every little help I guess!

Wood and Coal
Hubbie and I have cut down our the amount we spend on coal and wood by a) only using a small amount of coal on the base of the fire, literally just to keep it ticking over. We no longer heap tons on. We've made twenty small bags of coal last two winters now!
b) making friends with local carpenters and joiners and carting away all of their unwanted waste wood. We can fit 10 large bags in the back of our Fiat Cinquecento and make a trip once every two weeks to top up.They would only have to pay to dispose of it anyway.

We then turned off all of the radiators in the rooms we used infrequently and started living out of the living room. We also switched our bedroom to occupy the one in the house with the upstairs chimney breast as that was the warmest. I feel the cold and was miserable in the one room in the house that never seemed to warm up.

Washing

As you have three little one, I assume you do a ton of washing. Always use less than stated on the washing powder packet (in fact, that's my motto for everything in life). I've been using ariel tablets and I'm supposed to use 2 per wash. Sod that! I use half a tablet per wash, add a smidge of washing soda crystals and then really dilute down conditioner. In fact, sometimes it's so dilute it could rival one of those homeopathic Bach remedies.

But my washing is still really clean, smells fresh and has no static. As one of your little ones has allergies you should probably leave out the washing soda though.

In reality you'll find that you need to combine a large number of different measures to free up some cash. Start combing these boards for advice, epecially the old style money saving board which will help you save a ton of money (also been turned into a book by Martin). Turn it into a game - how much can you keep away from greedy companies trying to rifle your pockets?

I turned from a spendthrift into a tightwad with the help of the Tightwad Gazette as well. It's very american and some of the suggestions are very far out but it had a wealth of good ideas in there.

Good luck!!!